Wasn't Nick Grey from X-Men suffering the same thing too? Despite being the most powerful telepath, Mr Sinister programmed him with a killswitch. As long as he uses his powers, he would have been dead by 21.
But he shut off his abilities, thereby preventing his death.
Grant Morrison also came up with the Skrull Kill Krew.
Technically, the use of their powers didn't kill them, but they obtained their abilities by consuming the flesh of Skrulls (who had been brainwashed by the Fanstastic 4 into assuming the form of cows, and then accidentally shipped to a slaughterhouse) which transferred some of the Skrull's adaptable DNA code into their own cells, resulting in a condition eerily similar to bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
The end result was a team of dying half-crazy superheros with increasingly irrational impulses to seek out and destroy every Skrull they could lay their (extremely well armed) hands on.
A slight variant, perhaps topic for another post sometime, is objects of power that eventually destroy their users. Elric comes to mind, along with many others.
I think I enjoyed how Heroes made the first episode of this season more like a comic book. We will find out if anyone else liked it if it does not get canceled before the end of the season.
Oh please not another time-travel-causes-nose-bleeds cliche. There's a reason I stopped watching that show. Couldn't they at least have come up with something original, like ear-bleeds, or navel-bleeds, or something?!
@Pope John Peeps II: Was it? I thought the tumor was from the also Steven King written Dead Zone, and the psychic powers in Firestarter were engineered but caused hemmhorages.
@braak: Psychic powers in Firestarter did cause hemmhorages, but the kid's father was a psychic who could impose his thoughts on others. And in the book, this was called "pushing".
Marvel had a comic back in the 80s called "Strikeforce Moritiri"...or something like that. The people volunteered to get powers but a year later they would die. Earth I guess was being attacked by aliens and that was the only way to combat the aliens. What price victory eh?
Chris Clairemont's current ongoing alt universe series "X-Men Forever" plays with this concept.
It was recently revealed that mutants still need some more evolving to do; As it is, mutant biology is still too weak and similar to humans' to compliment all of their new powers, so each time they use their powers it effectively destabilizes their biology and shortens their life (Wolverine's healing abilites negated this though).
A sub-category would be the superheroes who's power stem from some malign entity (usually trapped in some ancient artefact or pocket dimension) who grows a little bit stronger every time they use their powers.
The Candlemaker inhabited the mind of the ape-faced girl, Dorothy Spinner, from Doom Patrol, and grants her three wishes, but warns her that after the third wish he will be set free.
After using her third and final wish to resurrect a murdered teammate, The Candlemaker grants her wish... but then immediately disintegrates the resurrected Clay, and proceeds to decapitated Niles Caulder and "kill" Cliff Steele!
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But he shut off his abilities, thereby preventing his death.
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09/28/09
Technically, the use of their powers didn't kill them, but they obtained their abilities by consuming the flesh of Skrulls (who had been brainwashed by the Fanstastic 4 into assuming the form of cows, and then accidentally shipped to a slaughterhouse) which transferred some of the Skrull's adaptable DNA code into their own cells, resulting in a condition eerily similar to bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
The end result was a team of dying half-crazy superheros with increasingly irrational impulses to seek out and destroy every Skrull they could lay their (extremely well armed) hands on.
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09/28/09
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Add in though, GinRei from the Giant Robo OAV series. She's a teleporter whose life (and molecular structure) weaken with every jump.
Also consider the entire cast of Strikeforce: Morituri, [already mentioned below.]
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Really? Losts still great, despite the nose-bleeds, you should have stuck with it.
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09/29/09
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09/28/09
It was recently revealed that mutants still need some more evolving to do; As it is, mutant biology is still too weak and similar to humans' to compliment all of their new powers, so each time they use their powers it effectively destabilizes their biology and shortens their life (Wolverine's healing abilites negated this though).
09/28/09
09/28/09
The Candlemaker inhabited the mind of the ape-faced girl, Dorothy Spinner, from Doom Patrol, and grants her three wishes, but warns her that after the third wish he will be set free.
After using her third and final wish to resurrect a murdered teammate, The Candlemaker grants her wish... but then immediately disintegrates the resurrected Clay, and proceeds to decapitated Niles Caulder and "kill" Cliff Steele!