Using Superpowers for Mundane Work

[Hytheter]

So in comics and other properties, having extraordinary powers inevitably results in crime fighting/committing, saving/conquering the world and so on. But what if instead of putting on bright costumes and being big damn heroes/villains, super-powered folks just used their powers to make their jobs a little easier?

This thread is for any and all ideas on using superpowers for mundane work.

To get the ball rolling: A teleporter could make a pretty penny doing deliveries. "Near instant deliveries, anywhere on Earth!"

[goto124]

There's a TV trope for that: Mundane Utility. Not linking to TVTropes for obvious reasons.

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There're entire fictional worlds where magic is so common, people use it mundanely more often than for combat. I'll leave it to others to list those worlds. Even if magic doesn't quite fit your idea of 'superpowers', ideas could be nabbed from there.

[Asmodean_]

SMBC did a thing on this a while ago
Not embedding the image because some people have phones and that'd be cruel

[Frozen_Feet]

Spiderman had it right when he used his strength and speed to cheat at wrestling.

In general, it'd be smarter to become a firefighter, cop or a soldier if you wanted to be heroic, rather than putting on a skimask and beating people in the face.

Construction work is also something that benefits from such.

[Flickerdart]

There's a TV trope for that: Mundane Utility. Not linking to TVTropes for obvious reasons.

Also Reed Richards is Useless and Cut Lex Luthor a Check. And These Look Like Jobs for Superman is basically already this thread.

In case you got out of the endless pit of despair after those links, have one more related one.

[GloatingSwine]

It would be instructive to read Top Ten, which is a police procedural set in a city where absolutely everyone has superpowers or crazy gadgets.

Loads of the incidental stuff in the series (and there is loads of it[/i] shows mundane uses of superpowers because it's still a city of ordinary people.

[Kantaki]

Someone with plant control/growth powers would make a great gardener or farmer.

Flight could be helpful for cleaning windows on high buildings.

Pyrokinesis is a great power for a cook or- depending on the exact mechanics -a firefighter.

With cryokinesis you could make icecream.

[Rater202]

Spiderman had it right when he used his strength and speed to cheat at wrestling.

There was also a sotyine where he was terminially ill(he got better) where he considered taking his life savings to vegas and use his Spider-sense to cheat at high stakes games to ninsure that Mary Jane and Aunt May would be taken care of.

Cracked.com did an article a few months ago about people who squandered their powers.

Of note, Swamp Thing can control every plant on earth and forcing them to take in more carbon and/or produce more oxygen in the photosynthesis process is explicitly something he can do. He could clean up carbon based air pollution the world over overnight.

Storm of the X-Men can control Solar Wins and manipulate Ozone.She could easily fix the hole in the ozone layer and redirect solar winds away from the earth, lessening the damage the ozone layer takes going forward.

Cipher, also of the X-Men, has the power to instantly and innately understand anything even remotely considered a language. He could make a fortune as a translator, could reveal ancient secrets by looking at old untranslated texts, make a fortune in programming with unparalleled understanding of all the programming languages, ect.

In the Web serial Worm, i's a plot point that a disproportionately high number of parahumans are driven towards heroics or villainy or other conflict generating uses of their powers when some of them would be really freaking useful in other fields.(Off the top of my head, our main character would be the ultimate in humane pest control, and the remember of her team would be invaluable in nuclear reactor repair, physical rehabilitation, dog training, and research... I think I'm forgetting one)

[Kantaki]

In the Web serial Worm, i's a plot point that a disproportionately high number of parahumans are driven towards heroics or villainy or other conflict generating uses of their powers when some of them would be really freaking useful in other fields.(Off the top of my head, our main character would be the ultimate in humane pest control, and the remember of her team would be invaluable in nuclear reactor repair, physical rehabilitation, dog training, and research... I think I'm forgetting one)

To be fair, there is a very good reason why Worm’s parahumans are driven to conflicts.
And there are a few who use their powers for more mundane applications. The clothing designer comes to mind. (Although even her powers could be used in combat)

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The Undersiders missing someone? You have Skitter, Grue, Regent, Rachel (or Hellhound to use the name the „good guys” gave her), Tattletale and... that should be all of them. I certainly don't remember another teammate.

[Rater202]

To be fair, there is a very good reason why Worm’s parahumans are driven to conflicts.
And there are a few who use their powers for more mundane applications. The clothing designer comes to mind. (Although even her powers could be used in combat)

Spoiler: Possible Worm Spoilers

Show

The Undersiders missing someone? You have Skitter, Grue, Regent, Rachel (or Hellhound to use the name the „good guys” gave her), Tattletale and... that should be all of them. I certainly don't remember another teammate.

Well, I did say that drive to create conflict was a plot point.

[Kantaki]

Well, I did say that drive to create conflict was a plot point.

Errm yes... I think I've read that, but it didn't register. Happens sometimes (Usually with... funnier results). My mistake.

[Felandria]

I would use my telekinesis to win all kinds of gift cards and iPads out of arcade machines.

[noparlpf]

So in comics and other properties, having extraordinary powers inevitably results in crime fighting/committing, saving/conquering the world and so on. But what if instead of putting on bright costumes and being big damn heroes/villains, super-powered folks just used their powers to make their jobs a little easier?

This thread is for any and all ideas on using superpowers for mundane work.

One of my top three powers would be animal telepathy, which considering I'm a vet student would be pretty handy.
Other two I always like are on the more broken/OP end. A healing factor would be nice because I'm kind of a moron and don't take good care of myself, and on-topic would be handy for all kinds of dangerous jobs from manufacturing to firefighting/police work. You could also donate organs pretty much every day as long as you eat enough to grow them back overnight. The other one I like is electrokinesis, which could help me charge my phone or gameboy on the go.

To get the ball rolling: A teleporter could make a pretty penny doing deliveries. "Near instant deliveries, anywhere on Earth!"

I mean, Amazon Now is making that a reality without superpowers...

[Kantaki]

One of my top three powers would be animal telepathy, which considering I'm a vet student would be pretty handy.
Other two I always like are on the more broken/OP end. A healing factor would be nice because I'm kind of a moron and don't take good care of myself, and on-topic would be handy for all kinds of dangerous jobs from manufacturing to firefighting/police work. You could also donate organs pretty much every day as long as you eat enough to grow them back overnight. The other one I like is electrokinesis, which could help me charge my phone or gameboy on the go.



I mean, Amazon Now is making that a reality without superpowers...

No.
No, no, no. Did you have to bring it up? I had that Story safely tucked away in the back of my head where it can't haunt me and you just had to remind me.
Thank you very much.

Ontopic:
Geokinetic powers would be great for all kinds of construction or mining.

[Asmodean_]

No.

oh my god
the poor girl

[LaZodiac]

My Hero Academy actually shows some of this off. A main character has powers that makes things lose their gravity and become weightless. She's got an out of school job working at a construction sight, allowing buildings to be built really fast because all those heavy I-beams and stuff become lighter than air.

[danzibr]

Cipher, also of the X-Men, has the power to instantly and innately understand anything even remotely considered a language. He could make a fortune as a translator, could reveal ancient secrets by looking at old untranslated texts, make a fortune in programming with unparalleled understanding of all the programming languages, ect.

I've often heard of math referred to as a language. Could be something there...

[golentan]

My ideal power has always been basically Tyranid Biomancy. Fleshwarping and fleshcrafting, control over a swarm of smaller critters... I could do painless surgery on people and animals, keep swarms of insects to do emergency cleanup of spills, make living furniture or artwork out of plants... Can you imagine how awesome it would be to be able to say "This seed, planted in the ground, will grow into a house within a year which will provide nutritionally complete foodstuffs for one person indefinitely. Here are ten thousand seeds to be distributed to needy populations."

[Bohandas]

There was a Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal comic a while back about Superman getting a job turning the dynamo at a power plant

http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=2305

[Tvtyrant]

Cyclops can power a space ship by simply firing out the back, as he can jettison and infinite amount of energy.

Storm + Cyclops could fix arid deserts by evaporating sea water in the Atlantic and then make it rain over the Sahara, repeating in the local ocean to whatever desert they want.

Cyclops could fix water desalinization processes by evaporating water for clean usage.

Several x-men could go colonize anywhere they wanted, as they don't need to breath and are made of invincible bodies (Emma Frost, colossus, etc).

Magneto could make space colonies easy, as he can simply lift them into orbit. He could probably also make moon colonization and martian colonization possible by lifting huge colony ships up into orbit, riding to the location, then gently dropping them.

[KillingAScarab]

I would use my telekinesis to win all kinds of gift cards and iPads out of arcade machines.

I swear, I have a relative who already does this. I have a knickname for her.

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My Hero Academy actually shows some of this off. A main character has powers that makes things lose their gravity and become weightless. She's got an out of school job working at a construction sight, allowing buildings to be built really fast because all those heavy I-beams and stuff become lighter than air.

Thor Odinson was a construction worker in his Sigurd Jarlson identity.

Cyclops can power a space ship by simply firing out the back, as he can jettison and infinite amount of energy.

Storm + Cyclops could fix arid deserts by evaporating sea water in the Atlantic and then make it rain over the Sahara, repeating in the local ocean to whatever desert they want.

Cyclops could fix water desalinization processes by evaporating water for clean usage.

I think you may need a lesson on Cyclops' power. Also, I doubt the beam pushes him, so even with the more recent portal to a non-Newtonian dimension explanation I don't think he's a source of propulsion in space.

Magneto could make space colonies easy, as he can simply lift them into orbit. He could probably also make moon colonization and martian colonization possible by lifting huge colony ships up into orbit, riding to the location, then gently dropping them.

Silver Age Magneto did this with Asteroid M. Dark Age Magneto had to take over Graymalkin, but demonstrated sufficient control over it to bring it near the Earth's surface and back into orbit. After Joseph became one with the Earth's magnetic field or something, I doubt he is able to do this, anymore.

[Bohandas]

What about the supervillain equivalent of this? Like Instead of using one's powers for world domination, using them to play stupid pranks on people, sneak into movie theaters, shoplift, and spy on folks in dressing rooms.

[HatMadder]

I'd wager that telepathy (a la Xavier / Jean Grey) would do wonders in the world of psychiatry.
Being able to tell what people are thinking and uncovering repressed memories in a matter of seconds? Super useful.
Would also be great as a lie detector in criminal cases.

To combine the SMBC Superman turbine and the Cyclops spaceship ideas from above, have cyclops fire into some contraption to use the energy and power whatever you'd like.

Iceman, free AC.

For Supervillains
Magneto making metal detectors go off for someone, preferably at an airport.
Magneto again, stopping escalators. To quote Mitch Hedberg "Escalator temporarily stairs, sorry for the convenience."

Sinestro: adding another step, then removing it. For people who always think there's that one extra step at the top of stairs.

[gooddragon1]

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Shouldn't work. The couch would probably break around the area he's holding it up.

Hand directed (so it's not directly tied to your thoughts which could be erratic at times) telekinetics to make yourself a 1 man construction crew.

Telepathy that works on anything with the ability to communicate (including computers) to write code for the most amazing game ever. Better yet, hypercognition not based on only what you know to know where the bugs in the code are and how to fix them. Because finding bugs in code can get very mundane.

[goto124]

Telepathy that works on anything with the ability to communicate (including computers) to write code for the most amazing game ever.

Does this assume telepathy gets past the 'language' barrier? Or that a computer has 'thoughts' to read in the first place?

*philosophical questions*

[mpclardy]

Surprised no one's mentioned the After Hours video on this. The Best Superpower (Is Not What you think).

[Bohandas]

Hand directed (so it's not directly tied to your thoughts which could be erratic at times)

Which was the premise of both

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Sphere and Forbidden Planet

[Bohandas]

I just saw an ad for an anime called One Punch Man which appears to combine this with a regular superhero in the form of a guy who fights monsters as a hobby

[Yuki Akuma]

One of my top three powers would be animal telepathy, which considering I'm a vet student would be pretty handy.

Dude. Do you know how many animals vets have to kill? Animal telepathy would be an awful power for a vet who actually likes animals.

Shouldn't work. The couch would probably break around the area he's holding it up.

Superheros with super strength pull stunts like this all the time, though. Obviously has has Superboy's tactile telekinesis.

[golentan]

Surprised no one's mentioned the After Hours video on this. The Best Superpower (Is Not What you think).

Doesn't appeal to my interests in the same way that biomancy does.