You are being granted your powers specifically for the purpose of crime-fighting and setting-things-to-rights in your own actual society and culture, in your own town.
This came up in a conversation with my husband.
I decided I wanted the ability to see into the hearts and minds of criminals and know WHY they are committing their crime PLUS the ability to discern exactly what intervention would successfully turn the criminal away from his or her life of crime (Husband: “so basically you want to be Social Worker Woman?”)
He chose the ability to communicate with the dead. He thought they would be great at letting you know who actually killed them, where the evidence was and (depending on the nature of the afterlife) very helpful in spying.
I remember reading a book where the girl’s superpower was being able to ascertain the location of any person. I think from a society-bettering standpoint, that’s the one I would want the most.
Ohhh! Tough choice, it’s like trying to eat just one Pringle…
If I had to be choosie, the ability to forgo sleep would be handy (Behold! Caffineman!). Need some sort of detection stuff, so I’ll probably go the Bruce Wayne path and buy my information; plus I’ll get a kickass Batcave too. In terms of crime stoppages, probably super speed, get where I want to go fast and do cool Matrix style moves.
Oh, and don’t forget the sidekick! Maybe I could get a hot intern to something…
If you’re talking about realistically what I’ll like? Probably the ability to show the offender their direct consequences on people’s actions and to impart sympethic emotional and physical pain. And also realise that there’s very little one man can do, without imposing a tyrany of despotic leadership on the entire human race, to improve the human condition within several generation.
I already have superpowers…I’m able to consume massive quantities of food and alcohol at a single sitting.
I wouldn’t mind being Martial Arts Man…no matter how heavily outnumbered I am in a fight, my enemies will wait patiently to attack me one by one by dancing around in a threatening manner until I have knocked out their predecessors.
I’ll take “Bewitched” style warlock powers. It would be like having any superpower you wanted…flight, time travel, conversations with the dead… I’d use my powers to rid the world of facist cops, hippies, flag waving republicrats, child molesters, and the guy trying to steal your TV.
For crime fighting, I think time travel, super speed, nigh invulnerability, and perhaps invisibility would be ideal. What I couldn’t catch or sneak up on, I could go back and try again.
With enough patience, the time travel ability could be used to prevent virtually every crime that’s ever been committed, as well as, say, evacuating Pompeii, etc.
For sheer amusement value, I’d also like the ability to reverse probability. The more statistically impossible an event is, in my field of influence it would happen, and vice versa.
Time travel is paramount. Then we have invulnerability, invisibility, and the ability to walk through walls. Give me that, and no criminal is safe.
But if you really want to get down to it, I suppose you’ll have to go the carlotta-Rabid Squirrel route. Shame, really, I’d have a lot more fun running through time invisible.
Ever since I was quite young I have wanted this power. It is a little hard to describe so bear with me.
First thing - this is not Magneto’s power so don’t go there.
I have always wanted the power to manipulate metal with my mind. I don’t mean just picking things up and moving them but having metal turn into a liquid that would change shape and flow to my will. This would only work when actually touching the metal, not at a distance. The idea of being able to just grab a street lamp or guard rail and have it become almost a living thing completely in my control is just too cool for words. The power would include the ability to have this “liquid” metal cover my body and act as armor. Also I could sculpt the metal into any form I could imagine. Get me to a junkyard and you can have the Iron Giant or the Statue of Liberty, either with full motion (as long as I was touching them).
I’d choose the ability to communicate with/control animals…any animal. I’d have a pair of pet wolves by my side to do my dirty work and a falcon to carry messages for me.
In the DC Universe - I would be Wonder Woman, of the Justice League, Princess, Ambassador, Amazon, Warrior.
In the Marvel Universe - I would be Jean Grey of the X-men, Telepathy and Telekinesis would be cool. Even though she is a mutant - she looks like a normal person and it should be easy to
blend in.
If the Amalgram Universe - where DC and Marvel were one - I would be the combination of Wonder Woamn and Storm.
I also like the powers that Samantha had in Bewitched.
In addition to being pretty strong, I would love the ability to make any type of organic matter instantly (or at a pace I determine) grow/shrink to its natural end/beginning. Of course, I would be able to choose specific parts of the matter to grow; for example, if I was fighting a bad guy I could make his cancerous tumour grow to as big as it would get instantaneously and have him die from it. If I was in a rather villainous mood I could pick up babies, braid their hair and then make it grow out like a giant whip and go swing from posts and such like India Jones. Mwuahhaahahah
I would be the Ultimate war weapon to seacoast towns with irrepressable red tide. I could turn oppressive dictators into baby sized skeletons with no muscles. I could regrow the rainforests and even dinosaurs (a la Generic Pork… mmm dinosaur DNA in a mosquito).
Wolverine’s retractable claws, coupled with a Neo (Matrix) set of powers would be pretty cool.
Mind reading would probably be the most powerful, though.
Action croissants!
No? Okay, fine. Give me the Jean Grey. Being able to move things from a distance and being able to move myself without walking would be cool, though I would probably get very fat.
Reading minds would be a double-edged sword. Sometimes I don’t want to know what people are thinking.
the new one from JL, of course…the one with the ‘Shaft’ vibe to him. good combo of ‘the people’s champion’ and ‘you wanna get cosmic? f’ this!'star explodes
The big-style powers could be fun, but tend to attract big-style villains, and I’m too lazy for world-shaking battles.
I think I’d go for something smaller. I sometimes fantasise that I have the power to remove graffiti with a look. Now that’s a power I’d enjoy. I could make the city more beautiful just by looking at it …
I want the power to change people’s minds. The crime-fighting applications are obvious: I could make any evil-doer repent. Of course, I would also convince an awful lot of people to see things my way in general. I would be called…The Persuader. [insert dramatic chord here]
