# Choose your one super power **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 17, 2018, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/choose-your-one-super-power/818050 "2018-07-17T00:37:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2018, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/choose-your-one-super-power/818050/81 "2018-07-25T23:58:44Z")
> [@StusBlues](#): > > Deadman seems to have done pretty well with it over the years. > > This dovetails with the mind control comments above. At first blush, a power like Killgrave’s seems like it would be great. After watching _Jessica Jones_, however, you realize how much of a violation it would be for anyone you used it on. You might do some good things with it, but you wouldn’t be a good guy. > > Maybe I do need to rethink the ethics of Boston Brand. I haven’t read many of the recent Deadman stories - do they go into the trauma suffered by those he possesses? Deadman seems to spend a lot of his time just floating around as a ghost, so he only has to dive into people when he needs to accomplish something specific (like talking to mortals or stopping his victim from doing something evil). The noble **Mnemnosyne** wasn’t asking for an extracorporeal existence, so he’s always got to be possessing _somebody_, unless he reverts back to his original body. After his body dies he _has_ to possess and take over people - as best I can tell he can’t even die as long as he is near to or even knows of the existence of some other human. I’ll stick with my choices of supernatural perfect judgement and/or high-powered TK, thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Mnemnosyne](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mnemnosyne/32/3347_2.png) [@Mnemnosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mnemnosyne)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2018, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/choose-your-one-super-power/818050/82 "2018-07-27T19:59:45Z")
Ooh, I hadn’t thought of the 'I can’t die unless I don’t know of the existence of any other human. That…was a flawed oversight on my part. Now I can imagine, after long enough with that power, wanting to exterminate all mankind just so I can **finally die** because I made the mistake of not giving myself an escape clause when I chose the terms. As for having to always be possessing someone, I had started to write out a whole spiel about the mechanics of it with people in comas and otherwise not mentally functioning but physically able, but I clipped it because it got really complicated. The short summary of it was that I figured that unless I was doing something specific with a particular person’s body, I could simply occupy the body of someone who’s braindead but physically functional. That would also give me a sense of ‘continuity’ since I’d have a body to return to regularly and live an actual life as, without having to permanently suppress someone else. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2018, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/choose-your-one-super-power/818050/83 "2018-07-27T20:57:37Z")
> [@Mnemnosyne](#): > > Ooh, I hadn’t thought of the 'I can’t die unless I don’t know of the existence of any other human. That…was a flawed oversight on my part. Now I can imagine, after long enough with that power, wanting to exterminate all mankind just so I can **finally die** because I made the mistake of not giving myself an escape clause when I chose the terms. The devil and genocidal tendencies are in the details. 😃 > [@Mnemnosyne](#): > > As for having to always be possessing someone, I had started to write out a whole spiel about the mechanics of it with people in comas and otherwise not mentally functioning but physically able, but I clipped it because it got really complicated. The short summary of it was that I figured that unless I was doing something specific with a particular person’s body, I could simply occupy the body of someone who’s braindead but physically functional. That would also give me a sense of ‘continuity’ since I’d have a body to return to regularly and live an actual life as, without having to permanently suppress someone else. I hadn’t though of the ‘catatonic person’ angle; presuming you manage to actually know about such people throughout your existence (via espionage in medial wards?) you would have an endless supply of less-morally-problematic bodies to hijack. Of course it would probably freak their doctors and family right the heck out when you got up and started walking around, but meh. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2018, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/choose-your-one-super-power/818050/84 "2018-12-26T06:08:22Z")
To be able to pull off that scissors move. ---
**Author:** ![Grestarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grestarian/32/3227_2.png) [@Grestarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grestarian)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2018, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/choose-your-one-super-power/818050/85 "2018-12-28T00:20:42Z")
> [@Regallag\_The\_Axe](#): > > As specific kind of immortality, more like reincarnation. At the moment of my death my consciousness, soul, what-have-you would be transferred into that of a new-born child. And I mean \*really \*new born, as in my last breath to his first breath (it would be a him because I don’t know how to be a woman or anything else). The memories of past live(s) would only become available to the new “me” with the onset of adolescence, slowly at first, growing until “I” had all “my” memories by the age of 15-17. I’d have no control over where I reincarnated, nor over the socioeconomic position of “my” parents. If the wish-granter is powerful enough I’d like to have born for the first time in the Chalcolithic era, so I can/could have observe all of human history. > > If you think about it it’s the perfect form of immortality. I’d have diverse upbringings to give me perspective and compassion. I’d have the wisdom of millennia help me make the most of what I have. If things go too far sideways I can always kill myself, secure in the knowledge that I’m merely transferring my “self” into a new vessel. It also sidesteps the usual problems that come with immortality. No one would notice it, so I wouldn’t have to set up some elaborate scheme to keep people from catching on. I wouldn’t have to worry about being trapped in a chest at the bottom of the sea or anything like that. And when humanity goes extinct I’d go with it. And even if I told anyone about, what are the odds they’d believe me? > > Hey, have I told you about the time I spent in Ur? Sort of like ST:TOS _Requiem for Methuselah_ ? 🆒 Just don’t leave Earth. :smack: –G! ---
**Author:** ![Grestarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grestarian/32/3227_2.png) [@Grestarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grestarian)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2018, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/choose-your-one-super-power/818050/86 "2018-12-28T00:30:02Z")
> [@UCBearcats](#): > > Snap my fingers and have any lady immediately pleasure me orally. I suspect you’d have blisters by the end of the week. 😉 After 90 days, tops, you’d have received an STD :smack: –G! P.S. Is \*Daniels \*Hall still standing? ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2018, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/choose-your-one-super-power/818050/87 "2018-12-28T01:13:40Z")
> [@begbert2](#): > > It crossed my mind that I’m not sure there’s a way to use that power for anything _but_ evil. You must really hate Quantum Leap! While I understand how certain powers might seem somehow inherently invasive or controlling, I think that has more to do with familiarity. There are plenty of things we don’t have control over or enter into what we consider our personal space, or ways in which people have disparate powers, that either people don’t even think about because they are so used to it, or they over analyze to the point of finding offense in everything. Personally, I’d want to pick omnscience because that would seem to cover everything else but if I had to pick something more singular it would probably be flying, because I imagine that as being the closest thing to pure joy. ---
**Author:** ![UCBearcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/77aa72/32.png) [@UCBearcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UCBearcats)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2018, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/choose-your-one-super-power/818050/88 "2018-12-28T01:28:29Z")
> [@Grestarian](#): > > I suspect you’d have blisters by the end of the week. 😉 > After 90 days, tops, you’d have received an STD :smack: > > –G! > > P.S. Is \*Daniels \*Hall still standing? Daniels is still standing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/choose-your-one-super-power/818050.md?page=4)