If you were a superhero....

[UncleTone]

This is a hard one.

The two I want the most are telepathy and the ability to manipulate the elements/environment. I think that would be incredibly useful. No idea on my superhero name...I have never thought about a name, just powers...hmmm I have some thinking to do.

I also want to be fast and strong, but I can train for that so I don't want to waste super powers on that lol

[Arigh]

This has always been on my mind, and it's always been one of those tough hypothetical decisions that I agonize over, poring over situation after situation. And I still don't have a clear choice.

When I was younger, I was interested in the psychic powers of someone like Xavier. The ability to read thoughts, change them, and not have anyone have any idea that they've been subtly altered. It would be horrible, though. Hearing what people really think about is so invasive and personal, and I certainly know I don't want to hear what people think about me, even the positive things. I still want the power, though. I'd sit and pore over the most intelligent people in the world's brains. Studying, thinking, stealing, gaining all their knowledge of their fields of expertise. The acquisition of that much knowledge would just be incredible. I could also alter the balance of power between so many nations, creating peace where there is none, getting rid of violence and distrust between nations. There are so many moral issues I have with it, though, who gives me the right to mess with what's going on in anyone's head? Who says I won't muck the entire thing up and cause a worse situation? Temptation is a tricky beast, can't deal with having so much power over other people.

So what about my other choices? They come down to two others: shade manipulation and matter manipulation.

To quote wikipedia's article on the DC Villain Shade:

"Shade is at present one of the best, if not the ultimate, channeler of the power of the Darklands, a quasi-sentient, extra-dimensional mass of malleable darkness which he can channel to various effects, both as an absence of light and a solid substance: he can summon and control "demons" from there, summon and dispel shields and areas of complete darkness, create all kinds of constructs out of shadows (in a similar manner to a Green Lantern, with the exception of the color of the constructs), transport himself and others through it over massive distances, and can, if necessary, use it as a last-ditch prison dimension."

They have some other stuff that's a bit too overpowered for my tastes, such as incredible damage resistance, immortality, and time transport. Those, I'd discard because it's outside the scope of the power I'm talking about. Shade manipulation is SUPER FREAKIN' COOL. Zato-1 from the Guilty Gear series was always one of my favorites, and the power is strong, but not as morally difficult as strong psychic powers.

Matter manipulation, what exactly do I mean by that? Well, think Full Metal Alchemist, but without the need to create a circle. The ability to use the atoms found around me for whatever I want, creating new objects and substances out of thin air. As an engineering student, this is about as fascinating as it gets. I could make anything I can think of, assuming I have enough raw materials. In combat, it would be devastating, anyone that I wanted dead would simply die. I could turn their brain into sludge, remove the water from their body, disintegrate someone. There's also a whole lot of carbon in air and the human lungs, diamonds in your lungs is a not so pleasant experience, I'd imagine. Materials science would, pardon my language, be my bitch.

I'm still not sure what I'd pick, though. It's just too hard to pick just one. And superhero? Eh, that's never quite been my style, I'd just be a dude in the world having some fun. Sure, I'd save people if they were close, but with my second two power choices, I wouldn't go looking to be a hero.

This has been a great exercise in indecision.

TLDR; I should be doing homework and studying for finals.

[AKLulu]

@Arigh, you've definitely thought about this a lot. It's definitely a hard decision to make. There are just TOO many cool abilities out there! I've been trying to think about it ever since I started this thread and have yet to make any of my thoughts more firm. And, out of curiosity, where did you come up with your handle?

[timelovesahero]

When I was a young kid I created myself as a superhero. I was "Mindbender" and I could create matter at will. To make sure it wasn't overpowering, the more complex something was, the more tired I was after creating it. In my make-believe playing I would "pass-out" after creating things like motorcycles, guns, and the like.

Nowadays I would love the ability to teleport. It would be so awesome to go anywhere whenever I wanted to.

[Arigh]

I've been using Arigh as my tag for about 9 years now, all the way back when I was a wee sophomore in high school. I, at the time, was very much obsessed with Monster Rancher and someone on a forum I frequented posted a list of "Mongolian dragon names," one of which I promptly stole for use in Everquest Online Adventures as my Paladin's name. Supposedly, according to this post, Arigh meant pure. I don't actually think he was right, but I liked it, and I've stuck with it ever since, through a couple years in Everquest 2, 7 years of WoW, and countless other MMOs, and of course a million different forums.

[KAllen]

I want to be Wolverine....I always want to be Wolverine. Next would be Gambit & Nightcrawler.

I did come up w/ a potential X-Man if they ever had the "create the next Mutant". He would be the opposite of Pyro. He could psyonically control water. Including water in the human blood. Instant knock out ya know. I was going to call him "Waterboy"

[AKLulu]

The power of observation - Captain Obvious

The power of make all-encompassing statements - General Consensus

Also.... uhh.... [ATTACH=CONFIG]2273[/ATTACH]

[tonyfoto]

Damn.. Now I'm never going to get to bed. This is to hard of a question... lol

[ZenGwen]

I would have the power to have any power my opponent hadn't thought of yet. So I seriously doubt I'd be able to fly (and it would be stupid to try, because if I could, then they'd see it and bethinking about it and I'd fall down). But make a full size goldfish bowl full of tar appear in their stomach? No problem. Of course then I could never pull that trick again. Huge amount of power, but requiring constant creativity and quick thinking.

My battles would be so surreal.

[DaveSix]

Hmmm. Probably super speed.

I used to have dreams about being able to run so fast that my feet wouldn't touch the ground.