The most famous of these useless tics is Superman’s need to duck a gun thrown at him right after sticking his chest out to catch all the bullets. Another that bothered me as a child was the need for the Bionic woman to tuck her hair out of the way before she could hear something two miles away. Hair being the most effective sound absorber ever.
Any other unnecessary Super mannerisms bother you?
Superman ducked once, during the first season. They realized this was a mistake and never repeated it. Once can’t be a “tic.”
The true useless ones are the slogans and mottos and oaths. Saying “up, up, and away” made sense for the Superman radio show, because the listener needed a cue. It shouldn’t be used in any other medium. Green Lantern’s oath seemed silly to me even when I was kid. Ben Grimm saying “it’s clobberin’ time” was only funny the first hundred repetitions.
Still, “Avengers Assemble” sounds a lot cooler than “Staff meeting in conference room B.”
Elongated Man’s “nose twitch” – in both a literal sand figurative sense, the most useless Superhero “tic”. Whenever Ralph Dibny got suspicious, his nose would twitch more than Samantha Stevens’ – something I found ridiculous and annoying. They’ve tried to explain it away in recent years as a put-on, but in the old 1960s comics, it’s clearly an involuntary reaction.
It’s a good thing Ralph didn’t have a Secret Identity, because this one would give it away every time.
Awesome. I thank you.
The Tick yells “Spoon”, which I guess is the superheroes’ useless tic of a useless superhero Tick.
“Shape of - a bucket of water!”
The Tick is not useless. You take that back!
Why exactly did (movie) Wolverine crack his neck before a confrontation? He’d get that steely glare and turn his head, crk-crk-crk. To look badass, I guess.
But I’ve seen other toughguy protagonists do it, too.
“Flame on!” is the one I always thought was the worst. Johnny Storm is already using his powers to engulf his entire body in flames and fly around; I don’t think he needed a catchphrase to make the situation more dramatic…
One thing that always bothered me about the Dean Cain version of Superman, every time he used his see-through vision, he had to lower his glasses and look over the top of them. Why? he can see through a solid wall, but not through something that’s already transparent?
They tried “It’s flamerin’ time!” before realizing that didn’t really work.
Myabe the idea was it would melt them being so close. But no real idea.
Insofar as I managed to tolerate the FF at all, I found it helpful to think of this as a warning he yells before powering up. “I’m about to burst into flames, here, friendlies back off.”
Yeah, I know that wasn’t how it was intended. Let me have my coping mechanisms, okay?
I keep reading the thread title as “useless tits”.
Because Liefeld scarred you for life?
I’m going with Jocasta on that one.
Hmm, adamantium boobs…That’s definitely bangs for your bucks.
“Flame on / I’m gone / I’m so sweet like a nice bon bon”
– Beastie Boys
Well played, good sir.