What power do you pick?

TheElf

So this place has put me in a comics mood lately and this one's a classic. If you could pick one basic superpower (super strength, speed, invisibility etc.) which would you take? Only rule is no taking your power to such an extreme that it basically means you can do all the others too or anything cheesy like that.
Personally I'm picking telekinesis. All the tedium of life, gone for good.

O_Bruce

Super learning curve.

Nonnahswriter

On questions like these, I usually go for Healing Power as my ability of choice. Nowadays, as I've come to appreciate the tedious daily commute and difficulties of getting a driver's license, I pick teleportation. I'll never have to ride the bus to work ever again, which means more time for me to write/play at home!

elminster

Invisibility. But only if I could go invisible while wearing clothes. Otherwise its not that great

meagloth

Charm person:) also I think you're missing flight? That's a big one.

Wilbur

Invisibility hands down.

TheElf

elminster said:

Invisibility. But only if I could go invisible while wearing clothes. Otherwise its not that great

Could be pretty fun to walk around naked all day. Er... for some people..

meagloth said:

Charm person:) also I think you're missing flight? That's a big one.

True, but I figured since Mystique can just grow wings in the comics, shapeshifting kind of has flight dominated.

SethDavis

how bout this one? it looks like it would be all kinds of awesome, minus the sudden disinterest in games I s'pose

http://mangafox.me/manga/the_gamer/

Squire

I'm going for teleportation too...hello bank vault! *bamfs inside* *takes a crap-tonne of cash* *bamfs back out into a waiting car*

Honestly though...travelling to and from work would be a lot easier, as would doing weekly shopping etc, not to mention getting home after a night out...no more stupidly overpriced taxis!

TheArtisan

Teleportation is dangerous stuff, so no thanks. Telepathy sounds good, great for figuring people out and isn't immediately obvious.

Nimran

Considering how many times I get hurt at work, this is a godsend.

Amber_Scott

Shapeshifter. I'd love to look however I want. And maybe if I practice I can start reshaping my anatomy and get rid of some pesky medical problems!

the_spyder

I've always had the super power of 'Invisibility'. I'd really rather get rid of that.

As far as the list goes, growing up I always wanted Teleportation so that I didn't have to walk/ride/drive places. Just Poof and hey-presto you were there. Would save a lot of time. Now-a-days, I like driving places in my car, so maybe not.

Telepathy is another one that I have always wondered about. I am terribly fascinated by what people think and how they come to certain conclusions. On the other hand, telepathy means you actually GET to know what they are thinking and that could be pretty scary.

I think if I could pick a super-power, I would like something like super-physique or the pinnacle of physical prowess, maybe like Captain America or even The Batman. Maybe that wouldn't be 'Super' enough, but it would be so much better than the 'Puny Banner' that I am in real life.

billbisco

Power is infinite wishes

BelgarathMTH

Wow, what a great question!

Most of the *really* desireable super-heroes, i.e. the godlike ones, have most or all of those powers, so the rub is that you only get one, and no "Flying Bricks".

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FlyingBrick

This was also one of the premises of the old NBC series "Heroes", where the only thing close to a "Flying Brick" was the archvillain Sylar, mostly using telekinesis taken to an extreme, and later, Peter, whose power was to absorb the powers of others, somewhat like Rogue in X-Men, such that he started out helplessly weak but grew into the most powerful character on the show.

I think the spirit of this poll, though, is that you only get one power, and no access to the others.

Given that, I would mostly just want to be left alone and to feel safe. I chose super strength, because I'm assuming that includes super-toughness, or "invulnerability".

I'm assuming that "healing" means healing others, not self-healing, Wolverine style.

Invisibility appeals to me, but, that doesn't mean you can't be detected at all, (enemies could simply hear your footsteps, or smell you, or detect your body heat), and, you'd have no special ability to intervene on behalf of others at all.

Now, if invisibiliy were interpreted more like "going ghost", or "going ethereal", such that I would be completely undetectable and invincible while in the ethereal state, I might go for that, and it would make me a great spy and information gatherer, which I could do while being completely safe myself. But, again, I would have no means to intervene on behalf of others with other than mundane means.

So, I choose the ability to stand like The Thing in the first Fantastic Four movie, and have a semi truck hit me square on while I just stand there and watch the truck disintegrate around me under its own inertia. Or to pick up a several ton object and throw it like it was a ball, if I chose to do so.

Or at least, I'd choose that Thing or Hulk power if I didn't have to look like them. If I could just look like me, and still have their powers, then yes, that's what I'd choose.

Unless "invisibility" is interpreted as what I described as "ethereal". If that were so, I might choose that. But, I'd still be risking getting caught in tangible form and hurt or killed. So yeah, I think I'll stick with my original impulse and be the Hulk, or the Thing, only without the huge green (or orange rocky) monstrous appearance.

Kamigoroshi

Never was a fan of super heroes of any kind. Never will. Even the term "super powers" resounds so terrible in my ears that it makes me double facepalm. Which is why I much prefer to call them ostensible paranormal phenomena.

Anyway, if given the chance I'd choose the phenomenon to reincarnate infinitely. With both my memory and mind intact, that is.

SmilingSword

It really depends on how powerful each of these powers is. Is shapeshifting the I can turn into something of equivalent mass shapeshifting or the full on I feel like being a dragon or a lovecraftian horror today shapeshifting. Do I get the powers of the things I turn into? Can I turn into a gaseous form?

If the answers are yes to dragon, lovedcraftian horror and gaseous form, then hell yes shapeshifting. If not probably telekinesis or telepathy.

FinneousPJ

I feel shapeshifting is the most powerful of these. Mind control would also be great but telepathy in itself kind of weak.

SmilingSword

Invisibility as a power always annoyed me, because when going invisible light would not be refracting off you right, so light would not be refracting off your eyes right, so you would be blind.

Fine if your DareDevil or some samurai from a '80s manga, but not so cool for your average human.

This is probably just me over thinking things.

iKrivetko

Did someone say chimichanga?

Permidion_Stark

Flight. I'd really like to be able to fly. But I can't decide if I want wings or not? Do I want to just point to the skies and zoom up, up and away or do I want a lot of flapping to be involved?

Just being able to point and go would be convenient but wings look so cool.

Mathsorcerer

Although telekinesis is the most versatile power on the list I would have to go with teleportation as my ability. The ability to go anywhere without restriction, the impossibility of capturing or detaining a teleporter, and a teleporter's ability to deal with rotten apples by taking them a couple of kilometers into the air then letting them fall make it a highly useful ability.

But wait, there is more. A study of physics tells us that space and time are the same things, so the ability to move through space instantaneously means that it should be possible to transport one's self through time, as well, even if it take a little practice to figure out how. You do have to be a little careful with that ability, though, because you wouldn't want to disrupt your own past and cause yourself to go out of existence. In fact, it would probably be wise to avoid yourself altogether, except to leave yourself notes.

FinneousPJ

Mathsorcerer said:

.

But wait, there is more. A study of physics tells us that space and time are the same things, so the ability to move through space instantaneously means that it should be possible to transport one's self through time, as well, even if it take a little practice to figure out how.

@Mathsorcerer Uh, what? You say it as though it was obvious in a general consensus.

Mathsorcerer

@FinneousPJ It depends entirely upon with which physicists you agree. In the interest of being truthful, though, I can't *prove* that space and time are the same things. They *appear* to be the same at the macro level even though the two of them are mostly separate things at the quantum level--time doesn't really have any meaning there, given that certain experiments show particles moving or "communicating" with each other with supraluminal speed or other more recent experiments appearing to show that sometimes time flows backwards, with the effect happening before the cause.

FinneousPJ

@Mathsorcerer I don't expect *you* to prove it, but I would like to see when and where this was made consensus.

CrevsDaak

Omniscience! And if you really consider the "omni" part, you end up being immortal (more from the part of living for all eternity that being immunity to death and stuff) and omnipresent. Otherwise you wouldn't be able to know *everything*.

Mathsorcerer said:

But wait, there is more. A study of physics tells us that space and time are the same things, so the ability to move through space instantaneously means that it should be possible to transport one's self through time, as well, even if it take a little practice to figure out how. You do have to be a little careful with that ability, though, because you wouldn't want to disrupt your own past and cause yourself to go out of existence. In fact, it would probably be wise to avoid yourself altogether, except to leave yourself notes.

Actually, the only type of time travel that could exist is to the future, and given that you are able to pass the speed of light.

billbisco

Anything other than unlimited wishes is gimping your powers.

the_spyder

On the contrary.

"Molecule control" amounts to unlimited power. Just ask Molecule man.

"Magnetism mastery". Just look at all of the stuff that Magneto can do.

"Telepathy" on the level of someone like Charles Xavier or Phoenix is just about omniscience. Throw in mind control on a global basis and what couldn't you achieve?

"Speed" on the order of What Quicksilver displayed in 'Days of future past' was pretty close to all powerful. Certainly you could react almost before anyone else did, so that's as close as you REALLY need to be.

Just saying that any of the above would be more power than I'd personally ever need. Besides, Wishes always have a tendency to be 'interpreted' such that they go south. Even if you had unlimited 'Do overs', you spend all of your time 'fixing' the last wish. Where's the fun?

Dee

Mathsorcerer said:

Although telekinesis is the most versatile power on the list I would have to go with teleportation as my ability. The ability to go anywhere without restriction, the impossibility of capturing or detaining a teleporter, and a teleporter's ability to deal with rotten apples by taking them a couple of kilometers into the air then letting them fall make it a highly useful ability.

But wait, there is more. A study of physics tells us that space and time are the same things, so the ability to move through space instantaneously means that it should be possible to transport one's self through time, as well, even if it take a little practice to figure out how. You do have to be a little careful with that ability, though, because you wouldn't want to disrupt your own past and cause yourself to go out of existence. In fact, it would probably be wise to avoid yourself altogether, except to leave yourself notes.

If space and time are the same, then all possible timelines are just different coordinates in space-time, meaning that you could never "write yourself out of existence". With sufficient practice, you could phase through different timelines even, changing and unchanging history as you see fit.

The problem with that version of teleportation is that you'd have to spend a lot of time practicing, and without immortality the applications would be somewhat limited.

I'd still go with teleportation myself, but only because I want to save money on gas and flights. And because I care about the environment.

Permidion_Stark

Cool hair.

Mathsorcerer

FinneousPJ said:

@Mathsorcerer I don't expect *you* to prove it, but I would like to see when and where this was made consensus.

We will have to make an entirely new thread for that. On tangentially-related topics, reality doesn't exist until you look at it *and* making a measurement on an atom now determines its behavior in the past (a slightly more formal paper may be found here but you have to register at the site) and gravity collapses quantum superposition, giving rise to "macro" behavior.

Teleportation is still my choice, as well.

Telekinesis is a nasty power which can be misused at even low levels. Oh, you can pick up only 250 grams? Not to worry--that is enough to pinch blood vessels closed...which could be lethal if you are being evil with it.

Speaking of Magneto, @the_spyder, the applications of his ability are always underused. Magnetism and electric currents are interconnected--electric currents induce magnetic field and magnetic field can induce electric currents--so if he wanted to disable someone he could stop the electrical currents in their nervous system. Or he could cause all their neurons to fire simultaneously, especially their pain receptors--ouch. You wouldn't even have to totally disable them because shutting down their optic nerves would render them blind (presuming they aren't already blind), which would be disabling enough when it happens so suddenly.