I refer to this as "The Explaining Disease." The corrosive compulsion of a writer to explain how something works when it couldn't be less relevant to the story, couldn't be of less interest to the reader, and when the only rational explanation is a tautology.

"How does Sue Storm see, when her retinas don't absorb light?"

"Because her retinas are able to function despite the fact that they don't absorb light."

Yet, unfortunately, the ARE a lot of readers who really DO want to dot all the lower case Js. I recall a fan at MidOhioCon one year, who asked me what KIND of spider bit Peter Parker. He seemed most disappointed when I told him it didn't matter, since ALL North American spiders are venomous to some degree.

Marvel and DC have been equally guilty in encouraging this. Part of the steady march toward the books being wholly in the control of fans-turned-pro. (And, yes, I freely confess I have fallen victim to this kind of thinking from time to time -- tho happily not for quite a while.)

I've mentioned before one writer I know who used to be one of the best in the Biz, but who slid slowly and inexorably down that slope, until it seemed he actually could not write at all unless he was EXPLAINING something.

Comics are not alone in this, of course. I've watched STAR TREK stumble down the same path.

Superpowers are almost always the Maguffin of any comic book story. Sue Storm would be the exact same character if you changed her superpower to "can phase through solid objects" but left everything else alone. But! If she had the same invisibility powers and suddenly couldn't care less about her family, she would no longer be "The Invisible Woman." 

A good story is never about the powers; it's about the person. And that's why it's a huge waste of time to try to peel the onion of why powers work, or how many Avengers a quinjet can carry.

"A good story is never about the powers; it's about the person. And that's why it's a huge waste of time to try to peel the onion of why powers work, or how many Avengers a quinjet can carry."

Which is why, aside from the pretty pictures, the average issue of OFFICIAL HANDBOOK OF THE MARVEL UNIVERSE or WHO'S WHO bored me to tears as a kid.

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Defining powers should come down to what they CAN'T do, rather than HOW they do what they CAN do. Writer's should avoid the DOCTOR WHO standard trope of "This can never happen -- except this once."

I very much approved of the (mostly ignored) original idea behind these books, as a handy reference for finding out how a character's powers worked or what their costumes looked like, and to prevent the creation of redundant characters -- but, well, neither series really turned out to be much use there. WHO'S WHO, in fact, by insisting on "dramatic" scenes of the characters, instead of the OHOTUMU style model shots, rendered it virtually useless for getting costume details. One of the reasons that I, when asked to do illos for WHO'S WHO, tried to stick to fairly standardized poses.