a superhuman ability, esp. as possessed by a superhero; an ability beyond what is possible based on scientific laws
It is not clear in quot. 1928 whether the ‘super powers’ referred to include ‘telepathy’, or merely indicates great abilities.
It savoured of Telepathy as, with uncanny accuracy, the ball travelled from player to player, and was shot unfailing between or in close proximity to the opposite posts. One felt sympathy with the undoubtedly fine work of the Dublin men, which went for naught in the face of the agile white clad Kildare men who seemed possessed of super powers.]
‘SUPER POWERS OF YOGI CONCENTRATION AND TELEPATHY.’ Most marvelous demonstration of Mental Telepathy and other miraculous demonstrations, by Yogi Hamid Bey.
SUPERMAN…I thought you had dedicated your super powers to battling the Axis?
‘Look, it’s normal for a mother to want to hug her baby. But how can she do that if she expects him to throw her halfway across the room?’ Calderon was brooding. ‘Will he pick up more…more super powers as he goes along?’ [ellipsis in original]
I heard what you were talkin' about, and I, the mighty Supersnipe - will use all my super-powers to stop you!
Superman, mighty man of steel whose super-powers have conquered catastrophes and wrecked wrong-doers!
But don’t cheer too soon for the boy of steel, until you see what happens when he competes with three youngsters who have gained super-powers of their own!
Wow! Look at those three super-youths from the future, with only one super-power each, overpowering that rampaging monster!
Miss Victory was in reality a Washington D.C., secretary. She, too, fought subversion at home and, not having any super powers, had to depend on a second-hand convertible for transportation.
The story’s premises are not true: there are no Martians of the sort Heinlein writes of, and no super powers are available to those who think proper Martian thoughts.
All known forms of kryptonian life have super-powers.
Players familiar with role-playing games will find most systems employed in these rules to be familiar. Due to the large number of super-powers and weapons they will find parts of the combat system unfamiliar.
If a character has a super-power which raises any of his characteristics to a score of twenty or over, no amount of additional training will raise the rating in that category any further.
Freeform Shapechange, characters with this type of Shapechange can transform into any living creature that is approximately the size and shape of a human being. They do not gain any special characteristics or advantages from the change but keep their own normal Attributes (ie those of the original non-superpowered Basic Character), senses, Movement, attacks, etc., and retain no Superpower other than Shapechange, no matter what or who they change into.
Comic sf novel about an editor who develops superpowers after exposure to radioactive water.
Now the man looked really mad. ‘What the hell? Are you making fun of me?’ I wasn’t. I was just using my superpower.
So weird to think that a lot of people have superpowers all the time and don’t even know it.
antedating 1943
(There were no citations in OED2 for the SF sense, but OED3 added this sense in its 2012 update with the 1945 quot.)
Last modified 2021-04-09 11:18:56
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