When I was a child, well before I started reading comic books, I created a set of super powers for myself and each of my brothers and sisters, based on their personalities or interests. I only recently remembered it, so I thought I would share.
First off, every superhero needs an origin story and the one I came up with is appropriately comic booky, which means it's really convoluted and more than a little dumb (keep in mind, I think I was eleven or twelve when I came up with this). Far in the future, mankind has become incredibly advanced and everyone would be considered a genius by today's standards. In this future, a pair of criminal types steal a huge vat of some mutagenic chemical and a time machine in order to cause mayhem. They go back in time to before recorded history and dump the chemical in the ocean. In their haste to try to cause damage, they forgot to factor in the ocean's diluting effect on the chemical. It takes thousands of years for any mutations to manifest and they first show up in the Larsen children.
Margot's powers were all mind based, because I thought of her as "the smart one" in the group (while I will never say that she is not smart, she is the oldest and that may have affected my thoughts on this one). I remember for sure that she had telepathy, but I think I also gave her telekinesis.
Ian was really involved in stagecraft during this time, especially sound design, so I gave him the ability to control soundwaves. I imagined to myself that he could fly and push things around (and destroy things) with the invisible force of sound.
Speaking of invisible, Paige had two powers: invisibility and holographic projection. Because even then I recognized that Paige used a lot of non-verbal communication, I gave her powers that were completely centered what she wants other people to see (or not see).
Isaac was a big, furry, green animal-man who could tumble around and do back-flips, climb walls, and do other acrobatic stuff. I guess I considered Isaac to be hyperactive and a bit hard to keep contained.
I left myself for last because I was very selfish. Based on the powers I've listed, Margot would be the leader, Ian would be the "powerhouse," Paige would be the stealth expert, and Isaac would be the "wildcard" of the group. Well, forget all that because I make Superman's powers look conservative.
The only power I originally gave myself was super-healing, like Wolverine, but cranked up to eleven. Like, if my arm was cut off, it would regrow in seconds. I remember that part of that power was that you could harvest my organs and not only would they regrow, but the removed organs would adapt to their new host, eliminating the need for anti-rejection drugs. I'm not sure what this said about me, maybe that I could do more with less (it's the only superpower in the group that has no offensive use, other than Paige's powers) or maybe that I was there to help my family if they got hurt ("You were shot in the heart! Here, take mine!"), but I really don't know.
I later added electricity powers, mostly because I thought they were awesome. I justified it by saying that at some point a villain tried to electrocute me and the only way to survive was to harness control over all electricity (because that makes sense). And because that wasn't enough, I somehow added metal powers, too. I could turn into metal, but also control nearby metal object as well. Through this combination of powers, I could fly, had super strength and super speed, could teleport, could "sense" every living thing by tapping into the Earth's electromagnetic field, and I could turn to metal and melt into a liquid. That's really cool, but totally not fair compared to what everyone else got. Plus, what did is say about me? Nothing, other than I couldn't pick just one power.
Thinking about how I created superhero personae for my siblings, I thought it might be fun to do it again, but adjusted for modern times.
Margot is motherhood personified. Telekinesis stays, but telepathy is replaced with tele-empathy. That way she always knows what her kids are feeling (if she doesn't already) and be able to work on homework while "thinking" about cooking dinner and have it happen.
Ian seems to pick up a new hobby or skill on a weekly basis, so he can produce copies of himself (up to five at a time) for a limited period of time. Need more time to edit a new video project while also installing a new light switch while also spending time with the family? Copy yourself a couple of times.
Paige's powers still fit, but let's take away invisibility and replace it with bibliomancy (which is technically a magic term, but I like it better than "bibliopathy"), a power I just made up. She can simply touch a book and have consumed its contents; as a result, the book crumbles to dust.
Isaac's power is pure enthusiasm. I'm not sure what it would do or how it would work, but Isaac is the most enthusiastic person I know. Maybe he turns into a being of energy (enthusiasm often translates to energetic people) with the associated powers: flight and energy projection.
For me, I grow an outer shell of stone. At this point in my life, I've had some hard times, but I've been stubborn and stood my ground and forced the situation to my favor. Basically it means I get invulnerability and super strength.
This was kind of weird writing down all these memories from when I was a kid, but it's fun to try to translate personalities into superpowers. What do you think? Did I get them spot-on or did I completely miss the target completely?
2 comments:
Very interesting and perceptive.
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