The Greatest Superpowers Of All Time, Ranked (original) (raw)

Superheroes have changed how modern pop culture thinks about superpowers after countless stories of gods, titans, and heroes shaping the world from ancient civilization. Comics, TV, and movies have explored and deconstructed extraordinary abilities ad nauseam, but fans still love fantasizing about wielding incredible superpowers like flight or telepathy.

Of course, the best superpowers in comics and movies are the ones that help superheroes win battles and save lives. Superheroes are a kind of modern mythology, and their great powers define characters like Spider-Man and The Flash as much as their decisions and personalities.

Updated on July 6, 2024 by John Dodge: Fans often discuss and rank the best superpowers from the comics, which has resulted in quite a few lists of superpowers. However, Marvel and DC heroes like Superman and Sentry are often overpowered with several incredible abilities, making it even harder to pick the best superpowers. Classic superpowers like X-ray vision and odder abilities like matter consumption are just a few of the best superpowers that have made a significant mark on the collective imagination.

55 Photographic Reflexes Make Memorization a Breeze

Notable Users: Taskmaster, Prometheus, Finesse

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Characters like Marvel's Taskmaster have made great use of their ability to replicate any move or skill with photographic reflexes. This ability is similar to eidetic memory, which allows people to recall any detail or scene from their memory with perfect clarity. Taskmaster uses his photographic reflexes to observe and master any fighting move or skill he witnesses and replicate it perfectly.

The MCU's version of Taskmaster used a computer program to analyze and replicate the movements fed to the reimagined character through her helmet. This adaptation of the ability is similar to DC's Prometheus, who used recorded footage and an advanced computer program to learn and master the Justice League's moves so he could counter them.

54 X-Ray Vision Would Make it Easy to Find Lost Items

Notable Users: Superman, Hitman, Eye-Boy

X-ray vision is an iconic but sometimes creepy superpower. It grants characters like Superman and Hitman the ability to see through objects and people. Working on the same principle as an X-ray machine, this power is traditionally blocked by lead. Superheroes use it for everything from locating hidden bombs to avoiding ambushes.

X-ray vision borrows some scientific language but isn't the same as an X-ray machine at the airport. In ordinary life, it has some obvious underhanded uses, but it also could help people find lost items or see who's at the door without a second thought. X-ray vision isn't a show-stopping offensive power, but it can save heroes from a world of hurt when used intelligently.

53 Sonic Scream Often Helps its Users Fly

Notable Users: Black Canary, Black Bolt, Banshee

Sometimes, superheroes' powers involve a concealed or hidden ability like a sonic scream that can change the course of a battle in a second. Heroes like Black Canary often rely on their advanced martial arts skills. However, she can also dish out extreme punishment to some of DC's most powerful villains due to her ear-bursting Canary Cry.

Other heroes, like the X-Men's Banshee, have trained their sonic scream to hit different frequencies. This allows Banshee and his daughter Siryn to use their sonic screams to create lift, which allows them to fly through the air at supersonic speeds. Of course, heroes like Marvel's Black Bolt have such a powerful scream that even the smallest whisper can bring down mountains.

52 Wall-Crawling Turns any Structure Into a Jungle-Gym

Notable Users: Spider-Man, Nightcrawler, Vixen

While some abilities like super-strength are widely shared throughout the metahuman community, wall-crawling is usually restricted to a few heroes like Spider-Man and his variants from the Spider-Verse. The power to run up walls or hide effortlessly on the ceiling grants characters a certain level of freedom, but this ability usually works best with other powers.

Without super-strength and endurance, climbing a skyscraper could be grueling and leave little juice in the hero's tank for the inevitable confrontation with a supervillain. Heroes like DC's Vixen can stick to walls similarly by tapping into the totemic energies of animals like spiders. Others have used weapons or climbing tools to duplicate their abilities.

51 Optic Blasts Are Incredibly Powerful

Notable Users: Cyclops, Darkseid, Superman

Optic blasts can encompass Cyclops' concussive blasts, Superman's heat vision, and even Darkseid's Omega Effect. The power to destroy something with a glance is a tempting ability for almost anyone, though there can also be drawbacks. Vision-based attacks can sometimes blind their wielders, while characters like Cyclops need special equipment just to open their eyes.

Optic blasts are unusually intuitive as heroes can use their eyes to focus and aim, so they are a good match for sharpshooting specialists like Cyclops. Heat vision and other variants of optic blasts, like Hyperion's atomic vision, can sometimes function as utility powers. Heroes can weld broken bridges and, in some cases, even repair and alter microcircuitry.

50 Intangibility Grants Access to Sealed Off Places

Notable Users: Vision, Shadowcat, Vision

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Intangible or phased characters like Martian Manhunter and Kitty Pryde can walk through walls or let bullets pass through them harmlessly. This defensive power also provides access to everything from bank vaults to secret lairs. Some characters can phase other objects or enemies into solid or protect their friends by making them intangible.

Getting into locked rooms, evading bullets, and escaping traps are just a few of intangibility's useful applications. Combined with powers like invisibility and teleportation, intangibility becomes even more potent. However, phasing is a power limited more by a lack of imagination than anything else. In the hands of a master, it's an underrated and potentially deadly power.

49 Technological Interface Makes Hacking Super Easy

Notable Users: Cyborg, Deathlok, Iron Man

Anyone who's had trouble with a cell phone or a laptop will see the benefits of being able to interface with any kind of technology. Heroes like DC's Victor Stone/Cyborg and Marvel's Deathlok gained the ability to access computer systems, online networks, and automated machinery—manipulating them in their minds.

Cyborg could inject a struggling mother's bank account with cash or shut down an enemy's robotic systems with a snap of his fingers. Tony Stark developed advanced AI programs and security cracking technology to take control of other computer systems from inside any of Iron Man's incredibly powerful armors.

48 Body Manipulation Has a Variety of Uses

Notable Users: Plastic Man, Mister Fantastic, Elongated Man

Distinct from shape-shifting, body manipulation lets heroes like Reed Richards stretch their bodies, and Plastic Man takes on various shapes. By becoming a living straightjacket, Richards has restrained much stronger opponents. The Elongated Man can access almost anywhere by sliding under doors, and having a silly putty body makes many heroes nearly impervious to harm.

Of course, body manipulation also has its limits. When Mr. Fantastic or Elongated Man stretch themselves too far, they can weaken their bodies or even risk snapping like a strained elastic band. Body manipulation is a surprisingly potent superpower; using it well is a sign of imagination and intelligence.

47 Shapeshifting is an Ideal Power for Spies

Notable Users: Mystique, Martian Manhunter, Beast Boy

While some Marvel shape-shifters like Wolfsbane can only assume one alternate form, others like Mystique use their powers primarily for disguise. Some heroes, like the Martian Manhunter, can transform into entirely novel lifeforms and stretch and reshape their bodies to grow new organs or claws and gills as needed.

There are different versions of comic book shape-shifters as well. Beast Boy can literally become any animal, but he can't transform into organic steel like Colossus. Both could be considered shape-shifters. The sheer flexibility associated with shape-shifting makes it an incredibly useful power despite being one of the least-defined meta-abilities in comics.

46 Enhanced Senses Clue People To Their Surroundings

Notable Users: Daredevil, Superman, Wolverine

Characters like Daredevil, Wolverine, and even Superman are known for their enhanced senses. These senses can vary from superhuman hearing and smell to microscopic vision. Characters like Spider-Man and Daredevil even arguably have extra senses, like DD's radar and Spidey's infamous spider sense.​​

These powers are subtle, but they can be life-changing. Characters who have mastered their enhanced senses can usually avoid the added distractions or temptation to be a snoop. Even without complementary powers like Wolverine's claws or Superman's wide array of powers, enhanced senses are incredibly useful.