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-   -   If you could have any superpower... (http://www.oddworldforums.net/showthread.php?t=16895)

kin37ik 04-20-2008 03:26 PM

If you could have any superpower...
 
ok, heres another fo you.

if you could have any super power, what super power would it be?

Mac Sirloin 04-20-2008 07:19 PM

Orifice Lasers.

Or super Strength, and I'll tell you why.

The Power of flight isn't all it's cracked up ro be, seeing as how you need to super speed to FLY at super speed, Super Strength seems like an obvious alternative. Super strength allows you to lift far more than your body weight, meaning that you could do exactly what the hulk does and leap incredible distances by harnessing the power of your velocity and strength.
Meaning, that if you kept jumping (and assuming you had more or less infinite strength and incredible endurance) you could jump fast and far enough to launch yourself into space.
Super strength is also a bit more threatening than other powers since you could punch or kick fast anbd hard enough to break atoms and cause a nuclear explosion at your whim.

Some people say that Telekinesis is the way to go, but think about it-being capable of entering someone else's mind and lifting objects with it are easily compromised when you simply BLAST a telekinetic with information. lifting yourself would be dangerous as well, considering that losing focus would possibly mean concentrating on a certain body part and beheading or castrating yourself.
And how do you know that cellphones won't pick up on your thoughts?

This is why Super Strength can beat telekinesis, you could just clap your hands very hard and completely through someone off.

Bullet Magnet 04-20-2008 08:09 PM

Superpowers are not limited to one or two word keywords. You can easily describe the effects and limitations you want.

Besides, flight came with supersonic speeds in Heroes, and telekinesis has nothing to do with reading or broadcasting thoughts. Clearly something must be transmitted to project forces onto the environment around you, but unless your thoughts are translated into digitally encoded information and broadcasted on precise microwave frequencies, I don't think you need to worry about cellphones. It also sounds like the kind of power that would become instinctive with practice. After all, you don't have to focus to coordinate walking, do you?

As for initiating nuclear reactions by sheer force of muscle, remember that you would be colliding the atoms that make up your own body. If nucleic fusion/fission were even possible in this way, you would be causing yourself to go nuclear, and no amount of physical strength is going to save you from the transmutation of your very atoms.

Or indeed, the freezing cold, explosive decompression and frazzling solar radiation of open space.



I would actually like both flight and telekinesis. And/or some fire, plasma or electrical blasting ability. The latter are cool, but not very constructive, which is why I like to throw a bit of teke into the mix. Indoor-unfriendly superpowers like these do not tnd to be very helpful without some nemesis to combat. And of course, there'll be mandatory collateral damage, and secret identities do not work nearly as well in real life.

The real problem, of course, is where the energy harnessed by superpowers comes from. Conservation of energy and mass is rarely observed by comic books. Spider-man gets through his own weight in webbing after just a few swings. I mean, I would like these powers, but this would just really bug me. I'd feel obliged to offer myself to be studied by scientists to determine just what the hey is going on, which makes masked vigilantism all the more difficult. I'd really not want to be labelled as a demon nor messiah by religious types, and certainly don't want to become an inspiration for new-agey psychokinesis practitioners.

skillyaslig 04-20-2008 10:29 PM

*sees Bullet Magnets post* Umm...rock on? Hmm, you would be sorted, eh?
I would bring;
Hair brush, get those tangels out,
Harpoon, to catch seagulls
And, last but not least, a Volleyball I would call Winson.

OddjobAbe 04-20-2008 11:05 PM

I thought it was 'Wilson'?

Mac Sirloin 04-21-2008 12:10 PM

I never said that breaking atomd with sheer force wouldn't cimplicate things for myself, did I?

Mojo 04-21-2008 12:34 PM

Telekinesis. Oh yes, I would make myself fly at hypersonic speed, with only my mind.

Chubfish 04-21-2008 01:02 PM

I would become Superfish, and rule the world with powers undescribeable.

Nate 04-21-2008 01:05 PM

I would be Anything Man and if anyone gets that obscure reference they will win +100 rep.

Strike Witch 04-21-2008 01:07 PM

Uh, some comic dude who had powers over animal science?

Bullet Magnet 04-21-2008 01:15 PM

Animal science? That was just his field. He could overcome any threat present with any amount of force. At least while he had the omegathingy.

Anonyman! 04-21-2008 01:21 PM

Control over gravity and similar physics. You can't fucking beat that. What I mean is being able to "turn off" gravity in a small area, or enforcing it. Imagine creating a small dimension of space where Newton's theories could be actively tested without gravity, air resistance, and such nonsense. And of course it is hard to do anything if you could instantly get zero g sickness or be crushed under the weight of the local atmosphere. Ah...

Wings of Fire 04-21-2008 01:30 PM

For some really odd reason my post ended up in another thread, which meant I had to edit said post and look slightly like a moron.

Oh well.

The power to have and use a Green Lantern ring.

That dude could kick Supe's ass any day.

Zerox 04-21-2008 01:32 PM

A number of things have occurred in my mind, but I seem incapable of settling on a particular one. The ones of interest to me are:

Super speed, perhaps as a person enhanced with electrical energy, which increases the speed of nerve impulses, as well as being able to use the body's energy to create electrical energy to...zap people. And stuff. A combination of both seems a good idea to me. One of my favorite ideas (BM?)

Telekinetic abilities. I believe these may operate almost as easily as moving your own arm. It would use a fair amount of energy, but not hard to do. Moving objects, people, self (flight, maybe other abilities could cause this too. I think flight as a stand-alone ability wouldn't be so great), energy blasts or waves, shields etc. etc. I don't think extreme concentration would be required for someone whom's used to it. It would be the same as moving any other body limb once used to it. A baby isn't born able to walk, but it learns how. Same principle here.

Time manipulation. This should be pretty obvious 8D I'll just freeze time and walk into GAME to get my Halo 3 Xbox...and other stuff. Freeze time, punch someone in the gut about 100 times, unfreeze and watch them fly across the room...or if you hit them about 500, maybe a hole will rip out from there instead.

Gravity control, influencing the gravity of yourself (that doesn't really mean flying, you'd only go up and down, rather than sideways. Good for leaping though), of objects you touch so you can throw objects larger than yourself easily, reduce your own weight to run faster/on water, maybe? The physics of this confuddle me sometimes though and the actually usefulness of it too.

Or maybe just a greatly physically enhanced body, maybe like super strength, but not in such a stereotypical way. All the body's physical abilities are enhanced, adding greater speed (not like super speed, but resulting from body musculature), strength, senses, resilience etc. Jumping super high is close enough to flight and sorta cooler, throw cars at people, overtake the bus on foot, be able to trace people by scent or hearing alone, withstand being shot blah blah blah. I doubt, no matter how strong you are, you'd stand much chance of leaping into space...why you'd want to it beyond me also.

Invincibility wouldn't be nearly so useful as one would think in real life, so that would suck. Don't bother with it.

Salamander 04-21-2008 02:23 PM

Invincibility make Russian roulette easy.

Mojo 04-21-2008 02:44 PM

:

()
Or maybe just a greatly physically enhanced body, maybe like super strength, but not in such a stereotypical way. All the body's physical abilities are enhanced, adding greater speed (not like super speed, but resulting from body musculature), strength, senses, resilience etc.

Just admit you want a bigger wiener.

Mac Sirloin 04-21-2008 03:56 PM

How did I forget this? Barry Allen Super Speed and everything that comes with it.

Strength is not relevant.

used:) 04-21-2008 04:23 PM

Flight. Hands down.

Bullet Magnet 04-21-2008 05:22 PM

:

()
Super speed, perhaps as a person enhanced with electrical energy, which increases the speed of nerve impulses, as well as being able to use the body's energy to create electrical energy to...zap people. And stuff. A combination of both seems a good idea to me. One of my favorite ideas (BM?)

Seems like perfectly sound comic-book science to me. But only if they were granted by some radioactive or electrical accident, perhaps a few cosmic rays thrown in for good measure.

:

Time manipulation. This should be pretty obvious 8D I'll just freeze time and walk into GAME to get my Halo 3 Xbox...and other stuff. Freeze time, punch someone in the gut about 100 times, unfreeze and watch them fly across the room...or if you hit them about 500, maybe a hole will rip out from there instead.
The thing about stopping time is that, since time is a fundamental constant required for speed and acceleration, if you stop time, you can't move. This is obvious, but literally, without a non-zero t integer there is no movement. Distance*time=speed. Even if you were contains within a Zerox-shaped temporal bubble so that time continued normally for you (and all the devastating stress this would cause surrounding space) punching someone would transfer none of the energy to them, having no effect. Also, you could not move anyway since the air around you is fixed and unmoving. You are not, however, and retain all the momentum you have due to the motion of the Earth through space. Combined with the immovable air, stopping time = a very messy death.


Still. Comic-book science.

mudling 04-21-2008 05:46 PM

Transformation, I would say healing powers, but I would make the most use out of transformation.
Think about it, you can transform into a bird- flying ability
you could use your transformation to become invisble
you could even become a ultramegasupadupadragon and intimidate everyone, so you wouldn't need imence strength.
But I'd use it to change into my peers, and sloop around, I might cause havoc, but there's more important things I need to do, like stopping certain lunatics. :K

Strike Witch 04-21-2008 09:19 PM

Gattai-ing.

OddYouko 04-22-2008 09:04 AM

Hmm I'd have to say Transformation also. It be cool to transfrom into an animal.
That or the power to fly.

Laser 04-22-2008 09:25 AM

:

()
I would be Anything Man and if anyone gets that obscure reference they will win +100 rep.

That superhero called anything man...perhaps? the one who went against the defenders at one point (i think)

Mega regeneration as good as Deadpool and super strength with a bit of super agility thrown in ;)

Wings of Fire 04-22-2008 09:30 AM

:

()
I would be Anything Man and if anyone gets that obscure reference they will win +100 rep.

http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix/anything.htm

Never underestimate the sheer power of google.

Zerox 04-22-2008 12:20 PM

:

()
Just admit you want a bigger wiener.

...that thought did not actually occur to me when writing that, though it does seem to on reflection. That's my wording for you.

:

()
The thing about stopping time is that, since time is a fundamental constant required for speed and acceleration, if you stop time, you can't move. This is obvious, but literally, without a non-zero t integer there is no movement. Distance*time=speed. Even if you were contains within a Zerox-shaped temporal bubble so that time continued normally for you (and all the devastating stress this would cause surrounding space) punching someone would transfer none of the energy to them, having no effect. Also, you could not move anyway since the air around you is fixed and unmoving. You are not, however, and retain all the momentum you have due to the motion of the Earth through space. Combined with the immovable air, stopping time = a very messy death.


Still. Comic-book science.

I was actually going to put that the physics confuse me about frozen air atoms and stuff in that, but didn't bother.

In my mind, I thought that somehow, things touched by myself in time-freeze would...move. Or something. So that, since atoms of air aren't going to resist much, you could presumably walk through them and the force of you breathing in and out would force them to move...but just now, then realising CO2 would then come out, and the vacuum left in your wake. This would not work if I wanted my awesome "Water frozen in time slide on it like ice" thing. If it could work, it would be awesome, but there's simply too many things wrong with it to make it realistically plausible even if you had the will to stop time for whatever reason D:

Mac Sirloin 04-22-2008 03:16 PM

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Flight. Hands down.

Fucking Hell.

Nate 04-23-2008 02:04 AM

:

()
http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix/anything.htm

Never underestimate the sheer power of google.

Nope. I checked google before making my absurd offer. That's not the Anything Man I'm looking for.


I think it would be awesome to be able to teleport to anywhere on earth. You could live in one place, work somewhere else and go to visit friends in Finland in the evening.

Of course, it would help if you had the power to stay awake as long as you liked, in order to deal with timezones.

Oddey 05-02-2008 06:49 AM

Matter Generating.
Don't need to fly when I can generate a plane. Don't need food when I can generate it. Don't need anything for that matter when I can generate it.
Does that count as a superpower?

Hobo 05-02-2008 08:04 AM

But can you fly a plane?

mudling 05-02-2008 01:34 PM

He could generate a manuel and a piolet to teach him how to fly.
Healing would be nice, as long as I could heal others.