Superpowered Mooks

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
Now that's a firing squad.
"If it's any consolation, they look like cheap knockoffs."
—Nomad, commenting on enemy Nanosuit soldiers in Crysis

So the heroes are mowing through your legions of Mooks like they were nothing. Even your Giant Mooks and Elite Mooks barely slow them down for more than a couple seconds. You see, the heroes have an edge that not even your best Elite Mooks can hope to match... they've got superpowers. Maybe they're Jedi. Maybe they see the world in bullet-time. Perhaps they're wearing superpowered nanotech suits. Or maybe they're just generic superheroes. In any case, no matter how much firepower your mere mortal Mooks try to bring against them, they'll simply be completely outmatched.

Sure, you've got your Quirky Miniboss Squad or The Psycho Rangers, who have powers of their own, but you have only five or six of them at most, and they can't be everywhere at once. They also have the habit of attacking the heroes one at a time, instead of all at once.

What you need are Mooks with some sort of superpowers (preferably similar or identical to the hero's own abilities), but with less (or preferably no) character development (in contrast to the Boss-like Quirky Miniboss Squad members), so you can mass-produce and field them in relatively large numbers. Enter the Superpowered Mooks; Elite Mooks churned out with quantity, not quality in mind.

These guys are equipped with the same or similar powers as the heroes, but produced in large enough numbers that you can use them as elite infantry and even field several at once, rather than (as with a Quirky Miniboss Squad member) merely tossing one out as an end-of-level Boss encounter. This allows you to outnumber the heroes while simultaneously fighting them with their own tricks! There's no way it can possibly fail! Unless, of course, that pesky Law Of Conservation of Ninjitsu pops up... and let's not even think about the inevitable drop in quality of these Evil Knockoffs due to mass production, or the effect it will have on their physical and mental stability. If you want a version of these with even less reliability, look for Elite Zombie.

Not to be confused with video game mooks that are just unreasonably powerful.

Examples of Superpowered Mooks include:


Anime

  • During the Buster Call on Enies Lobby in One Piece, a horde of Captain-ranked Marines attack the Straw Hat pirates. Since Authority Equals Asskicking, each one has their own super powers, ranging from being a giant with an axe to the ability to rust metal with a touch. All are dispatched quickly despite the diversity of power.
  • The Pru Clone Army from Gundam ZZ, hundreds of identical psychic lolis piloting telepathically controlled Humongous Mecha.
  • Near the end of the first season of Gundam 00, the newly-formed UN-alliance between the three power blocks starts fielding the GN-X mobile suit. Said mobile suit has the mass-produced engine of the Gundams, enabling them to go toe-to-toe with the Thrones and actually defeat the protagonists in the final battle. Of course, by the next season they are obsolete against the new Gundams; even the newer GN-XIII is merely a Mook.

Comic Books

  • The Gamorran supersoldiers, and later Dr. Krigstein's goons, in The Authority.
  • The Prime Sentinels during Operation: Zero Tolerance in X-Men
  • The OMAC Project in the DC Universe.
  • In Crisis on Infinite Earths, the Anti-Monitor had literally millions of these guys in his Shadow Demon army.
  • Yet another DC event Crossover is Our Worlds at War which has a Galactus Expy sending hundreds of mechanical probes to fight the heroes.
  • In Savage Dragon, there is a superpowered gang of roughly two hundred memebers called the Vicious Circle. Usually, they fight the Dragon en masse. It's usually not enough to beat him unless they use their elite members.
  • Star Wars Legacy Darth Krayt had a secret army of Sith Troopers that can take on Sith/Jedi.

Film

Literature

  • Source material notwithstanding, the ending part of the Warhammer 40,000: Gaunt's Ghosts novel Necropolis sees Gaunt and his Ghosts fight non-Codex daemons known as Darkwatchers that could teleport.
  • Some noble houses in Mistborn have enough allomancers to field entire strike teams of them. Though they're almost all Mistings rather than full Mistborn, they're still much more dangerous than ordinary humans would be in their place. The Lord Ruler also keeps armies of Koloss (orc-like nonhumans which are superhumanly strong and durable) but rarely uses them because while they're incredibly effective in battle, they also have a tendency to go into uncontrollable killing rages, even against allies, which makes them a weapon of last resort.

Live Action TV

  • At the end of Season 6 of Smallville, Lex reveals what the purpose of his secret lab called 33.1 is; to experiment on the powers of meteor-infected individuals and combine their powers into a single body as part of Project Ares. The further implementation of this plan seemed to be a mass-produced superhuman army until the main facility was destroyed in the finale by Bizarro.

Tabletop Games

  • The Dragon-Blooded in Exalted are essentially meant to be this. They are the weakest of the Exalted, but can pass down their powers to their children (unlike the Celestial Exalted, who exist in fixed numbers and go through Reincarnation).

Video Games

  • Later parts of the Star Wars Dark Forces Saga used this to add more opponents with lightsaber skills and Force powers, making them more integral to the gameplay compared to Jedi Knight, which had only offered such fights with the bosses.
    • The main plot of Jedi Outcast involved the Empire mass-producing Reborn troops, Imperial soldiers artificially infused with Force abilities and given lightsabers. They ranged from the basic orange Reborn, who were limited to simple lightsaber skills, to the red Reborn, who had the same Force abilities as the player (only at a slightly weaker level), to the elite Shadow Troopers, who wore black lightsaber-resistant armor and helmets (which looked like lower-tier copies of Darth Vader's own Sith armor) and had the same Force ability and lightsaber skill level as your own character, and could turn invisible.
    • The sequel, Jedi Academy, featured Sith Cultists who were infused with Force powers via an Artifact of Doom called the Scepter of Ragnos. The cultists were extremely specialized; some fought only with a lightsaber, some were unarmed but fought using high-level Force powers, and the rarely seen (read: less than 10 in the entire game, all in a single level) Cultist Commandos use Force-assisted jumping combined with blasters to pull off some Max Payne-like firefight action. A little later, you'd be introduced to the New Reborn, the leftovers of the Reborn from the previous game (actually there are at least as many of them in this game), who were about the same as the most powerful old Reborn, clearly superior to the Cultists.
    • Jedi Academy also featured elite superpowered mooks called Reborn Masters—as the name indicates, the elite among the New Reborn, and easily about as powerful as real Jedi Masters in the game. There were only a handful and they would have counted as bosses if they weren't nameless and placed at only somewhat critical junctures. They had seemingly been designed to be as difficult to beat as possible, possessing every Force power at highest level except for those limited to the player, superior lightsaber skills, and AI that made the other enemies look like idiots—you wouldn't catch a master trying to fry you with Force lightning while you were protected against it, nor would they let you jump on their heads Mario-style without retaliating, although at least they couldn't slice off three of your limbs in one go.
  • The Force Unleashed featured the Emperor's Shadow Guards, black-armoured warriors who wielded lightsabre-halberds and attacked with a variety of powerful Force abilities. Just one of these guys constituted a whole miniboss battle. Worse yet, they were always accompanied by cloaked Shadow Stormtroopers, who would conveniently phase in and start shooting at you just when you had the Guard on the ropes.
  • Many Castlevania games feature enemies, usually skeletons, who wield whips in the same manner as the Belmonts'. They tend to be up there on the threat scale compared to most enemies.
  • In TimeShift, the player has the ability to slow down or stop time (while continuing to move at normal speeds themselves), allowing them to slaughter basic Mooks left and right. The enemy army's trump card were the Quantum Guards, cyborg soldiers equipped with similar time-bending abilities as the player (Flash Guards could slow time and thus move at super-speeds, Storm Guards had impenetrable energy shields, and Warp Guards could teleport around by stopping time).
  • In Project: Snowblind, General Yan Lo's Elite Guard have the same nanoaugmented powers as the player character. There are 3 different types of Elite Guard, each one has 1 of the player's nanotech powers... 1 type can move at super-speed, 1 type has a full-body energy shield, and 1 type is equipped with a cloaking device (although, due to A.I. issues, they mostly just use the cloaking device, which is by far the least useful of the 3 powers). The General himself has all 3 powers, although he's nice enough to only use them one at time (with his boss battle being split into 3 different phases, with 1 phaser per power).
  • Crysis had North Korean Nanosuit soldiers, whose Nanosuits gave them the same superpowered abilities your own character had (increased durability, a recharging energy "shield" reactive armour, regenerating health, a cloaking device, and super-strength for enhanced punches and jumps). While Nomad quips that they're "just cheap knockoffs", they're actually pretty much identical to your own suit, other than a lack of speed mode and fairly average enemy A.I.
  • In the F.E.A.R. expansion pack Perseus Mandate, you fought against Nightcrawler Elites, who had the same Slo Mo ability as the player (which they used to zoom around at superhuman speeds in short, split-second bursts).
  • In Far Cry Instincts: Evolution, you face off against native Feral Warriors, who possess the same Feral powers as the player (which mostly involve enhanced jumping ability, enhanced speed, and a really mean melee attack).
  • In Halo, the player's only actual "superpower" that distinguishes them from the standard disposable Redshirts is a regenerating energy shield. The alien enemy officers, known as Elites, have the same regenerating energy shield as well as similar health/durability compared to the player.
    • The Spec Ops Elites have optional active camoflage, in addition to the ability to throw grenades. And the 1337 of the Elites, the Ultras, have extremely strong shields and armor, recharge their shields much faster than others, usually have Guns Akimbo, and carry a plasma sword as a secondary weapon.
    • Also the Ranger Elites, who have jetpacks, Jump Pack Brutes, and Brute Stalkers, who also have stealth camo.
    • In Halo: Reach, the higher-ranking Elites such as Ultras, Zealots, and Generals can use the same armor abilities (e.g. Armor Lock) as the player; the latter two bordering on Boss in Mook Clothing.
  • Oddly, this is both used and averted in BioShock (series). While the background fluff describes Splicers using the same Plasmid abilities that the player can use (e.g., Incinerate! to set people on fire), in the actual game many Splicers are mostly limited to normal weapons, such as clubs, guns, and makeshift grenades. Early exceptions include the Spider Splicers, who seem to have some form of enhanced speed and agility, then Houdini Splicers, who can throw fireballs and teleport. Later chapters include Thuggish (melee) splicers acquiring a passive version of your electric attack, Houdini splicers occasionally employing a version of your Winter Blast plasmid, and the final boss (who throws various Elemental Powers projectiles).
    • Given that most of the splicers rather overdid things and went off the deep end it isn't totally surprising they just charge at you in a berserk rage.
  • City of Heroes has many arguable cases, but a clear example are Crey's Paragon Protectors, who are clones of dead heroes.
  • In Mirror's Edge, you spend most of the game being pursued by slow but heavily armed cops and SWAT soldiers. You then learn that the bad guy's master plan is to train Ninja Parkour Cops to chase and eliminate Runners at their own game. You face off against these Ninja Parkour Cops in a few of the later levels; they have the same Le Parkour skills as your own character, allowing them to pursue you across the rooftops in ways the standard cops are incapable of.
  • Ace Combat has antagonist ace squadrons who in their first appearance (at least on a first or fresh playthrough) are "boss-level" pilots flying endgame planes before they're unlocked for the player. Fortunately, if they're not invulnerable, you get plenty of points for shooting them down, regardless of difficulty and even if you're by now using the same or better planes.
  • Most enemy types in the later Wizardry series pick up spellcasting or other special abilities as you encounter higher-level varieties, which results in fire-breathing crows and psionic robots, among other things.
  • The Space Pirates that copied your beam weapon technology in Metroid Prime could be considered this. Especially since, even though they had weapons basically equivalent to yours, but eliminating the slow rate of fire you had for most of them.
  • The unit of engineered psychic soldiers encountered close to the end of Second Sight. They can use almost every single power that the protagonist has earned over the course of the game- largely because the stem cells used in their creation were extracted from both the Zener Children and the aformentioned protagonist, John Vattic. Interestingly enough, after you kill every last one of them, the Big Bad reveals that not only were the soldiers just one unit of several hundred spread across the United States, but the reason Vattic met them in the first place was to measure the strength of his powers, to justify using more of his cells in the next generation.
  • The five "Special Infected" super-zombies from Left 4 Dead. More than the usual "berserk feral ex-human trying to tear your face off", they get extensive mutations that give them long razor-claws, a tongue like a flying-catching lizard, a bladder of disorienting bile, or muscles that make them the size of a car.
  • In [[Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard]], in the last level you fight "avatars", essentially multi-player characters being controlled by the Big Bad's programming staff. They have the same abilties your character has, such as regenerating health and the ability to switch weapons. Amusingly, many of them are non-gamers, and say stuff like "which button do I press to shoot stuff?"
  • Super Mario Bros 3 had the fire-shooting Hammer Brothers that only appeared twice in the entire game; as a pair on the World 2 map, and as singleton in a World 8 Hand Trap stage. And fire-spitting Nippers in one level of World 7.
    • Super Mario World had Super Koopas—unshelled Koopa Troopas with Superman-style capes that let them fly. One stomp made them lose the capes and revert to normal.
  • Prototype gives us Hunters and Blackwatch Super Soldiers who have similar powers to Alex, in contrast with the base Infected who are all punching bags and standard Marines or Blackwatch troopers who only have weapons but no innate powers.
  • The Nazi Scribes in Wolfenstein fulfill this role, using a variety of Veil powers similar to those of the players, such as bulletproof shields and super-speed.
    • The Veil Assassins also count, though to a slightly lesser degree; they can also use the Veil, but not in as many ways as the Scribes.
  • In Famous had conduits, Elite Mooks armed with powers similar to whichever boss they happen to work under. The first set can teleport and create a traveling explosion. The second set are either heavily armored guys who spawn ankle-biters while launching rockets at you or guys who can telekinetically build a giant mecha suit out of debris. The third kind have cloaking or the ability to project a giant ghostly figure around themselves.
    • Likewise, Infamous 2 has the Vermaak 88, an entire army of mass-produced Conduit supersoldiers manufactured by the Big Bad, all equipped with a weakened portion of Kuo's An Ice Person power stolen from Kuo and transferred to them en mass.
  • By ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL, Harbinger in Mass Effect 2 can turn any of its Collectors into one of these. The Eclipse Vanguards have similar abilities to possessed drones (throwing balls of biotic energy and casting a damage absorbing barrier), but their barriers and attacks are much weaker and they lack his exploding fireballs and melee attacks. Numerous biotic enemies in the first game would also possess Throw and Warp, and in the case of Asari Commandos, Throw, Stasis, Warp, and Barrier.

Western Animation

  • In the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender, Elemental Powers are common enough that the Fire Nation and villainous members of the Earth Nation can field these guys as basic Mooks (although they also use large amounts of standard "non-powered guys with swords who charge at the protagonists and get smacked down" too).
    • Technically, all firebenders become REALLY superpowered whenever Sozin's comet is in town and when compared to other benders. Furthermore, there is really nothing superpowered when compared to a fully realized Avatar.
  • Late in the third season, the Teen Titans' current Big Bad, Brother Blood, builds a small army of copies of Cyborg, which turn out to be some of most effective mooks in the series along with Mad Mod's giant nutcracker soldier robots.
    • All of fourth season Big Bad Trigon's mooks are also superpowered demons. These die fairly easily, all told—too bad there's a literally endless supply of them...
  • Near the end of Justice League Unlimited, Cadmus sends Galatea to attack the Watchtower with an army of Ultimen clones. Although the original Ultimen had a fair amount of characterization, it's implied that the mass-produced clones have more rudimentary mental conditioning.
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