When exactly do a new set of feats take hold?

When, exactly, do new powers and abilities get firmly considered, despite evidence to the fact that they shouldn't be?

When do inconsistencies become consistent?

...When is it time to move on?

A lot of people can't decide on these, as it seems to fluctuate from character to character how hard fans will hold on to a certain set of feats and abilities. From time to time, we get something like a reboot that firmly establishes a new power level – other times, the change is gradual, yet not pointed, or just seems to come out of the blue. These latter types are a lot more likely to get called out as stupidity on the writers' ends... but when does inconsistent become consistent?

Let me skim over a few characters that have had... issues... with fluctuating power levels.

AQUAMAN: Aquaman is this article's poster child. He's gone from being mediocre-yet-superfluous, to sucking really badly, to being overly edgy yet still unimpressive, to being extremely powerful yet uninteresting, and has finally settled on being immensely tough in addition to being a very flavorful character.

And you know what happened? Everyone loved it. The newest, most physically badass Aquaman has gotten more love from fans than ever before, launching him to the status of one of DC's most popular mainline characters. Almost enough to bring a tear to your eye, isn't it? Yet it raises some questions – Aquaman's look hasn't changed. His attitude hasn't changed. His backstory hasn't changed. Is power level really that important to the popularity of a character? If so, how do characters like the Punisher ever achieve any sort of fanbase? How about...

WOLVERINE: Wolverine's power level has been absurd since his conception, yet everyone seems to pretty much accept that a Wolverine is a Wolverine is a Wolverine, except when it isn't a Wolverine (which is totally intolerable).

From the get-go, and consistently after that, Wolverine has been able to tussle with people like Hulk and Thing, every brick in between, energy-users, telekinetics, and everyone else ever and usually come out on top, or at least not looking too bad. The only exception to this rule is his own villains – if Sabretooth, Omega Red, or other specific Wolvie-centric villains get involved, suddenly everything's different and he actually plays to his pre-established power set.

Yet people tend to not overly care whether Wolverine can jump eighty feet straight up, or whether he can get ripped to pieces by a guy with swords. Wolverine's Wolverine... we've all acclimated by now. If he can fight Hulk – let him fight Hulk.

Which reminds me.

HULK: Hulk doesn't need explanations for wild fluctuations in power level! Hulk can get knocked out by Captain America if Hulk want! Hulk only have small majority of Wolverine – Hulk no mind, Hulk get him better next time! What? Hulk not afraid of Namor! Namor not been able to beat Hulk since the 1970's!

Thing is, Hulk goes from having relatively close bouts with Benjamin Grimm to thunderclapping planets out of existence. He goes from tussling with Wendigo to beating Thor's face in. Whenever he's in close proximity with Juggernaut, go ahead and flip a coin to see what happens. Not that that'll stop Hulk from pummeling Silver Surfer to goop.

Yet... because his power “increases as he gets angrier”, people tend to not much notice the fact that he's grown to a silly level of strength, they just dig it 'cause hey, he's Hulk, and Hulk is badass. Pay no heed to the fact that his level of potential anger has increased exponentially since 1962 (hey, Hulk just turned 50 not long ago – congrats Hulk!).

Though, if someone else had such a radical power increase all of a sudden, it may not necessarily be as well-received. Someone such as...

BLACK ADAM: Since he broke out of the constant struggle with Billy Batson and started establishing himself as a noble anti-hero and a part of the JSA, Teth-Adam's power level has increased exponentially. While Captain Marvel (do people really expect me to call him Shazam now? I'm not sure) and those of his ilk have always been tough cookies, they've never been anywhere near the level that Black Adam's been at over the past ten or so years.

This, however, has been received with... mixed results. While some people, fans of the character, have been “Hell yeah! Adam kicks righteous ass!”, others have found Adam's propensity for defeating seemingly everyone who comes within ten feet of him to be distasteful. Apparently doing things like blitzing Superman, backhanding a Flash, flat-out dominating the entire Justice Society, and during WW3, taking on all of DC Earth, is a bit too much of a stretch in too short an amount of time. Many people still refuse to accept that certain things he's done should even be taken seriously, regardless of whether or not they occurred or are consistent with themselves – despite not being consistent with the things Black Adam had done in the seventy years before them.

Mayhaps DC's reboot will give him a chance to re-establish himself in the image he has been attempting to establish for the past decade. We've seen that the reboot can be very helpful for that, like it was for Aquaman, and like it was for...

CHEETAH: WHAT IN THE WORLD HAPPENED TO CHEETAH?!

Now I'll be the first to admit that Cheetah is a very tough lady. She's always been able to hang with Wonder Woman (impressive on its own) and she's even shown that she's quick enough to give a challenge to Flashes. That was before the reboot.

After the reboot she became an outright beast, a Leaguebuster capable of easily taking down Superman and the rest of the team. Not only was this totally out of left field, it was her first appearance of the reboot – right off the bat they established her as a very high-tier character, not one to be taken lightly. Wonder Woman herself doesn't even seem to be a suitable adversary for her anymore, which in a way, circumvents the whole nature of the character.

And yet, what's funny, is nobody really... minded. There were no calls of Cheetah being too powerful, barely even a brief gasp of awe at the changes. It was just accepted. “Hey, Cheetah's tough as hell now – cool.” While it was not met with the abundant joy of Aquaman's change, nor the disgust of Black Adam's apparent amp, it just seemed to fizzle away as something unimportant and not worth acknowledging. Much like when the opposite happened to...

ETRIGAN: Even less of a burp (as if that were possible) occurred when Demon Knights came out, starring the Demon himself, Etrigan. Now, before the reboot, Etrigan was a force to be reckoned with, a man who could make Lobo look like he needed to work a little harder.

Yet, in Demon Knights, Etrigan was wholly... unimpressive. Now, he looked a lot cooler. His attitude was awesome. And hey, now he has wings – sweet! But what happened to his teleportation? His off-the-cuff spellcasting? Strength the likes of which can knock Superman out of orbit? Telepathy? ANYTHING?

Nope. Now Etrigan has very standard abilities... flight, fire breath, basic enhanced stats befitting his status. But he's nowhere near the demon he once was... and nobody cares.

At the beginning of this article I wondered how important power level is when applied to a character's popularity. With Aquaman it seemed to be a game-changer. Yet Etrigan's popularity didn't waver (in fact, it may have increased) when he took a severe dip in his mojo. So... what was the difference?

So, while I can go on and on with characters that seem to be a smidge inconsistent (such as Black Panther, Thor, Batman, and a heap of others) I'm going to cut this short and ask you the question. When should new feats take hold? How much does power level change a character? When do feats override on-paper abilities?

Give it a ponder.