Powerless is a comic book

Comic book

A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...

 series published by Marvel Comics

Marvel Comics

Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...

. The series, which began in 2004

2004 in comics

-February:*February 6: Marvel Enterprises and Electronic Arts announce a multi-year agreement in which EA will develop a new generation of fighting video games pitting Marvel superheroes against a new, original set of EA heroes....

, is written by Matt Cherniss and Peter Johnson

Peter Johnson

Peter Robert Johnson , is a Birkenhead based business man and football investor.The son of a butcher, Johnson helped build the family business into Park Foods, the leading supplier of Christmas hampers in the early 1990s. From this base, Johnson took Tranmere Rovers from the foot of the Football...

 and penciled by artist Michael Gaydos

Michael Gaydos

-Biography:At Marvel he has worked with Brian Michael Bendis on Alias and the last storyline of its follow up, The Pulse. He has also illustrated the mini-series Powerless and Daredevil Redemption,...

. It had a six issue run, all of which are now published together in a trade paperback collection.

Plot summary

The series begins with a psychologist, Dr. William Watts, waking suddenly in a hospital bed. According to his doctor, Dr. Susan Storm, he was suffering from a three day coma caused by falling on the sidewalk in front of his apartment. Dr. Watts remarks that he had incredibly vivid dreams of fantastical heroes and villains during his coma, so much so that he has trouble distinguishing which world is reality.

Dream Universe

Though the events in all six issues of Powerless occur in a version of Earth where superpowers do not exist, known in the Marvel universe as Earth-Powerless, there are occasional panels featuring characters from the "fantasy world" William Watts experienced while in his brief coma. These panels feature a wide variety of Marvel characters, many of which have a counterpart in Dr. Watts' actual life; however, many others only appear in these flashbacks. The events he experienced in this "dream universe" are very vague - however, the set of characters and costumes imply that it is most similar to the main Marvel universe, Earth-616

Earth-616

In the fictional Marvel Comics multiverse, Earth-616 or Earth 616 is the name used to identify the primary continuity in which most Marvel Comics titles take place.-Origin of Earth-616:...

.

Cast

Issues	Characters
#1–6	William Watts, Peter Parker Spider-Man Spider-Man is a fictional Marvel Comics superhero. The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and writer-artist Steve Ditko. He first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15... , Logan Logan (comics) Logan is a three-issue comic book mini-series starring Wolverine and published under the Marvel Knights imprint of Marvel Comics. The series was written by Brian K... , Matt Murdock Daredevil (Marvel Comics) Daredevil is a fictional character, a superhero in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Bill Everett, with an unspecified amount of input from Jack Kirby, and first appeared in Daredevil #1 .Living in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood... , Frank Castle, Gwen Stacy Gwen Stacy Gwendolyn "Gwen" Stacy appears as a supporting character in Marvel Comics' Spider-Man series. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, she first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #31 .... , Norman Osborn Green Goblin The Green Goblin is a fictional character, a supervillain who appears in the comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, and first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #14 .... , Wilson Fisk Kingpin (comics) The Kingpin is a fictional character, a supervillain in the . Kingpin is one of the most feared and powerful crime lords in the Marvel Universe. The character is a major adversary of Daredevil, the Punisher, and Spider-Man... , Bruce Banner Hulk (comics) The Hulk is a fictional character, a superhero in the . Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in The Incredible Hulk #1 ....
#1	Susan Richards, Reed Richards, Magneto Magneto (comics) Magneto is a fictional character that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. He is the central villain of the X-Men comic, as well as the TV show and the films. The character first appears in X-Men #1 , and was created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby... 1, Thor Thor (Marvel Comics) Thor is a fictional superhero who appears in publications published by Marvel Comics. The character first appeared in Journey into Mystery #83 and was created by editor-plotter Stan Lee, scripter Larry Lieber, and penciller Jack Kirby.... 1

• _{1. Only appears in flashbacks to the 'dream universe'.}

Heroes Powers

In "Powerless" none of the characters have any powers, although there are realistic substitutes;
Logan possesses spring-loaded claws, Bruce Banner doesn't transform into the Hulk but instead has a split personality disorder and looks astonishingly like Lou Ferrigno

Lou Ferrigno

Louis Jude "Lou" Ferrigno is an American actor, fitness trainer/consultant, and retired professional bodybuilder. As a bodybuilder, Ferrigno won an IFBB Mr. America title and two consecutive IFBB Mr. Universe titles, and appeared in the bodybuilding documentary Pumping Iron...

.

Collections

Title	Material collected	Date Released	ISBN
Powerless (Spider-Man, Wolverine, Daredevil)	Powerless #1–6	January, 19 2005	ISBN 0-7851-1511-0