Yeah, and the university whose got the guy who can translate anything, including all scraps of unknown languages, flawlessly, gets some major fame. This is the guy who can go out and read languages you’ve never heard of. He can probably interpret cave paintings - and thinkg of the boon to criminal justice (the aforementioned body language)!
Besides, if you want a degree, you can easily pass any and all language courses.
That’ll do you fine for the bachelor’s, but for a doctorate in linguistics, you’d have to make “an original contribution to human knowledge.” I’m not sure Doug’s powers will allow him to do that any easier than the next schmo.
On the other hand, I’m not sure why Doug & Forge’s entirely intellectual abilities count as super-powers, but Reed Richard’s, Tony Stark’s, and Victor Von Doom’s do not.
What, like NASCAR? That’s worse than useless, it’s tacky.
Because what Forge and Ramsey do is intuitive, not intellectual. Richard or Doom have to figure out how to build their uber-gizmos, and the principles underlying them. Forge doesn’t; he just “knows” how to do it. Or at least that’s how the explanation went in those old Marvel Universe comics.
Circle ninety degrees?
Who wouldn’t like to be Bouncing Boy? What a great party trick.
Plateau Eyes (Niven/Known Space). You could probably make money off it, but with the members of the opposite sex that you could attract, why bother? 
Right, wouldn’t it be a Cassandra-like curse if you could only understand the content of the message, without being able to actually deconstruct the language? Because if you can’t break it down and give someone a grammar and vocabulary then how could you convince anyone else that this bit of Linear A really means what you think it does?
You know, in the X-men universe there should be all kinds of mutants who don’t get something cool or useful. Something like a guy, who looks entirely normal, but sweats olive brine and has can’t see the color red. Really for every guy who gets an admantium skeleton and claws there should be a person with something equally uninteresting. The world is not full of winners.
I had a conversation this weekend about swimming in the sea off Sellafield, Britain’s biggest power station. “You’d grown another head!” said one friend. “Or get bitten by a radioactive prawn!” said another “…and gain superpowers!” said a third.
I then speculated that Prawnman would, at the first sign of danger, douse himself in a lime and coriander marinade, and leap onto a grill. I think that qualifies as mostly-useless, doesn’t it - though it could be used to distract a super-villain or large monster, if they happened to be hungry at the time.
I recall a mutant like that I one X-Man comic; he could only see in the infrared ( or was it ultraviolet ), was blind in the normal spectrum, and had to wear special glasses outside to avoid blindness.
But even that could be spun up to be useful (like seeing bad guys in the dark. You could call him Recon Man or some such). I’m thinking about something more along the lines of a person with say prehensile hair, but it’s not really strong or anything. He’d just be “Perfectly Coiffed Man” or something that’s really just not all that useful.
Here’s the Legion of Substitute Heores- all of whom aren’t quite up to full SH prowress.
Of these, I’d have to say that "Chlorophyll Kid, … has the power to make plants grow super fast. " could be very usefull, and you could make a nice spot of change doing it, but hardly “super”. I’d go for it.
I’d like to be able to temporarily sprout foot-long, glowing stalks from my skin for night-time bicycling. Turning broadleaf weeds into small, hungry toads would be entertaining.
It would be nice to turn a car stereo into a porcupine from a distance.