Super Powers

I've been reading X-Men comics and thinking about super powers. Mostly about what ridiculously shallow treatment comics give to powers. Of course, if you think about these things too critically you come to the obvious conclusion that most powers are impossible: people don't fly, shoot rays from their eyes, or grow an extra set of limbs. There's no way to actually make those things happen.

But some powers are only exaggerations of things people really can do: super strength, toughness, speed, intelligence, healing, or agility. The nature of the power in these cases is totally reasonable. Only it's extent is impossible. Similarly, some super powers are actually only extreme talents: engineering, science, psychology, empathy, athletics, acrobatics, combat, or espionage. For some, being extraordinarily wealthy seems to be their primary power.

Some "powers" are explained as the common traits of extraordinary beings, especially aliens, angels, ghosts, and demons. Others are unique, inbred "gifts" inherent to unique individuals. Still others are attained only through extensive research or practice; this category seems to consist mostly of wizardry and science, probably owing to authors who don't know the difference.

(Side point: I really hate aliens in comic books. They're never handled well. They're rarely handled well in TV or movies either, though there are some fantastic exceptions like Contact or The Forgotten. Books tend to give them more thought.)

Powers can also be categorized by their use: passive powers that always work (Wolverine's healing power, Rogue's touch), active powers that are activated at will (Storm's weather control, Nightcrawler's teleportation), and environmental powers that consist of mundane reality interacting with other powers (Wolverine's skeleton, Cyclops' visor).

Some powers show up time and again until their wielders start to blur together. How many brute fighter mutants are there in the X-Men universe? Wolverine, Bishop, Cable, Colossus, Beast, Sabertooth, Deadpool, The Blob, Sunder, Stonewall, Strong Guy, Puck, Sasquatch... how many do you need before they become redundant? Flight, the ability to control fire, and powers of suggestion are also ridiculously popular.

The ability to tell the future is an interesting power, but can come in three different forms: one can extrapolate the future as extrapolated from the intents and goals of individuals (like watchers from the movie Push), from foreseeing the physical results of physical events (like the precogs from Minority Report), or from actually viewing future events (like in the movie Paycheck or the book Pastwatch). I especially like the contrast between the first two: a watcher of human intent cannot see the future of a deserted isle nor predict natural disasters, but a watcher of physical inevitabilities has their view clouded by the free will choices (espeically those an economist would call "choices on the margin"). Future viewing seems more like time travel than psychic powers; it is rather distinct from the other two.

I have always liked powers of knowing more than powers of doing, probably because my own habits are geared more towards study than action. (This blog is a partially successful attempt to increase my dedication to action.)

In the end, though, what makes a mutant an interesting character is not their powers but their personality. Wolverine is cool more because he is fierce, independent, and passionate than because he slices things up and seemingly cannot die. Beast is interesting not for his big, furry brutality but for how that contrasts and combines with his cultured, intellectual personality. Rogue is beautiful for the ways she finds to enjoy life, not the power that makes it difficult for her.

I'd love to have mentioned Storm, but those who have only seen the movies would disagree that she is interesting at all.

Characters are written to be impossibly and uniquely unlike humanity, but the ones we love are the ones who strikingly resemble mundane humanity. Perhaps the most loved superhero would do better things than all others without any powers at all.