Member-only story

What Are the Most Realistic Super Powers?

Rhett Allain
4 min readMar 24, 2021

--

Photo: Rhett Allain

You’ve already had this conversation 1000 times. I know. It happens when you are sitting around with your friends and debating about a battle between Darth Vader and Spider-Man. Don’t worry, we all do this. It’s what makes science fiction and fantasy so much fun.

So, here’s the question. Which superheroes have the most realistic powers? Yes, there are many that are just complete fantasy (but that doesn’t make them less fun). Magic users and shape shifters are pretty difficult to explain with science — maybe that’s why they are so cool. However, some stuff can have a scientific explanation.

Here are the ones I consider the most realistic.

Pure Fighters (Hawk Eye, Shang-Chi, Power Fist — except for the power fist, Kick Ass, Moon Knight)

Illustration: Rhett Allain

I mean, there’s really not much to explain here. There are a bunch of superheroes that are either ACTUAL NORMAL HUMANS or slightly modified. Heck, you could even include Batman in this group. They just fight like very skilled humans.

The fun thing here is to argue about heroes like Captain America. Is he just the best a human can be or is he something more? Does Moon Knight…

--

--

Rhett Allain
Rhett Allain

Written by Rhett Allain

Physics faculty, science blogger of all things geek. Technical Consultant for CBS MacGyver and MythBusters. WIRED blogger.

No responses yet