When boys with super powers check each other out …
Had the same thought.
Mind Reading sounds wonderful. A tremendous boost to social skills since you know what everyone is thinking. If it works like vision (where you have to “point your eyes” somewhere and can close them) that’s great. If it works like ears (360 degree surround sound and you can’t turn them off) then that would suck…
Superstrength has its own problems. If you have superhuman strength and try to lift something hollow much larger than you (like a building), you might punch a hole through it as it applies its entire mass on one small part of you (your hands). You might end up driven through the ground, if neither you nor the object break, if the ground is not strong enough to support the object.
Shapeshifting… what happened to your phone? Your clothes? Your keys?
There’s a superhero story (“Origin Story”, by Dwight R. Decker) in which someone is offered powers derived from Native American symbology; the fellow handing down the powers has been out of circulation for some time, and can’t understand why no one wants to wear the costume with the fylfot symbol
A kind of icky drawback to the power of flight that should occur to anyone who’s ever taken a road trip, then inspected the front of the car: The bugs in your teeth problem.
I’ve learned my lesson: Never cross paths with a superhero/comix fan.
Not really a problem unless you’re flying within about 20 feet off the ground. It’d be a real problem for Flash though.
I’ve been wondering how fast Flash could actually go if he was living in the real world instead of the comic book world. At some point, and I think it would be well before the wind rips his spandex off, he should be lifting off the ground so much that he couldn’t go any faster. He needs a spoiler to keep his feet on the ground.
Boys being boys, but the 1950s being the 1950s, they’re both drawn looking at the wrong person.
As the olde saying goes:
Q: how can you tell a happy motorcyclist?
A: By the bugs in their teeth!
Lots less true since full-face helmets were invented in the 1970s.
Actually, doesn’t that seem to happen a lot less often than it used to?
Well, OK.
Feet on the ground.
i don’t see how that could help but whatever.
In one of the X man movies, quicksilver is helping Magneto move at supersonic speed. Quicksilver is fine, but Magneto is very disoriented because of it.
So if you had super speed but your inner ear ended up splashing fluid all over because of it that would ruin the superpower. You could run at super speeds then end up vomiting and too dizzy to stand up.
Iron man suit but because of inertia you slam against the interior of the suit anytime you rapidly decelerate.
Invisibility but kind of like in the Chevy Chase movie your food, urine and feces are observable (they just did food though).
I used to fly open cockpit.
Once landed and everyone was freaking out. Turns out I was bleeding and, it being a small wound on my forehead, like all head owies it was leaking pretty freely. I hadn’t noticed because it’s cold up there and my face was a bit numb. Judging from what was left, it was a dragonfly. After that, I started wearing a faceshield on the helmet.
So: it’s cold, even aside from the windchill factor
Even small things can cause injury if you hit them fast enough.
And, oh yes - there’s other stuff up there: bugs, birds, aircraft. Clouds might not have silver linings but some are full of aluminum.
Air traffic control over Metropolis probably swears a blue streak when Supes is out and about.
Low down there are obstacles - not just easily seen things like trees and buildings but powerlines and support wires on things like radio towers. You really don’t want to hit one of those at speed.
I’d still consider taking the flight superpower, but given I’m a pilot I might have a greater chance of surviving it without severe injury or death since I have some notion of the hazards that aren’t obvious to the usual person walking around.
I hit the probably-a-dragonfly at around 1200 feet. Bugs can fly surprisingly high, higher than that.
If you fly high enough to avoid 99.99% of bugs you’ll then have to worry about small Cessnas and Pipers. And now drones.
It would be worth it for the commuting alone. Strap on a helmet, a snug wind proof jacket, and I’m cutting an hour and a half of bumper to bumper traffic into a quick 10 minute flight, without going faster than 70-80 mph.
There was an episode of Star Trek TNG that featured a telepathic alien who lacked the ability to block out the thoughts of other creatures. He got along great with Commander Data (who lacked a meat-based brain), but was generally irritable around everyone else.
He later became Mayor of Sunnydale.
Shrinking, but you suffocate because the oxygen molecules are too big for your lungs (or die of hypothermia because you are too small to maintain your body temperature)
Teleportation that fuses you with solid objects if you are even slightly off, or with the air if you aren’t.
Precognition that leaves you nihilistic because the future is fixed and immutable, or is useless because the butterfly effect means it’s constantly changing and unpredictable.
Super intelligence that means you can’t relate to anyone. Super intelligence focused on art and literature, instead of science and engineering.
Once while riding jumpseat in a Boeing we took a bird in the windshield. At 32,000 ft. It left blood and feathers, so we’re sure it was a bird, albeit a small one on the order of a sparrow.
What the hell a small bird was doing at 32,000 over the central US is an utter mystery. There weren’t any thunderstorms nearby that could have lofted its carcass that far up. Generally birds are real rare much about 5000 AGL and only really common below about 1000 AGL.
No mystery. He was getting hit by a Boeing. 
Which reminds me of one of my favorite scenes from The Boys. Laser Baby!
There’s a female character in the Top Ten comic who has (changeable) dermal coloring. Everyone thinks she’s wearing a costume. But she’s not.
Sorta like those airbrushed “clothes” you see pictures of models “wearing” at various festivals and such.
Even if humans could fly, we probably wouldn’t do it, or we’d complain about it. My friend pointed out that even though most of us can walk we avoid it whenever possible, often driving or waiting 20 minutes for a bus just to avoid doing it. What makes us think we would actually fly if we could, especially if it took physical effort? “Studies show flying just 30 minutes a day reduces your risk of heart disease by 20%”…see, it’s taking the fun out of it already.