3d ago

Three questions about superpowers, which is the best, and which is the worst?

Which superpower do you think is the most practical, versatile, and useful?

Which do you think is the least practical and most useless?

What would be a good drawback to your superpower of choice?

edit: as in superman, batman, etc. powers, not nation state powers

34 comments

Might want to edit the post and clarify.
I assumed you were like x-ray vision or super hearing or flight or gravity control, etc.
Apparently others were thinking nation states, apparently, if I can’t have chronomancy, it’ll have to be gravity control.
Perhaps Japan?
I feel like the US is getting really close to this honor, but I would still name a different one. Not sure which.
Germany being all anti-nuclear-powerplant without (in my opinion) good reason.
Mind control is basically every power. Because if people believe something to be true, it is. Wanna fly, make the population think you just did. Invisible, same.
Downside is, you know the FACTUAL truth.
Worst superpower? I donno, farting every time you blink.
- Mind control is basically every power. Because if people believe something to be true, it is. Wanna fly, make the population think you just did. Invisible, same.
  Until someone asks you to fly so as to save lil timmy or something. Eventually, they're going to figure that out. Can't keep faking all the existence of all the lil' timmies you "rescued".
  Worst superpower? I donno, farting every time you blink.
  Explosive snot. Rocket powered flatulence. Meidas Touch*.
  *I mean think about it. You can't live off gold. everythign you touch turns to gold, so no food for you. Also. No sex for you... cuz, like... yeah. on the plus side, all the plus side, you could have a gawdy collection of statues of all the people you don't like.
  
  Mind control: Little Timmy never existed
  
  Until someone asks you to fly so as to save lil timmy or something. Eventually, they're going to figure that out. Can't keep faking all the existence of all the lil' timmies you "rescued".
  Tell that to governments about climate change
  
  Sorry Timmy, bad timing, we were being attacked by a giant space monster again
- Gonna go ahead and disagree with you there: That super power sounds hilarious.
I've always liked this old Cracked video which argues that Zach Morris' Time Out is low stakes enough to not create a superhero world but just kinda makes everything work for you
In a world without other superheroes? Rogue's powers from X-Men are probably the worst. You can never have physical contact with other people for the rest of your life and there's no other powers to steal. Lose/lose
Best superpower: having a batcave - if you work in the fertiliser industry
Worst superpower: having a batcave - if you don’t work in the fertiliser industry
Best: Godmode.
Worst: Your body processes food into lava. You uncontrollably shit lava, but the superpower does not include lava resistance.
- There are plenty of superpowers that have killed/guarantee/have an extremely high likelihood of causing the death of their wielders. Spawn, for example, dies from using his power. Baily Hoskins and Gentle both have powers that will kill them.
  Additionally, one could live with lavapoop powers by surviving off an IV or getting a specialized ostomy. Death isn't assured, just highly likely.
  In fact, there are plenty of established super powers that would make death highly likely, like inability to feel pain or super speed.
  In short, I disagree with your opinion here.
- Good ol omnipotence.
I think I'd have to opt for Cold War Russia.
Top 3 most useful:
Telekinesis. At extremely high levels it also allows for pyro-, cryo-, and electrokinesis as you become able to effect atoms.
Telepathy. You can read thoughts and emotions, communicate silently, trick people, or even puppet then around or brainwash them.
Teleportation. You can safely go anywhere instantly.
Also: matter to energy or other reality warping stuff. OP as hell and hopefully won't cause a nuclear blast or turn the sky into lead.
Worst powers:
Summon (something useless or random). You can summon useless objects (like a broken wristwatch) or just random / inappropriate things (a can opener when what you really need is $50.
Speak with snails (or something equally useless).
Realistic Photosynthesis. You are green and even if you're naked in full sunlight you lack the surface area to survive on it. Also you have diabetes because your body is not designed to handle all the sugars you're producing.
Drawbacks: honestly crack open the rules for GURPS. Here's some honorable mentions.
Unscalable. The power has only one one power setting, on or off.
Always on. You can never stop using it.
Uncontrollable. You have no control over when it activates or how.
Shy. You can only use it when nobody's looking.
Growing insanity: The more you use it, the worse your grip on reality becomes.
Restricted. You can only use it in specific circumstances, ranging on a scale of from "only at night" to "only from 5 feet away" to "only when mortally injured."
- Your list of drawbacks reminded me of a book series I read a few years ago called Super Powereds by Drew Hayes. The main premise is that some people have superpowers, but not everyone can control their powers. The people who don't have control are called Powereds, while the ones who can are called Supers. There are also some powers you mentioned and he has the characters use them in really intriguing ways (like one character that can heal people, but then later can inflict the same wounds on someone else). It was/is one of my favorite book series, and I would like to go back and read them again someday, which is not something I would say about many books. Here is a link to the authors website if you are interested: https://www.drewhayesnovels.com/superpowereds
- Teleportation seems dangerous, as Earth is hurtling through space at probably 7-figure speeds. Even disappearing for a fraction of a second may lead to you drifting in space.
  
  The power auto compensates for that.
Which superpower do you think is the most practical, versatile, and useful?
The ability to fly. You could clean your gutters, inspect your roof, get from one floor of a tall building to another.
Which do you think is the least practical and most useless?
Many offense ones, such as throwing fire, freezing things or shooting lasers out of your eyes. Never minding the potential of killing by standers outside of combat there is no day to day.
What would be a good drawback to your superpower of choice?
Hopefully you would never sleep fly….
- If you could shoot lasers from your eyes I'm sure there'd be a way to monetize it into your day-to-day
Best: Rehape reality as I wish at any time. Drawback is I can no longer complain about stuff.
Worst: spontaneous inexistence
- There are far worse things than not existing
  
  How about Spontaneous existence?
My bets are on invisible Soviet Union or maybe superspeed USA.
Best would be the ability to change probability. With that power, you could change the probability of having any super power you want to 100%.
This question might be better for one of these communities:
!asklemmy@lemmy.world
!asklemmy@lemmy.ml
!ask@piefed.social
Teleportation seems dangerous, as Earth is hurtling through space at probably 7-figure speeds. Even disappearing for a fraction of a second may lead to you drifting in space.
Super speed is the worst power.
Does having the power of Q count? Cause that would be the best.
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34 comments