Anti Mary-Sue Character Guide

9.2 - Powers/Abilities

A lot of stories have characters with powers. These can be magic, enhanced, genetic (like x-men) or something more original.

I am a huge Marvel fan and so I also really enjoy stories with enhanced characters. But quite a lot of the time with books on wattpad, I end up just cringing.

There was a character on geeking that specifically stood out to me and I just had to point out how ridiculous said character was. The female character had two metal, powerful limbs like the winter solider. She also happened to be genetically enhanced like Captain America and could weld Thors hammer. For some bazaar reason she also had the power to manipulate water and was Tony Stark's sister. I am not making this up.

In my opinion, anyone with more than one power is over powered unless they have a a fault to balance this up. If, for example, they have a lot of magic ability but are unable to physically fight, I can understand that one. But on average, chose 1 power or enhancement for your character. You could chose to balance out your powers in another way as @disneyandmarvel55 said in the comments. You could balance it using a con of the power rather than a physical fault e.g. An 'evil' side, hard to control, pretty much useless.

Also, just a rule, you can't have the gadgets and the powers. Characters should have one or the other, not both.

I'm sure you readers have plenty more you'd like to add to this.