Superheroes Who Got Major Power Upgrades:
There are several superheroes in the Marvel and DC Universe that were granted additional abilities because of a story arc, a ret-con, a reboot, or an altered origin story. Maybe they deserved it or maybe it was completely unnecessary but they still got it anyway. This list is a testament to the superheroes that got some serious power upgrades and became extremely heavy hitters in their field.
1. Scarlet Witch
Scarlet Witch was blessed with a huge potential for manipulating magic by the Demon God Chthon. She used her hex magic to manipulate probability at a smaller scale. As an X-Man and an Avenger, her powers were only explored up to a very small level. But that all changed when Scarlet Witch used her powers to literally rewrite the entire reality after she went insane, leading to the events of House of M and M-Day. Her reality-altering powers were only a part of the power upgrade she got.
In due course of time, Scarlet Witch also learned magic and could use spells in battle. She was even touted to be the next Sorceress Supreme of the Marvel Universe by some fans. Scarlet Witch got not just one but two major upgrades throughout her span.
2. Colossus
Piotr Rasputin is considered the strongest mutant in Marvel Comic Book History in terms of pure, brute strength. His metallic skin combined with his brute force makes him a truly valuable asset to the mutant superhero team. But the comic did not stop there with Colossus. In the Fear Itself storyline, Colossus got a major boost to his abilities.
When Juggernaut was chosen by the Asgardian God of Fear Cul to be one of his henchmen on Earth, Cyttorak – the god who gave Juggernaut his original powers, abandoned him and transferred the role of his Avatar on Earth to Colossus. Colossus became the unstoppable and impenetrable killing machine that had both his own powers and the ones blessed upon him by Cyttorak for quite a couple of years before his sister Magik freed him of this curse.
3. Mister Fantastic
Mister Fantastic is better known for that big beautiful brain of his rather than his superpowers. His superpower is that he can stretch his body to inhuman levels. Super Elasticity does not actually make you be counted amongst the greatest and most powerful superheroes of all time. So he uses his intelligence and inventions to compensate where needed.
But Mister Fantastic finally got the power upgrade he so deserved right after the events of Secret Wars. Doctor Doom had absorbed the power of a Beyonder and had literally become a God. So Mister Fantastic convinced Molecule Man to use his abilities to strip Doom of his powers and give it to him instead. Mister Fantastic became a living God who can manipulate entire realities.
4. Batman
Everybody knows that Batman is one of the most prepared superheroes on Earth. The guy has a contingency plan for everything and anything that the universe could throw at him. But even Batman was not prepared enough to survive the aftermath of what was coming. During the Darkseid War saga, Batman and the rest of the Justice League manage to overpower the New God Metron, who is considered the greatest repository of Knowledge in the entire universe.
Batman would then take over Metron’s Chair and gain access to all the data Metron had acquired over the years, effectively becoming the New God of Knowledge. Batman would then destroy Joe Chill’s life and discover a truly ground-shattering fact – there aren’t one but three different jokers.
5. Angel
Angel was a pretty ordinary mutant with a pretty unusable ability. The only powers he had was peak human physical attributes and wings that helped him fly. That all changed when Angel was chosen as one of the Horsemen of Apocalypse by Apocalypse himself. Apocalypse gave him a secondary mutation that turned Angel’s skin blue, gave him a razor-sharp pair of wings that could fire the feathers that acted like high-velocity projectiles and a very bad attitude.
There was one other ability that Apocalypse gave him or unlocked that still has not been explored to a greater extent. Many do not know this but Arch-Angel has a very powerful healing factor akin to Wolverines. But it does not stop there. His healing factor unlike Wolverine’s could be transferred to other people. Whoever has access to Angel’s blood is temporarily gifted his amazing healing factor.
6. Superman
The New 52 reboot will always go down in history as one of the most infamous reboots in the history of comic books. It was so ill-conceived by the writers and so badly received by the fans that DC had to make another reboot just so they could remove the New 52 continuity from DC’s timeline. There were some aspects of New 52 that actually resonated well with the audiences though. Powering down Superman and giving him a power level that makes him more relatable was one of them. A younger Superman, the New 52 Superman did not even possess the ability to fly.
What he did have is another power that none of the Supermen before him possessed – the Super Flare. When used, the Super Flare gave Superman a huge power boost that made him look like Dragon Ball Z’s Goku in his Super Saiyan form. It would leave him in a highly weakened state for days after it’s used so Superman only uses it as a last resort.
7. The Flash
Like everybody knows, the Flash is fast. Period. He likes to remind people as to how fast he really is from time to time. From outrunning an entire Zombie horse to evacuating a city within a pico-second, the Flash has done it all. He does not need any power upgrades to increase his power levels, right??
Well WRONG!!! The Flash actually got a major power boost when he was chosen to be the wielder of the Blue Power Ring of Hope. During the Blackest Night arc, the Flash got the ability to heal other green Lanterns, fly unaided in space, and create giant energy constructs out of his own imagination. DC did not need to do this but they still did it anyway.
8. Silver Surfer
The Silver Surfer is one of the strongest superheroes in the Marvel Comic Book Universe. Wielding the Power Cosmic in his hands granted to him by Galactus, the Devourer of Worlds Silver Surfer has fought and defeated countless foes that a normal superhero could only dream of being able to make a stand against. The silver Surfer was once chosen to wield the Uni-Power, a power that grants its wielder to become the new Captain Universe.
The Hulk, X-23, and even Spider-Man have wielded the Uni-Power. The Silver Surfer was granted the ability to use it after the Krosakis, a race of alien vampires, tried to destroy the universe. The Silver Surfer was well capable to do it on his own using just the Power cosmic. Marvel really did not know what they were doing here.
9. Thor
Thor has had several power upgrades throughout his career as a superhero. His most recent one is the most powerful one he has had though. Thor was the new King of Asgard and had the power of the Odin-Force in his hands when Galactus crash-landed on Asgard.
The Silver Surfer reveals that a universe destroying a threat called the Black Winter is about to engulf the entire cradle of creation in flames and the only one who could stop it is Galactus, who needs to regain his strength after consuming five specific planets scattered across the cosmos. Galactus chose Thor as his new Herald and have him the Power Cosmic. Thor had the powers of his own as well as Cosmic Energy manipulation abilities.
10. Iceman
Bobby Drake was never taken seriously by his fellow X-Men. He was an average level superhero and his powers were not that extraordinary. Emma Frost aka the White Queen was once telepathically probing Iceman when she realized that Booby Drake had subconsciously placed mental blocks to dampen his own abilities and was thus only using a fraction of his powers.
Emma Frost removed those blocks and Iceman gained access to abilities he never knew he possessed. Iceman became an Omega Level Mutant and his powers increased to such an extent that if he is not careful enough while using his powers, he will unleash a permanent ice age on the world.
