Even the most beloved superheroes of all time eventually have to grow up in comic book continuities, and with that adulthood comes marriage, age, and yes, eventually children. Some of these super-children turn out to be incredibly powerful and go on to earn the respect of comic book fans all on their own. Others, however, are perceived as desperate plot devices from publishers attempting to bring something new to franchises that have already exposed superheroes to every single possible situation they could ever encounter.

While it is weird to think that even the mightiest heroes could potentially be defeated or outlived by their own children, it has happened time and time again in comic books, and it has also started to happen in cinematic universes that found themselves having to keep up with the fact that their actors are aging.

Though it is strange to see characters who were previously perceived as invincible suddenly being outmatched by kids, it feels even stranger to follow a storyline in which a superhero has a child who is just not powerful, impressive, or noteworthy in any way.

This is 9 Superheroes Whose Children Are Way Stronger (And 6 Way Weaker).

STRONGER: CABLE (CYCLOPS)

Cable, whose actual name is Nathan Christopher Charles Summers, is the son of none other Scott Summers, aka Cyclops, a major member of the X-Men.

Despite being the child of a famously powerful superhero, Cable is by far much stronger than his father. Though Cyclops’ optic force blasts have defeated many villains over the years, Cable is a robotically enhanced mutant who is skilled in hand-to-hand combat and has also displayed abilities such as telekinesis and telepathy.

For the upcoming Deadpool 2, Cable has been described as a time-traveling cybernetic soldier whose values are opposite to Deadpool’s. However, Cable’s Summers lineage seems to have been ignored, despite the fact that the studio has the rights to the X-Men characters and could conceivably mention Cyclops as Cable’s father.

WEAKEST: LUNA MAXIMOFF (QUICKSILVER)

Luna Maximoff is the daughter of Quicksilver and Crystal, but despite her super-powered parents, she is somewhat of a worthless character when it comes to fighting crime.

Quicksilver was never able to live up to his sister, the Scarlet Witch, when it came to superpowers. However, he was incredibly important over time to the Avengers and to the X-men in several adversities that those teams had to face. Crystal, while much less recognizable than Quicksilver, was also a very powerful character who contributed to several storylines regarding the Fantastic Four and the Inhumans.

However, when it came to Quicksilver and Crystal’s daughter, things just weren’t the same. Luna Maximoff’s abilities include sensing feelings and having visions, and she was generally virtuously useless throughout the comic book storylines that she took part in.

STRONGER: JACK-JACK (THE INCREDIBLES)

For most of Pixar’s The Incredibles, Jack-Jack was treated as the only member of the Parr family who did not have any superpowers. Bob, aka Mr. Incredible, was really curious to discover what abilities his youngest son would develop over time, whereas Helen, otherwise known as Elastigirl, was in no rush.

By the end of the film, however, Jack-Jack’s powers became apparent to audiences (and his babysitter), but the Parr family was too busy fighting crime to realize it.

Jack-Jack’s abilities will be a central storyline in The Incredibles 2, and it is evident that he is able to overpower his entire family on any given day.

Jack-Jack is seemingly able to shapeshift, fly, teleport, shoot lasers, shrink, and even set himself on fire. Pixar might as well transfer the title of Mr. Incredible to the baby.

WEAKEST: AQUABABY (AQUAMAN)

Aquaman and Mera had a child named Arthur Curry Jr. who received the title of Aquababy. It was the 1960s, and things were different, okay?

Silly name aside, Aquababy did not inherit too many of his parents’ abilities, even though he came from a powerful lineage of heroes and was the rightful heir to the Atlantis throne.

For the most part, Arthur Curry Jr. was only seen swimming around and using the water-controlling abilities he inherited from Mera.

It did not take DC Comics too long to get rid of this ludicrous infant character with a ridiculous name. In 1977, Aquaman’s nemesis Black Manta took hold of Aquababy and ended him. Despite not being a loss to comic book fans, this tragedy led to the separation of Aquaman and Mera, who understandably had a rough time overcoming the loss of their Aquababy.

STRONGER: SCARLET WITCH (MAGNETO)

Because the Marvel Cinematic Universe had to operate in a world where the X-Men do not exist (at least not yet), many of the new Marvel fans may not have realized that Wanda, aka the Scarlet Witch, has actually been portrayed as Magneto’s daughter in certain comic book storylines.

It’s hard to argue against the fact that the Scarlet Witch is a much more powerful superhero than Magneto.

Sure, Magneto is usually depicted as an older figure who’s had years of training and experience, whereas the Scarlet Witch often appears as a young woman who is beginning to grasp the full range of her abilities. However, the Scarlet Witch is nearly always seen with an incredible amount of raw power. Even fans who are only familiar with her MCU version have figured out that the franchise has only begun to scratch the surface of her full potential.

WEAKEST: HUNTER PRINCE (WONDER WOMAN)

It’s not that Hunter Prince did not have any noteworthy powers, it’s just that fans expect a lot more from a character who is the biological son of Wonder Woman and who was raised by Superman.

Hunter Prince had all the skills and equipment one would expect to see from the son of Wonder Woman: strength, durability, reflexes, stamina, swordsmanship, archery mastery, and an ease to use the lasso of truth.

There just wasn’t anything quite that impressive about him, especially when considering his Themyscira lineage.

Hunter’s abilities were nowhere near his mother, Diana, or grandmother, Hippolyta, which makes him a weird inclusion to the Justice League: Legacy storyline from DC Comics.

It’s hard to live up to the expectations of being Wonder Woman’s son, but that doesn’t change the fact that Hunter Prince was just not impressive at all as a superhero.

STRONGER: X-23 & DAKEN (WOLVERINE)

It’s easy to tout Wolverine as one of the strongest superheroes of all time due to his virtuous indestructibility, predatory drive, and superhuman combat skills. But have you seen his children?

X-23 was introduced to superhero movie fans in Logan, but in the comic books, an adult Laura Kinney has been seen surpassing her father’s abilities by every measure. She even goes on to adopt the Wolverine title after Logan passes away, which is certainly an idea that the X-Men cinematic universe has yet to make a decision on.

Wolverine is also a father to Daken, a villainous mutant who, just like Laura, has been shown to surpass his father’s inherited abilities and become a powerful character that should be feared and respected in the Marvel comic books.

STRONGER: KID FLASH (THE FLASH)

There have been several iterations of Kid Flash, many of whom have no family connection to the Flash. However, in the case of Bart Allen, DC fans were able to see a Barry Allen offspring in the role of Kid Flash who was able to surpass the world’s most famous speedster in many ways.

Bart Allen originally went by the name of Impulse, but he eventually changed his superhero alias to Kid Flash in an attempt to honor the Allen lineage. In many ways, this version of Kid Flash was much faster and powerful than even the Flash himself, having inherited all the genetic skills and training that Barry Allen spent years perfecting.

Bart has been seen in teams such as the New Titans, Young Justice, and even the Teen Titans, but has yet to be portrayed in a live-action adaptation.

WORTHLESS: AHURA BOLTAGON (BLACK BOLT & MEDUSA)

When it comes to the Inhumans franchise, a character could not have asked for a more powerful combination of parents than Black Bolt and Medusa, who are respectively the King and Queen of the Inhumans Royal Family. But from this marriage was born Ahura Boltagon, a whiny and unstable boy with no grasp of his abilities and with nothing to add to the Inhumans franchise.

Despite having been introduced in 1988, there is a reason Ahura Boltagon hasn’t been seen in many Inhumans stories.

He’s a boring and virtuously worthless character who did not seem to inherit the powers and personality traits that make Black Bolt and Medusa such compelling superheroes.

Ahura is the Marvel equivalent of DC’s Hunter Prince, son of Wonder Woman, who had everything to his advantage but could not win over any fans.

STRONGER: LEGION (Professor x)

Stronger than Professor Charles Xavier? That could only be David Charles Haller, aka Legion, aka Professor X’s son.

After the release of the FX television show Legion, the character of David Haller/Legion started to gain some well-deserved traction with fans who otherwise did not know him from Marvel comic books. For some reason, all of the X-Men movies were more interested in investigating Professor X’s adoptive fatherly relationship with Jean Grey than they were keen on introducing Charles Xavier’s actual son.

All in all, Legion is not only capable of telekinesis, telepathy, and all of those standard powers inherited from Professor X, butis also able to time travel, summon fire, warp realities, manipulate matter, and project energy. As seen on Legion, David Haller’s potential is overwhelming.

STRONGER: HUNTRESS (CATWOMAN)

The Helena Wayne version of the Huntress is the daughter of Catwoman and Batman, and she lacks nothing when compared to both. Born in 1957 to Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle, Helena goes on to become an athlete in high school and pursues a law degree in college. She ends up working in a firm owned by Dick Grayson, who happens to be Robin. Years later, as Selina Kyle is taken out by Silky Cernak, Helena takes the mantle of Catwoman and is able to destroy Cernak as revenge.

After avenging her mother, Helena takes a liking to fighting crime and officially becomes her own superhero, the Huntress.

She is shown to have inherited the strength and stamina of her father and the subtlety and refinement of her mother, being the perfect Batman-Catwoman combination a comic book fan could ask for.

WORTHLESS: EQUINOX (POWER GIRL)

The story of Power Girl’s pregnancy is very, very, very complicated, because it involves an entire backstory. In short, Power Girl finds out that an incredibly powerful being that goes by the name of Equinox is ruling the world in the future. To avoid this horrible fate, Power Girl decides to become powerless and give birth to Equinox herself, thus deterring him of his potential.

Equinox is a very specific example of a superhero’s child who was made powerless on purpose.

The character was supposed to be a huge deal, but ended up not amounting to much since he had his powers stripped away. Equinox was first referred to in 1994 and hasn’t been mentioned since 1996, which is an incredibly short lifespan for a comic book character.

STRONGER: FRANKLIN RICHARDS (REED AND SUE RICHARDS)

Mister Fantastic can stretch and Invisible Girl can disappear, but have you seen what their child can do!?

Franklin Richards was born to Reed Richards and Susan Storm, one of Marvel’s most famous couples and arguably the two most important characters in the Fantastic Four franchise.

Unlike his parents, who were incredibly smart but had pretty average superhero abilities, Franklin was born with pretty much every single power one can think of, being able to create an entire universe in his bedroom if he so desired.

At one point, even the Celestials started to consider Franklin Richards a “Universal Shaper” due to his ability manipulate matter on a quantum level. In addition, he was capable of telekinesis, telepathy, blasting energy, and even seeing the future.

WORTHLESS: BRUCE WAYNE JR. (BATMAN)

Bruce Wayne Jr. is the type of character that can make even die-hard DC Comics fans cringe. The boy grew up as the son of Bruce Wayne and knew, but forgot (yes, forgot), that his father happened to be Batman.

Upon remembering that his father was a superhero, he stole the Bat-suit and went out to the cities of Gotham to capture a criminal. Except, Bruce Jr. took down a guy without having enough evidence against him, which infuriated Bruce Wayne.

After being rightfully reprimanded by his father, Bruce Wayne Jr. got together with Clark Kent Jr. to start a team called Super Sons.

It was the 1960s, and writers seemingly did not care to come up with names that were too complicated and/or not instantly recognizable.

STRONGER: BATMAN BEYOND (BATMAN)

A worthy son to Bruce Wayne was found in Terry McGinnis, aka Batman Beyond, who not only honored the original Batman, but surpassed him in many ways.

Sure, Batman Beyond could count on a more advanced apparatus and technology that was not available to Bruce Wayne during his time, but Terry proved himself to have skills that went beyond his suit and gear.

There are several iterations of Batman Beyond in which he is not related to Bruce Wayne, being simply a teenager who decided to follow in the footsteps of Batman. However, in the Batman Beyond miniseries continuity started in the 2010s, Terry McGinnis was described as the biological son of Bruce Wayne and actually redeemed Bruce as a father after the historical embarrassment that Bruce Wayne Jr. was in the comics.

Who’s your favorite superhero offspring? Let us know in the comments.

  • Deadpool 2 Release Date: 2018-05-18 The Incredibles 2 Release Date: 2018-06-15