I’m not a man who will easily turn away from an interesting challenge. So when my good friend David (@NemesisFC2) Howard decides to tag me into putting together a Top Ten list, I’m not exactly the type to refuse. So for the reading pleasure of all our Crusaders, I’ll give you this week’s Top Ten—my favorite comics heroes with no powers.
*
Before I go on, I’ll establish my own criteria for choosing this list. How do we define a comics hero with no powers? For our purposes, I want to look at heroes without any extra abilities that would give them any kind of combat advantage. There are many great heroes that I love that I’d consider street-level, but unfortunately have powers that give them combat advantages. This excludes personal favorites of mine like Black Panther, Captain America, and Daredevil, but would not exclude someone like Nick Fury (whose only ability is longevity because of his Infinity Formula). So active combat advantages are excluded, while low-level passive abilities with no combat advantages will be allowed.
This does not exclude heroes who have no superhuman powers, but who rely on tools or technological weapons to give them combat advantages. Cyborgs like the Winter Soldier would be excluded because the cyborg enhancements function as a power. However, an ordinary person who relies only on a high-tech tool or weapon is eligible for this list. Magical abilities and spellcasters will also be excluded to make things more efficient, though non-powered heroes armed with magical weapons (like the Black Knight) will be considered. Likewise, no Green Lanterns, Quantum Band wearers, Nova Corps members or anyone else enhanced with cosmic-level technology will be considered either.
I also will make an effort to keep the number of characters in the same family group to a minimum. It would be very easy, for instance, to stack a list like this with Bat-Family characters, and I do love many of them. At the same time, I want room to include favorites from across the comics landscape.
If you’d prefer a different set of criteria, or you have a different list in mind, great! Feel free to make your own list in response. I fully acknowledge this list is entirely subjective, based on the standards I choose to apply, and you’re welcome to use your own.
Now, without further ado, my Top Ten Comics Heroes With No Powers:
- Silver Sable
Silver Sable is one of those fascinating anti-heroines that always seems to slip under the radar. She tends to appear infrequently, and when she does, it’s usually as part of a Spider-Man story once every few years. Still, Silver always caught my eye ever since the Assassin Nation Plot during the Dave Michelinie and Todd McFarlane days. She has a distinctive look, she’s a complex woman of mystery, and her methodology is interesting and unique.
Silver Sable leads a group of mercenaries called the Wild Pack, based out of the country of Symkaria. Her father actively hunted Nazi war criminals, and Silver took up the family business after her mother was murdered. Silver outwardly seems like a cold, professional mercenary who can be ruthless and demanding of her operatives. Deep down, though, her frosty behavior is rooted in patriotism and love of her country and her family. Her mercenary work is the primary revenue source for the Symkarian economy, which means she feels responsible for her country’s welfare. She’s also very concerned for the welfare of her young cousin Anna, which is another reason the money is important to her. Silver may seem like a cold-hearted mercenary, but her reasons for it are usually honorable.
Silver Sable is one of the most intriguing “ice queen” characters in comics. Silver is a classy and sophisticated woman who can also be a dangerous planner. She’s highly skilled in a fight, as you might expect of Symkaria’s most battle-hardened mercenary. Silver Sable is held in high enough respect that she’s even a regular dinner guest of Victor Von Doom, and you can’t ask for a higher compliment than that.
- Doc Savage
Some people love Batman because he’s a self-made competent man, but Doc Savage got there first. I will always prefer Doc because his crusade doesn’t come from a place of anger, but from self-improvement.
Doc Savage is first and foremost a pulp scientific adventurer, and he is the precursor to characters like Indiana Jones, Superman, Reed Richards, Tom Strong, and others. Doc wants to honor his father, make new scientific discoveries, experience new adventures, and constantly improve himself. His code is one that anyone can aspire to: “let me do right to all, and wrong to no man”. He’s defeated numerous villains with no powers at all, just his training, intelligence, and determination to do what he believes is right.
At the same time, there is an underlying humanity to Doc under the veneer of perfection. He’s often too cool and clinical, usually because he was raised by scientists in isolation and doesn’t know how to react in any other way. Because of this, Doc is usually out of touch in social situations, especially with women, a trait which sometimes has been used against him. At the same time, he has deep relationships in his life, especially with his cousin Patricia and his friends in the Band of Iron. The internal clash between Doc’s outward brilliance and polymathic competence with complete social ineptitude is as fascinating as it is relatable.
Doc has been used often in comics, whether from Marvel, DC, or Dynamite. Hopefully he’ll get another series again in the future.
- Steel (John Henry Irons)
Steel is a character who never gets the respect he deserves, either in universe or by DC. What sets John Henry Irons apart to me is that he’s a regular man who was driven to live up to the ideal of Superman. This makes him an inspiring character in his own way, a way that Superman could never accomplish.
Just with his own ingenuity and determination Steel found a way to be Superman without Kryptonian super-powers. Instead, he built a suit of armor, picked up a hammer, and asked a simple question: “how can I step up in a world without a Superman?” John Henry Irons is a working-class hero with guts and dedication, very much the steel-driving man like the folk hero he takes his name from.
In addition to his part in Reign of the Supermen, Steel got a good standout moment in the 52 event, where he held his own against Luthor during a year where Clark had lost his powers. He also succeeded in establishing his own identity without taking from an existing character; if anything, Steel adds depth to the world and legend of Superman. In a world where diverse heroes are all the rage now, it’s past time that Steel got another opportunity to shine in the DCU.
- Connor Hawke
In theory, Green Arrow should be a character I like. I like swashbuckling roguish anti-heroes with style and a bit of a swagger. Oliver Queen, however, was never a character I was able to truly connect to. He came across as loudmouthed and abrasive much of the time, I didn’t know what Black Canary ever saw in him, and I generally found him difficult to like. I changed my mind on him somewhat with the Ben Percy Rebirth run, but that’s a story for another time.
I did, however, like his son, Connor Hawke, when he arrived on the scene. Probably I liked Connor because he was designed to be everything that his father wasn’t. Where Oliver had a checkered past, Connor was a monk who lived a reclusive lifestyle. Connor was quieter and more contemplative than his loud and hot-tempered father. He inherited some of Ollie’s impulsiveness, but Connor had learned to control it with discipline and meditation. Connor was very good with a bow—nearly as good as Ollie—and he was a top-ranked martial artist who was better at hand to hand. Connor later proved to be so good, in fact, that he managed to impress Richard Dragon, the man who trained Lady Shiva.
Connor was part of the same generation of DC heroes that gave us Wally West and Kyle Rayner. For a brief shining moment, he was Green Arrow, and he was part of Grant Morrison’s JLA for a time. He even teamed up with Kyle a few times as part of a new “Hard Traveling Heroes” like Hal and Ollie did. In the end, though, Connor never caught on, and Ollie came back to reclaim the title of Green Arrow. And then the New 52 came along, and Connor was erased entirely so that Ollie could be young and fresh again.
I keep hoping that Connor will return some day. He may not be A-list, but he’s a solid character with some compelling angles. Maybe one day we’ll see him again.
- Punisher (Frank Castle)
For the longest time, I wasn’t a fan of the Punisher. Though there were anti-heroic characters I liked, the Punisher always struck me as a one-note killing machine. That changed with the arrival of Garth Ennis in “Welcome Back, Frank”, which made me look at the character in a much different light. Then came Ennis’s run on Punisher MAX, which remains in my eyes the definitive version of the character. In the end, Ennis ended up doing such a good job on the Punisher that I can’t enjoy him nearly as much when someone else is writing the character.
Under Garth Ennis, Frank Castle is still a killing machine, an engine of destruction who wastes criminals by the truckload. However, what Ennis showed me was Frank Castle’s code and distinctive sense of honor, to me his defining redeeming feature. Castle will never harm an innocent or a police officer (though he may scare the corrupt ones). He has a soft spot for mothers and children because he was a father, and as a Marine, he is loyal to his country and to the men who served honorably. Under Ennis, we also see that the Punisher’s brand of justice can be entirely too tempting, especially when presented with villains who truly deserve it. Frank Castle may be brutal and merciless, but he’s an absolutist who is completely dedicated to his code, as dark and terrible as he may be, and I have to respect that.
- Iron Man (Tony Stark)
Many people discovered how great Iron Man could be with Robert Downey Jr. and the MCU films, but I was an Iron Man fan long before that. I discovered him with the Iron Monger storyline with Obadiah Stane, and then fully became a fan with the original Armor Wars storyline by Dave Michelinie and Bob Layton. Though Shellhead hasn’t always lived up to his promise in comics, when his stories have been good, they’ve been amazing.
Tony Stark is in many ways an anti-heroic character. He was a weapons designer, which doesn’t exactly lend itself to sympathy. Tony’s arrogant, a womanizer, and a self-destructive addictive personality who always rides the edge of disaster. At the same time, there is a good man beneath the cool exec with a heart of steel. He’s brilliant and resourceful and often finds his ways out of disastrous situations, especially the ones he’s responsible for. He cares about those closest to him, and he will always try to do right by his friends, his employees, and his company.
Tony Stark may be a mess who has made a ruin of his own life with his ego, addictions and his self-destructive urges, but he never gives up and he always finds a way to set things right, no matter how hopeless his situation is. He’s a character I’ve come to appreciate more as I’ve grown older, for all his flaws, and he’s always fun to watch when he’s well written.
- Black Widow (Natasha Romanova)
For the longest time, I didn’t get the Black Widow. She was in stories that I enjoyed, but the character never clicked to me. I liked her in that classic Uncanny X-Men issue by Chris Claremont and Jim Lee where she teamed up with Wolverine. I thought it was cool that she was leader of the Avengers during the 90’s, and she made some cool appearances with the Thunderbolts. I loved her romance with Bucky Barnes too, and I ship those two together to this day. But something just didn’t click to me about her, and I never understood why.
I finally understood Natasha, and grew to love her, with the first Avengers film. When it was revealed that Natasha’s entire motivation revolved around erasing all the red from her ledger, atoning for years of misdeeds as a Soviet assassin, it all made sense. Even in the comics, it absolutely works. She’s seduced people, lied to people, manipulated people, and murdered people, and she can’t bear the guilt. This is a woman who has suffered deeply at the hands of the Red Room, and who wants to simply live with herself after all the blood she’s spilled over decades. This pain is why she attracts lovers like Hawkeye, Daredevil, and Bucky that all deal with guilt and trauma. They’ve all suffered in the same way that she has, and she’s searching for those who truly understand what she’s lost and who can fill the emptiness in her soul. Natasha is a trained killer who is trying to find an outlet for what she does best in a way that her conscience can bear, and it just ends with more blood, more death, and more red on her ledger.
Because of one great idea, the Black Widow has become a fascinating, broken, flawed, and compelling character that I can sympathize with. Now I can proudly say that Tasha is one of my favorite Marvel heroines, and she is the one standout example of a screen version that made the comics better.
- Oracle (Barbara Gordon)
This entry is distinctive in that I’m referring specifically to the Post-Crisis version of Barbara Gordon, the one who was Oracle prior to the New 52. To be fair, I think Gail Simone’s run on Batgirl was enjoyable and it did try to keep everything I loved about Babs from her Birds of Prey run. Since then, though, the character has regressed emotionally to the point where I can’t relate to the character under most of her writers now (though James Tynion has done better with her recently).
I discovered Barbara after she was shot and paralyzed by the Joker in the Killing Joke, but it was Birds of Prey that made me care about her. I not only sympathized with Barbara, I grew to respect her as she found a new way to make a difference. She might not have been able to fight alongside the Bat-Family, but she still had her intelligence, her computer skills, and her Bat-training. Using the knowledge and skills she still had, Barbara reinvented herself and became Oracle, in time becoming more indispensable in that role than she ever was as Batgirl. Several young women have been Batgirl over the years (including Cassandra Cain, who I couldn’t list here), but only Barbara Gordon had the drive, the intelligence, and the ability to be Oracle. I found the character inspiring, and I think the reboot deprived the world of an empowered character who had become only more dangerous after she was shot.
This is not to say that Barbara wasn’t a flawed character as Oracle. She was secretive, sometimes even more than Batman. She could sometimes be manipulative, sometimes convincing herself that it was necessary for the greater good. She had the power to see and know everything as the world’s foremost hacker and dispatcher, and she was often tempted to use it in the wrong ways. But this version of Barbara always tried to use that knowledge only for the right reasons, and she had her friends and family to pull her back from the brink.
I hope we’ll see this Barbara Gordon again. Maybe we’ll see her after Infinite Frontier. We shall see.
- Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu
Shang-Chi is a character who only now is starting to get the attention he deserves, and I’m glad for that. He’s all too often overlooked, both in terms of the Marvel canon and in terms of being an important property for Marvel. Shang-Chi is quite arguably the best street-level fighter after Captain America in terms of pure skill, and for that alone he should be taken seriously as a character.
He also struggles somewhat because Shang-Chi is heir to the legacy of Fu Manchu, both in the story world and in his publication history. Fu Manchu, while an interesting and complicated villain, was built on the problematic Yellow Peril archetype, and Shang-Chi lives in his shadow. Because Shang-Chi is the son of Fu Manchu, that shadow always follows him, no matter what he does or where he goes. The blood of Fu Manchu (or Zheng Zu, as he is called in the comics now) is the destiny that Shang-Chi can never escape.
At the same time, this is the most fascinating thing about Shang-Chi, the core around which his character revolves. Although I am not Asian, I can understand Shang’s desire to escape a family he never asked for and doesn’t want anything to do with. Shang-Chi is a warrior poet, trained to be an assassin but with the wisdom of a true philosopher. He only wants peace and an escape from his father’s evil legacy, but he is constantly drawn back against his will. More than that, Shang cannot turn away, because he feels a responsibility and a duty to end his father’s criminal empire. As easy as it would be for Shang-Chi to just walk away and live a quiet life, he never can because he is the son of Fu Manchu, and he walks the honorable path.
If you never have read it, track down the classic Master of Kung Fu series. Some of it is collected in Epic Collections and these are well worth reading. I’d also suggest reading the current Shang-Chi by Gene Luen Yang; he’s shown he understands this character, and I look forward to reading what he does next. It’s a good time to be a fan of the Master of Kung Fu, and I think Shang-Chi is in for some good times ahead.
- Nightwing (Dick Grayson)
This answer should surprise no one who knows me well enough. Nightwing is my favorite DC character of all time, and he is tied with Kitty Pryde for my favorite comics character of all time. He is also my favorite comics hero without powers.
For much of my life, I knew Robin from Super-Friends and from the Batman/Scooby Doo team-up episode, and that was about it. I hadn’t read New Teen Titans in my childhood, though I was vaguely aware of it. It wasn’t until I started to explore DC in my teens that I learned that Dick Grayson had grown up and become Nightwing. I found this out from a trading card that I bought, and suddenly he seemed like the coolest hero ever.
Dick Grayson had everything cool about Batman—the intelligence, the detective skills, the fighting ability, and the drive to do the right thing. However, my barrier to getting into Batman at a young age is that I never related to the darkness and the anger, justifiable as it was. I liked the heroes who seemed like they were having fun– Nightcrawler, Superman, the Flash. Dick Grayson was like Batman in all the right ways, but he was fun, he was optimistic, and he didn’t come across like a jerk the way Bruce did. He was driven by the same darkness, but it never consumed him. Nightwing was that guy that was just as good as Batman in all the right ways, but he was cool in a way Batman wasn’t and never could be.
The other reason I’ve always loved Nightwing is that he struggled to reach the top, and he’s rarely been given the respect he’s deserved for it. He was laughed at and dismissed as Robin, and even I didn’t take him seriously back then. Then Dick Grayson joined the New Teen Titans and he’s been on an upward path ever since then. He grew into a leader with the Titans, then abandoned the Robin identity and created his own as Nightwing. He moved to a new city in Bludhaven, and he made that city his own. He succeeded Bruce Wayne as Batman not once but twice, and he acquitted himself admirably both times. Dick was able to train Damian when Batman couldn’t, and to this day, Damian’s arguably still a better partner to Nightwing than he ever was to Batman. Dick Grayson began as the first sidekick, but he’s also one of the rare heroes (along with Wally West) to successfully succeed his mentor and the first sidekick to be successful as an independent hero.
Nightwing has grown into Batman’s equal as a crimefighter, all because of his own drive and determination to see justice done. They may have started in the same place, but Dick Grayson chose a different path as Nightwing, and he’s my favorite non-powered hero because of it.
*
Finally, I’d like to list a few honorable mentions that I considered but couldn’t include for various reasons:
- Zorro: Very nearly made the list. I connect with him on a personal level, and I love swashbuckling freedom fighters. But he’s a character I’m mainly familiar with from outside comics.
- Cassandra Cain: One of my all-time favorites, but her ability to read movements is practically a superpower and it has a combat advantage. Also, I didn’t want to flood the list with Bat-Family members.
- Moon Knight: He’s awesome. He has powers, though, depending on the writer and whether Khonshu is favoring him that day.
- John Blaze: I really liked him in the 90’s, when he was just a normal guy with a hellfire shotgun. But he’s gone back to being Ghost Rider these days.
- Tim Drake: Another personal favorite that I couldn’t list because otherwise half my list would be Bat-characters.
- Golden Age Daredevil/Death-Defying ‘Devil: One of the best public domain superheroes with an awesome costume and an iconic weapon. His personality isn’t as fleshed out as the rest, but he’s great.
I’m sure Batman fans will be disappointed he’s not here, but sorry… he’s not a personal favorite of mine. I do respect him, though, and he made many of my favorite heroes possible.
And there you have it. Keep in mind that this is just my list of personal favorites, and opinions are always subjective. It’s always possible that I overlooked someone or there’s a favorite of yours I missed. If you have favorites that are not on this list that you think are worth mentioning, feel free to list your own!
With that out of the way, now it’s time to pass the baton to another Crusader. For our next Top Ten, I hereby nominate @mrjafri to do his own list from any of the topics below. Until next time!
Current Top 10 List of Topics
- Actors who we thought would suck but didn’t
- Trailer to movie differences
- Overused locations in film and TV
- Secret organizations in film and tv
- Roles that made an actor
- Roles that broke an actor
- Same film over and over
- Characters inspired by historical figures
- Titles held by multiple characters
- Most abstract Royal Rumble entrances
- I never knew they were in that
- Acronymed agencies in comics
- Sith Lords and/or dark Force-users (Canon or Legends)
Author Profile
- Steve Sellers had been a fan of superheroes ever since Superman: The Movie. But it took the JSA, the Legion of Super-Heroes, Dragonlance, Lord of the Rings, Twilight Zone, and Chris Claremont's legendary run on the X-Men to make him a writer and a longtime fan of comics, fantasy, and science fiction. Steve is the co-creator of WHITE DRUID & MICHAEL NERO and GUARDIANS OF ELAYIM for Omen Comics, and he is also the creator of BLITZ and SHOCKWAVE for Revelation Comics (an imprint of Omen Comics).
