As has been mentioned by Jab, Chuck's a great example of a "team player hero". The more powerful Legionnaires can fight at pretty much any level, but Chuck CAN fight effectively on his own, he really shines when he has teammates to play off of. He's a good example of a "Byrne/Claremont" X-Men or "Wolfman/Perez" Titan level hero on a team that has several alien demi-gods, the galaxy's greatest martial artist, the smartest person in the known universe, one of the galaxy's greatest telepaths, someone who can transmute the elements, etc. So instead of trying to operate on their level, he instead works with the other lower heroes to increase their effectiveness.
Then again, I think there's kind of a misconception about how "skilled" heroes are. I actually think that, in some cases, the high powered heroes are roughly as skilled the lower powered ones, it's just that their focus and effort go into different areas. Less powerful heroes have abilities that max out at a certain point, so they have to focus on getting as much out of their power as they can and finding other ways to contribute to the team, such as non-combat skills, clever tactics, gadgets and the like. Conversely, high powered characters have to put all of their "skill points" into learning how to master and control their powers. I mean, I have to imagine it does take time and effort for the higher level guys to attain the kind of control and precision over their powers that they do, figure out how much Heat Vision will knock someone out and how much will kill them, how to use your super speed without crashing into stuff, how to fly effectively, etc.
So it's less that they aren't skilled and aren't team players, its just all of their skill goes into making sure their lightning blasts are completely under control and figuring out how to use their fire powers to fly. Meanwhile the less powerful types have more time they can focus on non-power related skills, which makes them better at various other things. So it all balances out.
Plus I like the idea that if Clark Kent had grown up with no superpowers, he still might have gone out and gotten trained to the point where he could be Captain America.
Likewise, I thought they did a great job with Chuck in that show. Plus the idea of making him the best pilot on the Legion is kind of brilliant, given his ability to juggle vectors and other such things.Woodclaw wrote: ↑Mon Apr 16, 2018 8:23 pm Personally I really liked the animated incarnation of Chuck mostly because at some point the writers realized that his powers were not his biggest contribution to the team, he was way more effective as the resident pilot, backup engineer and, later, field commander.
My own head-cannon for the source of his power is that the guy he worked for found an old case of the Gingold soda that gave Elongated Man, but the stuff was so old that certain aspects had become diluted while others became more concentrated. When Chuck drank it, it gave him a level of enhanced durability and elasticity, but not enough to stretch or similar things. But he did figure out through trial and error how to take his familiar sphere shape, realized his bouncy nature, and set to work making that work for him. The rest is history.