Superpowers can be double-edged swords for all sorts of reasons. From overwhelming responsibility to constantly being targeted by megalomaniacs, it's difficult to find anyone with special talents who doesn't sometimes feel cursed by them. And maybe they should. After all, while superpowers can make for some spectacular action on the page and screen, when you really think about them, they can be awfully unsettling. In fact, there are some characters in the DC Universe with abilities that can be downright disgusting to think about—and maybe in ways you don't expect!
Plastic Man
Plastic Man is best known for being hilarious and, well, we certainly won't argue with that! But, indulge us for just a moment as we beg you to consider the actual logistics of his powers because—and we mean this as affectionately as we can—they're pretty gross. Plas is still a person, after all, and those elasticity powers of his extend to his bones and his internal organs, which we have to assume are all stretching and contorting as he changes shape. He may look funny on the outside…but just think about what he looks like on the inside. Or maybe don’t because…ew.
Blue Devil
We've got to rewind the clock for this one a little bit because Blue Devil's seen some updates over the years, but in his initial introduction back in the early '80s, his "powers" came from the fact he was a stunt man in a full-body prosthetic suit for a role when an attack by a real demon grafted the costume to his body, permanently. That's right—the original origin of Blue Devil's look was the fact that foam and latex were literally fused onto his human skin with magic. Gross.
Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man
You don't really have to look very far into the Doom Patrol to find people whose powers are a little on the uncomfortable side. That's kind of their whole thing, after all.
Most, if not all, of the team members have something a little uncanny going on with them, and most of the people they encounter don't fall far from that particular tree as well. This goes for Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man, obviously. Yes, he’s something of a gag character, but he’s a pretty nasty one to think about. He can mutate his body into any animal, vegetable or mineral parts, in any real combination or percentage. Think of a person or any kind of animal fused with a rock that also happens to have a stalk of corn growing out of it. Now imagine it lumbering towards you. Suddenly, this guy doesn’t seem so funny anymore, does he?
Rita Farr
Another Doom Patrol character (don't worry, we're not going to just dump their whole roster onto this list, though we probably could). Rita's size-manipulation powers are the most disgusting iteration of the concept. Rather than just being able to harmlessly size-up, size-down and stretch at will, she's in a constant state of melting. Her body never quite wants to maintain its shape, fighting with her endlessly as it warps and puddles and pools into all sorts of interesting (by which we mean, unsettling) shapes.
Professor Pyg (and His “Dollotrons”)
Okay, technically not a guy with "powers," but we'd be totally remiss to not include him here. It's actually less Pyg himself that’s super unsettling and more the victims he gets his hands on—his Dollotrons, people that he surgically modifies into human-doll (or sometimes human-doll-animal) hybrids. Beyond just being hard to look at, the Dollotrons are made worse by the fact that there is no way to cure or reverse Pyg's work. Once a person has become a Dollotron, there is absolutely no way to save them or return their mind and body to its original state.
Anton Arcane
Swamp Thing's nemesis, Anton Arcane, actually got his start as a pretty normal, if magically powered, guy trying to make himself immortal, but over the years and after many encounters with Swamp Thing, Anton began to lose touch with his own humanity. Eventually, he became the avatar of Rot (the Black to Swamp Thing's Green), which made him look about as disturbing and disgusting as you might imagine. His body was in a constant state of decay and his abilities gave him a powerful form of necromancy.
Matter-Eater Lad
Next to the Doom Patrol, the Legion of the Super-Heroes is probably the most densely populated team when it comes to weird and uncomfortable powers. Some of them are most certainly meant to be gags, but as we've discovered with others on this list, comedy can only do so much to hide just how disconcerting some characters really are. That is definitely the case with Matter-Eater Lad.
As his name suggests, he eats matter. All matter. It doesn't matter what it is or what form it's in, he can eat it. This is all very funny until you stop to think about the applications this power could have if taken to the extreme, or the way his body must work to handle the biting and digestion of, say, a bunch of rocks, or a barrel of radioactive waste, or a human body. We’re all made of matter too, after all.
Superman (?!?)
Yes, really. Clark Kent may be as classically handsome as possible and have the sort of abilities that most people dream about, but have you ever really stopped to consider just how powerful those abilities are? Things like x-ray vision and super hearing sound fun in theory, but in actual fact, imagine just how overwhelming and disgusting the world would be around you with them. In fact, there have been multiple instances in which people have tried to replicate Big Blue's abilities, only to find themselves completely demolished by their new point of view on the world. It even happened to Lex Luthor back in All-Star Superman.
Honestly, we just can't stop thinking about how gross it would be to actually hear everyone going about their daily lives all over the world. Imagine how many people are chewing with their mouths open at any given point during the day? Or what being able to hear every public bathroom across the globe would subject you to? Or just all of the things you would see with x-ray vision that you could never unsee?
Mason Downey writes about comics, movies and superhero history for DC.com. Look for more of his work on GameSpot, IGN and Polygon.
NOTE: The views and opinions expressed in this feature are solely those of Mason Downey and do not necessarily reflect those of DC Entertainment or Warner Bros., nor should they be read as confirmation or denial of future DC plans.
