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<repost from SFWF, with permission from JordanKai, because I figure the readerships of these two subforums don't totally overlap and I'd like a broader range of answers> As a personal project, I'm compiling a list of terrible superpowers that have appeared in fiction. To make things a little more difficult, I'm trying to limit this to powers that would be terrible to have. A clever enough writer can turn an apparently nothing skill into something really impressive - I'm thinking of "Metallurgist" (from Marvel's New Universe), who had absolute total control over one hubcap from a 1949 Chevrolet that he found by the side of the highway. (Imagine Captain America's shield. Now imagine it would come when you called, and carry you when it levitated, and guard you while you slept.) Even if the power doesn't much lend itself to munchkinry - here's what I have so far: King Midas (Greek myth) - turns everything he touches to gold, including food and loved ones (and eventually the whole planet - Ryan North's "The Midas Flesh") Black Bolt (Marvel Comics) - shockwave powers that are linked to his ability to speak, so he can never use his voice without destroying everything around him and has to stay mute Lepidopt (Tim Powers' novel 'Three Days to Never') - knows when he's had a given experience for the last time. "That's the last time I'll ever be in Australia / eat a tuna sandwich / hear anyone say 'John Wayne'", etc Miriam Black (Chuck Wendig's 'Miriam Black' novels) - upon making skin contact with you, knows how and when you die. She's tried to change the future. It never works. Kid Psycho (Legion of Superheroes) - forcefield projection that shortens his lifespan by a year each time he uses it. Nick Stavrianos (Greg Egan's novel 'Quarantine') - 'eigenstate', or 'quantum diffraction', which creates (n) versions of you and is utterly terrible for (n-1) of them Gus Kusevic (Algis Budrys' story "Nobody Bothers Gus"), is super strong, super smart, and super unmemorable. And super lonely. Mr. McMahon ("the Man who Always Knew", again by Budrys) knows who's going to come up with amazing inventions, and when, and where, and even what, and he invests in them and everyone gets rich and successful, hurray, and impostor syndrome is crushing him because he doesn't do anything. Nathan "Dr Nemo" Flack(Milestone Comics) - worse than Gus, because at least people will talk to Gus if he's there and approaches them. Nobody even notices Dr Nemo unless he's actively concentrating. "Do you know what it's like to spit on the President? To beat a man to death in broad daylight and get no reaction?" 'Don't Call Me Til Morning'("Miss Bulletproof Comes Out of Retirement" by Louis Evans) has no powers unless you wake her up when she was trying to loving sleep goddammit. Related point: Max Damage (Irredeemable / Incorruptible) gets more powerful the longer he stays awake, so whenever he needs to do something difficult he's hallucinating from sleep deprivation. Gardner 'Flashback' Monroe (Alpha Flight) can generate copies of himself that are actually him from the future. One of them got killed in a fight, and now he lives in terror that at any moment he'll be yanked into the past and impaled by an evil robot. Tom Niles ("The Man Who Never Forgot", Robert Silverberg) - the one thing he can't remember is that other people won't remember having interacted with him for eleven minutes at a baseball game 7 years 4 months 3 days ago and thus he can't function in society Victor 'Kleenex' Pasco, (New Universe) is allergic to superpowers. That's his only power: if you have powers and are standing next to him, he's constantly sneezing and itchy all over. Emery 'Butterball' Schaub (Avengers Initiative) is invulnerable and indestructible, and when he got his powers he was fat and weak and out of shape, and his power will keep him that way forever.
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Nov 5, 2023 21:38
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| # ¿ May 11, 2024 21:57 |
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l33tfuzzbox posted:Kudos for mentioning Tom Niles. Great story that i never see mentioned. you didn't think I'd forget him, did you?
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Nov 10, 2023 05:15
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