When it comes to the world of superheroes, more doesn’t always mean better. Just ask Spider-Man, a guy often considered a “street level” superhero who’s taken down everyone from the Juggernaut to cosmic beings like the Inheritors usually with fewer ill effects than a few bruises and being late everywhere he goes as Peter Parker. Indeed, there are plenty of heroes who don’t have any powers at all who have achieved some truly insane goals -- that’s why Batman always has people in his corner in every “versus” fight he’s ever been in both online and in real life.
For this list, we’ve collected 20 superheroes who’ve never let not actually being “super” get in the way of them becoming some of the most dangerous heroes in their respective universes. Whether they’ve wound up leading the Justice League or the Avengers, or taking down impossible cosmic threats, this list is full of OP superheroes. Though to be clear, not having superpowers only means they don’t have any “natural” abilities -- in other words, if you caught them without their costumes, they’d have just as many powers as us. So wearing armor or special accessories that grant you additional abilities count. On the other hand, it doesn’t matter whether they were born with powers or not, if they were given abilities that would still disqualify them from the list, so guys like Captain America or Luke Cage aren’t anywhere to be found here. Still, let’s take a look at some of the best “powerless” superheroes of all time.
20 THE PUNISHER
What holds most heroes back is a simple unwillingness to violate the sanctity of life. Comparatively, Frank Castle then has the ultimate power: if you’re the worst of the worst, he doesn’t care at all whether the bad guys live or don't.
So while he might not have the same level of training as many of the talented martial artists on this list, what he does have is an arsenal unlike anything Batman or his group have ever dreamed up, and an eagerness to use it on every felon on the streets. After all, once you get all the cosmic baddies out of the way, most villains just aren’t bulletproof.
19 WILDCAT
Eventually Ted Grant was given a set of powers through some contrived circumstances -- these powers essentially led to him having “nine lives”, same as a cat. But those lives were lost almost as soon as they were introduced, and now he’s about as normal as everyone else. Well, normal except for being one of the greatest boxers the world has ever seen.
He’s so good that even Bruce went to train under him so he could learn the “sweet science” and add its abilities to his repertoire. As for Ted himself, you’ve got to have a ton of confidence in your boxing ability when the only ability you have in costume is to knock someone out.
18 ADAM STRANGE
Adam Strange was once a simple scientist when he found himself teleported to the alien world of Rann by accident. What Adam would eventually find was that the planet was in need of a champion, and while he had no experience as anything other than a scientist, Adam would take on the challenge.
While Earth has thousands of heroes fighting for it, Adam stands as one of the only defenders of Rann, and the planet is still just as safe as when they found him. Not bad for a guy who can’t fight and uses only his intellect, a jetpack, and his trusty raygun.
17 BLUE BEETLE (TED KORD)
Admittedly, most versions of the Blue Beetle identity have had superpowers, except for Ted Kord, who could never get Dan Garrett’s mystical scarab to work for him. Still, he didn’t let that stop him from stepping onto the scene as the Blue Beetle of the '80s and '90s.
Though they play his tenure there as a joke now, at the time Ted was a premiere member of the Justice League where he’d deal with everything from intercontinental disputes between countries to alien invasions. While he didn’t have powers, he did have a keen scientific mind and more inventions than Batman has toys in his utility belt.
16 GREEN ARROW (OLIVER QUEEN)
When playboy Oliver Queen crash-landed on a deserted island, most people probably didn’t assume he would resurface as a costumed crimefighter. Yet that’s exactly what happened, and he managed to start putting his incredible resources as a billionaire to use by fighting for the common man.
Most recently, Green Arrow managed to shut down an entire prison break all on his own, including beating one of Superman’s most dangerous villains, the Parasite. After getting hopped up on other prisoners’ abilities, Ollie was still able to bring him down and take him back to jail.
15 HAWKEYE
It’s insane to think about, but Hawkeye really is a normal guy who hangs with Earth’s Mightiest Heroes only through his sheer skill with a bow. Clint Barton started off as a member of the circus after running away from an abusive father, and there he’d learn an almost innate talent for archery.
Though he started off as a villain, he was quickly brought over to the side of the angels, and since then has spent more time as an Avenger than nearly anyone else. At least he has an array of trick arrows on top of his usual collection, which often tend to give him an unexpected edge over his opponents.
14 THE QUESTION
Vic Sage started as a simple investigative journalist, until he wanted to take down a corrupt doctor, and started using a special artificial skin known as Pseudoderm to conceal his identity. Afterwards he began operating in Hub City, a place so corrupt it makes Gotham look like a paradise.
While Vic never possessed the finances of a Batman, he did receive the best of training under Richard Dragon, one of the best martial artists in the DC Universe. He also easily has one of the best investigative minds on Earth, though that can occasionally push him into believing some rather absurd conspiracy theories.
13 BOOSTER GOLD
Michael Jon Carter started out as a football player in the 25th century until he lost his career after it was discovered he was placing bets on his own games. Afterwards, he spent some time in a museum full of hero artifacts and that eventually led to him stealing a bunch of them to become a superhero.
His suit is capable of generating a powerful force field and firing energy beams, which are a pretty good basis for being a superhero. And since the 2006 maxi-series 52, he’s only become more dangerous as “The Greatest Hero You’ve Never Heard Of”, traveling across time and dealing with anomalies to keep the present and the future from breaking down.
12 HUNTRESS
Huntress has a few different origins that tend to be different from one another. But currently, she’s Helena Bertinelli, the former head of SPYRAL, an organization with technology so advanced it makes S.H.I.E.L.D.’s stuff look like it came out of a crackerjack box.
After she eventually quit the position, she takes on the identity of Huntress to track down the people responsible for taking away her monther, and even becomes a member of the Birds of Prey. As ex-leader of SPYRAL, Huntress retains all her old connections to the spy world, as well as has extensive training in both martial arts and spycraft.
11 BLACK WIDOW
Ages ago, Natasha Romanov was said to have some kind of alternate version of the Super Soldier serum in her body that gave her longevity, which is why she was able to work during the early days of the Cold War and still look like a super model 20 and 30 years later. But that doesn’t seem to be canon anymore, and even if it were it certainly doesn’t count as a “power”.
Instead what Natasha has is training from one of the best spy organizations in the world, making her one of the best martial artists in her world and the ever-dangerous “Widow’s Sting”, in which she can fire thousands of volts of electricity from her wrist gauntlets.
10 NIGHTWING
Though people don’t think about it, in many ways Dick Grayson is very much like the perfected version of Batman. He’s more emotionally well-balanced than Bruce thanks to having someone around who understood what he was going through, and losing his parents at a slightly more developed age.
Then at the same time, while Bruce had to pull together all these disparate elements to figure out exactly who he wanted to be, Dick simply got the training to do the job after it had already been distilled down to its essence. He’s also got more experience than any other person inspired by Batman on the list, having become Robin shortly after Bruce began his time as Bats.
9 MOCKINGBIRD
This is a slight cheat since Bobbi Morse as she is now has some measure of powers with super strength and advanced healing, but she spent the vast majority of her time as a vigilante as a regular person. Well, as much as a woman who graduated at the top of her class in S.H.I.E.L.D., is a master of both hand to hand and weapon combat can be regular, that is.
She started out as Agent 19 of S.H.I.E.L.D., but after meeting up with Clint Barton eventually became a founding member of the West Coast Avengers. Since her revival she’s leaned more towards her secret agent roots though, and appears to be one of the last remnants of S.H.I.E.L.D. carrying on their work.
8 RED ROBIN
Every version of Robin has always had some aspect to their character that made them a great candidate to be a Robin, and even a possible Batman. In Tim Drake’s case, it’s his massive intellect and deductive ability, which even Bruce has admitted rivals (and could one day pass) his own.
As one of the younger Robins, Tim got his start by figuring out Bruce and Dick’s identities based on studying tapes of the Flying Graysons. Since then, he’s received training from both Bruce Wayne and the legendary (and dangerous) Lady Shiva, and eventually honed his skills enough to go head to head in strategy with Ra’s Al Ghul… and even drag out a victory.
7 BATGIRL (BARBARA GORDON)
One of a dozen people inspired by the Bat to put on some spandex and start knocking heads in Gotham, Barbara Gordon started out as a well-meaning woman who simply wanted to do the right thing. But she honed her skills over several years, improving her martial arts ability and becoming just as much a threat as Dick Grayson or Tim Drake.
But more importantly than anything is Barbara’s incredible IQ and her eidetic memory, allowing her to remember anything she’s seen. The two combined lead to her becoming one of the key information centers for all heroes, with her computer skills gaining her a second legendary reputation as Oracle.
6 (GREEN ARROW) CONNOR HAWKE
Though we haven’t seen Connor during the post-Rebirth DC Universe, he more than qualifies for a spot on this list. The child of Oliver Queen and his old flame Sandra “Moonday” Hawke, Connor spent several years living in an ashram with a group of monks. Not long after Ollie passed away dealing with an eco-terrorist group, Connor took over the mantle of Green Arrow for several years.
Unlike his father, Connor was never known for cute trick arrows -- no boxing gloves, no handcuffs. Instead, he makes up for it by being a consummate martial artist, able to mimic any martial arts style he sees, and is easily one of the top ten fighters of the DC Universe.
5 CASSANDRA CAIN
Cassandra Cain just might be the most overpowered non-powered hero on this list. Initially she was trained by her father, the assassin David Cain, who refused to speak to her in the hopes that she would learn to interpret body language as her primary means of communication.
It worked, and that made her capable of reading her opponent’s moves before they could even make them. Combined with her knowledge of nearly every martial arts, she has skills to surpass even Batman himself, and has beaten the one person who’s ever consistently bested the Dark Knight -- her mother, Lady Shiva Woo-san.
4 BATMAN
There’s no way a list like this can ever be composed without having Batman on it. There are lists of OP heroes with powers that wouldn’t be wrong to include him. After suffering the most horrible tragedy one could imagine as a child, Bruce took his pain and turned it into a source of hope for millions, undergoing the harshest, most extensive training to turn himself into the Batman.
And with his limitless resources, he’s able to develop ways to shut down most powered heroes as well. He’s even defeated entire villainous super-teams the Justice League couldn’t handle on their own, purely through his detective abilities.
3 KARATE KID
For someone who doesn’t have any powers, Karate Kid is nevertheless a major part of the Legion of Super-Heroes. Val Armorr is a master of all martial arts styles created from the past and up into the 31st century. Though he’s definitely human, many of his feats would probably be described as superhuman.
During the Silver and Bronze Age it was required of the Legion’s new recruits to have a different superpower from everyone else on the team, and Val managed to earn a spot on the team with so-called “Super Karate”. It sounds absurd, until you realize he managed to fight evenly with Superboy himself!
2 GREEN LANTERN
It feels unfair, but if someone takes a Green Lantern’s ring off, or it runs out of power, then they’re just as powerless as anyone else on this list, so they absolutely qualify to be here. But with it on, a Green Lantern is easily one of the most dangerous people here, boasting the ability to create anything they want just with their creativity and willpower alone.
Although we’re a long way from the days where the ring was called the "Most Powerful Weapon in the Universe", the Green Lanterns have gone head to head with Kryptonians, armies of the dead, and beings made of solid anti-matter, and they tend to come out on top.
1 IRON MAN
This pushes the absolute limit of the characters deserving of being on this list, especially since for much of the '00s Tony Stark’s armor was something he could summon mentally. But since his body was completely rebooted the armor has again become just something he wears rather than being literally a part of him.
Still, Tony Stark’s ingenuity has created a suit of armor that places him on par with any of the heavy hitters in the Marvel Universe. What makes the armor so impressive is the sheer versatility of the suit -- he’s created custom versions that can fight the Hulk, Thor, or most recently even the Celestials! As a genius engineer, Stark is always looking for a way to solve the next big problem.