: Re: How can I handle a powerful mentor character without killing them off? I'm writing a book series that involves people with various superpowers. One of these characters and is more or less the

@Gretchen741

Your Mentor is disabled, or Aging, or suffering an identity crisis, or...
You can continue to keep your superhero mentor "in the game," so to speak, but reduce his capacities through whatever means you choose. Professor Xavier has OP abilities, but has suffered disabilities that mean he's not up to being the front-line slugger he otherwise could be. Perhaps in that last battle with Dr. E. Ville he (fill in the blank - picked up an alien virus that renders him emotionally erratic) suffered permanent injury that can't be healed conventionally or unconventionally. He's still alive, like a grandfather, but isn't up to going out and doing the work that must be done. If he tried to, he would risk death in a very real way.
Alzheimer's or a related senility problem adds a risky dimension, as the mentor begins to mistake heroes or even villains for long-dead colleagues. He may reveal things to the hero (thinking the hero is really long-dead Mr. Amazing) that would otherwise be kept hidden. The mentor's team loves and respects him, yet shelters him from the painful realities of his decline.
People have undergone radical personality changes as a result of serious injury, and your mentor may retain the memories of his former self but the meteor that hit him in the head caused him to pathologically steal, or have uncontrollable fits of rage. The superhero team may spend as much time keeping the mentor out of trouble as getting any help from him. If you absolutely need the mentor, he's there. But think of how much of Spider Man's story is tied up with school, work, and Aunt Mae. The storyline of a superhero is BORING if all he does is battle invincible villains.
So the infirmities of you mentor are a golden opportunity to make your characters really three-dimensional in very personal ways people can relate to. Everyone has a grandparent who doesn't want to go the the nursing home, or the cousin with schizophrenia, and that family member that always needs help with something (sometimes because of bad choices, other times just by dumb bad luck).

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