Tricked-Out Gloves

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I love the power glove. It's so bad.

Gloves that enables the wearer to do cool stuff. It may be used as Phlebotinum Handling Equipment.

See also Power Fist (basically the weaponized brother), Tricked-Out Shoes (the shoe counterpart), Electric Joy Buzzer, Arm Cannon, and Ring of Power.

Examples of Tricked-Out Gloves include:


Anime and Manga


Comic Books

  • Goldenglove I and II from Astro City, with gloves taken from a UFO crash.
  • Emerald Gauntlet from PS238. His gloves (and those of his father) act like Green Lantern Rings.
    • Angie has a gadgeteer version. This habit (along with musical tastes) eventually resulted in being caught on extracurricular shenanigans.
  • Usually overshadowed by his utility belt, but Batman has more than a couple spare tools in his gloves. Played straight with Nightwing, who carries all his gear in pouch rings on his gloves and boots in lieu of the belt.
  • The Love Glove, a member of the second Brotherhood Of Dada in Doom Patrol has the ability to use several magical gloves from the psychadelic Glove Tree, such as the Love Glove, the Shove Glove and the Tech Glove.
  • The "Knights" of Checkmate had a number of small pouches of varying shapes built into the gauntlet on the right hand and forearm. One on the back of the hand would extend a blade, and there was another on the wrist that put a small pistol into the Knight's grasp. The left glove—in fact, the whole left sleeve—was made of a "mutant Spandex" providing reinforcement to punch things hard without breaking the Knight's bones; one of them punched through a windshield in the pilot issue, for instance.

Film

  • Possibly one of the most famous and meme-spawning examples: The Wizard (film). "I love the power glove. It's so bad."


Literature

  • Roger Zelazny seems to like this trope: Agni in Lord of Light has a glove that allows him to use the Fire Wand without burning his hand off, and Set in Creatures of Light and Darkness has a glove that, once worn, expands to cover the entire body in an armored mesh.
  • In Centaur Aisle, Smash Ogre gets a pair of metal gauntlets that drastically improves his namesake ability. They're not magical, but their solid construction allows him to apply more force. It's a very good thing he's a good guy.
  • Warden Carlos Ramirez of The Dresden Files wears a gauntlet covered in Aztec or possibly Olmec pictograms. He uses it as a focus for a shield spell, like Harry's bracelet.


Live Action TV


Music Videos

  • Yet another Power Glove appearance: in the music video for "Na Na Na" by My Chemical Romance, the Killjoys wield Power Gloves and laser blasters.


Oral Tradition

  • Thor's iron gloves from Norse mythology, needed to handle Mjolnir.


Professional Wrestling

  • There is/was the "Coal Miner's Glove" Gimmick Match, where said glove was on a pole (or hidden in one of several boxes). If you got the glove you could put it on and hit your opponent with it. Presumably that's better than just hitting them with your fist.
    • Even a "normal" glove allows you to punch harder by reducing the damage to the skin on your knuckles, and thus the pain.


Tabletop RPG

  • Dungeons & Dragons has had many magical gauntlets and gloves over the years with a variety of powers.
    • As well as a few spells—Gauntlet ('wall of force'-like impenetrable glove), Khidell's Glamour Glove (protection vs. contact poisons and magic).


Video Games

  • The Legend of Zelda series had several of these:
    • A Link to the Past had the Power Glove, enabling you to lift white rocks, and the Titan's Mitt, enabling you to lift black rocks. Both are required to access certain areas.
    • Ocarina of Time had the Silver Gauntlets, allowing you to lift rocks and move large blocks; and the Golden Gauntlets, allowing you to lift and throw aside huge rock pillars.
    • Oracle of Ages had the Power Glove, an upgrade to the Power Bracelet allowing big blue statues to be lifted.
    • Oracle of Seasons and Four Swords had the Magnetic Gloves, allowing you to attract or repel magnetized objects.
    • The Minish Cap had the Mole Mitts, allowing you to dig rapidly through earth.
    • Skyward Sword had Digging Mitts and Mogma Mitts used for digging.
  • BioShock (series) 2: the Hack Tool does Exactly What It Says on the Tin, in addition to deploying sentries.
  • Precis from Star Ocean: The Second Story has one attached to her backpack.
    • Pickpocketing gloves.
  • The Time Manipulation Device in Singularity.
  • Ratchet gets several gloves that dispense different projectiles, from bombs to mines to automated turrets.
  • The Wraithguard gauntlet from The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind lets you handle Kagrenac's tools.
  • RuneScape has several kinds of special gloves like basic ice gloves needed to pick up some of the hot items.
  • Team Fortress 2 has a few of these:
    • The Heavy's Gloves of Running Urgently increases movement speed.
    • The Engineer's Gunslinger is a glove that replaces his normal hand with a robot glove and ability to deploy mini-sentries.
  • The Oni Gauntlet from Onimusha series, most notably 1 and 3. It allows you to absorb souls.
  • One of the cinematic trailers for Overwatch involved an attempt to steal a villain's power glove from the Overwatch museum.

Webcomics

  • Van Von Hunter: Van's sidekick obtains a pair of "Gloves of Lifting", which allows her to lift almost any load. She doesn't get any other physical capabilities you would find related to such strength (she can't punch, throw, push or crush with super-strength), just lifting. Although lifting things and then dropping them on opponents is an option.


Web Original

  • Suburban Knights revolves around the search for the Gauntlet of Malachite, which is supposed to have magical powers, although The Nostalgia Critic just wants to sell it. However the glove itself is meaningless, the important thing is the gem on it, which allows one to use magic without penalty. In fact when they actually find it the gem has been moved... onto a Power Glove. Complete with Shout-Out.


Western Animation