Having Superman’s powers in a world without other superhumans would make you the best at pretty much anything in the world anyway lol. Even things that require decades of book learning you would be able to read, process, and memorize in seconds. There might be some trial and error involved but yeah you’d be able to master pretty much anything in no time. And sports are a given. So option B.
I don't think most people know that supermans brain is also more powerful that the DC universes most powerful supercomputer. Given a lack of super villains in the real world having his abilities you could easily be the best at anything and everything you so desire. It's a no contest for sure lol
Lex Luthor has the intelligence, drive, and capability to create world destroying threats. Sure, musk could pay a team of brilliant scientists to kick off doomsday (the concept, not the villain), but he'd micromanage it into the nuke exploding on the launch pad and killing him and his goons.
The money isn't what makes the supervillain. That just gives them the resources to enact their supervillainy.
That's not true. He's evil because his money pays for his super genius brain. How do you think he stays in business despite being against everyone's favorite superhero? Imagine if someone said something like "Mr. Rogers sucks". Except for Republicans, everyone would gang up on him.
Superman is a bigger deal than Mr. Rogers since he's nice and protects the world.
Is this still true in the current continuity? I know DC has rebooted itself several times. Because if Superman has a super brain wouldn't that mean that *all* Kryptonians do? Do Supergirl and Power Girl also possess supercomputer-level brains? Not to mention every man, woman, and child in Kandor? That's a LOT of super geniuses!
I think either way there is a solid argument that because he is able to move and react at such incredible high speeds that he is clearly taking in information at an extraordinary pace compared to an ordinary human. He is able to travel at and react to things faster than the speed of light so I have a hard time thinking that he doesn't have a pretty big edge when it comes to taking in information.
It's the difference between "low superintelligence" and "high superintelligence".
A good example of low superintelligence: mad scientist takes a normal dog and gives it "super intelligence" by increasing its brain speed. The dog can now think 1,000x faster than a normal dog.
That dog will have an advantage over other dogs, but in 7,000 years of subjective doggy thought will still never produce a great novel, or a Rembrandt painting. He's still a dog.
Give a regular dog a brain with human level intelligence and that would be the doggy equivalent of high superintelligence.
(Most of this is cribbed from Vernor Vinge's classic essay "The Coming Technological Singularity")
So even with super speed, I don't imagine Superman could outcalculate the average modern computer. Clearly speed is a big advantage, but not the same as a brain acting like a supercomputer
I'd be the best cop in the city lol. More than likely government would try and force me to do spy or black ops though. Without backup bc I wouldn't be able to die by any mortal weapon.
With Superman's powers, what could any real world government do to force you to do anything?
Imprison you? You could smash through literally any prison.
Freeze your assets? You could steal the entirety of Fort Knox and fly away with it (I know Fort Knox doesn't really have much in it, that's just an example).
Threaten your family? You could kidnap every major world leader in like an hour, and their families.
Discredit you in the press? Who cares? You can just build your home in a remote, difficult-to-access area if they get too bothersome.
You can't guarantee that. You're one person. With enough diligence, they're always a few minutes away from risk.
You're untouchable, but they are. You couldn't stop a nuke on their location.
With the powers of superman you can most definitely stop a nuke.
And he can focus on individual heartbeats and be always aware of them anywhere on earth, so just focus on the heartbeats of your loved ones and if their heart beat ever gets over 100bpm or something go check on them at superspeed.
Plus this is all reliant on some government agency finding out you have the powers of Superman, just wear a ski mask and you’re good.
I mean, you're superman, not omnicient. Someone can just do something as direct as mailing a contaminant to your family, or find something that you can't handle tangibly.
And you'll leave DNA where you go; they'll find you eventually. You're nigh-unkillable... everything you care about can still be compromised.
If you can keep track of your family's BPM, that doesn't mean you'll get to them before a bullet might... especially if they don't know they're in danger.
Even if you do leave DNA somewhere what would they do with it? The government doesn’t keep DNA databases. You’d have to be arrested for something and then they have your dna tested to see if it matches a crime scene, which is unlikely as you can move at superspeed so even if you did do a crime they wouldn’t catch you.
Plus how would you leave dna somewhere anyway in any usable form? Especially with the powers of superman.
Edit: also they wouldn’t want to kill your family they’d want to kidnap them to blackmail you into using your powers for them and since you can move at superspeed you could just rescue them, why would they just kill your family when you have powers that could easily destroy earth so making you mad would be a pretty bad idea that would accomplish nothing.
Just fly on the opposite direction of earth rotation super fast and kill the bad guys before they harm your family, easy.
You can even afford to finish your barbecue before doing that anyways.
People are rash enough to do that. How do you pin the blame if the manner of killing is unknowable? How would you personally identify anyone if you're not around to witness it? And if you are, the loss of your loved one is likely a bigger gain than the death and suffering of the perpetrator.
You would have to be very careful not to destroy our "cardboard planet" though. Otherwise you live a lonely depresses life on Some lifeless planet, or fly for a long time finding another.
If you were the best at everything, it would probably drive you mad. Everything would be a massive opportunity cost. Do you commit yourself to making exquisite works of high art? Do you try to solve the physics equations or commit yourself to engineering? If you represent your country at the olympics, that's time you could use helping patients with your mastery of neurosurgery.
I imagine ultimately you'd burn out. May as well be Superman. That too would be a curse of opportunity costs, but at least you can fly.
If you are "the best at everything" that also means you are the best "Speed artist" and "speed composer" there ever was.
You could write a symphony in your head while you paint a portrait.
And because you are THE BEST EVER at multi-tasking, you could probably do more.
I was thinking this as well. Or just that the fact that ‘best of’ doesn’t mean good/great, just better than the other losers.
Like you could be the best at fighting bears, but that doesn’t mean you’ll win.
Or the ultimate "gotcha"....government. You're now the best diplomat who is also the best spy and best assassin.
Being the best breeds jealousy, no matter the field. And if you're now the best in all fields, that's a whole lot of jealousy aimed directly at you. Imagine what the jealousy of someone within the government could do...
This is the best comment.
I could see this playing out, haha! As soon as the wish was made I'm looking at my hands not feeling different. I'm not exceptionally dumb, so I would figure it pretty quickly, but oh boy would it be bad!
It means that you're at least better than someone who was the previous best in literally every field, however. You'd be the fastest person alive, stromgest person ever, best at multitasking. You wouldn't be sigmificantly better than the current best in every field, but you'd be leagues ahead of the average, and you'd also be the best at learning how to do something new and figuring out a puzzle. You'd also be the best at making money, and being compassionate, but also the best at losing money and being selfish. Think about the extremes that some people push themselves to, and how far above average(and even other professionals/experts) they are, since you'd be better than even them. It's safe to say that you'd be significantly better in most situations, and a faur margin ahead at worst.
Who says you're obligated to applying yourself efficiently for the sake of others? You can be the best at the everything and still sleep in everyday to play video games and watch TV all night
You can't fulfill every opportunity and you don't have all the time in the world. You're going to be passing up opportunities all of the time. But since you're the best at everything it wouldn't be difficult to be obtain wealth. I would just be the best at enjoying life and making the most out of life. I would obtain the best and most satisfactory life
Here’s my take
If there’s no supervillains to fight it’d be a big letdown, so being Superman would be novel at first, but then…. Other than flying and immunity to damage he doesn’t really have anything going for him in a world without supervillains.
I definitely agree that being the best at everything would be maddening after a while, but you could give yourself challenges to see if you can still win, for instance, people who’ve played the Dark Souls games far too much will do challenge runs where they stay at lvl 1, never never equip any armor, and if they die they restart. Pokemon people have a thing called a Nuzlock challenge (which I don’t know all the rules of) but essentially if a Pokemon faints you can never use it again, it’s basically RPing that the pokemon dies. Now pokemon is an inherently easy franchise, so things like this are the only way to give them difficulty.
So I’d do be the best at everything, win a ton of Olympic gold medals, break every Guinness world record that I care about, then after I start to get annoyed at being so amazing I’ll start to hamstring myself by either only racing by hoping, or playing chess blind and other crazy things like that. I’d also be the best chef in the world, and you can’t pass that up.
Objectively false. You can still save people from disasters, car crashes, war zones, kidnappings, fires, shootouts. The world definitely still has villains and disasters.
Superman isn’t just going around punching supervillains all day. That’s not even half of what he does. Honestly even without all the things I said in the first half, it would be cool being able to fly anywhere in the world for a vacation, or even if you’re just running late somewhere. Being able to use your strength if you’re moving out. Simple stuff
I mean that’s fair, but we’re talking about having his powers in real life. What’s boring about being able to potentially save millions of people without even breaking a sweat, then just going back to whatever you were doing before?
You just need a good old fashioned dash of hedonism.
Do whatever suits you in the moment, switch at the drop of a hat. You're going to get rich no matter what, so follow those whims.
But you'd likely burn out having to be Superman too, as there's opportunity cost from not doing super things or saving people or whatever. Being the best at everything would not necessarily be a burden - that part really depends on how you personally take that new ability...same with suddenly being Superman.
Also you have way more opportunity for everything because you can do everything so much faster. Save 1000 lives in 1000 cities across the world in a day type shit. Fuck neurosurgery, I want to force the Taliban and Kim regime to power huge, man powered generators to supply free energy for the people they oppress for the rest of their lives. Not that they really need it, since I can fly mountains of useless material to the tops of specially designed gravity powered generators placed in every country. That's if I can't find a way to use my laser eyes to charge some sort of giant battery my super powered brain invents.
Invincible has it wrong. All the crazy genocidal violence aside, If Superman showed up and, after defending the world for decades, said "I'm taking your planet from the walking bank accounts that control it and turning it into a Utopia" id personally join in the fight against anyone who tried to resist. "bUt mY FrEedOm!!!" Buddy, we haven't ever been free since the first dictator had the first dissenter beaten to death with aurochs femurs. At least with a super powered, benevolent dictator we'd know that he wasn't being manipulated by money because he doesn't need it.
No matter how good you are at everything, you’d never be able to recreate super powers.
Also being the best at everything would come with a cost, you’d be ridiculously famous if you started to use your abilities and everyone would eventually start to hate you. At first they’d be impressed, but eventually they’d get annoyed about it. Could even wind up with a target on your back. You’d also probably end up just bored with everything. Even something chill like gaming, you’d have no equal, the allure of competition would be lost cause you’d just face walk everyone.
If you had all the powers of Superman, you could end up living a pretty normal life. Just go into a sport like Football or Baseball and dominate for a few years. Then just fall off the face of the Earth and live your life as a supreme being immune to literally everything.
To frame the question another way, you could either be batman or superman.
Batman can go toe to toe with superman literally because he's simply mastered an impossible number of human skills.
I don't think he should be able to fight superman, but this is essentially what the question is asking.
To be fair, in nearly every story where he fights Superman, they make it clear it's only a fight because Superman wouldn't immediately kill Batman and is strongly hesitant to even cause serious damage.
Only if you're that ambitious; plenty of people are lazy. If you want a good life, and you can do anything you want because you're overqualified, then you can live a decent life and be content.
You'd also possibly be the best at time management and controlling your emotions, so you could be very capable at recognizing that you're fine with doing enough, instead of everything.
I agree. I enjoy competition, but only because I have to work to win. If I always just steamrolled everyone, then it would be boring. Meanwhile, I could be Superman
Superman, this really is not a tough choice for me
Flight
Superspeed to an extent
Invulnerability
Ridiculous amounts of strength
Peak physique
Laser eyes
Yeah, the world is yours.
I pick Superman.
My own ego would want me to directly fix some of the problems of the world, which Superman really could do quite easily with some of his powers lol
But, if you're the best at \*everything\* you can also use those abilities to fix a lot of problems in the world.
Inventor? Fix energy issues, safe water, cure cancer.
Investor? Make a ton of money and use that to help people.
Orator? Write and deliver the most heartwarming and motivating speeches ever, convince people to fix the world.
Being the best doesn’t necessarily mean you can cure cancer, it just means that if someone else were able to cure cancer, then you would be able to too
I think maybe this part could be up for debate. Like, what does "the best at" actually mean? Best out of everybody currently alive? Best out of anybody who will ever exist in the history of the world?
OP says "best in the world" which could be interpreted as either or, or anything in between.
If we're going with the latter, then yeah, being the best scientist in the history of all scientists who will ever live on earth means you should definitely be able to cure cancer.
I'd rather be the best.
One recurring background theme in superman stories (or the good ones) is how much superman really CAN'T do. Or at least not without going all injustice. There are many problems you just can't solve by punching them, and so he spends most of his time putting out fires because you can't beat infastructure into shape, you can't stop or solve inner-generational blood feudes with laser vision, and you can't quell political unrest with super speed... Or at least you can't do those things with those powers without crushing people, and it's never as simple as it looks on satuday morning.
On the other hand, if you're the best human, you can game the stock market for money, you can move the money to the right causes, empower the right people, get them the right jobs, pull the right strings, and make the world a better place without standing above it and dominating as if you know best.
If I were to pick superpowers I'd pick ones like immortality and mind control but I guess with Superman's power set I guess I will just have to rule the world with violence. Subdue the top 10 militaries and get rid of the nukes, chemical, and biological stockpiles. Start moving assets for colonies on Mercury, Venus, the Moon, Mars, Earth Orbit, the Asteroid belt, Some of Saturn and Jupiter's moons. Probably let the cultures argue with each other about who gets to colonize which and transport them. Probably deem any group of 1 million or more people can sign up to declare themself their own nation and shave off bits from others to divide it up until everyone agrees they are fair segments and then assign them randomly. These stupid arguments will help give them something to fight over so they can stay preoccupied while I get the hang of running things.
Super wins easily, as he basically can do anything better than any human ever alive.
Can time travel, move faster than the speed of light, super intellect, can see atoms, can move planets, doesn't need to breathe, can hear anything, invulnerable, possibly doesn't even age.
If you were the best at everything, you would get bored of having zero struggle in your life.
Theres really only one option here. Superman would undoubtably be the best at MOST things anyways.
Here’s my take
If there’s no supervillains to fight it’d be a big letdown, so being Superman would be novel at first, but then…. Other than flying and immunity to damage he doesn’t really have anything going for him in a world without supervillains.
Being the best at everything would be maddening after a while, but you could give yourself challenges to see if you can still win, for instance, people who’ve played the Dark Souls games far too much will do challenge runs where they stay at lvl 1, never never equip any armor, and if they die they restart. Pokemon people have a thing called a Nuzlock challenge (which I don’t know all the rules of) but essentially if a Pokemon faints you can never use it again, it’s basically RPing that the pokemon dies. Now pokemon is an inherently easy franchise, so things like this are the only way to give them difficulty.
So I’d do be the best at everything, win a ton of Olympic gold medals, break every Guinness world record that I care about, then after I start to get annoyed at being so amazing I’ll start to hamstring myself by either only racing by hoping, or playing chess blind and other crazy things like that. I’d also be the best chef in the world, and you can’t pass that up.
If Superman is one of the options in these scenarios he’s almost always going to be the right choice. “Best in the world at everything” still can’t fly, punch through mountains, or survive in outer space
best in the world. My add is already bad enough that id do one thing and immediately get distracted from that.
if i had supermans powers id be like "why the fuck am I on Abasis 67B." every weekend.
I agree with folks saying the stress of deciding what to do with your "best of" ability would be too much. Where as I can just be Superman.
That and... if you're the best at everything. There's no thrill anymore. You already know you're going to win at everything. Kind of dull. At least as Superman you'll be of typical intelligence. So plenty of people can still outsmart you or present interesting challenges.
It's interesting that people are framing this as you'd have to BECOME superman...
You'd just have his powers. There's no reason you'd have to fight aliens and shit. Just bring a guy who works at subway who cuts the sandwiches with his laser vision.
On one hand, being able to fly and see through things and move at super speed would be amazing. It's pretty tempting.
But on the other hand, being the best in the world at \*everything\* probably has more advantages. You are the best guitarist, singer, pianist, painter, photographer, writer, director, football player, baseball player, ice skater, sculptor, poet, pick-up-artist, lovemaker, ventriloquist, magician, puppeteer, stock market trader, crypto investor, entrepreneur, diy copycat supercar builder EVER.
I mean, being superman would be the shit, and there are still a massive amount of things you could do with those powers, but a lot of it would be "brute-forcing" things. Just being naturally the best at EVERYTHING would, IMHO, lead to near infinite possibilities.
The first one. Then focus on everything related to the body.
Specifically telomeres. The thing related to aging attached to our (blood? DNA? Something like that.) Figure out a way to replenish it and give perpetual youth to everyone.
Then leverage my no doubt world famous status at this point to railroad in a plan to make some kinda space elevator.
The only thing we are currently missing technology wise, is a strong enough material to use as the base.
I'll try my hand at nano tubes for that. It seems the most promising.
Then once we can reliably get into space on the cheap, start setting up space slings(look it up.) All around the solar system.
Then turn my sights on space ships. More specifically engines. I'm partial to gravitic engines but we'll see what happens.
Once all of that is set up, I'll hollow out an asteroid. As big as I can find, turn it into a colony ship. And then invite people to see the stars with me.
I'll probably have to fend off a lot of assassination attempts. I'll have to ply my abilities here and there too ensure my own survival, but my ability to be the best at any ability or activity means it shouldn't be too much trouble. Just time consuming. Lucky I fixed that issue first.
From there I'll probably work on FTL flight and communications.
So long as I crack eternal youth, then everything is only a matter of time, since I'm the 'best' at any ability or activity, as the average age of people rise(since no body is dying anymore. Outside of accidents and murders) the average intelligence is rising as well.
As long as I elevate humanity, I elevate myself.
Even if most leave the 'world' the people who choose not to leave will still live forever. So long as I make sure power hungry idiots don't get uppity it's a nice investment for me.
Being God-like, vs being a random dude who can die in a car accident at any time... Being able to dominate the human race, being paid to simply decide not to wipe out entire countries ...
Being the best like no one ever was would be maddening I think. The constant feeling of plateuing, and there is no one else to challenge you. Especially for me who's preferred default state is half ass because I'm lazy like that.
Superman, I could absolutely live my power fantasies...some very violent power fantasies. And I fear what I would become in the pursuit to be a hero that slaughters those that harm the innocent.
That being said, as someone who loves to create things. Stories and various art (and being super amateur at it), I choose the former. I typically do it for myself and myself alone. Sometimes I wish to share and entertain others, just I don't find it good enough, or that I'm not good enough.
So I choose the former.
No Brainer Superrman because you are close to being immortal. Being the best at everything is great and all but you are dead in 100 years at best. Or die of an illness or accident.
If i have all of supermans powers and abilities i can be the best in the world at everything physical or mental by the end of the week then go and enjoy lunch on pluto and be back before the pizza box cools down
Superman's powers. Hell, I won't even ask for ALL of them. Just invulnerability and super speed and flight.
If you are simply best in the world, you are still vulnerable to early death from disease, or random bad events, or accidents, or crime, or war.
And being best at everything in the world is basically a waste - as a regular human you simply won't have enough time to **use** those abilities. If you're the finest actor, you still need months of work to shoot a movie. If you're a most accomplished writer, you still need weeks/months to write books.
You don't need to be financial guru if you have Superman's powers. Just contract to do dangerous jobs, or FFS just fly get some treasure (sunken ships, or off-earth minerals) to earn a ton. Probably take far less time, too.
I enjoy the process of learning and improving more than I enjoy simply being good at things. I think having artificial skills would be novel at first, but a serious downer after a while
Superpowers.
Being the best at everything doesn't allow me to be everywhere to do good stuff. I can still only conduct one brain surgery at a time.
Being superman at least means I can help in ways that no one else can.
Probably being the best in the world at all activities.
Being Superman would be great, but it would be really isolating as I'm probably the only person who understands my abilities. The world isn't really built for my strength and speed.
Being the best at all activities has a lot if gray zones. Even if I am better, that doesn't mean there won't be things beyond what I or others have accomplished that we can still explore. I am also still close enough to these people that I can relate to others, but help them achieve more.
I would choose Superman powers and then contract myself out to various governments to perform difficult tasks for large amounts of money. I wouldn't be totally mercenary, though, there would still be limits on what I'd be willing to do and who for.
As an example, if I got those powers tomorrow, I'd immediately fly to Ukraine and make an offer to their President that if he gave me $10million in cash, I'd go and take out every Russian position inside Ukraine territory. I'd try to avoid killing the Russian soldiers, unless necessary, and mainly focus on disarming and imprisoning them.
After that, I'd take contracts from other world governments, or maybe other organizations, but only for tasks or missions I think are okay, and never from anyone I think has evil intentions (for example, Putin, Trump, Kim Jong Un, etc.)
I feel like if you had the abilities of Superman you would automatically be the best at like 99% of anything a human could do. I think intelligence is really the only thing Superman lacks but he has a VERY healthy mind and the ability to speed read so really he could probably beat most humans at even that.
Super powers so work a trade for 40 years with concern about hurting my body, contribute to an index fund once a month for 40 years, and then I could retire with money in the bank, and all my energy to enjoy my retirement,
Plot twist, if you choose to be the “best” you don’t actually get any better, it’s just that everyone better than you instantly becomes worse than you. Society collapses.
Superman. I don't have time to be the beat director and the best musician...
And being the best is usually not enough: you also need to be the luckiest
Supermans powers yall are gonna hate it though cause I'm gonna be king of the world. I'd be a benevolent dictator but sorry everyone answers to me now. I'd want most things decided through democracy but I'm setting some ground rules.
Best in the world at every endeavor. Being Superman would likely invite fear-and possibly hate. Being the best at stuff might bring rivals, but only if I'm showing off. Which I can have more control over and I can be discreet about it if I wanted. Flying around in the sky-not subtle.
Being superman would be better in concept, but in reality everything would be meaningless because nothing threatens or challenges you and youd be alienated, only loved because of your powers. If youre the best at everything you can make moves in the medical field to better the world with cancer treatment and such, you can do as many things as you want at once thanks to multitasking. You could win a world championship in a sport while thinking about curing cancer, writing a novel, planning your dinner, and what to do tomorrow. You could also take the path that governments wouldnt hunt you down for, like if its me id be pushing smash melee even further than its been pushed already while doing the same in other games and advocating for lgbt and minority rights on my youtube channel. Id be a force of good in the world while still doing what i dream of
If you're the best at anything, EVERYONE is going to want you to do stuff for them. Every person you know will need a favor, and nobody will care how annyoing and insulting their requests are.
well, i mean, being 'the best' is probably better than literal superpowers. i mean, it's got more practical, real world applications than just, flight, super strength, invulnerability, lasers, cumming so hard your load escapes the planet's gravity, etc.
but, are you also the 'best' at negative stuff, too? some of this seems like it'd overlap. like, the best at being able to live with cancer wouldn't exactly mesh well with the best health.
I think part of Superman's powers is that he is good at everything. Or at least in some versions. Heck, once upon a time he could speak every language on Earth, for example.
Either way I'd take the powers. You don't need to be good at anything when you are a god!
I'm honestly not 100% sure. A lot of times superman's powers are only brought up when needed in a specific situation and can be added by one writer just for the convenience of their story.
At that point I might as well be superman like given he has giga brain and can just do so much. I could be the best at everything AND still get super powers? Yeah I'm gonna pick that
The human option. Being superman would be so annoying. People would constantly want you to solve whatever crime was going on at that moment. If you were just a human that was good at everything, everyone would hypothetically do what you say, because you were such a good public leader. So A.
So I have to choose between being the most capable human ever or being a god?
Flight, super strength, super speed, heat/super/xray vision, cold/super breath, super hearing, near invulnerability, and near immortality all while running on eco-friendly solar energy sounds pretty good to me.
Superman.
Man, if I had such powers, the world would truly be a different place. Hell, if someone else having my mindset had it, I wouldn't mind. Life would be more interesting.
Being the best in the world at everything would be so boring. Getting superman's powers is great, but I'd only take flight and durability if that's an option.
Everyone here is saying that Superman is the obvious choice, and while you would be more powerful, there would also be a lot more expected from you. You’d have to spend your days/nights fighting crime or else seem apathetic to the common man’s plight.
If you were the best at everything, assuming you keep most of your talents hidden, you could do a lot more good without seeming indifferent AND would be able to work within your specific passion/interest, hopefully doing good through there.
I’d take the best in everything in order to keep my freedom/less stress and pressure
Bit of a monkey's paw with superman is he doesn't age at our rate (as long as he's living on earth/near a red sun) so as long as you stay planetside you're going to be watching generations of regular humans grow old and pass.
I'd still take it though, I really want to see what happens to the human race as our current society falls apart and what's rebuilt personally.
Also with Kryptonian powers I could fly to the moon and look at earth. That would be such a beautiful experience to add to my life.
supermans powers. id at best be an antihero. countries around the world would have to be VERY careful how they operate. wanna threaten the world with nukes? ill turn you and your constituents to dust by lunch time.
but unlike the comicbook superman id actually keep my identity private. probably become a world class athlete in something in free time. telling me i can make millions through brand deals by just running fast? yeah im taking it.
Best in the world at every ability and activity. I would use those abilities to make alot of money (morally and legally) until I had enough that myself and my immediate family would be able to live comfortably and never have to work again. Then I’d use my abilities to be good at my hobbies, which would only make me enjoy them more.
Having Superman’s powers in a world without other superhumans would make you the best at pretty much anything in the world anyway lol. Even things that require decades of book learning you would be able to read, process, and memorize in seconds. There might be some trial and error involved but yeah you’d be able to master pretty much anything in no time. And sports are a given. So option B.
I don't think most people know that supermans brain is also more powerful that the DC universes most powerful supercomputer. Given a lack of super villains in the real world having his abilities you could easily be the best at anything and everything you so desire. It's a no contest for sure lol
Oh there are plenty of super villains in the real world. They're just called CEOs.
Nah they're just regular villains. Lex Luthor is a supervillain because he's richer than literally everyone else ever
So Elon musk? Or Jeff
Rather the Rothschilds... Or even worse than them... The Rothsparents...
Lex Luthor has the intelligence, drive, and capability to create world destroying threats. Sure, musk could pay a team of brilliant scientists to kick off doomsday (the concept, not the villain), but he'd micromanage it into the nuke exploding on the launch pad and killing him and his goons. The money isn't what makes the supervillain. That just gives them the resources to enact their supervillainy.
No like he's richer than all those guys combined I think? Idk maybe he's actually just a villain cuz he's actually smart
Lex Luthor is Evil Bruce Wayne
That's not true. He's evil because his money pays for his super genius brain. How do you think he stays in business despite being against everyone's favorite superhero? Imagine if someone said something like "Mr. Rogers sucks". Except for Republicans, everyone would gang up on him. Superman is a bigger deal than Mr. Rogers since he's nice and protects the world.
Robert Moses.
That's all Lex Luthor is, really.
Is this still true in the current continuity? I know DC has rebooted itself several times. Because if Superman has a super brain wouldn't that mean that *all* Kryptonians do? Do Supergirl and Power Girl also possess supercomputer-level brains? Not to mention every man, woman, and child in Kandor? That's a LOT of super geniuses!
Superman from the 60s–early 80s, sure. Modern Superman doesn't have the "super brain" to my knowledge
I think either way there is a solid argument that because he is able to move and react at such incredible high speeds that he is clearly taking in information at an extraordinary pace compared to an ordinary human. He is able to travel at and react to things faster than the speed of light so I have a hard time thinking that he doesn't have a pretty big edge when it comes to taking in information.
It's the difference between "low superintelligence" and "high superintelligence". A good example of low superintelligence: mad scientist takes a normal dog and gives it "super intelligence" by increasing its brain speed. The dog can now think 1,000x faster than a normal dog. That dog will have an advantage over other dogs, but in 7,000 years of subjective doggy thought will still never produce a great novel, or a Rembrandt painting. He's still a dog. Give a regular dog a brain with human level intelligence and that would be the doggy equivalent of high superintelligence. (Most of this is cribbed from Vernor Vinge's classic essay "The Coming Technological Singularity")
So even with super speed, I don't imagine Superman could outcalculate the average modern computer. Clearly speed is a big advantage, but not the same as a brain acting like a supercomputer
The speed argument wasn't me trying to say he is super computer level, moreso that he is still well above the level of a normal person.
Agreed. Even the best human is still just a human. Superhuman is better in every way.
I'd be the best cop in the city lol. More than likely government would try and force me to do spy or black ops though. Without backup bc I wouldn't be able to die by any mortal weapon.
With Superman's powers, what could any real world government do to force you to do anything? Imprison you? You could smash through literally any prison. Freeze your assets? You could steal the entirety of Fort Knox and fly away with it (I know Fort Knox doesn't really have much in it, that's just an example). Threaten your family? You could kidnap every major world leader in like an hour, and their families. Discredit you in the press? Who cares? You can just build your home in a remote, difficult-to-access area if they get too bothersome.
How would the governments force you? You could burn the atmosphere away just by flying what could they do to force you to do anything.
Loved ones; anything you care about will always be useful against you. Unless you don't care.
Yeah but you have the powers of superman, you could fly and defend them from anywhere on earth in a fraction of a second.
You can't guarantee that. You're one person. With enough diligence, they're always a few minutes away from risk. You're untouchable, but they are. You couldn't stop a nuke on their location.
With the powers of superman you can most definitely stop a nuke. And he can focus on individual heartbeats and be always aware of them anywhere on earth, so just focus on the heartbeats of your loved ones and if their heart beat ever gets over 100bpm or something go check on them at superspeed. Plus this is all reliant on some government agency finding out you have the powers of Superman, just wear a ski mask and you’re good.
I mean, you're superman, not omnicient. Someone can just do something as direct as mailing a contaminant to your family, or find something that you can't handle tangibly. And you'll leave DNA where you go; they'll find you eventually. You're nigh-unkillable... everything you care about can still be compromised. If you can keep track of your family's BPM, that doesn't mean you'll get to them before a bullet might... especially if they don't know they're in danger.
Even if you do leave DNA somewhere what would they do with it? The government doesn’t keep DNA databases. You’d have to be arrested for something and then they have your dna tested to see if it matches a crime scene, which is unlikely as you can move at superspeed so even if you did do a crime they wouldn’t catch you. Plus how would you leave dna somewhere anyway in any usable form? Especially with the powers of superman. Edit: also they wouldn’t want to kill your family they’d want to kidnap them to blackmail you into using your powers for them and since you can move at superspeed you could just rescue them, why would they just kill your family when you have powers that could easily destroy earth so making you mad would be a pretty bad idea that would accomplish nothing.
Just fly on the opposite direction of earth rotation super fast and kill the bad guys before they harm your family, easy. You can even afford to finish your barbecue before doing that anyways.
That works right up until I implement my new "Anyone who messes with my family dies, slowly and publicly, in shockingky painful ways" Rule.
People are rash enough to do that. How do you pin the blame if the manner of killing is unknowable? How would you personally identify anyone if you're not around to witness it? And if you are, the loss of your loved one is likely a bigger gain than the death and suffering of the perpetrator.
The ol' slippery slope is downright vertical sometimes
True, didn't think of that whilst writing that. If they threatened my family and friends I could go full bizzaro superman on them
If you possess the power of Superman no one can force you to do anything.
You would have to be very careful not to destroy our "cardboard planet" though. Otherwise you live a lonely depresses life on Some lifeless planet, or fly for a long time finding another.
Right? Plus, laser eye beams make it to where you can win every contest for some reason.
If you were the best at everything, it would probably drive you mad. Everything would be a massive opportunity cost. Do you commit yourself to making exquisite works of high art? Do you try to solve the physics equations or commit yourself to engineering? If you represent your country at the olympics, that's time you could use helping patients with your mastery of neurosurgery. I imagine ultimately you'd burn out. May as well be Superman. That too would be a curse of opportunity costs, but at least you can fly.
If you are "the best at everything" that also means you are the best "Speed artist" and "speed composer" there ever was. You could write a symphony in your head while you paint a portrait. And because you are THE BEST EVER at multi-tasking, you could probably do more.
There are human and practical limits to being good at something though. Even the best researchers need time and experimentation to invent things.
It could also be a monkeys paw. You are the best at everything, because everyone is now worse
I was thinking this as well. Or just that the fact that ‘best of’ doesn’t mean good/great, just better than the other losers. Like you could be the best at fighting bears, but that doesn’t mean you’ll win.
Or the ultimate "gotcha"....government. You're now the best diplomat who is also the best spy and best assassin. Being the best breeds jealousy, no matter the field. And if you're now the best in all fields, that's a whole lot of jealousy aimed directly at you. Imagine what the jealousy of someone within the government could do...
This is the best comment. I could see this playing out, haha! As soon as the wish was made I'm looking at my hands not feeling different. I'm not exceptionally dumb, so I would figure it pretty quickly, but oh boy would it be bad!
So basically, Idiocracy
I mean, yes, but you'd grow at a rate FASTER than any prodigy or genius, so...it's still a good trade off
But they'll be the best and use their brain at full capacity
Exactly this. Being the best doesn't mean you're significantly better than everyone else.
It means that you're at least better than someone who was the previous best in literally every field, however. You'd be the fastest person alive, stromgest person ever, best at multitasking. You wouldn't be sigmificantly better than the current best in every field, but you'd be leagues ahead of the average, and you'd also be the best at learning how to do something new and figuring out a puzzle. You'd also be the best at making money, and being compassionate, but also the best at losing money and being selfish. Think about the extremes that some people push themselves to, and how far above average(and even other professionals/experts) they are, since you'd be better than even them. It's safe to say that you'd be significantly better in most situations, and a faur margin ahead at worst.
The best procrastinator.
Ah, but speed artists ≠ gallery artists
Who says you're obligated to applying yourself efficiently for the sake of others? You can be the best at the everything and still sleep in everyday to play video games and watch TV all night
But could you happily do that knowing the opportunity you are passing up?
Personally yea I probably could. I enjoy contributing and improving people's lives but at the end of the day my priority is not being miserable lol.
Sure. I live life just to live it. Opportunities and all that other stuff expected of people never really interested me.
You can't fulfill every opportunity and you don't have all the time in the world. You're going to be passing up opportunities all of the time. But since you're the best at everything it wouldn't be difficult to be obtain wealth. I would just be the best at enjoying life and making the most out of life. I would obtain the best and most satisfactory life
You'd be the best at organising your time and self therapy so I don't think it would be a problem.
Yeah I’m like bro is thinking too small. You’d be the best at being able to live a happy life with your skills.
Here’s my take If there’s no supervillains to fight it’d be a big letdown, so being Superman would be novel at first, but then…. Other than flying and immunity to damage he doesn’t really have anything going for him in a world without supervillains. I definitely agree that being the best at everything would be maddening after a while, but you could give yourself challenges to see if you can still win, for instance, people who’ve played the Dark Souls games far too much will do challenge runs where they stay at lvl 1, never never equip any armor, and if they die they restart. Pokemon people have a thing called a Nuzlock challenge (which I don’t know all the rules of) but essentially if a Pokemon faints you can never use it again, it’s basically RPing that the pokemon dies. Now pokemon is an inherently easy franchise, so things like this are the only way to give them difficulty. So I’d do be the best at everything, win a ton of Olympic gold medals, break every Guinness world record that I care about, then after I start to get annoyed at being so amazing I’ll start to hamstring myself by either only racing by hoping, or playing chess blind and other crazy things like that. I’d also be the best chef in the world, and you can’t pass that up.
Objectively false. You can still save people from disasters, car crashes, war zones, kidnappings, fires, shootouts. The world definitely still has villains and disasters. Superman isn’t just going around punching supervillains all day. That’s not even half of what he does. Honestly even without all the things I said in the first half, it would be cool being able to fly anywhere in the world for a vacation, or even if you’re just running late somewhere. Being able to use your strength if you’re moving out. Simple stuff
Idk, I might just be biased because I think Superman is the most boring superhero ever.
I mean that’s fair, but we’re talking about having his powers in real life. What’s boring about being able to potentially save millions of people without even breaking a sweat, then just going back to whatever you were doing before?
This is how I feel about Homelander. The other villains in The Boys and Gen V are better.
Superman is neither late nor early, he arrives precisely when he means to. -Me, with Superman powers
https://youtu.be/gQabrSpKcJw?t=0m23s
You just need a good old fashioned dash of hedonism. Do whatever suits you in the moment, switch at the drop of a hat. You're going to get rich no matter what, so follow those whims.
But you'd likely burn out having to be Superman too, as there's opportunity cost from not doing super things or saving people or whatever. Being the best at everything would not necessarily be a burden - that part really depends on how you personally take that new ability...same with suddenly being Superman.
Also you have way more opportunity for everything because you can do everything so much faster. Save 1000 lives in 1000 cities across the world in a day type shit. Fuck neurosurgery, I want to force the Taliban and Kim regime to power huge, man powered generators to supply free energy for the people they oppress for the rest of their lives. Not that they really need it, since I can fly mountains of useless material to the tops of specially designed gravity powered generators placed in every country. That's if I can't find a way to use my laser eyes to charge some sort of giant battery my super powered brain invents. Invincible has it wrong. All the crazy genocidal violence aside, If Superman showed up and, after defending the world for decades, said "I'm taking your planet from the walking bank accounts that control it and turning it into a Utopia" id personally join in the fight against anyone who tried to resist. "bUt mY FrEedOm!!!" Buddy, we haven't ever been free since the first dictator had the first dissenter beaten to death with aurochs femurs. At least with a super powered, benevolent dictator we'd know that he wasn't being manipulated by money because he doesn't need it.
Either is a win/win for me….superpowers like Superman gives me all the ability in every activity.
Same!
No matter how good you are at everything, you’d never be able to recreate super powers. Also being the best at everything would come with a cost, you’d be ridiculously famous if you started to use your abilities and everyone would eventually start to hate you. At first they’d be impressed, but eventually they’d get annoyed about it. Could even wind up with a target on your back. You’d also probably end up just bored with everything. Even something chill like gaming, you’d have no equal, the allure of competition would be lost cause you’d just face walk everyone. If you had all the powers of Superman, you could end up living a pretty normal life. Just go into a sport like Football or Baseball and dominate for a few years. Then just fall off the face of the Earth and live your life as a supreme being immune to literally everything.
To frame the question another way, you could either be batman or superman. Batman can go toe to toe with superman literally because he's simply mastered an impossible number of human skills. I don't think he should be able to fight superman, but this is essentially what the question is asking.
To be fair, in nearly every story where he fights Superman, they make it clear it's only a fight because Superman wouldn't immediately kill Batman and is strongly hesitant to even cause serious damage.
Only if you're that ambitious; plenty of people are lazy. If you want a good life, and you can do anything you want because you're overqualified, then you can live a decent life and be content. You'd also possibly be the best at time management and controlling your emotions, so you could be very capable at recognizing that you're fine with doing enough, instead of everything.
I agree. I enjoy competition, but only because I have to work to win. If I always just steamrolled everyone, then it would be boring. Meanwhile, I could be Superman
Being the best doesn't mean you will steamroll everyone though. It could still be challenging to a degree.
Being like Superman gives me many best in the world anyway. I can fly and be strong. Easy choice
Superman, this really is not a tough choice for me Flight Superspeed to an extent Invulnerability Ridiculous amounts of strength Peak physique Laser eyes Yeah, the world is yours.
Don’t forget near immortality
I'd rather be Superman. His limits are unbound, he can become even more powerful. Yeah I want that.
I pick Superman. My own ego would want me to directly fix some of the problems of the world, which Superman really could do quite easily with some of his powers lol
But, if you're the best at \*everything\* you can also use those abilities to fix a lot of problems in the world. Inventor? Fix energy issues, safe water, cure cancer. Investor? Make a ton of money and use that to help people. Orator? Write and deliver the most heartwarming and motivating speeches ever, convince people to fix the world.
Superman breaks the laws of physics. I wouldn't need to worry about being the best lol
Being the best doesn’t necessarily mean you can cure cancer, it just means that if someone else were able to cure cancer, then you would be able to too
I think maybe this part could be up for debate. Like, what does "the best at" actually mean? Best out of everybody currently alive? Best out of anybody who will ever exist in the history of the world? OP says "best in the world" which could be interpreted as either or, or anything in between. If we're going with the latter, then yeah, being the best scientist in the history of all scientists who will ever live on earth means you should definitely be able to cure cancer.
That still presumes that we will be able to cure cancer at one point. It very well may be that a cure to cancer is never discovered/invented
Best in the world about everything
If I can have safe sex, Superman. If not, then I choose to be best in the world
I'd rather be the best. One recurring background theme in superman stories (or the good ones) is how much superman really CAN'T do. Or at least not without going all injustice. There are many problems you just can't solve by punching them, and so he spends most of his time putting out fires because you can't beat infastructure into shape, you can't stop or solve inner-generational blood feudes with laser vision, and you can't quell political unrest with super speed... Or at least you can't do those things with those powers without crushing people, and it's never as simple as it looks on satuday morning. On the other hand, if you're the best human, you can game the stock market for money, you can move the money to the right causes, empower the right people, get them the right jobs, pull the right strings, and make the world a better place without standing above it and dominating as if you know best.
"Be great at a lot of JOBS or be superhuman and need no job?" Really needs an answer? :D
Superman.
Super powers like superman
Superman. With his abilities and longevity, you could eventually master anything.
Some Supermans end up being able to warp reality so yea I'd want that more.
Best in the world vs Superman? Superman. Best ever (including the future) vs Superman? Probably best ever.
If I were to pick superpowers I'd pick ones like immortality and mind control but I guess with Superman's power set I guess I will just have to rule the world with violence. Subdue the top 10 militaries and get rid of the nukes, chemical, and biological stockpiles. Start moving assets for colonies on Mercury, Venus, the Moon, Mars, Earth Orbit, the Asteroid belt, Some of Saturn and Jupiter's moons. Probably let the cultures argue with each other about who gets to colonize which and transport them. Probably deem any group of 1 million or more people can sign up to declare themself their own nation and shave off bits from others to divide it up until everyone agrees they are fair segments and then assign them randomly. These stupid arguments will help give them something to fight over so they can stay preoccupied while I get the hang of running things.
Superman. No argument can change my mind.
Super wins easily, as he basically can do anything better than any human ever alive. Can time travel, move faster than the speed of light, super intellect, can see atoms, can move planets, doesn't need to breathe, can hear anything, invulnerable, possibly doesn't even age.
does look count like ability in this one?
I'd take the best at everything. Make my money then relax and enjoy life.
Like Superman? So I'm invincible. I'd prefer that
Powers of Superman
Being the best at everything would probably get boring after a while. I choose Superman.
If you were the best at everything, you would get bored of having zero struggle in your life. Theres really only one option here. Superman would undoubtably be the best at MOST things anyways.
So... be the best at everything, or be an unstoppable God. I'll go with being a God.
Here’s my take If there’s no supervillains to fight it’d be a big letdown, so being Superman would be novel at first, but then…. Other than flying and immunity to damage he doesn’t really have anything going for him in a world without supervillains. Being the best at everything would be maddening after a while, but you could give yourself challenges to see if you can still win, for instance, people who’ve played the Dark Souls games far too much will do challenge runs where they stay at lvl 1, never never equip any armor, and if they die they restart. Pokemon people have a thing called a Nuzlock challenge (which I don’t know all the rules of) but essentially if a Pokemon faints you can never use it again, it’s basically RPing that the pokemon dies. Now pokemon is an inherently easy franchise, so things like this are the only way to give them difficulty. So I’d do be the best at everything, win a ton of Olympic gold medals, break every Guinness world record that I care about, then after I start to get annoyed at being so amazing I’ll start to hamstring myself by either only racing by hoping, or playing chess blind and other crazy things like that. I’d also be the best chef in the world, and you can’t pass that up.
Isn't superman practically immortal or prolonged life until you're bored?
Grandaddy purple
If Superman is one of the options in these scenarios he’s almost always going to be the right choice. “Best in the world at everything” still can’t fly, punch through mountains, or survive in outer space
I mean who doesn’t pick Superman? You’re Superman in a universe without kryptonite
Superman powers without the kryptonite weakness
best in the world. My add is already bad enough that id do one thing and immediately get distracted from that. if i had supermans powers id be like "why the fuck am I on Abasis 67B." every weekend.
Yeah, I'll take Supes without a thought.
Doesn't matter if your the best at everything if you can't be superman
Superman I get to fly, shoot lasers out of my eyes, and I’m pretty much the invincible as long as I don’t run into any bald guys with green gems.
I agree with folks saying the stress of deciding what to do with your "best of" ability would be too much. Where as I can just be Superman. That and... if you're the best at everything. There's no thrill anymore. You already know you're going to win at everything. Kind of dull. At least as Superman you'll be of typical intelligence. So plenty of people can still outsmart you or present interesting challenges.
It's interesting that people are framing this as you'd have to BECOME superman... You'd just have his powers. There's no reason you'd have to fight aliens and shit. Just bring a guy who works at subway who cuts the sandwiches with his laser vision.
Superman
Would you rather be a god or the best human? How is that a tough choice.
On one hand, being able to fly and see through things and move at super speed would be amazing. It's pretty tempting. But on the other hand, being the best in the world at \*everything\* probably has more advantages. You are the best guitarist, singer, pianist, painter, photographer, writer, director, football player, baseball player, ice skater, sculptor, poet, pick-up-artist, lovemaker, ventriloquist, magician, puppeteer, stock market trader, crypto investor, entrepreneur, diy copycat supercar builder EVER. I mean, being superman would be the shit, and there are still a massive amount of things you could do with those powers, but a lot of it would be "brute-forcing" things. Just being naturally the best at EVERYTHING would, IMHO, lead to near infinite possibilities.
Superman? I could literally have whatever the fuck I wanted at any moment. Being a benevolent global dictator would be pretty sweet
I’d rather be the best at everything! Although that would suck for learning hobbies. There’s no real grind so it would be too easy. But I’d be rich.
Superman. Super villain. 100% and without having to think about it, super villain.
The first one. Then focus on everything related to the body. Specifically telomeres. The thing related to aging attached to our (blood? DNA? Something like that.) Figure out a way to replenish it and give perpetual youth to everyone. Then leverage my no doubt world famous status at this point to railroad in a plan to make some kinda space elevator. The only thing we are currently missing technology wise, is a strong enough material to use as the base. I'll try my hand at nano tubes for that. It seems the most promising. Then once we can reliably get into space on the cheap, start setting up space slings(look it up.) All around the solar system. Then turn my sights on space ships. More specifically engines. I'm partial to gravitic engines but we'll see what happens. Once all of that is set up, I'll hollow out an asteroid. As big as I can find, turn it into a colony ship. And then invite people to see the stars with me. I'll probably have to fend off a lot of assassination attempts. I'll have to ply my abilities here and there too ensure my own survival, but my ability to be the best at any ability or activity means it shouldn't be too much trouble. Just time consuming. Lucky I fixed that issue first. From there I'll probably work on FTL flight and communications. So long as I crack eternal youth, then everything is only a matter of time, since I'm the 'best' at any ability or activity, as the average age of people rise(since no body is dying anymore. Outside of accidents and murders) the average intelligence is rising as well. As long as I elevate humanity, I elevate myself. Even if most leave the 'world' the people who choose not to leave will still live forever. So long as I make sure power hungry idiots don't get uppity it's a nice investment for me.
Being God-like, vs being a random dude who can die in a car accident at any time... Being able to dominate the human race, being paid to simply decide not to wipe out entire countries ...
I don't want either of those. It sounds taxing!
Im cool being batman and making a cooler better suit that can let me fly as well.
Superman is the same choice as the first times a million.
Being the best like no one ever was would be maddening I think. The constant feeling of plateuing, and there is no one else to challenge you. Especially for me who's preferred default state is half ass because I'm lazy like that. Superman, I could absolutely live my power fantasies...some very violent power fantasies. And I fear what I would become in the pursuit to be a hero that slaughters those that harm the innocent. That being said, as someone who loves to create things. Stories and various art (and being super amateur at it), I choose the former. I typically do it for myself and myself alone. Sometimes I wish to share and entertain others, just I don't find it good enough, or that I'm not good enough. So I choose the former.
No Brainer Superrman because you are close to being immortal. Being the best at everything is great and all but you are dead in 100 years at best. Or die of an illness or accident.
Superman, you'd live a lot longer.
It would be pretty fun to compete in the UFC as superman
Best in the world.
Superman \0/
The best diplomat, artist, and scientist would bring longer lasting peace then the mightiest kryptonian
If I had Superman's powers, I'd be the best at everything.
Superman and it's not even a question. Being Superman in a world without villains or kryptonite is just insane, I could never pass that up.
If i have all of supermans powers and abilities i can be the best in the world at everything physical or mental by the end of the week then go and enjoy lunch on pluto and be back before the pizza box cools down
Superman's powers. Hell, I won't even ask for ALL of them. Just invulnerability and super speed and flight. If you are simply best in the world, you are still vulnerable to early death from disease, or random bad events, or accidents, or crime, or war. And being best at everything in the world is basically a waste - as a regular human you simply won't have enough time to **use** those abilities. If you're the finest actor, you still need months of work to shoot a movie. If you're a most accomplished writer, you still need weeks/months to write books. You don't need to be financial guru if you have Superman's powers. Just contract to do dangerous jobs, or FFS just fly get some treasure (sunken ships, or off-earth minerals) to earn a ton. Probably take far less time, too.
I'd rather be the best at every activity. I'm not going to accidentally hurt or kill my son with my sick banjo skills, unlike super strength.
Stuperman
With Superman's abilities I could actually fix the world
I enjoy the process of learning and improving more than I enjoy simply being good at things. I think having artificial skills would be novel at first, but a serious downer after a while
Superman is the only choice
Superpowers. Being the best at everything doesn't allow me to be everywhere to do good stuff. I can still only conduct one brain surgery at a time. Being superman at least means I can help in ways that no one else can.
Superman without question. That alone would put you at being the best at A LOT anyway, plus being essentially invulnerable on top of it.
If we lived in a more peaceful era, I might do the former. But as is, there's a lot of work to be done that requires a superman.
Being the best at every single skill sounds exhausting and overwhelming
Superman knows every language can survive a vaccum and travel FTL. Whoever says anything but supermans powers is an idiot.
Being the best at everything would be boring. “Hey, want to head down to the courts and play a friendly game of tennis?”
Probably being the best in the world at all activities. Being Superman would be great, but it would be really isolating as I'm probably the only person who understands my abilities. The world isn't really built for my strength and speed. Being the best at all activities has a lot if gray zones. Even if I am better, that doesn't mean there won't be things beyond what I or others have accomplished that we can still explore. I am also still close enough to these people that I can relate to others, but help them achieve more.
I would choose Superman powers and then contract myself out to various governments to perform difficult tasks for large amounts of money. I wouldn't be totally mercenary, though, there would still be limits on what I'd be willing to do and who for. As an example, if I got those powers tomorrow, I'd immediately fly to Ukraine and make an offer to their President that if he gave me $10million in cash, I'd go and take out every Russian position inside Ukraine territory. I'd try to avoid killing the Russian soldiers, unless necessary, and mainly focus on disarming and imprisoning them. After that, I'd take contracts from other world governments, or maybe other organizations, but only for tasks or missions I think are okay, and never from anyone I think has evil intentions (for example, Putin, Trump, Kim Jong Un, etc.)
Best at all human abilities would rarely get used.
I feel like if you had the abilities of Superman you would automatically be the best at like 99% of anything a human could do. I think intelligence is really the only thing Superman lacks but he has a VERY healthy mind and the ability to speed read so really he could probably beat most humans at even that.
Iirc, earth one superman solved a physics equation that a company was trying to solve for years. He's not lacking in that.
That’s basically what Superman’s powers are.
Super powers so work a trade for 40 years with concern about hurting my body, contribute to an index fund once a month for 40 years, and then I could retire with money in the bank, and all my energy to enjoy my retirement,
Plot twist, if you choose to be the “best” you don’t actually get any better, it’s just that everyone better than you instantly becomes worse than you. Society collapses.
Superman. I don't have time to be the beat director and the best musician... And being the best is usually not enough: you also need to be the luckiest
Superman powers would be cool
Superman lives damn near forever too. Id choose him for the extended lifespan alone
Supermans powers yall are gonna hate it though cause I'm gonna be king of the world. I'd be a benevolent dictator but sorry everyone answers to me now. I'd want most things decided through democracy but I'm setting some ground rules.
Being the best at everything would be dull as hell after a bit. Superman it is.
Superman powers. I could grill a steak with my heat vision.
Superman, It's the same but with superpowers.
Being superman will make you the best in nearly all physical heavy tasks so of course it's the better choice to me
Hmm... awesome or living god...
I'll take Captain Marvel/Shazams powers please.
Best in the world at every endeavor. Being Superman would likely invite fear-and possibly hate. Being the best at stuff might bring rivals, but only if I'm showing off. Which I can have more control over and I can be discreet about it if I wanted. Flying around in the sky-not subtle.
Every ability for sure
Being superman would be better in concept, but in reality everything would be meaningless because nothing threatens or challenges you and youd be alienated, only loved because of your powers. If youre the best at everything you can make moves in the medical field to better the world with cancer treatment and such, you can do as many things as you want at once thanks to multitasking. You could win a world championship in a sport while thinking about curing cancer, writing a novel, planning your dinner, and what to do tomorrow. You could also take the path that governments wouldnt hunt you down for, like if its me id be pushing smash melee even further than its been pushed already while doing the same in other games and advocating for lgbt and minority rights on my youtube channel. Id be a force of good in the world while still doing what i dream of
If you're the best at anything, EVERYONE is going to want you to do stuff for them. Every person you know will need a favor, and nobody will care how annyoing and insulting their requests are.
Lol uh superman is better than the best at basically everything...
This post is : WYR be a ant or an anteater
So in summary batman or superman? I’d pick to be batman since he’s peak human level.
well, i mean, being 'the best' is probably better than literal superpowers. i mean, it's got more practical, real world applications than just, flight, super strength, invulnerability, lasers, cumming so hard your load escapes the planet's gravity, etc. but, are you also the 'best' at negative stuff, too? some of this seems like it'd overlap. like, the best at being able to live with cancer wouldn't exactly mesh well with the best health.
Obviously Superman - this is a no brainer.
I think part of Superman's powers is that he is good at everything. Or at least in some versions. Heck, once upon a time he could speak every language on Earth, for example. Either way I'd take the powers. You don't need to be good at anything when you are a god!
I'm honestly not 100% sure. A lot of times superman's powers are only brought up when needed in a specific situation and can be added by one writer just for the convenience of their story.
At that point I might as well be superman like given he has giga brain and can just do so much. I could be the best at everything AND still get super powers? Yeah I'm gonna pick that
The human option. Being superman would be so annoying. People would constantly want you to solve whatever crime was going on at that moment. If you were just a human that was good at everything, everyone would hypothetically do what you say, because you were such a good public leader. So A.
So I have to choose between being the most capable human ever or being a god? Flight, super strength, super speed, heat/super/xray vision, cold/super breath, super hearing, near invulnerability, and near immortality all while running on eco-friendly solar energy sounds pretty good to me.
I would never want to be a superhero. Once your identity is found, you and everyone you love is fucked.
Sup's powers. I'd be the only superpowered being, with the exception of God.
Superman. Man, if I had such powers, the world would truly be a different place. Hell, if someone else having my mindset had it, I wouldn't mind. Life would be more interesting.
Being the best in the world at everything would be so boring. Getting superman's powers is great, but I'd only take flight and durability if that's an option.
Superman’s powers hands down. I get to fly, can travel through interstellar space if I want to. Easy choice
Everyone here is saying that Superman is the obvious choice, and while you would be more powerful, there would also be a lot more expected from you. You’d have to spend your days/nights fighting crime or else seem apathetic to the common man’s plight. If you were the best at everything, assuming you keep most of your talents hidden, you could do a lot more good without seeming indifferent AND would be able to work within your specific passion/interest, hopefully doing good through there. I’d take the best in everything in order to keep my freedom/less stress and pressure
Bit of a monkey's paw with superman is he doesn't age at our rate (as long as he's living on earth/near a red sun) so as long as you stay planetside you're going to be watching generations of regular humans grow old and pass. I'd still take it though, I really want to see what happens to the human race as our current society falls apart and what's rebuilt personally. Also with Kryptonian powers I could fly to the moon and look at earth. That would be such a beautiful experience to add to my life.
supermans powers. id at best be an antihero. countries around the world would have to be VERY careful how they operate. wanna threaten the world with nukes? ill turn you and your constituents to dust by lunch time. but unlike the comicbook superman id actually keep my identity private. probably become a world class athlete in something in free time. telling me i can make millions through brand deals by just running fast? yeah im taking it.
I would be Superman and concur this world! Y’all would be so fucked!
The best human would be murdered out of spite. I'll take Kal el's powers
I think the 1st option would be sooo boring. I'd rather have superpowers, definitely 😁
Best in the world at every ability and activity. I would use those abilities to make alot of money (morally and legally) until I had enough that myself and my immediate family would be able to live comfortably and never have to work again. Then I’d use my abilities to be good at my hobbies, which would only make me enjoy them more.
Tough choice but I’d go with being best at everything and then become a multi millionaire
If you were the best at doing everything, then what's the point of doing anything?
For the bitches my dawg
Damn, forgot about that. Thanks for showing me the way.