Super Powers for fun and profit

I’m sure this has been done before but I was just talking to a friend about it and it got me thinking.

Imagine you acquire a super power but it’s not for wearing tights and fighting crime. It’s just for fun or profit, and if you get to help others as well all the better.

What super power do you want?

Do you want more fun {Elastic Man} or profit? {stock quote man}

Discuss the drawbacks too.

Will openly displaying some ability create chaos for you, or is fame and attention a great thing? Will you be able to successfully keep it hidden.

For me I was thinking I might choose the power to heal others. That way I could likely get filthy rich while still making a huge contribution to my fellow man. Keeping that power hidden might be a real problem and chaos might ensue. I thought I might pass myself off as some mystic faith healer {non denominational of course} That way most would dismiss me as a crackpot and I could select who I helped. The poor would be willing to pay much less for a healing that might otherwise put them in debt forever. The rich who had exhausted their options would be willing to pay big time.

So…discuss and enjoy.

Construction. If I could construct buildings in days or hours, I’d be filthy, filthy rich. And I’d have a wonderful effect on the economy. And while a “super-power,” I’d be doing something inherently useful even if Doctor Demento isn’t robbing Fort Knox today. As an added bonus, it’s pretty boring to watch me work after the first few times, so I figure most people would get used to me pretty quickly, sparing me awkward social issues with people adoring me publicly. Sure, you can idolize a superhero fighting crime and evil, but who’s going to start a fan club for some guy who basically stands in the mud and manufactures mini-malls?

I suppose the ultimate power for me would be the power to make people (any one person, or any number of people) do what you want. Power of influence/mental persuasion! I could have Bill Gates or some other mega-welthy person give me lots of money! That would be neat!

Unlimited amounts of money. Where does it come from? No one knows- my wallet never empties! The drawback is that I could possible arrested for counterfeiting, seeing as nobody- not even myself- knows where the money comes from.

I’m feeling lazy today: just make me Trust Fund Guy.

Or how about Kept Man? “On call, 24/7 to relieve any marriage from frustration, any woman from ‘entanglements’ with her latest dalliance!”

In my experience, kids in a certain age range (about 3-8, or so) seem to have an inexhaustible fascination with watching construction projects in progress. And that’s just the old-fashioned way, with cranes and bulldozers and scoop trucks. If it were one guy standing in the mud and doing it all (how, incidentally? Super strength? Telekinesis?), I think you would never lack for a huge audience.

This isn’t specifically about arts or entertainment, so I’m going to move it from Cafe Society to the IMHO forum…

I would like to perceive and manipulate things at a quantum level.
NanoMan!
Build little nano tools and alter viruses to do my bidding.
Easy to keep secret, actually darn hard to prove I am even doing anything in the first place.

“Just pull out your scanning tunneling microscope and have a peer over here… No RIGHT HERE! The benzene molecule on the left. With the carbon 14 atom on the top about the 10 O’clock position… What do you mean you can’t find it, there are only 1,000,000,000 benzene molecules there!”

Maybe I could meet Electron Girl who can perceive and alter the paths of individual electrons on the fly.

MacGyver

Biokinesis; the ability to shape and command living tissue any way I desire. On a personal level, it would make me into an immortal shapeshifter. On a larger level, I could acquire immense power and wealth. I could make anyone I choose young and healthy and handsome/beautiful - or not, as I choose. And if I don’t like you, all I have to do is nothing, and time will get rid of you, while those I approve of live on.

Actually, Doctor Demento has been retired from supervillainy for some time now, as his disc jockey cover identity ultimately turned out to be much more profitable. It’s just as well: his elaborate schemes for world domination were constantly being undermined by the comical bungling of his chief henchman, Nervous Norvus. So you and your lovely assistant Janet needn’t worry about his interference while you create entire blocks of luxury flats using only the power of hypnosis.

I think I’d choose the power to communicate directly with technology, just like… um… that one guy who had the mutant power to communicate directly with technology. Okay, so it’s kind of a nebulous and unmemorable power, but I think it has great potential for both fun and profit. Edit your own bank account at will! Put your annoying co-worker on the FBI most-wanted list! Write your own election results courtesy of paperless voting machines! Amass the world’s largest and most comprehensive porn collection! Be the first kid on your block to collect the full set of international ballistic launch codes! Use your CGI powers to give yourself a flattering drivers’ license picture, or create a watchable Star Wars prequel trilogy! Amass an even larger and more comprehensive porn collection! Know instantly why SDMB pages have actually been loading more slowly since you upgraded to broadband the other day! The possibilities are virtually endless.

It’s called Technopathy, or Cyberpathy.

So many good possibilities here. In a thread some while ago I mentioned something about an infinitely full wallet, similar to what mobo85 said. DerTrihs’ biokinesis sounds cool. Then there all the old standbys like immortality, indestructibility, and ordinary shape shifting.

Me, I’d go with the ability to non-living items into other non-living items. Is that a priceless painting on your wall? Well, now it’s a nasty wet dog! The big rock in the back yard? I turned it into a golden statue of me fighting a dragon. Computer is kind of old and outdated? Poof, now it’s new and state of the art. As for the fame/chaos thing, anyone who tried to document me doing it better know how to use a bag of radishes as a recording device.

Ah, that’s useful, thanks! I was thinking mostly about the information-manipulation aspect of the ability, but clearly there’s more to it than that. Never really thought of Doc Ock as a technopath, but now that I think on it, he can control those arms even from a distance, can’t he? I always liked that character, even more so after the Sam Raimi movie.

And I see that Hank Henshaw, the evil Reed Richards stand-in from Byrne’s Superman run, also counts as a technopath! That’s pretty impressive. I think I could probably tolerate being associated with John Byrne if I could have those high-end abilities available to me. Yes! YES! I’ll build myself an immortal cyborg body using the exotic alien technology at my command! I’ll scan your genomes and incorporate all the rest of your powers into my own cloned organic components! I’ll be unkillable! Unstoppable! I’ll keep appearing in story arcs long after everyone else has gotten thoroughly sick of me! God I love powergaming.

I’ve thought about this. Let’s say a hundred dollar bill disappeared from some bank in the world every hour and showed up in whatever wallet I owned. That’s well over 800,000 a year I 'm not to greedy. That’s enough But how do I explain this to the IRS.
I’m sure with enough money you can hire a good tax lawyer and create a bogus business that serves as a front. Make it a 1000 dollar bill and now is over 8 million. I’ll manage.

Now that’s cool. I thought of shape shifting, but being able to change other living tissue as well adds another dimension. Imagine the money you could make as a plastic surgeon. Healing scar tissue. Reconnecting limbs. Penis enlargement alone could make you as rich as Midas. What about aiding athletes without chemicals. The possibilities for fun and profit are pretty phenomenal. I suppose it would encompass the healing power I mentioned and so much more.

I’m a traditionalist.

I’d want evil red beams that can shoot out of my eyes. I can fry stuff with them, use them as tractor beams, hypnosis beams, all the usual. That’d do me.

If I couldn’t figure out a way to get rich from that, there’s something wrong.

Also the ability to tame bats, which I would call “my pretties”.

Fly! FLY!

I thought of this and it would be very cool. Imagine having a little repair shop and some humble vehicle with your business name on the side, for on site repairs, as a cover for one of the most powerful men on the planet.

Access any and all information available. Monitor any phone call. Make insurance companies actually pay claims. Pay off people’s credit card debt and medical bills. All minor but fun. Soup up your Beetle so that it beats any other car. Name it Herbie

Then other things. Uncover all the secret nasty communication of our own corrupt leaders and make it public. Track down the terrorists using their own computers and cell phones and have their own weapons turn against them. No need to stop Iran or anyone from building nuclear weapons. Let em. See what happens if they try to use it. Really a lot of possibilities with this too.

Oh Oh, route all those automated phone solicitation calls to the cell phone of the head of the company.

I think it would be cool if I could open a portal between two places. Temporarily or permanently would be just as good. I would take bids to open portals between places for money. It would be fun too to construct a house with rooms in different parts of the world.

I would love this power too! I played a game for many years named ‘Amber’ and one wish I would love to have would be to be the equivalent of an X number of point character from this game, and Shape shifting is a huge ability in that game, and would be a power I would definitely take.