Sat 6 Sep 2008
Since the first day I picked up a comic book I’ve wished I had superpowers. I know that I’m not alone in this, especially now that super heroes are on TV and Movies at an unprecedented scale, but I’m pretty sure not many people out there have given it as much thought as I have.
Sure, some powers seem great because our favorite super heroes have them, but those heroes exist in a different (fictional) reality where the rules of our reality don’t apply (such as having other super-powered beings) . Also, most heroes have multiple powers, not just one.
For your consideration, I’ve compiled what I believe would be the top 10 super powers based on usefulness, awesomeness, and compatibility with the world we live in. I’ve also explained for each what you would and would not be able to do that there is no confusion.
10 - Super-strength
Examples: Hulk (Marvel), Superman (DC), Thor (Marvel)
What you’re able to do: Your physical strength is multiplied by 100. You can lift heavy object, break them in half, or throw them really far. Not much more to say, this superpower speaks for itself.
What you’re unable to do: You do not possess regeneration. You are not invulnerable. A bullet will kill you. If a bus was dropped on you, you will die. You can lift a stationary bus and toss it but you would not be able to receive a similar toss. You are not immune to fire, poison, radiation or anything else. There are no other powers that you posses other than super strength.
Why it’s an awesome power: Honestly, this power barely made the list for a reason. It’s just not versatile enough unless you also have invulnerability or regeneration or another such power. Strength alone will get you girls, but that’s about it.
9 - Teleportation
Examples: Nightcrawler (Marvel), David Rice (Jumper), Hiro Nakamura (Heroes).
What you’re able to do: Instantly teleport to any location in this world and beyond simply by willing it. You can teleport across the room or across the galaxy with the same effort. Your clothes and any other objects you’re holding will make the trip with you. You are able to teleport blindly to a location you are not able to see, but doing so is dangerous as you may teleport into a wall/object, too high off the ground, or into space/water. You may teleport a person with you if you’re holding that person at the time of the teleportation. You may also touch an object/person and teleport only that object/person to the destination of your choice without teleporting with them.
What you’re unable to do: You are limited by the mass of the object/person you wish to teleport. Attempting to teleport a large vehicle or a building will result in a partial and unpredictable teleportation.
Why it’s an awesome power: If used for good, this power can be used to save people in burning buildings or other such situations. If used selfishly, it doesn’t take long for someone to realize they can rob just about anyone blind. There are infinite ways that a person can use this power for either good or bad, the only tricky parts are to not kill yourself or reveal the power in the process.
8 - Super Speed
Examples: Flash (DC), Superman (DC), Quicksilver (Marvel).
What you’re able to do: Your body and mind are able to function at a near immeasurable speed! You can run faster than a bullet, type an entire encyclopedia in an hour, and play tennis against yourself without breaking a sweat! You can run up a wall, run across a body of water, and extinguish fire simply by running through it.
What you’re unable to do: Although many gifted with super speed are also gifted with flight, these two powers do not come hand-in-hand.
Why it’s an awesome power: With a little bit of effort and imagination, you can pretty much do anything a teleporter can do unless it’s across an ocean or in space. There are also many things you can do that a teleporter would not be able to do. Fancy winning 10 gold medals? No sweat, just make sure you don’t over do it and make people suspicious. This is also perhaps one of the easiest powers to hide since you’d probably be too fast to get caught on most video recorders.
7 - Superhuman intelligence
Examples: Brainiac (DC), Leader (Marvel).
What you’re able to do: Your mind is more powerful than the world’s most advanced super computer. You’re able to perform thousands of calculations per second and to remember everything you read or see with a photographic memory. Your creativity is unsurpassed and the laws of physics, mathematics, and all other sciences hold no mystery to you.
What you’re unable to do: Having Superhuman Intelligence does not mean you know everything, although you can most likely figure it out in no time. You would not be able to guess a combination on a lock, but given the right material, you would be able to create a device to hack the combination or pick the lock. You are also deluded by your own ego, you’re smart enough to know just how smart you are and that has made you arrogant.
Why it’s an awesome power: Learn to speak every language, learn about every war, the world will become your play thing and it’s people yours to rule! Invent the unimaginable and rule the world one way or the other. There’s no way to detect your power so you’re free from the fear of becoming a guineau pig in a lab, but you may very well become kidnapped and forced to create against your will if you’re not careful. Don’t worry though, you’ll probably figure out a way out of any perdicament.
6 - Intangibility
Examples: Shadow Cat (Marvel), Vision (Marvel), Daniel Lawrence Hawkins (Heroes)
What you’re able to do: You can make yourself intangible on a molecular level so that you may temporarily pass through any solid objects. Your clothes and anything/anyone else you’re holding can also become intangible if you wish. You can pass through fire, acid, and radioactive material completely unmolested.
What you’re unable to do: Though Shadow Cat has been known to disrupt electronic devices by phasing through them, this is not an ability that is inherent in intangibility, and therefore it is not an ability you would have.
Why it’s an awesome power: This is the power of never being shot (as long as you see it coming), imprisoned, or otherwise harmed. In your intangible state, you are quite literally untouchable. Robbing banks might be the first thing that comes to mind but money isn’t everything. When you become intangible, you can literally have anything you want and there’s very little anyone can do about it.
5 - Invulnerability
Examples: Hulk (Marvel), Superman (DC), Brit (Image).
What you’re able to do: You are immune to poison, corrosion, direct impact, radiation, and anything else that can kill you other than hunger, drowning, asphyxiation, or old age. Simply put, you’d be hard to kill. You can eat more substances as your teeth don’t break and your stomach acids can break apart anything. Rotten food cannot harm you either.
What you’re unable to do: Although a house falling on you would not kill you, you would not have the strength to lift it off of you. You still need to eat, drink, and breath. Your hair and nails are not invulnerable, otherwise you would never be able to cut your hair or shave your face/legs/anywhere else or do anything about your long nail problems. This would mean that walking through fire would have you come out the other side bald and possibly with charred fingernails.
Why it’s an awesome power: Play any sport without fear of injury or death (except possibly for water polo). Win bar fights without any risk to your person, even if your only strategy is to hold out until the other person dies of exhaustion. Only big drawback is that it’s hard to use this power without having it being noticed.
4 - Shape Shifting
Examples: Mystique (Marvel), Chameleon (DC), Morph (Marvel).
What you’re able to do: Take on the appearance or shape of any person real or imagine as long as it is of a similar mass. Emulate any voice or scent.
What you’re unable to do: You cannot morph into anything inorganic, though you can give yourself organic clothes that are really part of your body and that may resemble standard clothing items in looks and texture. You cannot grow in mass (unless it’s superficial through having a hollowed center), and you cannot shrink. You cannot turn into a liquid or gel form and survive the process. At all times, you must have a functioning respiratory, cardiovascular, and nervous systems, etc… even if they have a different form or happen to be in a different place.
Why it’s an awesome power: You can be anyone you’ve ever wanted to be. Identity theft has never been this easy. The shape shifter is also potentially the ultimate prankster and is very hard to catch. As long as you evade capture, you can hide anywhere and assume a completely different persona to the point of even infiltrating your enemies undetected. Perhaps the most satisfying aspect is that you can impersonate celebrities for VIP status then morph and escape before the check comes.
3 - Invisibility
Examples: Invisible Woman (Marvel), Violet Parr (Incredibles).
What you’re able to do: Become completely undetectable by the human eye. No one can see you, not even cameras. You are also invisible to yourself.
What you’re unable to do: Though the power to create invisible and indestructible force fields is usually given to characters with invisibility, you do not possess this power. You are also detectable by any heat vision or heat-seeking apparatus. You also generate sounds as usual.
Why it’s an awesome power: As long as you’re careful never to become invisible or revert back to being visible in front of anyone, your power is near undetectable. You can access any location, spy on anyone, sneak into movies, shoplift, and go to any bathroom you wish! Just remember to lock your stall or you might be in for a messy surprise.
2 - Telepathy
Examples: Professor Xavier (Marvel), Jean Grey (Marvel), Saturn Girl (DC).
What you’re able to do: Read the minds of others. Project your thoughts into the minds of others. These thoughts can be in the form of words or images.
What you’re unable to do: Lift object with your mind (telekinesis), control other people, turn off people’s minds, have an out of body experience, or any other ability outside of mind-to-mind communication.
Why it’s an awesome power: You don’t need to be a chess master, you just need to know what your opponent intends to do to thwart them. School is a breeze when you can scour your teacher’s mind for the answers. Job interview? No contest. You know just what they want to hear and you can make it happen. Someone getting on your nerves? Send images of Larry King in a speedo directly to their noggin and enjoy the show! No one can cheat you or keep anything from you, their very minds are your playgrounds.
1 - Mind Control
Examples: Professor Xavier (Marvel), Karma (Marvel).
What you’re able to do: Take complete control of any other person or animal’s thought process and/or actions. You can choose to allow the person their thought process but control their actions completely if you desire. You can have a person perform any action they are physically capable of including murder and suicide. The controlled person is still limited by their own physical abilities but not by any personality traits or psychological handicaps since it is your will that is in control. If you prefer, you can have the person perform any actions and believe that they are in control but it is possible for them to resist many actions in this state.
What you’re unable to do: You cannot read any other person’s mind but you can have them tell you whatever you wish to know. You cannot “speak” to a person’s mind directly, other than to send actual commands or suggestions.
Why it’s an awesome power: With this power, no one can ever refuse you. Date anyone you want, get any job you desire, have anyone give you anything that you need! And that’s just the beginning! As we’ve learned from the brilliant book 1984, Control is Power. What good is super strength or super speed or any other power if there are people who oppose you? Especially people with Mind Control? Your power becomes theirs. With Mind Control, you are King and all others are willing pawns.
Honorable Mentions (and why they didn’t make the list)
X-Ray Vision: It’s a nice gimmick but do you really want to be a super peeping tom?
Telekinesis: The power to move objects with your mind is very over-rated. This power does not guarantee that you can lift anything as heavy as a car, but only objects you’d be able to lift with your own strength. Stop being lazy and get up to change the channel yourself.
Flight: True, this would literally make the most common dream of all come true, but I would assume that the novelty of flight would quickly get old. Also, this power is virtually impossible to keep secret.
Pyrokinesis: Unless you’re an arsonist, when is this ever going to come in handy?
Time Travel: Judging from nearly every time-travel story ever written, this power would have you making a mess of our reality more than anything else.
Precognition: Also judging from nearly every precog ever written about, they generally lose their minds trying to prevent, or take advantage of, the many futures they see.
Regeneration: Granted, this is a cool power, but the ability to regrow tissue pales in comparison to Invulnerability. Why would you want to regrow a hand when you can make sure it never gets dismembered?
September 7th, 2008 at 12:21 am
Another amazing article! Well researched and very well written. When I grow up I want to be able to write like osama!
September 7th, 2008 at 5:35 am
Self-duplication trumps most of these.
September 7th, 2008 at 8:43 am
I’d go with the power cosmic. Great list though!
September 7th, 2008 at 9:38 am
You forgot Dr. Manhattan’s manipulation of matter (and the rest of the universe). That ahould be the top super power. Being able to manipulate the universe at a quantumn level basically gives you all the above powers:
Telepathy, mind control and super intelligence would depend on knowledge of how the human mind works at a quantum level and being able to manipulate it accurately and reliably at that level.
Super strength would merely require you to alter the mass of objects and/or the forces applied on them at the level of quarks and gluons etc.
Who needs invulnerability if you can change any weapon directed at you or your own body into whatever substance you like? This counts for shapeshifting and intangibility also.
Super speed and teleportation would rely on maniplauting the the relativistic properites of space time around you, so you would not actually be moving at super speeds but would seem to be to an observer, ie anyone outside your area of influence. Simply creating a localised wormhole and pointing it at your desired destination would allow you to teleport.
Invisibility would rely on you affecting how your body interacts with light and other electromagneic radiation.
Thats the super-power I want. To be able to manipulate the very fabric of the universe allows you do pretty much anything.
September 7th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
@ Shadi : That’s weird. I want to be like you, and you want to be like me
@ Old-Wizard : The Power Cosmic is not just one power, it’s a whole bunch and many of which are on that list http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Cosmic
Thank you though
@ Mandrill : That’s more of a God-Like power than it is a Super power in my humble opinion. That’s like saying that you want the power to have any power or like asking for more wishes from a 3 wish genie
It’s cheating!
September 7th, 2008 at 11:14 pm
The second I saw this title, I was praying teleportation made it on the list. While I’m relieved, I think it should be higher, but that’s just personal bias.
However, why is Intangibility listed higher? We all know that it’s just the poor man’s Teleportation.
September 8th, 2008 at 11:10 am
I disagree with your time-travel making a mess.
There’s a theory regarding this that if you go back in time, the history splits into 2 threads; yours and the old unmodified history. So let’s say you go back in time and kill yourself when you’re a kid. This won’t affect your conscious self because your own reality thread is untouched.
Your history thread just go and loop back into itself and then becomes a new alternate reality.
What to conclude of this? If you go back in time… kill your alternate reality self before you cause yourself any trouble.
THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE!
-Benoit from 11th floor
September 8th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
@ Will : That’s actually a good point and I concede that both are nearly interchangeable, but Teleporting is riskier than intangibility, MUCH riskier, and in my eyes that lowers it somewhat. Still, good point.
@ Benoit : True, I’ve seen that theory before and am more inclined to favor it, but if that were the case, what purpose could time-travel serve?
September 8th, 2008 at 5:38 pm
I’m thinking even if time travel (into the past) were to merely create new deviations in the time stream, it WOULD serve a purpose if your intention were to alter events a particular direction. Then again, how would you ever know you’ve returned to the “right” deviation? Time travel is messy when you try to keep it “real.”
September 8th, 2008 at 6:07 pm
I would like to turn into a Super Saiyan! (I know its not a super power but a man can wish)
Great list! But I can definitely see perverts taking advantage of the Shape Shifting ability.
September 9th, 2008 at 10:45 pm
I don’t agree with Telekinesis being left behind. The ‘there is no guarantee’ about how much mass you can move is not really valid. This could be applied to any other powers (i.e can teleport but only a inch, telepathy but only with parrots, super speed for 2 seconds).
Even if we only take the average of all telekinetic in comics, we still get a very useful mass capabilities. Take Jean Grey or Psyloke when they were TK or Hellion now, there is in my opinion no more polyvalent power. Why super-strenght? I can push you miles away. Why invulnerability? I can shield myself and/or deflect any attack/object coming my way, even against other TKs. Super speed? Meh I can use TK to move myself very fast (although it’s true it won’t affect my reaction time). Teleport? Ok you might get there a bit before me but I can still use TK as superspeed and get back to you quickly. Pushed to its limit TK could also include intangibility, shape-shifting and invisibility (what the hell is that power doing there BTW? The strenght of the Invisible Women is more her force-field (a form of TK than her invisibility itself. Invisibility without intangibility is not that usefull). Yes telepathy and mind control (I dont see why you seperated those 2)could be a challenge (especially long range) but at close/middle range it would be a question of who’s faster: the telepath to shut down my brain or the TK to re-arrange your synapses in alphabetical order.
Even if the TK has control over a very small mass, it could be incredibly useful (attack people on cellular level, ‘quantum’ attacks; you sure would not like to have your clothes suddenly reach critical mass on you).
September 10th, 2008 at 9:10 am
@ Alfred : They can also take advantage of invisibility and intangibility too in similar ways
It would be great to read some comics with people who have powers that are NOT heroes. Might be interesting 
@ JF : You’re right on a lot of points but, as I hoped would be clear from the rest of the post, I was attempting to tone down powers that usually include other powers. I seperated Mind Control and telepathy for that reason because some characters sometimes have one and not the other. I did the same for invulnerability and super strength. When this is applied to telekinesis, then it only makes sense that the person with that power would not be able to lift something someone with super strength can lift.
In Marvel Comics, sometimes Jean Grey has difficulty lifting a small boulder but can easily lift a sentinel. There is no consistency. Psylocke, however, I’ve never seen lift anything heavier than the weight of 1 or 2 people.
Also, telekinesis is understood to be a mental strain. Using it for super speed would be a HUGE stretch especially since, as you mentioned, your mind wouldn’t go any faster (nor your limbs for typing or punching fast for example). Just for transportation. TK for Intangibility? Shape Shifting? Invisibility? I’d like to see you explain those off
Oh, and you’re forgetting the entire premise. This is meant to decide usefullness in “our world” not necessarily combat ability. That’s why powers that can be kept a secret more easily get extra points. I’m not saying TK is bad, if this were the top 11 powers I would include it, I’m just saying that all of the powers listed would come first. I’d take Super Strength over TK simply because it’s much, MUCH, easier to keep a secret.
If you don’t like the list, I invite you to write your own
September 11th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
‘Tone down powers’ is kinda hard to figure out since the barrier between a meager ‘ability’ (i.e. hey, I can lift 50lbs more than someone else) and a ‘power’ (i.e. hey, I can punch the Hulk to the moon) is hard to set. A more neutral way would have been instead to compare each other at their possible maximums.
But anyway, here’s some points I’d like to make.
Even severly limited, TK would be very versatile, even in ‘our world’. Keeping it secret would be very easy especially if limited (i.e. can only control very small masses). If the TK can manage to control atoms or even ‘only’ cells, he could apply it ‘against’ humans or animals (influence mind, upset stomach, pinching some veins so the target lose control of a limb etc) same thing for electronics (oh… so this is were the clamp that control the money in an ATM is, lets pull it…).
As for how TK could allow for intangibility/shapeshifting/invisibility its kinda easy. If his control over small matter is at a quantum level, he could redirect any photon hitting him so that when they reaches your eyes, you see something else entirely (i.e. something/someone else’s or simply the ‘background’ you should be normally seeing if no one was there.
As for intangibility the TK would get a similar effect (although reversed) as Pryde by affecting the molecules (i.e pushing them away for a second) of whatever matter he would want to go through.
To make it simple; if a TK got perfect control at a quantum level over matter he can do ANYTHING. Telepathy? Sure, I can afffect the neurotransmitters in your brain so I change the message the carries so that you can ‘hear’ me. Same thing to ‘read’ your mind or send images to your brain. I can affect matter in any way so as long as I see (or sense) ‘it’ coming, nothing can hurt me if it goes slower than the speed of mind. I can turn whatever you have in your stomach into a singularity and you will collapse on yourself. I can affect light to make you see/hide anything I want (that is if photons really IS matter, let’s not get into that debate here please) and theoricaly control over the entire wave spectrum (a la Magneto).
Finally, super strenght without at least partial invulnerability is useless and even dangerous for the user. You can lift a truck over your head? Fantastic! By the way, your bone structure can’t. See you at the graveyard.
September 13th, 2008 at 8:13 am
Ok, so Telekineses is more versatile than I made it out to be, but no where near as precise or useful as you’re saying. With TK I can move objects with my mind, I can’t “feel around” to see where they are. If I don’t know where a specific vein is, I might just be pinching muscle, sinew, etc… I don’t have x-ray vision to see where the vein is but I suppose I can keep pinching tell I get it right. Can I scramble someone’s brains? Maybe. Can I influence their thoughts? No frickin way! Scientist now performing surgery on a brain are able to make you sometimes smell or here certain thing, but this is after years of study and it really isn’t precise. No way I can accurately replicate this by poking around with TK.
The same is true for the ability to have intangibility/invisibility/shapeshifting etc… It would require too much micro management. Our brains can’t function at that level (being aware of a photon) so a TK won’t either. So, although theoretically possible, it is as likely as someone without powers in OUR world splitting a cluster of 12 photons in 2 equal piles of 6 without the use of any instruments alien or otherwise.
Maybe if we combined telekineses and super intelligence we’d be able to get SOME of these effect, but anything short of two powers just won’t cut it.
And as for super strength, it goes without saying that your entire body is able to sustain the weight. Your density and tolerance to pain are therefore increased because all of your body’s cell also have ’super strength’. You are, however, not invulnerable and do no regenerate. If you are cut, which is more than possible, you can die from the bleeding. Your wound takes a normal amount of time to heal. Think of bodybuilders in the olympics. They can lift 400 + pounds but if I were to drop a 400 pound dumbbell on them they would die. Now multiply that by 100.
September 13th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
@Osama: A comic with a hero that doesn’t have powers…hmmm there probably are quite a few out there. I don’t know what type of comics you prefer reading but I here “Y The Last Man” has a powerless hero in it. My info may be wrong but it might be worth looking into.
September 14th, 2008 at 7:13 am
@ Alfredo : Actually I said “It would be great to read some comics with people who have powers that are NOT heroes.” but I’ll still give “Y The Last Man” a try
September 16th, 2008 at 11:35 am
Wont get any further into the TK thing.
But as for super strenght, if all your cells got ‘it’ and can therefore resist the pressure of said super strenght then that person as at least partial immunity (i.e if my skin can resist the strain from juggling space shuttles over my head (I know I know, there’s only 2 left so thats not much challenge) then it should be able to resist the pressure from something as trivial as a bullet or a blade. However, healing-factor/regeneration has nothing to do with that I agree, although the super-being would surely wish he had some considering the cramps you would probably get after smashing the Brooklyn bridge on Abobination’s head.
September 16th, 2008 at 11:28 pm
Best top ten superpower list i’ve seen so far!
October 9th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
What about the power of magnetism like Magneto?
October 21st, 2008 at 4:12 pm
Good way to get killed by flying sharp metal imo
October 26th, 2008 at 8:14 pm
If you can CONTROL it, then it won’t KILL you!
October 29th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Dear Magneto,
You’re overrated.
Signed,
A real Super-hero