WARNING UBER-GEEK DEBATE FOLLOWS
Sure, super strength, invulnerability, extended senses, psi powers, the ability to project various forms of energy, all are great. But no matter how powerful someone is, if they have a normal human reaction time I would think super-speed would trump nearly anything. Consider the Flash. He can move at just under light-speed, and his perception, thought and reaction times must be on the order of nanoseconds. In the time it takes a supervillain to say “DIE!” the Flash could spend several subjective months thinking about and carrying out a plan to neutralize him. Even powerful telepaths, magic users or cosmic entities couldn’t perceive the time scales the Flash is capable of acting on; the Flash should be able to defeat them before they could even summon their wills. In principle it should be absolutely impossible for anyone to surprise, sucker punch or trap a speedster except another speedster. In other words, why isn’t the ability to think and act with hyperspeed virtually tantamont to invincibility?
I agree generally, but maybe the trick is you need to know when to “turn on” your power. IOW, The Flash isn’t at super-speed all the time. Those times when he isn’t he’s just Joe Schmoe.
But, barring getting caught unprepared (yeah, yeah…) I’d say yes, super speed trumps everything. But then again, you’d have to be pretty smart to come up with a plan to defeat another super-powered person. If I had a month where Superman just stayed in one place and didn’t do anything, and I had no help from other people (what with them all being at slow-speed too), I don’t know if I could come up with a way to kill him.
You assume that the “speed” is in every faculty. I completely agree with you if it means you think, act and am able to move faster than anything/anyone else.
If not, flying is best.
On the other hand, boredom and ennui would eventually take over. Your normal interaction with people would only occur with thise who could move as fast as you. Friction would be a huge obstacle in your love life unless you can find a partner who could keep up or was at least invulnerable. Your perception of time would be seriously skewed. Everyone else would seem so slow. Your perception of movement would render films, music, television broadcasts virtually meaningless since you would see frames moving much slower than 24 per second, or 331/3 rpm. And unless you had the Flash’s full complement of powers, like vibrating your molecules through walls, you’d have some serious limits about how fast you’d be able to move around people without destroying everything around you.
I assume you’ve read Hyperion & sequels, by Dan Simmons.
I always wondered why the Molecule man wasn’t “the man”
I would imagine that if you couldn’t vibrate your molecules through walls, the first wall you hit at just under light speed would be the last thing you ever destroyed.
Wall? Unless you have some form of invulnerability (or really good streamlining), air molecules would shred the flesh off your bones.
I’m getting a great visual from that.
I think that’s why he wears that suit.
Nope, he has a “speed aura” that protects him from the effects of using his power. There was an Elseworlds in which the bad guy managed to turn off the Flash’s (Barry Allen) speed aura…within seconds, Barry burst into flames and died a horrible death.
The three million calorie daily requirement is a pain in the ass as well.
If you think ‘hitting the wall’ while running the marathon is bad, imagine hitting the wall while going Mach One
Not to mention having to pay a contractor to put a blast shield where he masturbates.
Of course the other possibility is that the Hero isn’t really fast at all, but has limited power over time, allowing him to time dilate(?). To everyone else, he is super fast, but would have none of the dangers of vaporizing himself, or need super fast reflexes.
I’d rather be able to teleport, say, myself and whatever weight of objects I can pick up.
Being fast is one thing, being able to get from HERE to any THERE instantly, regardless of any barriers in between, is better, imho.
The thing that always bothered me about superspeed is that it’s only seems fast to the people looking on – for the person doing whatever at superspeed, it must subjectively take the same amount of time to do as if he were doing it at normal speed.
Hmmm. That’s not very clear, is it? Do you watch Smallville? In some episode his friend revealed that Clark ran into Metropolis and back to get some special hotdogs or the like for them to eat while watching television.
Uh-huh. Okay, to Pete it took Clark a minute there, a minute back, and maybe five minutes getting his order made. To Clark? Well, he had to (sub)consciously order his left leg to take a step, his right leg, his left leg, his right… IOW, he had to be aware and in charge of his body for each step of the journey. Which means that TO HIM, subjectively, exactly as much time passed as if he’d done the trip at ‘normal’ speed. Meaning this guy has spent, well, let’s say Metropolis is 26 miles from Smallville, though psychologically it seems it must be way further off. The best marathoners finish in 2 hours 10, or so.
This means Clark cheerfully decides to spend 4 and half hours running each time he wants to get those special hotdogs.
They must be REALLY good hotdogs.
As I said, give me teleportation. Blink. I’m at the hotdog stand. Blink. I’m back.
This problem comes up in Amber DRPG. Our GM equates high Warfare with superhuman speed rather than exceptional skill. Dodging bullets, arrows, etc is simple. With a high warfare, even the super powered sorcerer cannot do anything to you because you can cross a 100 foot room before he can say his lynchpin.
Oh, and Hyperion, etc, was a great series. 
Well the Flash’s powers have gotten so ridiculous that the writers of a comic have had to resort to a plot gimmick to justify them (the “speed force”). Would you need superhuman reflexes to fly at the speeds Flash runs at? For example, if someone can fly at near light speeds will normal human reaction times allow them to survive?
As for the Molecule Man, he was the man for a while but he’s such a dork that he just can’t get it together. I actually like the character.
[Family Guy]
“Ask me how the queen of england is”
“how’s the…”
“She’s great”
[/Family Guy]
no.
That’s like saying that if one guy takes 2 hours to finish a marathon, but it takes me 4 hours, that time is actually slowing down for him.
Superman is just doing running a very very fast marathon. It doesn’t mean he perceives it in “normal” time, whatever that is.
Now, this starts to break down a little when you get near the speed of light. You still have to have light enter your eye, travel electrically to the brain, then have the signal from the brain travel to your foot.
But, time isn’t “normal” for him. He’s still running a marathon in a second.
You’d have to get down to running a marathon in like billionths of a second to cause problems.
Still, I’m not going to argue that teleporting isn’t better. But we’re talking about reality here. Teleportation is science fiction. Running very fast is just running very fast. It doesn’t change your perception of time though.
Shapeshifting kicks everything else’s butt–and if you don’t believe me, you need to go reread The Sword in the Stone.
Any superpower that makes a mouse taste like a peach is the power for me!
Daniel
Isn’t that Zoom’s deal?
I think it was in an episode of Justice League in which Flash was returning from the restroom. One of the Leaguers asked, “What took so long?” To which Flash responded, “Hey, I can’t do everything at super-speed.”