r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Unable-Buyer4087 • 9h ago

Characters "Weak" character goes to a much lower stakes environment, becomes super powered by comparison

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Yamcha - Dragon Ball Super

In dragon ball, Yamcha has it pretty rough. He hasn't won a fight since OG dragon ball, and was outclassed almost as soon as he was introduced. By the buu saga, yamcha had all but given up on being one of the Z-fighters and tried playing baseball instead. But here's the thing: Yamcha still has basically superhuman strength, he just so happens to surround himself with people vastly stronger than him. He uses his martial arts skills and ki control to become a rich and famous baseball star.

Shocker - Spiderman / Ms Marvel

Shocker has become an absolute joke in Spider-Man and tired of being constantly beaten down by the many, MANY superheroes in Nyc, he decided to move to new jersey as it only has one superhero defending it. The inexperienced teenager, Ms Marvel. Due to the fact that shocker actually has quite a good power and literal decades of fighting experience, he actually puts up a very good fight and the only reason he doesn't win is because Ms Marvel is teleported away.

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u/CreepyClay 7h ago

Normal physically. No healthy mind kills a relatively harmless supervillain because the other supervillains like him so he can poison them all when they come to his funeral.

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u/nameless980 6h ago

Ehhhh calling the mind of any combat personel "healthy" is a bit of a stretch.... there's a few reasons I'm a huge proponent for changing the way america treats our veterans and one of them is that we don't re-socialize them to be able to function in civilian society so they're frequently still half amped up on aggression and adrenaline in a way that it takes years and usually lots of therapy to bring down to more conventional levels, if it ever happens.

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u/CreepyClay 6h ago

Yeah but even castle himself liked stilt man.

There's not having access to proper care and then there's no therapist in the world fixing that.

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u/nameless980 6h ago

Okay, fair enough. I've only heard of that storyline once before and didn't know that detail.

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u/CreepyClay 6h ago

Iirc at the end of the comic he thanks stiltman for his unwilling sacrifice.