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They Were Holding Back @thwehoba.bsky.social · 1d

Hammerhead never meaningfully staggered or withstood the full power of Ben during this run. He was simply disillusioned by how comparatively long he lasted while amped up with artificial superpowers.

Source: The Thing (2025) Issues 3-5

They Were Holding Back @thwehoba.bsky.social · 15d

They knew that killing the Teen Titans would lead to murderous retribution from the Justice League instead of the usual, measured response they could exploit.

So they just stood around "charging" their powers until the effect wore off.

They Were Holding Back @thwehoba.bsky.social · 15d

Jon didn't really break out of a temporal anomaly with brute force.

These child murderers were putting on a front so as not to be punished by their boss.

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They Were Holding Back @thwehoba.bsky.social · 22d

Therefore, even lowballing it, Batman should be able to move and perceive at a moderately FTL pace.

Thus; he saw the wave of the EMP coming and simply decided to tank the ensuing crash in order to lure the Joker in.

They Were Holding Back @thwehoba.bsky.social · 22d

This crash was just an elaborate gambit to draw the Joker in close.

The logic is simple:

While significantly weaker, Bruce can still keep up with the rest of the Justice League in melee.

The average JL Member combat speed/perception is massively FTL. (cont.)

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They Were Holding Back @thwehoba.bsky.social · 29d

Spider-Man is massively hypersonic (Mach 25+) and has precognition capable of anticipating teleportation.

Him getting slammed here is just a result of Miles' renowned imposter syndrome, amplified by being near a high school, debuffing him.

Source: Miles Morales Spider-Man Issue 32

They Were Holding Back @thwehoba.bsky.social · Sep 22

Source: Legends of the Dark Knight #142-145

They Were Holding Back @thwehoba.bsky.social · Sep 22

The Joker let Talia kill him here. As we all know, he has nearly infinite pain tolerance and physicals on par with Batman, enabling him to easily dodge bullets.

The clown prince of crime simply thought it would be funny to see Batman use a valuable, magic artifact to revive his sworn enemy.

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They Were Holding Back @thwehoba.bsky.social · Sep 22

The powerstone actually did not affect Thor's weapon here, as it already has infinite power.

Mjolnir just felt like exploding at that moment as a flex.

Source: The Immortal Thor Annual 1

Reposted by They Were Holding Back

kris anka @kristaferanka.bsky.social · Aug 5

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They Were Holding Back @thwehoba.bsky.social · Jul 17

May it win many more awards in the future.

They Were Holding Back @thwehoba.bsky.social · Mar 14

#flash
Barry just felt bad for Deathstroke here.

With guns trained on his location and an angry speedster literally around the corner, his only recourse was to try something straight out of Looney Tunes.

So, why not pretend to let it trip him? Not like it'd hurt.

They Were Holding Back @thwehoba.bsky.social · Mar 11

#darkseid
Mr. Freeze did not authentically defeat Darkseid here.

The god of Fascism & Tyranny felt a mild appreciation for Victor's use of the excuse of his wife's peril to rule over and terrify others. Thus, he changed the biology of his avatar, enabling the blast to depower him for a short time.

They Were Holding Back @thwehoba.bsky.social · Mar 7

#flash
Being a scientist, the Flash was just curious about the biological effects of a bullet going through the heart of someone traveling at super speed.

Otherwise, he would have dodged as soon as it broke the first layer of his skin, as he had done multiple times before.

The Flash is saying there's nothing he can do after he LETS a bullet pierce his heart.

They Were Holding Back @thwehoba.bsky.social · Mar 3

#thanos

Thanos knows that Stark Industries has close ties to the US Gov. and both are likely to know where any Infinity Stones on earth are located.

By letting himself be arrested and put into federal custody he has gotten closer to his goal without needing to fight the Avengers.

Thanos on his way to infiltrate the US Government or Stark Industries, whichever comes first.

They Were Holding Back @thwehoba.bsky.social · Feb 27

#Thor
The thunder god meant that Wolverine was spiritually faster, as a warrior.

Given the ease with which he flies into a battle rage.

Wolverine dodging a strike from Thor and countering with his own.

They Were Holding Back @thwehoba.bsky.social · Feb 24

#ironman

Tony could have just flooded May’s body with nanobots to suture up all of her injuries without the need for intense or risky surgery.

He sent his butler with a fake name and 2 mill instead to avoid having his tech seen helping out the family of a criminal. (It’d cause a PR disaster.)

Jarvis pretends to grieve even though he knows full well that Iron Man could heal Aunt May.

They Were Holding Back @thwehoba.bsky.social · Feb 23

#spiderman
Rhino just felt bad about kidnapping Peter’s daughter in this scene.

So he rolled with the punches and faked being unconscious as a token of apology.

The blood? Ketchup packets on the table that Spider-Man overlooked.

Spider-Man beats up the Rhino and accidentally pops many ketchup packets.

They Were Holding Back @thwehoba.bsky.social · Feb 2

#spiderman
Spider-Man has previously been able to dodge and recover even after being hit by the likes of the Hulk, Captain Marvel, and Sentry.

He purposely didn’t dodge here because otherwise, the arc of the swing would have hit the fleeing civilians.

They Were Holding Back @thwehoba.bsky.social · Jan 29

#spiderman
Peter could have just ripped off Rhino’s arm here. As established in the Superior Spider-Man run, he is several times stronger than his rouges gallery.

It’s just that the shockwaves produced from the force necessary to maim someone like Rhino would have killed Sabel anyway.

They Were Holding Back @thwehoba.bsky.social · Jan 24

#FantasticFour
In keeping with his history of surviving black holes and star-level heat; Taskmaster's blaster did nothing to Reed here.

Mentally and physically exhausted from the events of Civil War, Mr Fantastic just so happened to collapse at the exact moment the beam hit him.

Ben Grimm's blasé response to seeing Reed fall also confirms how non-fatal this situation really was. Sue was still mad, of course. Lethal or not, no one likes seeing their husband get shot.

They Were Holding Back @thwehoba.bsky.social · Jan 20

#spiderman

Little do people know; Peter holding back applies to all of his powers, not just his strength.

So while going through his own home of course he only had street-tier durability up.

Spider-man confused as to how his powers work.

They Were Holding Back @thwehoba.bsky.social · Jan 18

#catwoman
Poison Ivy was holding back here because she was charmed by Catwoman’s startling beauty. (A common affliction among gay, super-powered women in Gotham City.)

She even went so far as to have her spore-controlled Flash-es run at Selina one at a time.

Useless Lesbianism causing low superspeed performance.

They Were Holding Back @thwehoba.bsky.social · Jan 14

#thor
Thor was larping here.

This is evidenced by his seeming inability to dodge someone far slower than him who even gave a verbal warning.

It would have been unsportsmanlike to abuse his FTL reaction time after Rhino put in so much preparation and work for this charge.

Thor playing the role of an arrogant villain.

Rhino delivering his punch line. It was a little cringe but the others are kind enough to not laugh.

They Were Holding Back @thwehoba.bsky.social · Jan 10

#captainamerica
Captain America could have easily disabled this mech without using hostages, as evidence by him once defeating Rhino, a person in the same weight class as the Hulk.

He just wanted to be able to start signing autographs immediately after a fight for once.