Characters on superhero teams range in powers, skills etc. So when taking into account the all-round abilities of characters which ones are least useful? Which team member could a team do without and still function perfectly well on the following teams:
Astonishing X-Men
Fantastic Four
The original JLA
The Authority
New Avengers
Teen Titans (before Infinite Crisis)
The New Avengers could probably do without Ronin because she's only been in like 2 issues or something. Actually is Ronin (Echo) even on the team still?
Yeah, Ronin is a pretty obvious choice for the New Avengers considering the team has actually been functioning perfectly well without her. It's not even a hypothetical.
Astonishing X-Men - Wolverine. Beast would be second in line but his genius outclasses him....
Fantastic Four - That's a toughie. They're all so integral to the team. I'd have to say the Human Torch. Thing is needed as a pure brawler and brick. But Johnny's powers aren't that special...
JLA - Batman. His genius is overrated. MM and Superman are smarter than him. Aquaman is the most powerful man on Earth politically. He rules 3/4s of it...
The Authority - Don't know much about them. But that girl with the wings seems pretty damn useless....
New Avengers - Ronin. Spider Woman. Luke Cage. They all seem so useless with Iron Man and Sentry on the team....
Teen Titans - To be absolutely honest, Wonder Girl. With Starfire on the team, she's already outclassed. Her only schtick was lassoing something and frying it with her magic lightening....
Astonishing X-Men - In combat, Beast, Generally, Wolverine...
Fantastic Four - Ben or Johnny, not sure...
The original JLA - In combat, Batman, Generally, i have to say Diana... *hides from draco*
The Authority - Don't know anythig about them...
New Avengers - Spider Woman i suppose... Or this Ronin person, but i havent read any issues with Ronin in the team so i don't know...
Teen Titans (before Infinite Crisis) - Cassie... Cyborg and Superboy are the muscle... she has the lasso, but thats not enough imo...
i think its funny as hell when they went to one of luhtor's labs to find a cure for Conner she was all like luthor wouldnt happen to have a cure for HIV does he?...thier was like a panel that depicted awkward silence it was funny as hell i swear.
actually i think Ronin is very useful cuz she's the expert on ninja cults and shit like that. and she can infiltrate like nobody's business.
as for the FF. its a tossup between IW, and Reed himslef. cuz 3/4 of the battles they get into is bcuz of him..simply due to the fact that they have to visit EVERY f ****ing dimension or new planet they discover....then boom when they get there t always turns out that its a place ruled by a despot and they have to over throw him b4 they leave..to you know, free the ppl. i remember a few years ago Reed, stark, PYm were discussing ways to help humanity by inventing incredible devices but they were all hesistant cuz corrupt govts would likey want weapons instead.
other than the fact than insane assholes always seek them out for revenge, i dont see why they have to fight. they dont foil bank robberies, they dont stop terrorists, they only stop would be world conquerers when they literally show up on thier doorstep. so what are they here for. then IW lames it up by going on and on about her children every two seconds....so im like ok why not just stay home and be a good mom you stupid whore? who says you gotta go out there and shake hands with aliens arrgghh...i just wanna shake her!!
Heh, not exactly what I meant by "Least useful..." but entertaining nonetheless.
Some more teams:
The Inhumans (not really a team per se but meh)
Runaways
Young Avengers
Alpha Flight
The Outsiders
Excalibur
JSA
Thunderbolts
Birds of Prey
For any of these it need not be the most recent incarnation of the team.
You guys are crazy, Batman is probably the guy they need the most because his lack of powers he is forced to think of different ways to win and is sometimes overlooked because of his powers, case in point when the JLA was attacked by the aliens waaaaay back and he was overlooked because he didnt have powers and rescued everyones sorry butts plus he found a way to beat most of the JLA. The JLA has too many powerhouses, If u have Superman u really dont need Wonder Woman, Hawkman or any other strong character. Batman is integral to the group.
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"A lie, Mr. Mulder, is most convincingly hidden between two truths." Deep Throat.
I think u r wrong on this one. Sue is the most powerful member of the team and Reed could compensate himself for the lack of Bens strenght in the team, If he was a bit more like Doom he would create a couple o robots to assist them. They could easily do without Ben or Johnny.
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"A lie, Mr. Mulder, is most convincingly hidden between two truths." Deep Throat.
I think WE would be fine with some of this teams out of existence entirely. Runaways we can live witout. Alpha Flight never ammounts to nothing and the Young Avengers sooner than later will become useless.
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"A lie, Mr. Mulder, is most convincingly hidden between two truths." Deep Throat.
Fantastic Four - Hmmm thats a toughie ..I'd have to go with Thing , even though i think he's pretty cool (plus he get's the best comedy moments) since Reed can amp himself to Thing levels
The original JLA - Realistically batman , but then he brings a Jobber Aura the size of aisa with him so he's pretty much essential.
The Authority - I've always wondered how swift got on the team
"Hey I can control buildings and make mechs and stuff"
"Were gay rip-offs of Batman and Superman"
"I'm a hippie Doctor strange"
"I can...err fly real fast and cut stuff"
*Everyone pauses and laughs at swift*
New Avengers - All of them , minus Sentry, IM, Cap and Spidey (Maybe Cage as well)
The Inhumans - Medua , she can control her hair..whoop-de-do , oh better yet Triton....
Triton - I can only live in water
GF - How the f*ck is that a superpower , seems more like a hindrance to me ?
Triton - Uhhh..cause it is !
Runaways - Kid who controls a dinosaur , pointless and unnecessary. Get more Victor he's badass.
Young Avengers - Wiccan (I don't hate gay's , I just dislike his character and think his powers suck)
Excalibur - Any American , it's a friggen BRITISH superhero team .
JSA - Hourman , he's basically a juicer the JSA don't need that kind of bad publicity
Speak for yourself. Runaways and Young Avengers are two of the best titles around, and Alpha Flight amounts to quite alot if you actually read their series.
Astonishing X-Men - I guess Wolverine. I think this is a solid team though, and everyone pulls equal weight.
Fantastic Four - Human Torch. Sue can compensate for his raw power and flight.
The original JLA - I would say Batman, but really, he's proved himself time and time again on the JLA. In fact, i think all the big 7 have.
The Authority - The winged girl. Probably.
New Avengers - I think since Ronin hasn't actually been on the team yet, we can't say she's the least useful. I'd probably go with... Luke Cage.
The Inhumans - Maximus. What... he's an Inhuman.
Runaways - Originally i'd think Chase, but Gert and her raptor are pretty useless. or... were.
Young Avengers - Hawkeye.
Alpha Flight - Major Mapleleaf anyone?
Excalibur - Dazzler
Thunderbolts - Blizzard
Okay, clearly you've never read Runaways or Young Avengers, the quality of which both art and writing surpasses several of the more mainstream titles often.
Ditto on Runaways and YA. Alpha Flight have never interested me much, but they definitely serve a niche.
Ronin isn't really even on the team... she just helped out in that one story for about 2 - 3 issues
I'd say Spider-Woman is more useful than Cage as well due to the fact that she can influence people with her pheromones .... and can fly
Realistically though, Cap is the most useless one... yeah he's a decent leader.... but Stark led the Avengers for a while as well, Spider-Woman is a SHIELD agent, Wolverine has more experience than cap, Spider-Man is more agile, everyone except Wolverine is stronger than him, everyone is more durable than him, Spider-Man and Iron Man are smarter than him, Sentry outclasses him in pretty much every way
If it wasn't for the fact that he wears the US flag he would've been dropped from Marvel ages ago
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Last edited by Scoobless on Aug 19th, 2006 at 03:02 PM
Well technically the kid who controls the dinosaur is now Chase. He also controls the ship they travel in and seems to have some innate mechanical engineering skills, so I dunno whether I'd put him as the most useless; although it's probably either him or Molly.
KMC Community Forums
Aug 19th, 2006 05:47 AM
it was funny as hell i swear.
.... plus it's a good read
