Pick a comic character with super powers. List their abilities and examine exactly how useful they would really be. If the character’s powers have changed over the years, pick a period and stick with it. (I recommend against Silver Age Superman and other characters who had whatever power the writers wanted them to have at that point). Compare the characters MO with what would happen in real life
I will start with my favorite: Spider-Man (eighties and nineties version, so no bio stingers or organic web shooters).
Strength, speed, and agility proportional to a spider: While kind of vague, this just means he is very strong, fast and agile. This a very generic power set and would be helpful and useful in any physical confrontation as well as most major sports and life in general.
Ability to cling to most objects and surfaces via static electricity: Not all that useful. He could climb up some walls, but usually you would just pull off the dirt, dust, or paint. he could catch anything thrown at him and nothing should ever fall out of your hands.
Precognition limited to a few seconds or large dangers: This is probably his best asset. He could dodge just a someone was pulling the trigger and walk across a mine field without setting anything off. You should not be able to successfully ambush him, although he may only figure it the specifics a few seconds before it happens.
Mechanical web spinners: Good non-lethal weapon for capturing bad guys, useless for transportation. Even in a city full of sky scrapers like New York there are not enough surfaces that could with stand the dynamic force of 180lbs swinging at thirty mph or more.
Conclusion: He can win a fist fight and has the abilities to subdue normal humans at a distance and would be hard to kill with the type of weapon easy for most common criminals to obtain. He would make a good street level vigilante, but he would need a vehicle to be more than a single neighborhood Spider-Man and would have a hard time escaping a concerted effort of the police to catch him.
Feel free to disagree with my critique as well as create your own.
Actually I disagree. It seems obvious that his “cling field” has a range, if a short one. Otherwise, his gloves would block it. So he can cling to a painted wall, and not yank off the paint - his cling effect penetrates to the underlying material.
Some other tricks he should be able to pull :
Unremovable mask : If he’s conscious, he should be able to make just yanking his mask off impossible; you’d have to scrape it off.
( when combined with his reflexes and spider sense ) : He should be able to disarm people with blades just by slapping the flat and yanking - the stickiness would prevent turning the blade to cut, and the necessity of actually grasping it.
Suffocation grip : He should be able to slap a grip over someone’s mouth and nose that not only provides an airtight seal, but one that the victim can’t remove without ripping his own face off.
Not a minefield, since I don’t think anybody can dodge a mine once he’s set it off. An ambush could be successful, if it were set up right; that is, there have been several times when his spider sense has been fooled or dulled.
I thought about this and it improves things, but not as much as you might think. He could climb up a stone or solid brick wall, but sheet rock would be right out. As would a lot of decorative stuff. The surface would still need to be able to hold up his weight. So, he could climb up walls better than a normal person, but not like he does in the comics where he sits on the walls while talking to people.
I agree with the other parts, his grabbing skills in general would be excellent.
Why not a mine field? he should be able to tell when he was about to put his foot on a mine. I agree he could be ambushed but it would take an elaborate setup and coordination.