# What Superpower Would You Choose? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 16, 1999, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-superpower-would-you-choose/17077 "1999-12-16T06:12:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 1999, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-superpower-would-you-choose/17077/41 "1999-12-20T22:58:00Z")
I don’t know what super-power I’d prefer, but I can think of a couple of silly ones (as super powers go): Ice Man: Wow! He can make ice. I bet that sent chills thru the bad guys. Matter-Eater Lad: From the planet “Bismoll.” (Seriously!) One of Superboy’s “future” buddies. His super power–he can eat _anything_. ---
**Author:** ![APB9999](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@APB9999](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/APB9999)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 1999, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-superpower-would-you-choose/17077/42 "1999-12-20T23:58:00Z")
Flight, definitely. And of course if you want to go higher than a few hundred feet, you HAVE to be invulnerable to withstand the cold and UV radiation. And of course, to actually GET anywhere with flight you have to be able to go a few hundred miles an hour, because that’s how long it takes airplanes, and boy, is that long enough! Is that much speed included in the power of flight, or do I need super speed on top of the other two? I would definitely be a super villain, and crush you petty mortals who got in my path. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 1999, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-superpower-would-you-choose/17077/43 "1999-12-21T00:48:00Z")
The cold at high altitudes isn’t a problem if you wear warm clothes. (Preferrably streamlined warm clothes, if you’re going to be flying fast.) The UV radiation also isn’t a problem if your skin is covered, and doesn’t start to be a problem at all until you’re up around the level of the first ozone layer – which starts at, what, 50,000 feet? Now, lack of oxygen, that’s another matter… ---
**Author:** ![David\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/51bf81/32.png) [@David\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_B)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 1999, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-superpower-would-you-choose/17077/44 "1999-12-22T22:31:00Z")
Gaudere said: > [@](#): > > “Healing touch” would be great, but I would feel obligated to live my life in hospitals. Not to mention you’d have those nasty skeptics hounding you all the time. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 1999, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-superpower-would-you-choose/17077/45 "1999-12-23T02:08:00Z")
Not if it was a REAL healing touch. Heck, that might even qualify for Randi’s million-dollar prize. But it would have to be something really obvious and repeatable under tight controls, like what that guy did in _The Green Mile_. ---
**Author:** ![bantmof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/96bed5/32.png) [@bantmof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bantmof)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 1999, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-superpower-would-you-choose/17077/46 "1999-12-23T05:00:00Z")
Avoiding the omnis, I think shrinkage (go ahead, insert your own joke here) is underrated. It would convey most of the benefits of invisibility, micro-vision, and X-ray vision, and be useful in many situations where you might normally use super-hearing or telescopic vision (i.e, spying on bad guys). And if your mass reduces proportionally while shrinking (presumably your density remains constant?), then shrinking far enough might get you some limited flight ability as well. One should be able to foil most evil plans by being really small and clever. You might also want invulnerability to avoid being squished like a bug though. – peas on earth ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 1999, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-superpower-would-you-choose/17077/47 "1999-12-23T14:13:00Z")
Forget omnipresence and omniscience - there are just some things I’d rather not see or know. My parents having sex, for one thing. (Not that they DO have sex!) Anyway, omnipotence sounds great, but people that have too much power tend to turn into assholes. Soooo, I think I’ll take the ability to fly. And if you offered super-metabolism (the ability to metabolize all extra calories), I’d go for that one, too. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 1999, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-superpower-would-you-choose/17077/48 "1999-12-23T17:23:00Z")
So what’s wrong with being an asshole? ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 1999, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-superpower-would-you-choose/17077/49 "1999-12-26T16:08:00Z")
re:Flight and Super-speed. There was a short-lived DC comic during the 1960s called “The Inferior Five.” I recall one of the members was known as “The Blimp”…he had the power of flight, but no real speed. So he sort of floated along. * * * Uke ---
**Author:** ![Bucky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Bucky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bucky)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 1999, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-superpower-would-you-choose/17077/50 "1999-12-27T19:51:00Z")
Thank you Ukelele Ike! I’ve been trying to remember the name of that strip forever! Invisibility–wouldn’t radar, laser sensors, etc. , make that power a lot less useful than it used to be? Worthless hero–Dual Damsel. She’s from a planet where everyone can become triplicates (her ONLY power) and she manages to get one them killed off. Fun on a date, maybe, but not much of a hero.and don’t forget Bouncing Boy–he can make himself…really fat. Bucky ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 1999, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-superpower-would-you-choose/17077/51 "1999-12-28T01:02:00Z")
One of the _Champions_ ™ players I came across had developed a pretty useless superhero, named **GAZEBO BOY**. He was an 11-year-old boy who had the power to turn into a gazebo and back at will. While in gazebo form, he could, um, basically stand there inconspicuously on somebody’s lawn and spy on them. Until one of the occupants quipped, “Hey, I don’t remember putting up a gazebo in our back yard.” One of my personal _Champions_ creations was **JET MAN**. He was an ordinary airline pilot until, one day, he accidentally swallowed a jet engine! (It was a pretty small jet engine, you understand.) Rushed to the hospital, the doctors there had a choice: surgically remove the jet engine (yawn), or build the engine into his body as a permanent cybernetic attachment. … He now carries several gallons of jet fuel around in a hidden interior tank, and can fly quite fast – but it looks kinda weird having that jet exhaust nozzle sticking straight down between his legs. He’s also the only superhero to follow FAA regulations and get an Airworthiness Certificate and display a tail registration number. * * * The truth, as always, is more complicated than that. ---
**Author:** ![Flypsyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f0a364/32.png) [@Flypsyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flypsyde)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 1999, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-superpower-would-you-choose/17077/52 "1999-12-28T19:36:00Z")
I am endlessly amused by the sub-standard superheroes. Anyone who’s got enough balls (or delusions) to join the Legion of Substitute Heroes is someone I _really_ wish I could drink with. Chlorophyll Lad is probably a hoot at parties. And the Superheroes League of Hoboken remains one of my favorite computer games of all time (did they ever make a sequel?). As far as _Champions_, I once had a character in mind for an off-the-wall campaign, but the GM would never run it. He was Major Yo-Yo, modeled off of DC’s Captain Boomerang. I even had a sidekick-Nerf Lad. For the OP: probably super strength and flight. Mundane choices, I know, but also the most fun. Unless you like to be sneaky around people. * * * He weathered a firestorm of agony and did not break. And while Yori raged against his unbending courage, we took Kyuden Hiruma back. His loss is great, but so is the gift his suffering brought. -_Yakamo’s Funeral_ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-superpower-would-you-choose/17077.md?page=2)