superpowerless

English

Etymology

From superpower +‎ -less or super- +‎ powerless.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Adjective

superpowerless (comparative more superpowerless, superlative most superpowerless)

1. In fiction, lacking a superpower; lacking the special attributes of a superhero or supervillain.
   • 2008, Shane Berryhill, Chance Fortune and the Outlaws:

     The idea of a practically unarmed, unshielded, and superpowerless human boy defeating what was probably the mightiest warrior of the day without any external aid is absolutely absurd.

   • 2001, William Bernhardt, Silent Justice, page 43:

     The 1969 dispenser was of the short-lived superpowerless karate-chopping Wonder Woman written by the legendary Dennis O'Neil.

2. Extremely powerless.
   • 2003, Henry Bayman, The Secret of Islam: Love and Law in the Religion of Ethics, page lvi:

     Though nihilism may not be invincible, superpowers are superpowerless against it.

   • 2002, Glenn Kenny, A Galaxy Not So Far Away: Writers and Artists on Twenty-Five Years of Star Wars, page 40:

     If Boba Fett serves as a lightning rod for anything more significant than admiration of his arresting costume and four gritty lines of dialogue, perhaps it is as the embodiment of our third-wave, superpowerless anxiety, which long predates the events of September 11, 2001.

   • 1984, George Thomas Kurian, The New Book of World Rankings, page xviii:

     Yet the balance of power (or terror) is so evenly matched that the superpowers are superpowerless to use their awesome might in any situation short of an actual enemy attack.