While having overpowered abilities certainly makes a supervillain's job easier, Ririka Umezawa from Sui Ishida's new Choujin X manga, illustrates how sometimes the simplest and most unassuming power can be devastatingly effective in taking out even the most powerful superheroes.
Ririka, who is also known as the "Paper Cutout Choujin", has the awesomely deadly ability to transform anything she touches into a paper-based representation of itself. Once transformed, however, the paper objects retain the same characteristics and traits they originally had. She can make an axe into a paper image that in her hands, will still be able to chop wood. Additionally, she also has the ability to make a paper object, and imbue it with the "real world" attributes normally associated with it.
The series Choujin X has consistently reinvented shonen tropes, and chapter 18 is no exception. In the chapter, Ririka makes a paper airplane that allows her to fly, and pursue her opponents with ease. While her ability to use paper in an offensive manner is impressive, the more notable characteristic of her power is when she uses it defensively. On the one hand, she can use her powers to avoid harm by making herself as thin as a sheet of paper but still retain the force of her fists, arms, legs, and feet just as if she was in human form. Conversely, if Ririka is close enough to touch an opponent she can immediately transform them into a paper cutout of themselves. Accordingly, any physical attacks launched by an opponent against her would be as effective as hitting her with a piece of paper. Later in the chapter, after engaging in an intense battle, she subdues Ely and a transformed Tokio. To ensure that Tokio comes along without any further disruptions, Ririkia converts him into a life-sized paper image of himself. She then folds him up in the shape of an envelope, puts him in her pocket, and walks off with no one the wiser. While Tokio retains his ability to see, hear, think and feel, he is nevertheless under Ririka's complete control until he is "unfolded" and thereby released from his confinement.
This ability is an effective way for the Papercut Choujin to easily dismiss an opponent that not only eliminates the threat they pose but also keeps them under her control. Like a record or CD collection, she could keep a library of her vanquished foes in a folder on her desk. She could also use their new form in other ways. To extract information for an opponent, she could the folded one in the oven and turn up the heat until they talk. Most impressively, this would make her pretty much indestructible in a battle against almost any superhero. Superman or Hulk's punches lose much of their impact when their fists are made of paper.
While many manga and comics focus on the raw strength of their fighters, characters like Ririka show that creative powers are often more interesting than their straightforward counterparts. It is a simple ability that makes Ririka Umezawa one of Choujin X's most dangerous characters.