Pie Man to the Rescue: 13-plus One-off TV Superheroes

It’s difficult to design a superhero that can sustain a series of comic books or his/her own TV show. But when they’re a guest star, any superhero can be interesting. The weirdest, dumbest, most obscure superpower will do for just one appearance. And TV shows have taken advantage of that tim sand time again. Do you remember Turkey Volume Guessing Man from MST3K?

Some heroes are born from tragedy, some are born from freak accidents, and some are born from watching a phenomenally stupid movie. In season eight of Mystery Science Theater 3000, the liberal use of “turkey” (twice) as an insult in the film Riding With Death led Crow T. Robot to realize his true potential as “Turkey Volume Guessing Man.” His power is the ability to take any given space and translate it to a poultry-based measurement system, guessing how many turkeys it would take to fill the room. It’s an ability he readily admits is completely useless in real life and that isolates him from the world at large, “although women are drawn to me, for my powers are fascinating.”

There are a lot more stories just as strange, from shows ranging from L.A. Law to The Simpsons in this list from the A.V. Club.