Comic Book Superheroes: Losing Their Powers

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A commonly encountered storyline in superhero comic books is the loss of their superpowers. This may occur for one issue only, where they get their powers back at the end of the story. Or they may lose their powers for a couple of issues, a whole story arc, and find themselves dealing with this loss for a longer time. And sometimes the writers just remove the powers from a certain character for an indefinite period of time.

Now I find stories about superheroes losing their powers to be quite entertaining, although it could also be very annoying when a favourite character loses their powers and it's not certain when -if ever- they will get them back.

I have a couple of favourite storylines of power loss- and they're all from Marvel comics.

My all time favourite plotline on this theme must be Storm from the X-Men losing her ability to control the weather. This happened in mid-80s issues of Uncanny X-Men. She was shot with a weapon designed by the government to neutralise the powers of mutants- while she was protecting the ACTUAL target of the weapon, her teammate Rogue. Storm having to deal with this crippling experience became an actual story arc of its own- the process of her dealing and coming to terms with the fact that she had gone from being 'a woman that could fly' to being 'just plain folks' is bookended between the two stories called 'Lifedeath' and 'Lifedeath 2' (there were about 15 issues inbetween these 2 issues). In the first 'Lifedeath' story, Storm, immediately after having been shot with the power neutraliser, finds herself taken care of by a man called Forge, but eventually finds out that Forge is the one who designed the neutraliser in the first place. She runs away from him in anger about what she perceives to be deception on his part (though his intentions are not so evil). Though she returns to the X-Men, she realises that she can no longer be part of the team without her powers. So she decides to leave and return to Kenya, which had been her home for 13 years. There, she battles a gang of poachers, who end up wounding her, leaving her to die. But she recovers and makes her way through the wilderness in search of habitation- she rescues a pregnant girl from a crashed bus, and after reaching the girl's home village, also helps resuscitate the baby after he is born and doesn't appear to make it. When she escorts the village elder to his final resting place, she realises that her life still has value, and that even if her feet never leave the ground again, she may yet 'fly'.

Storm returns to the X-Men after she is rescued by them, after having been whisked away. Despite no longer having any superhuman powers, she still possesses her stealth and fighting skills. She fights Cyclops in a duel over the leadership of the X-Men, and wins. She leads the X-Men more confidently and efficiently than she had ever done before. She manages to guide the team through difficult times, including the loss and departure of teammates and the training of new ones. All the while, she naturally longs back to the days when she'd riude the winds, or summon the rain. Storm travels to Forge to see if he has the key to restoring her powers. She is tricked by his villanous former mentor Nazé aka 'the Adversary', and both Storm and Forge are kidnapped into the Adversary's dimension. He leaves them on a parallel Earth, where he intends them ot be a new Adam and Eve. There, one year passes, while in the real world only a few days pass. During the year on this parallel Earth, Storm travels around, while Forge constructs a machine that can undo the effects of the neutraliser and restore Storm's powers. Storm returns to Forge, and he restores her powers and helkps them both travel back to the real Earth where they and the X-Men defeat the Adversary, Storm reclaims the mantle of leader of the X-Men with restored powers and a new determination.

I think what I like most about Storm's loss of powers, is that it is presented as if she is crippled, or as if she has a limb torn from her. Storm has had her weather powers since she was 12, which in the Lifedeath story had been over 15 years. She is used to being completely attuned to the atmosphere around her, sensing every change of the wind, every drop or increase in temperature, being fully aware of humidity, clouds, etc. Now, she loses that awareness as well. So, she loses one of her senses. I think it's presented very realistically how Storm suffers from this loss, especially in the first Lifedeath story. Storm had been a member of the X-Man for quite some time, leader of that very team for about half her tenure, so this is the first time in years that she finds herself quite so vulnerable. It makes it even better that she manages to overcome the psychological trauma, and redefine her purpose.

Do you have a favourite story about a hero losing their powers? It doesn't have to be a longer lasting effect; it could also be one issue. Or even something from a TV show. I was wondering if I should put this one in the TV forum, but because my main example is in comic books, I put it here.

I don't have an example, but your example sounds interesting.

Storm losing her power to a man who nurses and rescues her seems suspiciously analogous to the anti-feminism fantasy of a return to traditional gender power-dynamics--where the woman is powerless ,and the man is her protector but also the source of her dis-empowerment.

I like how Storm continues to refuse dependence or admit weakness even though she has lost her superpowers. It sounds like this story also questions the power dynamic in romantic relationship--since Storm and Forge were romantically involved and he accepted that her anger was justified and that she was equally romance-worthy with her powers. (I am just assuming this from the Wiki article on the character Forge and on your summary of the story). It sounds like a good story which creates a healthy model for gender relations (based on what I know of the general plot of the story). Thanks for sharing it.

Note: I am defining feminism as the belief that men and women are equal, and should be assigned equal value and rights within a society.

Franklin Richards often "lost his powers".... only to get them back when they need him (like the whole onslaught deal and creating a SECOND world)... he lost them after that...until they needed his powers in order to create Valerie... and then he lost them again.

i kinda haven't been reading Fantastic Four lately...so i don't know if he has them back or not yet.