Glass Cannon / Comic Books

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• Angel: In the show, the Senior Partners are built up to be this great unmatched evil that span multiple dimensions and can bring about the apocalypse. In the comic book spin-off Spike we see what the actual Senior Partners look like: 15 ft tall demons that can fire deadly lightning bolts. The problem? The Senior Partners are relatively fragile compared to other Buffyverse Big Bads. Spike fires at one with a pair of machine guns and it's left crying in the corner letting our heroes get away in defeat. It's revealed that the reason the Senior Partners conduct their evil scheming though law firms is that they lack the brute strength to take over worlds through sheer force.
• The DCU:
  • Batgirl: In The Attack of the Annihilator, the titular villain's energy blasts are powerful enough to bring buildings down, but physically he is still a regular human, for which a simple punch or kick can hurt him.
  • The Nail: Lex Luthor is able to use DNA samples taken from Kal-El's ship to create the Liberators, who are essentially Bizarros disguised as robots; although powerful enough to break Green Lantern's arm through his ring-shield, when deprived of the advantages of superior numbers or a surprise attack, they soon fall apart when subjected to any actual damage in a fight as their genetic structures were unstable.
  • Superman: The villain Superwoman can use powers of various alien races, including Kryptonians: super-strength, flight, eye-beams... nonetheless, in Who is Superwoman? she proves to be a total pushover when it comes to a physical brawl, being easily beaten by Supergirl when Kara gets serious (and angry).
  • Wonder Woman (1942): Two of the Heyday triplets display superhuman abilities, having Super-Speed and being able to jump further than a normal human, but they're both taken out much more easily than normal human Holliday Girls when the mob targets them.
  • Zatanna: Zatanna can do almost anything with her magic. Only the stronger magical, divine, or cosmic beings in the DC universe can resist her powers. However, she isn't any more durable than most humans and can be taken down with a single well-placed punch. Overlaps with Squishy Wizard. In Identity Crisis (2004) it is even explicitly mentioned in the narration-bubble: She is the most powerful member of the team, if she can get the words out. Slade Wilson (Deathstroke the Terminator) pokes her in the stomach, so lightly that it does not even hurt that much, but once she begins to vomit from the damage to her liver she is out of the fight.
• Empowered: Emp's hypermembrane suit provides her with amazing Super-Strength, flight, and energy beams... and has the durability of wet tissue paper. Good thing it can repair itself.
• Invincible: Angstrom Levy is a brilliant Mad Scientist who has a great deal of formidable technological weaponry, super strength and durability courtesy of cybernetic augments, and the extremely potent natural power of Thinking Up Portals, all of which makes him more than capable of being a threat to Invincible as his archenemy. Unfortunately for Angstrom, however, beneath all his defenses, his ability to give and take hits isn't anywhere near the level of Invincible's own, as the latter is a member of a species of Flying Bricks — with all the power that implies — while Levy is ultimately a man who's only "super strong" by the standards of normal humans. Resultantly, while Angstrom is more than capable of fighting Mark on roughly equal terms, this is largely dependent on his capacity to keep the guy at a distance and wear him down to a point where it's safe for Angstrom to even get near him. This comes back to haunt Angstrom when he gets sloppy in one of their early fights and tries to attack Invincible directly too soon; Mark is so used to fighting villains who are strong enough to take his hits that he instinctively assumes Angstrom is the same way and strikes back with his full potential, nearly killing Levy by accident.
• Marvel Universe:
  • Fantastic Four: The Human Torch's flame powers give him high movement speed and an offensive edge. Unlike his allies, though, he typically lacks any way to use his powers to defend himself other than flying out of the way. This example changes based on who's scripting the book — Johnny's also been shown to make himself bulletproof by melting the slugs before they hit; on other occasions, he's pulled the same thing on various flammable or meltable objects up to a bulldozer that was thrown at him by She-Hulk.
  • Magic users like Doctor Strange, Scarlet Witch, and Wiccan can do frightening things to time and space with little more than a gesture and some concentration, but they can also be rendered helpless by a Tap on the Head, drugs, being overwhelmed by bodies, being distracted in mid-spell, or simply being Bound and Gagged.
  • Runaways:
    • Nico Minoru has extremely powerful magic abilities, but is also a typical Squishy Wizard (and a skinny one at that; it was once implied that she had an eating disorder.) On the other hand, since her magic is fueled by her blood loss, the constant danger means that she never runs out of power for her spells.
    • Klara Plast has powerful plant-controlling powers, but she is also a 12-year-old girl with no enhanced physical attributes.
  • Spider-Man:
    • Doctor Octopus may have control of four powerful and deadly metal arms, but he's otherwise a normal, somewhat out-of-shape human. Once the super-strong Spidey gets past his formidable defenses, Doc Ock goes down pretty quickly. This ultimately led to his death as his body couldn't take the punishment various superhumans had dealt him any longer.
    • Mysterio is a master of illusion and setting up traps, but he is still just a normal human behind all the smoke and mirrors. The hard part of any fight is figuring out where he is, but once Spidey is able to get close, Mysterio usually only has one or two tricks left before Spider-Man takes him out swiftly.
  • X-Men:
    • Many telepaths, such as Professor X, have powerful Psychic Powers but are extremely poor at defending themselves, and aren't of much use against opponents immune to telepathy (like robots).
    • Cyclops' Eye Beams are devastatingly powerful, but if anyone actually hits him he's just as vulnerable as any non-powered human. Well, any non-powered human in peak physical condition with iron willpower and light body armor, but still — a lot of X-Men fight scenes start with Cyclops getting punched out or shot with regular bullets, because (from a writing perspective) otherwise he could settle the whole business with a look.
    • Storm may have god-level power, but up close, while she's hard to hit, she's just as easily hurt as anyone else. Same with most of the other X-Men whose specialty is offensive power.
    • Sunspot is an interesting case in that he has solar-powered Super-Strength but not the Nigh-Invulnerability that usually comes with it, such as with fellow bruisers Colossus and Rogue. So he has a super-powered punch and can lift tons with ease, but can go down pretty quickly in a fight if he's not careful.
    • Nate Grey is an example early on in his career. He's more powerful than Apocalypse (beating the AOA version nearly to death in one of his first serious fights), is ranked on a par with the Dark Phoenix for pure power, and equated with Franklin Richards, later squaring off with the likes of Thanos. However, he's still just human, physically speaking, which is unfortunate, since for much of his early series, he tends to lead with his fists and/or his chin, and his genetic degeneration means he has very little stamina. This leads the likes of Dark Beast, X-Cutioner, and other relatively low-level opponents who can get past the first shot posing a real threat to him early on. Unlike most, though, he trains up — more stamina is just the start (there is a reason that Dark Beast is terrified of him) and ends up becoming effectively indestructible as a being of psychic energy.
    • Prism, an on and off member of the villain Mister Sinister's Marauders, is literally made of glass. He can store light and energy (such as sunlight or Cyclops' optic blasts) and redirect it to devastating effect. But he is still made of freaking glass. Jean Grey killed him once by throwing him into a wall (not even that hard).
• Omega the Unknown: Unlike his original incarnation, the 2007 Omega's only superpower lies in his ability to fire energy beams. Otherwise, he's just as vulnerable to regular injury and exhaustion as anyone else.
• Scott Pilgrim: Todd Ingram, Ramona's third ex, is even more powerful than Gideon due to his immense psychic powers, yet after being depowered by the Vegan Police he goes down to a single headbutt from Scott.
• Transformers: Wings of Honor has Lyzack, quick and deadly with a sword, but she was built as a support mech, and can't take much damage (a single punch sends her flying).
• Über: The Nazi "blitzmensch" superhumans have Eye Beams powerful enough to demolish towns and sink warships at ten-kilometer ranges, but their bodies are as fragile as a normal human's, allowing the stronger "panzermensch" to rip them apart at close range.

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