10 Awesome Superheroes Without Superpowers

1) The Watchmen (Except Doctor Manhattan)

When deconstructing the superhero genre in 1986’s Watchmen, often called the greatest graphic novel ever written, Alan Moore created some of the most interesting non-powered superheroes in the process. Even if they were heavily based on similar characters from Charlton Comics e.g. The Question (who nearly made it on this list himself).

Obviously one of the central characters, nuclear-powered Doctor Manhattan, does have superpowers – that’s putting it very lightly for someone who’s basically a god. Apart from him, though, the rest of the Crime Busters – they’re only called the Watchmen in the book’s title – are regular joes in costume, just trying to make a difference. Namely, they’re the violent vigilante Rorschach, legacy hero Silk Spectre II, gadget-laden Batman-type Nite Owl and not-so dearly departed gun-for-hire The Comedian.

Some might be murderers or totally out of their minds, but all of the team have their psychological hang-ups and personality issues. If any comic book served as a tale about how the life of a superhero is not all it’s cracked up to be, Watchmen is it. Basically, it’s best to leave the superhero’ing to the real superheroes.