Category Archives: Versus

The question of the week (a day late) is:

Discussion after the jump.

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This week’s poll position posits:

I originally thought, “What power would, if everyone in the world had it, most dramatically change human society?” but then I thought it might be more fun to speculate on what you yourself would do if you were singularly gifted, and everyone else stayed the same. So here we go!
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This week’s Poll Position puts asks:

Discussion of the choices after the jump.

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Last week’s discussion still has me thinking about trade-offs, so I’ve tweaked the question this week a bit to ask whether a good villain can do more good than a bad hero can do bad. This week’s Poll Position is:

• Superman & Lex Luthor: This one is intriguing. On the one hand, if Superman were a truly bad-ass villain, he’d just zoom in at super-speed and kill anyone or anything that stood against him. It’s unclear who would be able to stop him. On the other hand, Superman’s pretty much just a physical opponent, while Lex Luthor is brilliant in many different ways. Providing you could come up with a way to limit Superman’s depredations (chancy at best, I admit), Lex could do a lot of good for the world through amazing new technology and political leadership. Anyone who can weld Gorilla Grodd and Sinestro together on the same team can surely get world governments to solve global warming, for instance.
• Batman & Joker: Frankly, I don’t see how much good the Joker could do as a hero. He’s devilishly clever, but all of his best stuff involves mass murder. Then again, if he were a Punisher-style anti-hero, he could probably rid us of a number of pesky villains easily, whereas Batman would just keep putting them in Arkham. On the other hand, the idea of a Batman bent on domination is pretty chilling.
• Reed Richards & Dr. Doom I love this matchup. Both men are incredibly brilliant, extraordinarily driven, and capable of great acts with global impact. I think this one’s a wash, I imagine the net impact of swapping them would be about the same, with each checking the other, just in reverse of what they do now.
• Thor & Loki: Hey man, storms already do tons of damage. What does it matter if it comes from Thor or just an unruly Gulf of Mexico? Loki employing his tricks on our behalf, on the other hand, might work out nicely. These are tricky times we live in, after all, maybe a wormy mind like that is just what we need on our side.
• Professor Xavier & Magneto: I think this one is just about like Reed and Doom, with two guys so evenly matched it almost doesn’t matter which side each of them plays for.
• Daredevil & Bullseye: This is a much lower power-level, obviously, than gods and Supermen. But, I have to say I think Daredevil as a villain would be pretty small-time. Bullseye would be a great government-sponsored assassin, though.

Given all of that, from a comics-reader perspective, I have to say I’d like to see Reed Richards on the side of evil. I know, he’s done it in Marvel Zombies, but that’s not the same. And I think Doctor Doom would be a tremendous hero, I’d love to see him bring his dictatorial powers to an Avengers meeting, for instance. “Henry Pym, I said SIT DOWN! BLAAAZZZZTTT!!”

Let me know your thoughts in the comments, and just like the election, vote early and vote often!

The question of the week this time is:

Discussion after the jump.

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This week’s Poll Position question is:

I’ll run down the options after the jump.

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Having your own super-powers would be a neat challenge, but would you willingly impose them on your child? That’s the heart of this week’s Poll Position:

The way I see it, you have two sets of consideration here. First, what effect would having those powers from a young age have on a youngster? And second, how would their abilities affect your ability to parent them effectively while they are growing up? Looking at them one-by-one:

1. Flash: I think this set of powers presents the fewest disadvantages in terms of childhood development and parenting. Granted, they could more easily run away from home, but if you’re at the point where your kid’s fleeing your house, you probably have bigger problems than speed. However, the super-fast metabolism also requires huge amounts of food, which would be darn difficult to keep up with.
2. Human Torch: I’ve had nephews who almost burned their houses down playing with matches, I shudder to think what a five year old who can hurl fireballs would be like.
3. Professor Xavier: On the one hand, I think being a child with instant access to the most intimate thoughts of everyone around you would hopelessly warp you. On the other hand, it’s possible that knowing everyone else that fully would make you much warmer and stronger and more confident since there could be no lies where you’re concerned. But I don’t think I could in good conscience take that risk with my son or daughter.
4. Spider-Man: Most of Peter Parker’s problems stem not from his powers but from other factors in his life, so as a “naked” power set this one is pretty attractive. However you almost have to live in a city with tall buildings for Spider-Man to be the most effective — if you have nothing to swing from, travel gets problematic, and what good is it crawling the walls at Walgreen’s, you know?
5. Superman: How do you parent a god? What if your kid turns out to be a bad apple, as they sometimes do, and you’ve given them the ability to kill everyone on the planet without breaking a sweat? Having Superman’s powers yourself is one thing, giving them to someone else is something else entirely.

So having thought through all that, I think I’d probably choose Spider-Man. He’s strong, can avoid trouble, is quick, and couldn’t do mass harm if he turned out badly.

This week’s Poll Position question is:

Discussion after the jump.
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This week’s poll position is:

Discussion after the jump.

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For this week’s poll I’m asking you to think outside the box. If you’re a man, think about what it would be like a woman. And if you’re a woman already, think about what it would be like to be a man, thinking about being a woman. And if you’re a hermaphrodite, imagine what it would be like if you had to choose only one gender. And if you’re … but enough of that. The actual question for this week is:

Discussion and deep thinking after the jump.

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