When you think of the word “superhero,” you inevitably think of power and superpowers by extension. And if you ever think of superpowers, you inevitably imagine super strength, energy bolts, telekinesis, and other powers that are mostly for offense versus defense. But there are several superheroes out there who not only have defensive powers but protective and healing ones as well.
We’re not referring to heroes famous for their almost instantaneous healing factors, like Wolverine, Deadpool, and Superman. We mean those who can heal others as well as themselves. Here are four famous superheroes with healing powers that go beyond basic life support and CPR skills!
Raven
This young empath, best known for her affiliation with the Teen Titans in all their incarnations, has magic-based powers. They permit her to fly and float, separate her soul from her body to perform reconnaissance and engage in combat, cast bolts of power, and more. In the great powers that suck category, Raven can heal others, but only by momentarily taking on the pains and injuries suffered by those she restores to good health. As such, she uses that power sparingly.
Iron Fist
One of Marvel’s top martial artists, Iron Fist was trained to be an unstoppable fighting machine in the mystical extradimensional city of K’un-Lun. Beyond his martial arts skills, Iron Fist can harness his chi, or internal life energy source, to imbue his fists with incredible power, allowing him to take on larger and more powerful opponents. But Iron Fist isn’t just a fighter; he’s a healer as well and has been shown summoning his chi to heal others as the occasion calls for it.
Silver Surfer
The third of our four famous superheroes with healing powers started out as a villain, albeit a conflicted one. When Norrin Radd’s planet came under attack by world-eating villain Galactus, Norrin volunteered to act as his herald if he spared his own planet. Granted the power cosmic and turned into the Silver Surfer by Galactus, he guided Big G to other worlds. While trying to find planets capable of supporting life but not harboring intelligent beings, he nevertheless ended up on Earth. Seeing that humans had the potential to be great, he rebelled and was fired by Galactus. Eventually, he soared through the cosmos on his board, righting wrongs and, in one case, using the power cosmic to cure an entire planet of a plague.
Zatanna Zatara
Stage magician by day, superhero and Justice Leaguer by night (and by day as well sometimes), Zatanna is one of the most powerful sorcerers in the DC universe. Speaking backward to cast her spells, Zatanna can do almost anything, from changing the weather to moving things that weigh hundreds of tons to traveling through other dimensions and more. Naturally, healing is a simple matter for her, bringing someone back from the brink of death by casting a healing spell. Or would that be a lleps gnilaeh?
