Random Comic Book Characters With Powers That Make Them Hurt Themselves (14 items)

• 

  (#7) Negative Man

  Being a test pilot is already an incredibly dangerous job, with suffocation, incineration or explosion always a possibility, but test pilots in comic books also have to worry that an accident might just give them superpowers. Hal Jordan may have lucked out when he was plucked from his jet and chosen to be a Green Lantern, but his colleague, Larry Trainer, was not so fortunate. After Larry's experimental X-19 suborbital jet was sabotaged during a test flight and stuck in a radiation field in the upper stratosphere, his body was permanently altered by the bombardment of cosmic radiation and he developed superpowers.

  Unlike Hal, whose superpowers came at no cost to his looks or health, Larry's powers left him horribly scarred from head to toe. His body is so radioactive that his glowing skin is translucent and he has to cover himself in special bandages to protect those around him. Larry is nearly unstoppable when he projects his consciousness into a black radioactive entity that erupts from within his body - he can fly, absorb and project energy, and become intangible. However, if he remains in this "Negative Man" form for more than one minute, he goes into a coma from which he will never awaken.
• 

  (#10) Clayface III Must Melt Hapless Victims To Alleviate His Pain

  Preston Payne is the third person to go by the name "Clayface" in the DC Universe, and he is easily the most tragic of the bunch. Born with a rare pituitary disorder called hypopituitarism, Payne was left disfigured by a lack of growth-regulating hormones which made him the target of ridicule throughout his early life. Finding no solution in modern medicine, with even cosmetic surgery unable to alter his appearance, Payne tried a desperate gambit: he injected himself with a syringe filled with blood from supervillain Matt Hagen, the original Clayface, hoping Hagen's shape-changing powers would transfer to him.

  Initially, the experiment was a success, and Payne found himself able to remold his face and body into a more desirable appearance. The effects of the change were short-lived, however, and Payne soon broke out in a fever so intense that his features literally began to melt away into unstable protoplasm, causing excruciating pain. He created a suit to contain his gelatinous body and the viral nature of his condition, but it's only a stopgap. If Payne doesn't doesn't transmit his virus to others on a regular basis - a process that turns them into a bubbling pool of protoplasm - his fever returns along with terrible migraines and intense pain.
• 

  (#6) Raven

  The quintessential gloomy "Goth Girl" long before the term even existed, Raven is a teen superhero filled with enough angst and guilt to make Batman blush. Raven's powers, like her moody disposition, stem from the fact that her father is a towering other-dimensional demon lord named Trigon. Taking refuge on Earth, Raven attempted to hide from her father, but he eventually found her and attempted to take control of her. To stop him, Raven helped form the New Teen Titans; together, they defeated Trigon, sealing him in an inter-dimensional prison. Time and again, Trigon escapes and attempts to corrupt his daughter into becoming one of his Seven Deadly Sins, but Raven always manages to stop his incursions and prevent herself from succumbing to the Dark Side and ending the world.

  Raven is imbued with many powerful abilities stemming from her supernatural heritage, including flight, telekinesis, teleportation, and empathic healing. She can also astrally project a "Soul-Self," which typically takes her form or that of a gigantic raven but can take any shape she chooses. She can also tap into her Dark Side to access more power, but doing so puts her perilously close to Trigon's grasp.

  Raven's healing ability is one of her most useful abilities, but it's not without cost. Whenever she heals someone, their pain subsides, but only because she transfers it into her own body, where she is forced to experience it in their stead.
• 

  (#3) Wolverine

  • Marvel Comics Presents, The New Avengers

  Wolverine. Patch. Shrimp. Logan. Whatever you call him, James Howlett is one of the toughest comic book characters in any universe. Born in the 1880s, young James was plagued with allergies and bouts of sickness until the day his X-gene triggered and his mutant powers manifested, granting him heightened senses, retractable bone claws, and a regenerative healing factor that makes him extremely long-lived and capable of healing from nearly any injury: the infectious bite of a vampire or werewolf, the implantation of an alien embryo, the atomic fallout of a nuclear explosion, or being punched clear into another state. A forced experimental procedure conducted by the Weapon X Project made him tougher than ever when unbreakable adamantium was bonded to his bones and claws. 

  As tough as his body is, however, Wolverine's mind has to be even tougher to withstand the constant agony his adventures put him through. His healing factor regenerates his body, but it does nothing to deaden the pain he feels when he is sliced, hacked, hammered, burned, crushed, and irradiated, or the burning and itching feeling of having his nerve endings and tissue grow back at an accelerated rate. Not only that, but his own best feature - his claws -- have to slice their way through the skin and ligaments of his knuckles every time he pops them to defend himself. He once explained to Jubilee that he pops them out "a few times a day" even when it's not needed, because it "keeps the channel open." When asked if the pain ever stops, Wolverine replied simply, "Nope."
• 

  (#8) Rogue

  With her super-strength and -durability and her ability to fly, Anna Marie LeBeau, AKA Rogue, can quickly scout out the enemy's numbers and position, and with her ability to read the minds and borrow the talents of anyone she has skin-to-skin contact with, she can easily ascertain their motives and intentions, then counter their powers by absorbing them directly. These abilities have made her an indispensable asset to the X-Men, Excalibur, Avengers Unity Division, and even the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.

  Rogue's abilities come with some pretty severe drawbacks, however. For most of her life, Rogue has felt alienated and alone, unable to touch another person without risking their life and her own. When her absorption powers first emerged, she put a boy in a coma and nearly cost his life with one little kiss. But as deadly as her powers can be to others, they can also exact a toll on her own mind and body. After a prolonged tussle with Ms. Marvel, Rogue permanently absorbed Carol Danvers' memories along with her powers. Unable to tell her own memories from Carol's, Rogue suffered severe psychological distress for years afterward. 

  Rogue's body also undergoes extreme physical distress when she absorbs the abilities of deformed mutants or non-human entities, causing pain and pushing her body to the brink. When she attempted to absorb intel from a proto-Phalanx soldier, her body took on the properties of the techno-organic virus and unraveled into what looked like a human-shaped bundle of spaghetti noodles. The trauma of the transformation nearly drove her insane, and she was only able to preserve her mind and body with the help of Bishop and his energy-absorption powers.
• 

  (#1) Marrow

  Anti-mutant bigotry is a big problem in the Marvel Universe. It's what prompted Professor X to form his School for Gifted Youngsters to educate young mutants and the X-Men to protect them. But even within the marginalized mutant community, there is a schism between those that can "pass" for human - those with internal powers that do not affect their outward appearance - and those whose bodies are altered by their X-gene. The latter rarely have normal lives; many are forced to flee humanity, taking refuge in places like the sewers beneath Manhattan, where Sarah, AKA Marrow, and the Morlocks once made their home.

  Born with pink skin and hair and a hyper-accelerated metabolism that causes unsightly protuberances to erupt from her bones, Sarah took refuge with the outcast Morlocks until they were massacred by the Marauders. Sarah was forced to become a deadly weapon to survive, using her unusual abilities in service to an extremist branch of mutants called the Gene Nation, before eventually joining the X-Men. The thick bone growths serve as armor, and she can break off the longer protrusions for use as spears, blades, or clubs. Her enhanced healing factor and twin hearts help to repair her skin after each rupture, but the fast-growing bones and dermal fissures keep her in constant pain - to say nothing of how much it must hurt to snap off the bones.

New Random Displays    Display All By Ranking