The Namor/Aquaman fight wasn’t the result of reader voting. Only the top five fights were decided that way. I assume Aquaman won his fight because the miniseries was written by Peter David, who had recently revamped Aquaman and was writing his book at the time.
Anyhoo, Namor is a lot stronger than Aquaman (in the Marvel vs. DC fight, Namor punches Aquaman straight out of the ocean). He can fight the Hulk to a standstill.
But Aquaman’s powers aren’t anything to sneeze at. He’s typically written to have roughly Spider-Man-level super strength along with super durability, so that alone makes him formidable.
Well… if the teenage girl has no qualms about suicide missions or self-injury, that could be kinda inconvenient. I don’t know if that was the case. I’m sure they could run up your phone bill.
Well, the point of the three of them - and most of the other rejects* - is that their powers sucked. And Infectious Lass’s power would be truly awesome…if only she was able to control it.
The Legion, actually, has a rather undeserved reputation for members with lousy powers.
Take Matter-Eater Lad, mentioned upthread.
He can literally eat anything (short, possibly, of Inertron) in the universe (or beyond). That entails a complete immunity to toxins, either jaws and teeth strong enough to bite through even the hardest substance, and either the ability to dislocate his jaw, so that he can fit it in his mouth, or some sort of energy field that removes the need to physically bite through it. He’s also evidenced the ability to eat several times his own mass.
Bouncing Boy and Triplicate Girl’s powers are fairly unimpressive (though Luornu’s trained in a martial art called Tri Jitsu, which allows her to use them to her advantage), but Chuck’s have always been presented as a bit absurd, though he makes them useful (and his origin presents a side effect never used elsewhere - an immunity to electricity due to his rubberized skin).
The rejects that didn’t have sucky (or dangerously limited**) powers were typically evil, frauds or crazy, though there’s one case - Kid Psycho - whose powers were harmful to him, and a couple whose powers were pretty typical superhero powers, but they were disqualified for one ridiculous reason or another (Polar Boy and Fire Lad were rejected for a potential lack of control that neither of them actually exhibited during their try out, for instance).
** Night Girl, for instance, whose powers only functioned in darkness and applied before Shadow Lass was a member, and thus could become useful if paired with her.
The original Dial H for Hero was generally a somewhat whimsical comic. It had a wind up some time ago that was as dark and grisly as any comic in recent memory.
Only Spidey level? Are you sure? Spider-Man’s a relative lightweight in the strength department. He’s only Class 10, which means he can lift about ten tons under optimal conditions. Namor, by comparison is Class 100+, which puts him up there with Hulk, Thing, Thor, Juggernaut, and Colossus, which are the super-heavyweights of the Marvel Universe.
That quote was about Aquaman, the point being that, while Namor is significantly stronger, Orin is far from a lightweight.
That too. (Also, when I mentioned immunity to toxins, I meant only ingested toxins…inhaled or injected can still get him - as can certain exotic energies, as evidenced by when he ate the Miracle Machine.)
Yes, I know it was about Aquaman. I was asking for clarification on his strength level as I assumed he’d be quite a bit stronger than someone like Spider-Man.