VOOZH about

URL: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FlyingBrick

⇱ Flying Brick - TV Tropes


πŸ‘ TVTropes Logo
TVTropes Now available in the app store!
Open
πŸ‘ Image

Follow TV Tropes

You need to login to do this. Get Known if you don't have an account

Flying Brick

Go To

"He feels no pain
He can fly quite fast
In feats of strength
He is unsurpassed
His grip is firm, never quavery
Britannia's superhero: he's Lord Bravery!
β€” Lord Bravery's theme song, Freakazoid!

There's a whole lot of superpowers out there, and many different ways to get them.

Despite this variety, many heroes frequently end up with the Flying Brick set, an assortment of abilities including but not limited to: Flight, Super-Strength, Super-Toughness/Nigh-Invulnerability, and usually at least one of Super-Speed, Eye Beams (or other energy-projection attack), Super-Senses, or Super-Breath.

These powers seem to be compatible with any given Backstory and Super Hero Origin, which also conveniently explains why any given hero's powers are vastly different from every other hero's flight, super strength, and Super-Toughness.

Occasionally comes with a lesser, odd or embarrassing power or a Weaksauce Weakness to "make up for" their incredible power. A common manifestation of the Lightning Bruiser type. Not to be confused with Brick Joke, nor bricks that are thrown during riots or robberies. Spaceships that look like flying bricks are Standard Human Spaceships. Replace Super-Strength and Nigh-Invulnerability with the power to shoot/cast Fireballs, Hand Blasts or the like and you get Flying Firepower.

Part of the reason for the popularity of this power set is that it allows for a flexible variety of story situations that are easy to set up within relatively normal human definitions, albeit to a superhuman degree.

Contrast Fragile Flyer, where toughness is sacrificed for aerial mobility.

The name comes from a flight sim for the Archimedes (Interdictor) from 1989 which specifically used the term Flying Brick Mode for the invulnerability cheat (with a predictable Easter Egg if you switched to external view).

The term is occasionally used to describe real aircraft, but not often in a way that fits the trope; usually, when an airplane is called a 'flying brick', they're comparing its aerodynamics to that of a brick, not its toughness.

This item is available in the Trope Co. catalog.


Example subpages:

Other Examples:

    open/close all folders 
    Asian Animation 
  • BoBoiBoy: Subverted with Yaya, whose powers were initially believed to be nothing more than Flight and Super Strength, until her true potential revealed her powers to be gravity manipulation, explaining her prior known abilities and unlocking new use for her powers.
  • In Happy Friends, Happy S. has super strength and the ability to fly, but not much else.
    Fan Works 
  • A Crown of Stars: Asuka's Red Whirlwind has flight capabilities and it is extra-strong, amazingly fast, capable to withstand the impact of several nukes, and equipped with defensive shields and an array of firearms, including a plasma arm cannon.
  • Child of the Storm blends Harry Potter with the Marvel Cinematic Universe (albeit with significant input from the main Marvel Universe) and elements of The DCU among many others, so naturally it has several.
    • Thor, naturally, with the additional Flying Firepower abilities.
    • Loki, when he wants to be, though he doesn't like flying and much prefers teleporting β€” which is, in any case, faster.
    • The late Jor-El was this, and estimated to be in Thor and Loki's weight class.
    • Iron Man and War Machine both qualify, particularly in their most powerful suits.
    • Diana Herculeis a.k.a. adolescent Wonder Woman, who gets more powerful as time goes by.
    • Warren Worthington III a.k.a. Archangel is a low level version of this β€” he's mentioned as being able to bench press a troll, likely regarding being hit by a speeding car as an inconvenience and irritation and he has Razor Wings that enable him to fly at mach speeds. When HYDRA attack Hogwarts, he demonstrates just how terrifying this combination can be.
    • Captain Mar-Vell.
    • A certain Mister Clark Kent β€” though he hasn't yet learned to fly (until chapter 58 of the sequel. Then, he can fly, but he's still hilariously bad at it).
    • Harry himself is growing towards this. At the time of writing, he's currently a downplayed version, in that he can fly, but has roughly Super-Soldier levels of strength, speed, and toughness, nowhere near where he will be one day - though he can use his Psychic Powers to mimic it.
    • Carol Danvers' shield turns out to not only absorb and discharge energy at will, but also be a Morph Weapon into her current canon suit. If she's absorbed sufficient energy, then she's more than capable of this.
  • Lampshaded by the otherwise super-strong, Nigh-Invulnerable Paul in The Keys Stand Alone: The Soft World. He finds himself helplessly watching John be chased through the sky by robotic laser-eyed bats (It Makes Sense in Context), unable to do anything useful, and he says in frustration, β€œWhy couldn't they have made me be able to fly!” (He's referring to the Dalns gods from With Strings Attached, who empowered him. Or so he believes.
    • As far as other powers goes, he keeps developing new ones, to the point where Ringo says β€œWho knows what power you'll get next time you blow your nose!” Absorbing and releasing energy is the least of it. He certainly hopes he develops flight some day!
  • Last Child of Krypton: In this crossover Shinji is Superman. He has the whole package: super strong, super fast, invulnerable, flight, and has Eye Beams and a Breath Weapon.
  • Superwomen of Eva 2: Lone Heir of Krypton: Asuka is Supergirl in this history, with all it entails: she flies, she has super strength, super speed, invulnerability, heat vision and freezing/super breath.
  • Wonderful (Mazinja): The powers of Vicky (a. k. a., Glory Girl) include Super-Strength, Nigh-Invulnerability and Flight... which made her the perfect cannonball when their team needed a projectile to smash a tank.
  • Lampshaded in Tales of the Monkey Queen when Suno tells Goku to follow standard safety rules (such as not walking into traffic and wearing her seatbelt) because she'll hurt anyone she collides with.
  • In Neither a Bird nor a Plane, it's Deku!, Izuku Midoriya is Kal-El and by extension Superman, having all of the associated powers. But he hasn't manifested his ability to fly at the start of the story, only managing to do so after he's blasted off Mt. Fuji and sent hurtling to the ground.
  • Hellsister Trilogy has plenty of flying bricks: Superman, Supergirl, Power Girl, Dev-Em (Kryptonians); Satan Girl (Kryptonian duplicate); Mon-El (Daxamite); Ultra Boy (who can only use one ability at a time); the Marvel family...
  • In The Last Daughter, Taylor slowly develops flying brick abilities before finding out about her Kryptonian heritage.
  • Superman of 2499: The Great Confrontation has a whole family of them: the descendants of the first Superman and Supergirl.
  • A Force of Four has several of them: Power Girl, who has the full Kryptonian package; Wonder Woman and her family; Mala, Kizo and U-Ban, three Kryptonian criminals; and Badra, an old Wonder Woman's enemy.
  • In To Hell and Back (Arrowverse), Kara and Kal develop their super-strength, super-speed, invulnerability and flight capabilities during their stay in Lian Yu.
  • The Vampire of Steel has Supergirl as well as Zol-Am, a Kryptonian vampire who is considerably stronger and tougher than an average Kryptonian.
  • In The Future Flash, Bart Allen has the Kryptonian package plus access to the Speed Force.
    Films β€” Animation 
  • In Megamind, Metroman β€” an analog to Superman β€” has the powers of flight, speed, invulnerability and heat vision. Titan acquires all of these powers when injected with his DNA.
    Films β€” Live-Action 
    Literature 
  • Archvillain: Mighty Mike has flight, invincibility, super speed, super strength, freeze breath, and laser vision are among his powers. The Blue Freak as well, although he only has flight, super strength and super speed.
  • Emma from Astral Cafe has all the standard super powers. She can fly, has super strength, super speed, super senses, is invulnerable, and can fire blasts of energy from her hands. Her cousin, Ultimate Man also has the same powers.
  • Captain Underpants gains Super Strength and Flight after he is given some Extra-Strength Super Power Juice to save his life.
  • The Cosmere of Brandon Sanderson has a few examples:
    • Mistborn: Most Allomancers are 'Mistings', able to use a single power associated with a particular metal. The more powerful 'Mistborn' can use every metal, and the resulting Combo Platter Powers includes both the enhanced strength and durability of pewter and the ability to push and pull against nearby metal sources from steel and iron, which can be used for Not Quite Flight by pushing against something on the ground that they can't actually move.
    • The Stormlight Archive: All Knights Radiant come with a Healing Factor and mildly enhanced strength as long as they have Stormlight, and upon swearing their fourth ideal, also gain a suit of magical Powered Armor that massively enhances their strength and durability. However, only two of the ten Orders (the Windrunners and Skybreakers) have Gravitation as one of their Surges, which they can use to fly.
  • Earth's Scariest Monsters!:
    • Vorigan, Morgana, and Dracula are all vampires who can fly and have super strength. In Vorigan's Samhain Form, he maintains his flight and super strength and also gains dark energy blasts and ectoplasmic energy blasts as powers.
    • Melody is an angel who can fly, has super strength, and can fire divine/holy/sacred light from her hands.
  • Fighting Fantasy: In Appointment with F.E.A.R.: It's one of the four superpowers you can choose from, and the one that makes the game easier to beat. However you are not at a Superman level of invulnerability β€” you can be shot dead by an ordinary handgun with a single shot or roasted by a vehicle mounted flamethrower or killed by a laser cannon.
  • In The Girl Who Would Be King, Bonnie and Lola start with super strength, super speed, and super senses; later on, they learn how to fly.
  • Justice and Uberman from Perry Moore's Hero. The main character, Thom, also develops these powers near the end.
  • Magic Hour: In "Benevolent Genie," Jermaine wishes for flight, super speed, and super strength from his new female genie friend Kalila.
  • Magnus, in addition to immortality, heightened senses, super speed, has Flight, Super Strength, Nigh-Invulnerability, and a sonic voice.
  • Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm a Supervillain: Generic Girl is an extremely powerful hero with flight, strength, invulnerability, and speed. She earned her name because she refuses to talk to anyone or grandstand; she just stops crime and leaves. The other heroes simply didn't know what else to call her. The power set is implied to be rare because Bad Penny notes that Generic Girl being able to fly makes her more qualified to be a hero than Reviled, herself, and E-Claire combined.
  • In Sanctioned, Glorious has flight, invulnerability, and superstrength. Somehow, she was still stabbed to death just before the story begins.
  • Trapped on Draconica: Daniar's use of this trope is justified: She is a dragokin, a human blessed by a dragon god with dragon-like powers, and what are dragons know for besides flying, breathing fire, and being very strong?
  • Lestat de Lioncourt in The Vampire Chronicles series eventually gains most powers available to only the oldest vampires by drinking the blood of Akasha, the first vampire. Besides his original power of telepathy (the Mind Gift) and the usual physical strength and speed of all vampires, this includes flight (the Cloud Gift), spirit walking, and the ability to kill humans with a thought (a variation of the Mind Gift). Besides this, he also becomes as close to immune to sunlight as a vampire can get (i.e. his skin tans and it hurts like hell, but he does not die).
  • Wild Cards' Starshine, in addition to his vast light-based powers. The later incarnation of The Radical has this among his array of powers. Modular Man had these powers to start with; he's since lost his flight module.
  • Worm:
    • Capes with this set of powers are referred to as having "The Alexandria Package", Alexandria being the most famous flying brick in the setting. Alexandria has almost total invincibility except for needing to breathe, and she also has Super-Intelligence and a Photographic Memory on top of her physical abilities (her name is intended to be a reference to the Library of Alexandria, based on this part of her power set). The real source of Alexandria's powers is her body's cells are all locked in time at the moment she gained her powers, meaning it's physically impossible to affect them in any way. She can only be hurt by things that ignore physics, like The Siberian, or suffocation as her brain still requires oxygen.
    • Aegis has something like this power set but isn't technically invincible or super-strong. His body is able to provide redundancy for nearly any injury, as well as being able to rapidly heal otherwise fatal injuries. For example, his lungs can adapt to continue pumping blood should his heart stop working and otherwise fatal cuts (like those that would sever an artery) are only minor annoyances. He isn't actually significantly stronger than normal, but he is able to combine the ability to ignore any injures and to be in a state of ongoing adrenaline rush for hours at a time in order to throw punches that would normally break his hand or otherwise push his body beyond what a normal person could safely do in a fight. Also, He can fly.
    • Glory Girl has the full set of powers, but only her flight is the standard version of it. Her strength and toughness comes from a personal force-field that magnifies her physical attributes greatly, but whenever she takes or gives a big hit, the field shorts out for a few moments, temporarily deactivating her powers (except flight, which functions independently).
    • Scion has this as his one of his primary powers, the other being able to manipulate Pure Energy for ranged attacks. He's also by far the biggest winner of the Superpower Lottery in the series β€” unlike the other examples above, his Flying Brick abilities have no notable drawbacks or limitations, and he also has access to every single superpower ever documented and then some, since he's the one that gave the human race powers in the first place.
  • Worm's sequel Ward also features several people with this powerset, including the perspective character, Victoria Dallon, formerly Glory Girl and now known as Antares. It's notable in that the main character actually takes the time to analyze some of the less obvious advantages this power set gives you, such as the ability to have leverage in a hand-to-hand fight regardless of footing or position, and uses them to great effect.
    Live-Action TV 
  • Like both his comic book counterpart and the character he parodies, Homelander of The Boys has the standard set; Super-Strength, Super-Speed, Flight, X-Ray Vision, Super-Hearing, and Invulnerability. The twist is that he's not like the Man of Steel at all - in fact, he's quite the opposite. Stormfront as well, although was not on his quite on his level, as proven when Becca stabs her in the eye. She's then fried to a crisp by Ryan's heat vision.
  • The Ghost in the Doctor Who episode "The Return of Doctor Mysterio". Justified, since Grant was a huge fan of comic books, especially Superman, so the wish-granting gemstone gave him many of those powers: flight, speed, strength, endurance, hearing, and X-ray vision.
  • The Greatest American Hero. When he's not a falling brick. He does manage to master most of his abilities over the course of the series, such as invisibility and Super-Strength, but landing is not one of them.
  • Heroes (2006): Peter Petrelli (who by the end of season one, had acquired Super-Strength from Niki, Flight from Nathan, and, while not Nigh-Invulnerable, absorbed a Healing Factor from Claire), and Sylar/Gabriel Gray (who can now fly, has a Healing Factor, and can use his telekinesis to enhance his strength). Both are basically unstoppable. Although in Season 3 they decided it would be funny to completely nerf Peter by leaving him powerless while Sylar goes on a killing spree and becomes one of the most broken villains ever created, especially when you look at the rest of the cast of this show.
  • Mutant X: Gabriel Ashlock (AKA Patient Zero), one of the only two New Mutants (the other being the Child) who combines all four categories of mutants in this setting: Elemental (fires energy balls), Feral (catlike speed and enhanced strength), Molecular (regeneration), and Psionic (empath). This turns out to be a case of Blessed with Suck, as he eventually explodes from the sheer energy of these combined powers.
  • My Secret Identity. The main character gets the super powers of super speed, invulnerability and flight (sort of, more like weightlessness as he uses aerosol cans to propel himself as he floats). In later seasons he gets super strength, making him a floating brick.
  • Angels in Supernatural have flight, Super-Strength, Super-Speed, and invulnerability, as well as the ability to smite or heal with a touch, time travel, and dream walking. Talk about the Superpower Lottery. As a twist, their flight is actually never seen, and it works as teleportation, though the flapping noise of their wings is heard as they appear. The angel Castiel kept running away from the heavenly host by warping between restaurants of a fast food franchise, all of them so essentially identical that his pursuers couldn't find the exact iteration he was "flying" to at any given moment.
    Mythology 
    Other 
  • Post-Dracula, vampires tend to embody this trope, often by means of a Healing Factor. When they can fly, that is.
  • Dragons almost universally qualify, the occasional non-flying or thin-scaled dragon aside.
    Podcasts 
  • Red Panda Adventures: Two Superman Substitutes, Mr. Amazing and the Black Eagle, possess flight, speed, strength, near-invulnerability, and energy beams, and both received their powers from the same source: A formula called "Royal Jelly" created by a reformed supervillain named Doctor Bumblebee. The formula was intended to increase a human's energy-conversion rates such that a person could go for long periods of time on a minimal amount of food, potentially wiping out world hunger. The superpowers were an unintended and largely unstable side effect and both Mr. Amazing and the Black Eagle came out of experiments by the Canadian government to try to stablize the formula and create super soldiers for World War II.
    Professional Wrestling 
  • Captain New Japan has videos that make him look like one, soaring around the worlds and above the clouds. When it comes to matches, not so much.
    Tabletop Games 
  • In Mutants & Masterminds, the archetype for a character with this power grouping is called the "Paragon".
  • This template is appropriately called The Archetype in GURPS Supers and is the only sample template that is built on the D-scale (able to destroy a modern tank). There is also a martial art named after this trope in one of the issues of Pyramid. Its main tactic is to speed up, then crash into the target. Practitioners have to provide their own flight and ability to survive such a collision.
  • The name probably comes from Champions, which refers to characters whose primary powers are strength and toughness as "bricks".
    • "Brick" characters are relatively common in Champions β€” including among its cast of more or less canon NPCs β€” because buying up strength to at least some moderately superhuman level is relatively cheap (especially in superheroic campaigns where normal human stat maxima by default don't apply) and obviously has multiple practical applications, so that's one half of the trope right there. Adding Flight β€” actually one of the less exotic and more flexible movement modes the game has to offer β€” can be a bit of a no-brainer after that.
    • Champions also has a character type known as a "Demi-Brick" with less Strength (say, only enough to lift a car overhead, instead of a tank or small ship), but better reflexes and a wider variety of tricks.
    • An extremely literal example was one character who was a seemingly ordinary yet nigh-indestructible red clay brick, complete with miniature cape. Other than telepathy (for communication), its only powers were a ton of Flight and Armor; like the entry from Pyramid, its primary combat maneuver was what Champions calls a "Move Through."
  • From the Magic: The Gathering setting of Innistrad, Avacyn, Angel of HopeπŸ‘ Image
    is a good example of one. Although she's no faster than the average creature, she's really strong, capable of flight, and Nigh-Invulnerable. Twist: she also has the ability to turn the rest of your creatures Nigh-Invulnerable as well.
  • Sentinels of the Multiverse: Legacy, a.k.a. Paul Parsons the 8th has this as his primary powerset. The twist is that his powers are genetic and passed down from his ancestors. Starting with Joseph Parsons, the father of Paul Parsons the 1st, the first child of the family line gains all the powers of the previous plus one new power. In order, the Legacy powers are Danger Sense, Exceptional Athletic Condition, Super-Speed, Super-Strength, Single Attack Negation, Vitality, Flight, Keen Eyesight, and Bulletproof Skin. His daughter inherits all of these and gains Atomic Glare as her new power. In gameplay he generally takes more of a support role, using his leadership abilities to Buff others while soaking damage for the team. His Evil Counterpart, Iron Legacy, however, dispenses with the whole notion of holding back; he uses all his powers to deal horrendous amounts of damage to everyone as well as shrugging off most attacks and healing damage.
  • This is a suggested power-set for "the Legacy" in Masks: A New Generation, described as "super strength, invincibility, eye beams, flight, super senses". Though the character only has three of the powers to start.
    Toys 
  • The Toa Nuva in BIONICLE, with the masks of speed, levitation, and strength. Most Makuta qualify as well. Twist: The power is in their masks, not their own strength, and none of the Toa Nuva have all of the Nuva masks, though they can apply the effects as a team. They need to combine their power to become true flying bricks.
    Video Games 
  • In order to be a part of the 8 Guardian Generals from Asura's Wrath you need to have these powers as a part of your base powerset. Certain ones have different powers to distinguish themselves, but all of them (with the possible exception of Kalrow and that's possibly only due to his age) are this to some degree. However, few of them can actually fly but they can either jump really well or punch the ground hard enough to propel them into the air.
  • City of Heroes lets you build toward this modelβ€”start with the Tanker (hero) or Brute (villain) archetype, and the Super Strength and Invulnerability powersets. At level six, add the Flight power pool (and don't forget to take Flight itself at level 14). To really come dangerously close to Superman, take the Body Mastery epic power pool when your security level gets into the 40s, and you'll get your eye beams and a few other goodies. But really any powersets taken by those two archetypes work about the same, with different quirks and special effects. Of course the game's signature hero, Statesman, has the typical Flying Brick powers. (His twist? Lightning powers, since he's the Incarnate of Zeus.)
    • There's also the Stone Armor set. If you take flight, you can literally become a flying brick.
      • Twist: In order to fly, a character using Stone Armor needs to deactivate some or all of their protective powers. You can fly, or be a brick, but not both at once.
  • Champions Online actually makes it easier to create this powerset β€” simply cherry pick between Might and other power sets (mostly Powered Armor), and choose Flight when it's time to pick your travel power after the intro.
  • Devil May Cry: Dante and Vergil in their Devil Trigger transformations add demon wings to their formidable Combo Platter Powers. In 5 they literally fly into hell in the ending. They don’t seem to use flight for fighting that much though, at most hovering in the air while unleashing specific attacks.
  • In Dispatch, Phenomaman and Blonde Blazer (who are based on Superman and Carol Danvers respectively) both have flight and super strength as part of their powersets, with the former also having energy absorption (he claims that he can absorb the sun's energy) and the latter having energy blasts. After borrowing Blazer's energy amulet, Chase/Track Star also gains her powerset on top of his Super Speed (with the amulet cancelling out the Rapid Aging effects of his powers).
  • Final Fantasy VII: Sephiroth is commonly depicted as a swordsman variant of this in the Compilation. Cloud in Advent Children is able to fly as well using Mako energy to aerial fight his nemesis, while in the Remake series Cloud just does big jumps to reach Sephiroth in the air.
  • Freedom Force actually averts this trope: Characters cannot use melee attacks while flying, making flying bricks essentially useless. You can either fly or be a brick. Man-Bot himself is more of an Energy Projector than a brawler, though he does have a high defense stat and strong melee attacks.
  • Freedom Planet: Lilac’s gameplay is based around this as she rockets herself across the levels and not even touching the ground in some. Memorably, Lilac defeats the Big Bad Lord Brevon just by flying into him at top speed.
  • Metroid gives us Samus Aran, whenever she has her suit upgraded fully. Especially in the 2D games where the Space Jump lets her somersault indefinitely. Except then she's more of a flying buzzsaw.
  • Any Sonic the Hedgehog character in Super Mode has this as part of their power set. Upon absorbing the power of the 7 Chaos Emeralds the character (usually, but not restricted to, Sonic or Shadow) gains exponentially heightened speed and strength, Nigh-Invulnerability, and the ability to fly. Beyond super forms, Metal Sonic has flying brick abilities as a part of his base form, albeit on a much lower level than a super form.
  • The protagonist of Megaton Rainfall is indestructible, flies a trillion times the speed of light and can destroy cities with his Hand Blasts.
    Webcomics 
  • The Crossoverlord lampshaded this when it's two female flying bricks, The Green Avenger and Dasien, found the similarities in their powers interesting.
  • El Goonish Shive:
    • Elliot has a spell that turns him into this. He was already uncommonly strong thanks to his Anime-Style Martial Arts classes, but after using a powerful magical artifact to try to cure himself of a Magitek-induced Gender Bender, he developed the ability to transform into a female superhero with accelerated healing and flight.
    • Nanase also has elements of this trope. Thanks to her magical potential, she has above-average (if not necessarily superhuman) strength and durability, and, among other abilities, has a spell that allows her to fly. However, what takes the cake is her Guardian Form, which has enhanced reflexes and Super-Speed on top of flight and Nanase's already strong physical attributes. Said Guardian Form is also a Deconstruction of this trope, as Nanase has to sacrifice her other abilities as long as she stays in that form, and the massive magic cost to use it inevitably de-powers her, if only long enough to recharge.
  • Energize is a flying brick plus energy-based powers. Subverted when it's revealed that it's only a part of his true power, omnipotence-sorta thing.
  • In The Fellowship of Heroes, the lead hero, Crusader, is a Christian-themed Flying Brick who regards his powers as both a natural mutation and a god-given gift (Lord works In Mysterious Ways and such), and the comic itself takes the time to explain the (pseudo)science behind his super-strength aura and its relation to his flight powers. In short, his aura lets him fly through the air by working like an inside-out jet engine β€” without the plane attached.
  • In Full Frontal Nerdity, when they play a superhero Deconstruction RPG, Shawn's character is actually called the Flying Brick. Unfortunately, he can't actually use his powers without causing massive destruction and probably killing people.
  • Grrl Power has several:
    • Maxima has flight, super-strength, invulnerability, super-strength, and energy beams. She can adjust the balance of her powers, for example, dumping everything into invulnerability to get Superman-level durability.
    • Main character Sydney "The Mighty Halo" Scoville gets flight, an impenetrable force-field, a super-strong tentacle, energy blasts, truesight/telepresence, and assorted other powers from her orbs, with the caveat that she can only use two of her powers at a time.
    • Super Hiro has flight, super-strength, invulnerability, and an improbable tendency to lose his shirt during combat.
  • Many characters from the Heroes Unite universe fit this trope. Not only Energize and Dasien, as mentioned above, but also The Blonde Marvel, who combines it with a parody of Most Common Superpower, SHELL, who's just a Japanese Iron Man equivalent in a term of powers, and Relik, who has this set plus many other abilities, as long, as his armor is activated. Other flying bricks include Tazer (also has energy powers), Nebulon (also has energy blasts from hands), Amalgam, L.E.G.E.N.D. (a robot) and Comet Kid (essentially Green Lantern's powerset).
  • Heroine Chic has the superhero Valiant, whose powers include Flight, Super Speed, Super Strength, and various super-senses. When Zoe takes temporary custody of his power-granting Eternity Stone, she manifests the same slate of powers.
  • In The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!, Bob once got these powers, briefly. Ironically, he's usually pretty effective against bad guys when he's just himself. With powers, he discovered that he was a dangerous klutz.
  • Iron Violet: The Shy Titan: Iron Violet has superhuman strength, invulnerability, flight and enhanced agility.
  • Magellan has several of these (referred to as "powerhouses" In-Universe), including Epoch on the main superhero force, Captain Victoria of the Australian superhero force, and two of the cadets (Charisma and Bill). Justified in that it's mentioned that the eponymous academy tries to recruit as many of these as possible.
  • Nixvir has Ragnar, a Snowlem who has the ability to fly and shoot Eye Beams. However, even with these powers, he is far more powerful than he first appears and far more dangerous...
  • In Pastel Defender Heliotrope, Heliotrope is a sex doll brought to life by Imported Alien Phlebotinum; in addition to animation and sentience, she gains Flying Brick powers.
  • Conspicuously absent from Spinnerette, with Super-MILF being the only portrayed example.
  • Strong Female Protagonist: Alison Green, aka Mega Girl, has Super-Strength and Nigh-Invulnerability; while she can be stunned by blunt-force trauma, the only thing (so far) that's actually hurt her are a former villain's microns-thin blade-arms. Also, she can make enormous jumps and accidentally discovers how to levitateπŸ‘ Image
    , which eventually progresses to full-on flight, since her powers fall under the umbrella of tactile telekinesis, and she is still developing
    . She's actually something of a Deconstruction of the trope, as she genuinely wants to help change the world for the better, but realizes that being able to beat up the bad guys isn't enough on its own to do that. The biggest lasting good she's been able to achieve so far include leveraging her name and connections to create an organization dedicated to advancing social justice for minority supers, and forcibly coercing a more selfish super into enhancing another's regenerative powers to the point of advancing organ donor medicine to an unmatched level.
  • Paragon of Supermom has Super-Strength, Nigh-Invulnerability, and Flight.
    Web Originals 
  • Destorm and Mike Diva portray a pair of these in their three part Heroes And Villains Music Video series. Said powers are acquired from sleeping with Mike's girlfriend.
  • Whateley Universe: It's not an uncommon power set:
    • Lancer of Team Kimba plays this completely straight, being a 'psychokinetic brick' with super-strength, flight, and a forcefield that he's learned to extend a bit to cover weapons he uses, but no ranged powers other than picking things up and throwing them thus far. It has been stated that there are several such tricks ('knife hand', making the PK field frictionless, the Attack Reflector skill, etc.) which in principle any PK brick, Package Deal Psychic, or Telekinetic can learn, but that most never master more than a few of them.
    • Tennyo arguably has this as a subset of her powers, though it's easy to overlook underneath her flashy energy blasts/sword and reality-rending 'death blow'.
    • Note that there are several ways to get the same basic set of effects, including psychokinesis (as in the case of Lancer), density warping (e.g., Phase), gravity control (e.g., Superchick, G-Force), space/time warping combined with the Exemplar powerset and regeneration (e.g., Tennyo), and several others. This means that it is crucially important to know which kind of Flying Brick one is to use the powers well, and both information and disinformation about others' powers are no less factors than with other powers.
    • Just as important, because these powersets are fairly common combinations with equally well-known limitations, and given that your typical Flying Bricks have been living in the proverbial "world of cardboard" since manifesting and thus rarely use their full strength, there are several known ways of taking most of them out β€” for all its power, it is one of the easiest powersets to overcome through superior training and planning. This is the favorite trick Ito-soke uses in his introductory demo for Basic Martial Arts classes, with him getting the better of one such brick in four or five classes on the first day of school each year. To say that seeing an elderly baseline human doing this leaves a lasting impression (in the students minds, if not necessarily the dojo walls) is an understatement.
  • In Fine Structure, the Powers gain this set of abilities, plus the ability to move in Bullet Time. Each new Power is specifically twice as strong as the last: Arika is 256 times faster and stronger than a normal human, while Jason is 512 times faster and stronger. It is of some concern that, if the trend continues, there will soon be Power millions of times stronger than ordinary humans.
  • Happy Tree Friends has Splendid the Flying Squirrel, who has all the powers mentioned in the trope description with the possible exception of Super-Breath.
  • Parodied in The Demented Cartoon Movie!. Super Blah, in his climactic confrontation with Evil Blah, swats away hordes of attacking Mooks by flexing his arms a bit, but shares the really stupid weakness of every other Blah. In an earlier scene he flies into space in an attempt to stop a meteor on collision course with the Earth, only for it to crash into him and then the Earth, which explodes again.
  • How to Hero refers to this kind of hero as a "flying tank" because they can fly, have super strength, and usually shoot things from their eye.
  • White Hawk from Project Prometheus. Is described as the "Superman Package" and it is noted to be a rare combination of powers.
    Western Animation 
  • The Atom Ant Show's main character was a flying ant with superhuman strength.
  • Atomic Puppet: Captain Atomic was a classic flying brick β€” superhuman strength, supersonic flight, and lightning-fast reflexes. Naturally, he passed it on to Joey when he got turned into a sock puppet.
  • Ben 10 featured Ultimos, an alien superhero with powers of super strength, flight, and laser vision. He isn't explicitly stated to have Nigh-Invulnerability, though.
  • Captain Planet and the Planeteers: Captain Planet is super-strong and almost impervious to harm, along with his Elemental Powers. His flight abilities are actually an extension of Linka's Wind power, albeit at a greater intensity than it's easy for her to sustain. In addition to that, he has the abilities of Dishing Out Dirt, Making a Splash, Playing with Fire, Transflormation, and Psychic Powers.
  • Darkwing Duck once met up with Comet Guy, a Flying Brick who wanted to train with the universe's greatest hero. Twist? Comet Guy is as smart as a brick. Oh, and the sound of a bell causes him to dance uncontrollably (until he hears a whistle), injuring friend and foe. He also shoots little comet bolts and has to hide in his hat to travel between planets. Later Comet Guy takes Darkwing to his homeworld, a Planet of Flying Bricks! Who are all only slightly less stupid than Comet Guy.
  • Hamster & Gretel: Gretel and her pet Hamster receive such powers from mysterious aliens, with the standard flight, super strength and invulnerability for both of them. Two of their enemies The Destructress and Fistpuncher possess similar powers given to them by the exact same aliens.
  • Hawkgirl, as portrayed in Justice League. (The comicbook versions of the Hawkfamily are a case of Clothes Make the Superman.) Her edge is that she fights with an Energy Mace, which in addition to smashing things is very useful for deflecting lasers, disrupting energy fields, and negating magic.
  • Perhaps the oldest example in Western Animation, aside from Superman himself, is the great Mighty Mouse; who apparently got his powers from some sort of magic cheese, and as a result, has strength, speed, invulnerability. flight, and in at least one cartoon, magnetic/telekinetic powers as well.
  • Miraculous Ladybug has the New York-based superhero Majestia, a Superman/Wonder Woman pastiche with the former's powerset.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes: With the premise of the show being that literally everyone has powers, it is no wonder they have an example of this- theirs being Chip Damage, a perfectly generic superhero who K.O. and most others idolize and who turns out to be a robot built to give people hope to become heroes.
  • The Plastic Man show featured Mighty Man. The twist? He's a flying brick who is also smaller than an average brick in his powered form.
  • The Powerpuff Girls:
    • The Powerpuff Girls, who are the most powerful heroes in their world, and they're all about five years old.
    • Also their Spear Counterpart, the Rowdyruff Boys, whose leader is incidentally named Brick.
  • Super Duper Bunny League: Handsome Steve is a Top-Heavy Guy who can fly, punch through objects, and is able to carry large objects without breaking a sweat.
  • Several Transformers doubtlessly qualify, and being giant, transforming, living robots, they also tend to boast incredible firepower and other skills and abilities. In G1, every Decepticon could fly in robot mode, whether they turned into a jet or a gun or a cassette player.
    • It goes double for the Autobot Superion. Yes, he's made up of five jet-bots, but put 'em all together and you get something that looks about as aerodynamic as an office tower. The counterparts' engines wings are neither large enough nor placed properly on Superion that you get the idea that they're responsible at all for his flight. It's clear the writers thought "he's made of jets, so he flies. Rule of Cool, man." and never asked themselves "what makes him fly?"
    • As all Decepticons fly, so do Decepticon gestalts. Including the hulking-even-by-gestalt-standards Devastator, made of construction vehicles. In all these cases, they just levitate into the air like Superman, and fly as far and as fast as the plot requires today.
    • At least Bruticus, and therefore his Transformers: Robots in Disguise repaint Ruination, has one component that's a helicopter. It's kinda hilarious to see Ruination fly around by the tiny propeller on its shoulder.
    • This goes for Gobots as well.

Feedback

Video Example(s):

Marvelous Man

He stopped us from accidentally wiping ourselves out.

Example of:
Superman Substitute

β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜… 5 (4 votes)

Alternative Title(s): Flying Tank

Previous

Index

Next

  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Wide Load

Important Links

Ask The Tropers Trope Finder Media Finder Trope Launch Pad Tech Wishlist Browse Go Ad Free!
Crucial Browsing
Top

He stopped us from accidentally wiping ourselves out.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (4 votes)

Example of:

Main / SupermanSubstitute

Media sources:

Report

1:58

Marvelous Man

1:04

The Last Son Of...

1:16

Asura