Painful Super Powers

Hey, guys, you’ve now entered From the Mind of One Tim Cubbin! I don’t know if you’ve ever been here before, but I know some of you reading this post are familiar with my work, or me, or both, and for that I thank you for sticking with me. If you’re new, you’ll get used to me in this post and will hopefully check out some of my other (currently) seventy posts after you’ve read this post. So I also know the title of this post or the tags I attached to it have totally interested you, as if someone else wrote this I totally would myself, but some of you know and like me and totally want to read more of my nonsense, but however you entered, you are THE BEST! You’re here, you’re reading this, I mean, this couldn’t be any more awesome to me!

            Anyhow, I’ve actually posted an essay where I talked about what super power I would like to have. Some of you have read this post, and if you haven’t, feel free to finish this post and then check it out. Whatever you want to do, you’re THE BEST! But this particular post is about painful super powers. Some of you may know I’m a HUGE Marvel comics fan (as a lot of the content on this blog involves Marvel graphic and prose novels). BUT! I don’t read any other comic book publishers, so all of my comic posts are Marvel, and if you don’t like Marvel, you’re probably not reading this. So, here’s what we’re going to do. I’ve picked five Marvel super heroes. Some of them may SEEM to have awesome powers, but if you really thing about it, maybe you might decide you won’t want those powers now.

            We’re going to start with Robert Bruce Banner/The Incredible Hulk. Bruce was caught in the blast of a gamma bomb, and now when he gets angry, stressed, scared, or too excited or stimulated, he transforms into a big green monster with super strength and near invulnerability, and the angrier the Hulk gets, the stronger he gets. (Okay, some of you might be a reader of “The Immortal Hulk” and now the new rules may be more wonky, but I’m going to traditional Hulk right now). So we’re going to break this down a bit. First: the gamma bomb. HE SURVIVED A GAMMA BOMB! Can you imagine how painful that would be? HE WAS BLOWN UP AND PUT BACK TOGETHER! OUCH! And when he then transforms into the Hulk, his muscles grow and he gets bigger, bulked up, his whole body expands! I mean, that HAS to hurt! It CAN’T be comfortable! And then, when the Hulk calms down, he shrinks back to puny Banner. The muscles shrinking back down to average human size? I mean, he rapidly transforms from a weak man, to a giant green monster, then back down to a wimpy average human? I would NOT like to undergo that transformation.

            Next we’re going to talk about Raven Darkholme/Mystique. She is a mutant shapeshifter. Now, I know so many people would like that power. You can be anyone you want! Come on, how much fun is that? BUT! Think about this: your molecules are changing, shrinking, growing, transforming, converting, rearranging, separated, morphing, metamorphosing, more words I can’t come up with at the moment. That would presumably feel odd, uncomfortable, or (as the title says) painful. And certain body parts changing must feel awkward, but we won’t go there. And to make EXACT, TOTAL changes? Eyes, hair, what else seems like mild changes like fingerprints, nails, things we really don’t even think about. People don’t really think about the precision Mystique must use, to be exact, full body transformations, how uncomfortable it would honestly be. Sure it’s a cool power, I totally say that, and would have wanted to have it until suspension of disbelief was broken. Again, it’s honestly something that just about no one else would think about, but I did, I put it out there, I invite you to feel either way about it. As I always say, this blog is all MY opinions, and you don’t have to agree with me. It’s just something to think about.

            Our next character is Robert “Bobby” Drake/Iceman. He’s able to generate ice, lower temperature enough to freeze things, turn his body to ice with minimal shape-changing abilities (such as bodily enhancements and reconstitution if he is damaged in ice form). Once again, shape-changing. He can change his ENTIRE body into ice. That includes skin, bones, muscles, hair, organs, everything. Total transmogrification. TOTAL! I couldn’t imagine that possibly being comfortable. This brings us back to consider Bruce. I honestly don’t know if his Hulk form has expanded bones and organs. I don’t know if Marvel has ever discussed this, but I haven’t read it, but then again, Hulk was created in 1962, and yeah, I may be old, but I’m not THAT old. Iceman was created in 1963, by the way and I also don’t know if any Marvel writer stopped to consider the feeling of Bobby’s transmutations. I know, I’m thinking WAY too much about this.

            Next we’ll consider Jean Grey-Summers/Marvel Girl. She’s telepathic and telekinetic. I know, finally someone who’s not a shape-changer! She can read and influence minds and communicate mentally, as well as able to move objects with her mind. (Also, with Jean, I’m referring to her as Marvel Girl and NOT Phoenix/Dark Phoenix). Yeah, I know you may be thinking “but Tim Cubbin, how can you say these powers are painful? They’re, like, the coolest powers ever!” Yes, these are awesome powers, but we’re going to explore some of the ramifications. Some people may not know this if they never read the comics, but when Jean was a little girl, she had a best friend named Annie. One day, while playing, Annie was in the road and was hit by a car and killed. Jean was there and felt Annie die with an early manifestation of her telepathic powers. If that’s not painful, I don’t know what is. Also, in the Ultimate Marvel Universe, when Jean first manifested her telepathic powers, she could not keep the thoughts of ANYONE around her out of her head. It bothered her so much she chewed her knuckles to the bone and was placed in a mental hospital out of belief of the Homo sapiens schizophrenia mental disease. I know, these are a little gruesome, but I feel they’re necessary tidbits to, in my opinion, enforce my point. So yes, telepathy seems like a really cool power, and it is, IF you can control it. There’s that caveat. Also, not painful, but another tidbit to enhance is if you can’t control your telepathy, you might subconsciously influence the thoughts of other people around you, like make people you want to be friends with like you, and make people you don’t want to like you dislike you, even if they might not necessarily want to if they weren’t telepathically influenced. And you might hear thoughts you really wouldn’t want to hear, other peoples’ private business that you really don’t want to know about, secrets you’d rather not know. Yes this could help, like being in school and taking a test, you can read the mind of the smartest student in class and use it to get a perfect score, but that’s cheating to the maximum level and invasive and unethical and so many words that means it is unfair to others to violate their mental sanctity. It’s just wrong and I really would feel terrible about myself if I did this as this would basically make me an evil mutant. I know, that sounds crazy, but that’s how I’d feel and this is my blog, my opinion, my mind, and I can’t expect you to agree with me. In fact I’d be rather surprised if you did agree with me on this because telepathically is totally awesome and you’d want it. But I’m an ethical guy and I’d feel totally wrong to use my powers all the described ways I just wrote, so there you have it.

            As my final character to analyze, I’m going to use a relatively obscure character, but if you have heard of him, or read comics with him in it, you’d likely totally see my point in choosing him. This character is Jonothon Starsmore/Chamber. Jono communicates telepathically (he can’t actually READ minds, though) and can release biokinetic blasts. I don’t think biokinesis is a common power and I don’t think I’ve ever read another character with this power. The problem is, when his powers manifested, be blasted out his lower face and frontal torso, and the biokinetic blasts roil in these locations. So now he has no vocal chords and no internal organs in these locations such as lungs or a heart. Yeah, you can imagine that hurts, but that probably died down after manifestation and he most likely doesn’t feel it anymore, but still, I don’t want to blow myself up.

            And that’s where we’re going to wrap this up… FOR NOW! Expect more installments on this topic as there are so many more characters I can analyze, so if you liked this post, keep checking my Twitter page or this blog page so you can see when I post these, and totally check out more of my work as I have SO many more ideas and content. I’m a journalist, so I write editorials and other essays like this one, as well as short stories and poetry and Marvel reviews (which I mentioned at the start of this essay), so there’s more stuff to read and like, so keep checking this page out. Follow me on Twitter, retweet, like, comment, share, whatever you can do on Twitter, or keep looking for more on my blog page, if you’re a Facebook friend, share this on your page, tell your friends about this and I’ll take my fingers off my page by saying three more words: Tim Cubbin… out! 

What Super Power Would I Want?

            Hey guys, welcome (back) to the Mind of One Tim Cubbin! I am your guide through an odd perspective of life, Tim Cubbin! I am a certified journalist, but cannot find a real job, so I started this blog so I could get my work out there is some way, shape, or form. I’m actually disabled, so that’s why finding a job is difficult, and all of my job applications have been either ignored or rejected, and a tabloid job just isn’t easily achievable to my personality. I mean, in this blog I get to be me, so this is actually perfect. Anyway, here we are. I’ve done over sixty posts on this blog, and I love doing this, so I keep churning out more for your reading pleasure and to make me feel like I have a purpose in life. Also, I’m living with bipolar disorder, which is why I am so… unconventional. I refuse to say “weird” or “crazy,” I find those words highly insulting, just call me… “Unique.” That’s a nice word.

            Anyway, people who know me, whether personally as a friend or family member, or people who’ve read my blog before, know I am a HUGE comic book, science fiction, horror, super hero, and Marvel fan. And I think we’ve all thought at some point in our lives, “Wouldn’t it be cool to have super powers?” I mean, some people would think, “I wouldn’t it be awesome to be a super hero?” We’ll get back to this thought in just a little bit, so hang in there, keep reading, and stay with me, the following thought wouldn’t be right at this point in my essay.

            Now, I’ve thought about this A LOT over the course of my life, “What if I had super powers?” I actually just saw on Facebook a couple of days ago that “If you could have any super power, what would you want to have?” Again, let’s get back to that, I actually have another thought that we’ll come back to and talk about another thing.

Now, who believes in extrasensory perception (ESP)? I know some of you say yes, many of you will say no. You may now choose NOT to believe what I’m about to say, but it’s something I believe to be true. In fact, it’s pretty much hereditary in my family. It’s been passed down for at least four generations (me being the latest). It’s manifested in different forms in the family, including precognitive dreams, a sense of specific death, and predictions. For me, it’s been described as intuitivity (which is, apparently not considered a real word. Hmm?). I’m actually able to subconsciously feel instant odds, and predict the most likely to occur. No, it doesn’t work for personal gain, so I’m not good at blackjack or predicting lottery numbers, it’s just very minor. For example, in roleplaying video games, when an enemy is about to appear, I can tell what it will be, and the best way to defeat it, which is very helpful. However, this doesn’t work in other video games, so in those, I’m often blindsided and not actually very good. I can even foresee certain choices a person will make on things in game shows, card games, and sometimes figure out plot lines on television shows. My specialties include “Wheel of Fortune” (I can predict exactly how specific player will play the game, such as called letters and chosen bonus puzzles, even predict who will win, and if they’ll solve the bonus puzzle. I’ve never applied to be a contestant, and I honestly should, but if I made it on the show, the wheel would go against me and I wouldn’t be the big winner, but I also wouldn’t get the $1,000 “pity prize.”); card games like Old Maid, Go Fish, and Uno; and soap operas (I could probably create and write a pretty successful show). To put it as simply as possible, and to quote Peter David’s “X-Factor (2005)” character Layla Miller, “I know stuff.” I honestly don’t expect you to believe me, sometimes I can’t even believe it myself, but I do know things a little before they happen, and I demonstrate signs of ESP. So if you believe in ESP, you can suspect I do have it. If you don’t believe in ESP, then you can just scoff and think I’m the aforementioned “w” or “c” words (which would offend me if you said them to my face), I can’t force you to believe me. It’s just all up to you.

I hope my last paragraph didn’t deter you from reading the rest of this post, so if you’re still here, you are THE BEST! Anyway, let’s get on to the point of this essay: If I could have any super power, what would I want? Now, some people would want telekinesis (the ability to move things with your mind), some would want to be able to heal from any wound, some would want telepathy (the ability to read minds), some would want to have metamorphosis (the ability to change ones shape), some would want teleportation (the ability to shift from place to place in location), there are so many options. Me? Well, I’d want two things to grow out of my back: wings! I would love to be able to fly. I’m disabled, so having functioning wings that would allow me to fly, it would be the best thing in the world for me. I’d love to feel the wind in my face as my wings spread and allow me to soar in the skies. It would just be wonderful.

Now, there is another question a person with super powers may ask themselves: “What will I do with my super powers?” This is such an important question. If I had wings, what would I do with them? I could be a super hero, rescue people from things like burning buildings, or get people to places they need to get to quickly. There are several things I could do. Or I could be a super villain, like steal something and fly away before I could be caught, or pick people up and drop them from heights to kill them. Or I could just use my powers for myself. I just use them to fly from one place to another quickly and only for that purpose. I would not want to be a hero or a villain. Like I said, I would just fly for transportation or just for the feeling of being able to fly. I would use them just for myself.

Okay, well, let’s wrap this up. If you’re still here, you are THE BEST! So, I guess I’m done wasting your time. I hope you enjoyed this, and if you are on Twitter, it would be awesome if you shared what super power YOU would want and we could have a conversation going, but if not, well, that’s up to you. So I release you from this torture, and just say, as always, Tim Cubbin… out!