Brainwave's powers and abilities
Powers and Abilities
Both King Sr. and Jr. have a variety of mental powers. King Sr. was originally much stronger, but upon his death, he somehow passed his powers on to his son, vastly increasing King Jr.'s power level.
Chief among their powers is telepathy. Both are able to dominate many minds at once and cause people to see illusions, or even have complete control over them. Proximity seems key to the effectiveness of this power, even though it had no defined range. King Jr. mentioned how even strong wills could not resist him when he was right next to them. While many telepaths filter out the thoughts of others, King Jr. allows the millions of minds he constantly comes across to flow freely through his mind.
Lesser-used powers of the Kings include telekinesis, the creation of realistic three-dimensional holograms, and the ability to fire blasts of psionic energy.
According to Doctor Mid-Nite, Hank King's formidable telepathic powers are a result of mutations in his brain. Specifically, Hank's extra sensory perception has been attributed to a mysterious growth on the side of his inferior colliculus. In addition, there is an abnormal mass of nerve fibers leading from the auditory cortex to the unnamed growth. Hank's telepathic powers have demonstrated the following applications:
Brain Blast
Hank vs Alan Scott
Hank has demonstrated the ability to project powerful bursts of psionic energy from his mind that he calls 'brain blasts'. In Infinity Inc. #2, Alan Scott tried to subdue Hank by using his powers to create handcuffs. King wasn't actually trying to incite a fight in this instance, and simply wanted to be heard. His brain blast shattered the green handcuffs, and caused Alan Scott to blackout. After the fact, Hank mentioned that he didn't mean to zap him that hard. In time, the JSA heard him out, but just in time for the Ultra-Humanite to project himself from an astral dimension and knock Brainwave II and all of the JSAers out telepathically. A few issues later in Infinity Inc. #10, Hank received the upgrade that he still has currently. In a rematch with the Ultra-Humanite, Hank demonstrated that his brain blast was powerful enough to K.O. the brain swapping gorilla.
Telepathy
Brainwave's telepathy
Brainwave's telepathy excels especially in the area of hearing and processing the thoughts of those around him. While many telepaths filter out the thoughts of others, King Jr. allows seemingly countless minds flow freely through his mind at any given moment. The number of minds he can filter at one time is of an order of magnitude that goes into the billions. In Millennium #5, a large collection of heroes had been capturing Manhunters on Earth. In order to take every precaution in locating human sleeper agents amongst the Manhunter ranks, Hank pushed his telepathy to the limit and could not find more than a handful of them left anywhere on Earth. He also identified one of the Manhunters as the Harlequin. In JSA #57, Brainwave showed no problem reading Black Adam's private thoughts to the point where the former champion of Shazam became very defensive.
Illusion Casting
In Green Lantern and Sentinel #1, Hank was being held in an Asylum belonging to Alan Scott. The onetime Country Estate that used to be owned by a wealthy industrialist in the 19th century was converted into a facility specifically designed to contain Brainwave. When Alan Scott and Kyle Rayner visited King in his cell and began pressing him about the whereabouts of Jade, the powerful telepath became unhinged. King trapped both Kyle and Alan in illusions based on their inner demons. For Kyle, his prison was created by having to face his abandonment issues during his formative years as a result of never getting to know his father who was away in the military. Alan Scott's paralyzing illusion focused more on feelings of inadequacy connected to his old age that he has managed to conceal from the outside world, and his failure as a father to protect his daughter, Jenny.
Mind Control
Hank vs Captain Marvel
Hank's mind control ability has proven to be rather efficient in subjugating the will of peoples' minds, and as such, played a very key role during the Black Reign story arc when he was the host for Mr. Mind. In JSA #58, despite commenting about how, "crumbling the Wisdom of Solomon will not be easy", he got Captain Marvel to change back into Billy Batson by forcing him to say, 'Shazam!' In JSA #56, while taking part in an invasion of Kahndaq, Hank wrested control of an army with his psionic power and forced them to kill each other with their automatic weapons. In Green Lantern #151, during the story 'Brother's Keeper', city wide hysteria broke out in downtown Manhattan. It was soon revealed in Green Lantern #152 that Brainwave was behind the riot. Broadcasts claimed that approximately 3000 people were affected, and that a quarantine had been set up over a 10 block radius to contain the war zone. Kyle Rayner also discovered Jade curled up in a ball reduced to catatonic murmuring, and Alan Scott suddenly being used as an extension of Hank's will to mete out his revenge.
Telekinesis
Brainwave's powers allow him to generate considerable amounts of physical force. In Infinity Inc. #2, while the JSA was surrounding him, he telekinetically slammed Wonder Woman into Hourman, and prevented Dr. Midnite's smokescreen from dispersing. Eventually, Jay Garrick entered the fray, and tripped Hank. This provided an opening for Atom, Hawkman, Dr. Midnight, and Hourman to try and gang-beat the intruder. However, once King was at the bottom of a dogpile, he shoved them into the air, prompting Hourman to describe the experience by saying 'He tossed us off like so many fleas'.
Levitation
While Hank was time hopping at one point in his history, he ended up in World War 2. Among other things, he used the four years there to practice levitation with his telekinesis. In Infinity Inc. #6, he demonstrated the ability to levitate in the air as if he was surfing. He was fast and maneuverable enough to evade the Ultra-Humanite's heat seeking missile droids.
Astral Combat
Since defeating the Ultra-Humanite in the astral dimension called Limbo, and receiving his father's ability added to his own, Hank has shown considerable mastery outside the physical plane. While deadlocked with Maxima in Extreme Justice #18 both mentalists are considered to be "two of the most powerful psychics on Earth". Whatever Hank lacks in experience and discipline among his peers, he makes up for it with raw power, and sometimes intimidating madness.
Thought Projection
As part of the power passed on to him by his father while dying Hank like his father can project his thoughts three dimensionally and can create solid constructs. His father used these constructs to actually commit crimes for him. Henry used these to interact on his behalf when he wished to be elsewhere.
SOURCE WIKIPEDIA AND COMIC VINE.
