Mundane uses for super powers

[The Yosemite Bear]

ok, mostly for fanfic/background for characters in Roleplay, but I've on occasion come up with day to day uses for super powers.

Examples:
Tesla: in order to have relations with his wife without the risk of electrocuting her, he discharges his excess electricity into the power grid. (his family recieves a check rather then a bill from the electric company)
Chimera: milks her own venom and sells it to cancer research medical universities through an anonomus proxy. (since she can't hold a normal job due to near human appearance, it's about one of the few ways she has of making money legitamately)
Graveyard Shift: When not protecting the streets at night, this undead anti-hero runs a convience store. (doesn't require sleep, since he's already dead)

Super-speed/Teleportation heroes/villians and Delivery services: DC has already done that one.
TK/Telepathy and Gambling*: Marvel has already done that one, Casinos now have ways of stopping SPBS from cheating at Blackjack, Poker, Craps, and Roulette in the 616 universe, not to mention SPBs are probably banned from the premises under the SHRA anyways.

any other suggestions?

*note Ruby Tuesday, Adam Warlock, and Emma Frost all have admited to using their powers to cheat at gambling.

[Lord of the Abyss]

The stronger, space capable fliers could fly satellites into orbit. The really powerful ones could haul smallish ships and probes all over the solar system.

Someone with body duplication powers like Multiplex or Madrox could run a whole, fair sized business for themselves, without having to pay any employees. Or even feed them; people with such powers seem able to reabsorb/cancel the duplicates and create them anew without huge energy expenditures, so there's no need to sustain them with anything that costs money like food.

Some of the tougher, stronger superhumans could help build geothermal plants. A major stumbling block in building them where there isn't a natural flow of water already is the difficulty in driving a horizontal bore deep underground; the idea being that you drill two holes, then pump water through the hot rock between them. The stronger superhumans who don't need to breathe could dig straight down, then dig sideways to create an artificial channel ( they've done similar feats in comics ). It wouldn't matter when it collapsed after they left; the rubble would still be porous, unlike solid rock. You'd probably cap the opening they dug themselves in favor of drilling a separate, more stable hole to the deep channel though.

And of course someone with earth control powers can pull off the whole thing much more simply.

[Mayabird]

People who can shoot out fire or heat or stuff like that will never have to deal with food going cold. People with a seemingly lame superpower like making plants grow faster would be exceptional gardeners, farmers, or landscapers. Heck, people who can control the weather to any degree would be in high demand and probably highly paid by farmers to bring rain during droughts (or send the rain away when it's too wet, which goes for anywhere) and it might be cheaper to hire them to drop snow on the ski runs than the use the snow machines.

And a little something I always think when I'm out of toilet paper: telekinetics don't have to get up to get another roll.

[Patrick Degan]

Superman crushing coal in his hands until it crystallises into diamond, whenever he needs some quick extra cash (originally mentioned by Larry Niven). The Superman TAS episode which introduced Mr. Myzxypltk shows him reflecting his heat vision off the bathroom mirror to shave.

[Darth Wong]

Could Superman really do that? It seems to me that a person's fist isn't exactly a sealed environment; the coal would just crumble and squeeze out of the little cracks and spaces between his fingers and his palm. Also, even if we presume he can create an airtight seal between all of his fingers and his palm in every way, despite all of the irregular shapes involved, there is very little further compression he can perform after achieving that seal, because his fist is already closed.

[Serafina]

You need more than pressure to create diamons, heat is also necessary - otherwise, it will not form into such a perfect crystal.

[Lord of the Abyss]

Could Superman really do that? It seems to me that a person's fist isn't exactly a sealed environment; the coal would just crumble and squeeze out of the little cracks and spaces between his fingers and his palm. Also, even if we presume he can create an airtight seal between all of his fingers and his palm in every way, despite all of the irregular shapes involved, there is very little further compression he can perform after achieving that seal, because his fist is already closed.

Amusingly, the protagonist of the old Star Brand comic tried the crush-to-diamond thing, and ran into the problems you are talking about; he ended up just having a bunch of black junk spurt out between his fingers and all over himself.

[Eleas]

Could Superman really do that? It seems to me that a person's fist isn't exactly a sealed environment; the coal would just crumble and squeeze out of the little cracks and spaces between his fingers and his palm. Also, even if we presume he can create an airtight seal between all of his fingers and his palm in every way, despite all of the irregular shapes involved, there is very little further compression he can perform after achieving that seal, because his fist is already closed.

Amusingly, the protagonist of the old Star Brand comic tried the crush-to-diamond thing, and ran into the problems you are talking about; he ended up just having a bunch of black junk spurt out between his fingers and all over himself.

I recall one gag in Angel: the Series, in which at one point when someone accidentally buys unground coffee beans Angel is tasked with crushing the beans with his vampiric strength. The results were largely similar.

In the superhero setting I was cooking up with a friend a few years back, we put some thought into this, and concluded that in the common Marvel or DC - style universe, whoever had the power of great intelligence or gadgetry would basically be able to write his own ticket. Being able to fly unassisted is all well and good, but when you can sell that ability to anyone with the money, you're basically heading for the top of the food chain.

[SCRawl]

Could Superman really do that? It seems to me that a person's fist isn't exactly a sealed environment; the coal would just crumble and squeeze out of the little cracks and spaces between his fingers and his palm. Also, even if we presume he can create an airtight seal between all of his fingers and his palm in every way, despite all of the irregular shapes involved, there is very little further compression he can perform after achieving that seal, because his fist is already closed.

Amusingly, the protagonist of the old Star Brand comic tried the crush-to-diamond thing, and ran into the problems you are talking about; he ended up just having a bunch of black junk spurt out between his fingers and all over himself.

There was also an incident in an old Avengers comic book, wherein Thor was asked to perform the same feat. His mind was being manipulated by Moondragon at the time, and she fixed it so that he thought he was successful. (Thor was actually quite surprised when he thought that he had made the diamonds, but Mooondragon commented in a thought balloon that the idea of crushing coal into diamonds was ludicrous.)

[Tornado Ninja Fan]

The Planetary/JLA crossover had doctors using the Atom shrinking process to fight cancer inside the body of the patient, using the JLA teleporter system for mass transit (train stations became teleport stations with gates in the main hall), and anti-gravity technology (I think from Hawkman) for flying/gliding cars.

A What if...? had Iron Man selling his armor technology for civilian purposes like mining and construction.

There are some flying heroes and villains with wings (like Marvel's Falcon and Vulture) who could sell their technology for extreme sports.

Shrinking technology (Giant-Man) used for shipping.

Weather controlling technology or abilities (DC's Weather Wizard, Marvel's Storm) - self-explanatory

[Batman]

Superman crushing coal in his hands until it crystallises into diamond, whenever he needs some quick extra cash (originally mentioned by Larry Niven). The Superman TAS episode which introduced Mr. Myzxypltk shows him reflecting his heat vision off the bathroom mirror to shave.

Which shouldn't work any better than the coal-to-diamond gimmick really, unless Clark's beard is a lot less invulnerable than every OTHER part of him or that mirror is a lot more resilient than is usual.
He also routinely uses his heat vision in the preparation/reheating of food and drinks.

[The Yosemite Bear]

of course for civil service we could have EMTs with low end super human strength. (hold on let me just lift up that car and remove that door with my bare hand, careful, I have a back board ready.)

Imagine someone who was armoured like collosus or superman on a secret service detail?

[Crossroads Inc.]

The funny thing about super powers is that they are specially made to defeat Super VILLAINS. In the 'real world' I don't know if we have EVER Had a Super Villain, in truth, if people with super powers entered in the "real world" They would be very VEY Well taken care of and well paid in a vast variety of business projects,

[Samuel]

The funny thing about super powers is that they are specially made to defeat Super VILLAINS. In the 'real world' I don't know if we have EVER Had a Super Villain, in truth, if people with super powers entered in the "real world" They would be very VEY Well taken care of and well paid in a vast variety of business projects,

Unless superheros are employed by opposing countries who use them for proxy fighting. Or if individuals who have power suffer from delusions of gradeur and wish to rule the world- or just their own country.

[Zixinus]

I can see superheroes blowing off steam in TV fights.
I mean, come on: people pay a good deal for wrestling matches that are obviously pre-orchestrated, do you think no one will watch Superman rough down with Iron Man or whatever? Even if only for a mock, fight?
If anything else, they can use this if they are short on cash.

They would just have to be careful about who fights who. While sending the lower-end superheroes against the higher-end ones occasionally might produce something amusing ("And this night: Ladies and Gentlemen, it's the David and Goliath fight of the century, its [insert name here] going toe-to-toe against [insert name here]!"), the possibility of an accident is just too high.

[Tsyroc]

In the GURPS Supers game there is a source book called Supertemps. The premise is that the company Supertemps finds temporary and long term jobs for Supers. There are Supers working in all sorts of fields. manufacturing, quality control, medicine, entertainment, law enforcement etc... Of course this being a fantasy world that is starting with a comic book premise there is also a secret company called The Exchange which also provides the same sort of help finding jobs except The Exchange isn't as particular about legalities so their clients tend to be super criminals or people who want to hire Supers who don't mind doing illegal things.

X-Ray vision and the like would be excellent for people working in medicine or manufacturing quality control.

Entertainment would be invulnerable stunt men, people with powers that can provide their own special effects, maybe someone who can control light or sound. Comics has toyed with this a little by having characters like Wonder Man and Hardcase, and for one issue Starman (Will Payton) working in motion pictures. Wonder Man's progress was kind of interesting in that he kind of sucked and had some sucky jobs (Mr. Muscles on a kid show) because of it but got a bit of a break being the villain in a Arnold Schwarzburger movie. His career kind of fizzled like a lot of celebrities who try to get into movies. Hardcase was a bit better in that he was a struggling actor before he got his powers and then when he got them he essentially got a pretty good action movie career. Starman just provided a lot of live action coolness to a low budget movie and a little something extra for a music video.

Marvel has had "Heroes for Hire" off and on over the years. Most of their stuff is pretty super heroish but Luke Cage does work as a body guard and security from time to time. In an issue of Black Panther he was part of some Puff Daddy wannabee's security detail. He's also teamed with Jessica Jones body guarding Matt Murdock in a couple of books. I can just see it being kind of a fad or in thing to hire super powered body guards, just as some people like to hire body guards who were ex-special forces (SAS, Green Beret, Navy SEALs etc...).

Someone with Wolverine's senses could be a good search and rescue worker, or perhaps security where it could be useful to have someone who could smell the presence of explosives.

[Imperial Overlord]

I can see superheroes blowing off steam in TV fights.
I mean, come on: people pay a good deal for wrestling matches that are obviously pre-orchestrated, do you think no one will watch Superman rough down with Iron Man or whatever? Even if only for a mock, fight?
If anything else, they can use this if they are short on cash.

They would just have to be careful about who fights who. While sending the lower-end superheroes against the higher-end ones occasionally might produce something amusing ("And this night: Ladies and Gentlemen, it's the David and Goliath fight of the century, its [insert name here] going toe-to-toe against [insert name here]!"), the possibility of an accident is just too high.

Aberrant (which was superficially a super hero game but wa really about what happened when people got given god-like powers) dealt with a lot of these issues and had an entire supplement (albeit a skinny one) devoted to its super powered, clearly wrestling derived, super powered fighting league.

[Patrick Degan]

Superman crushing coal in his hands until it crystallises into diamond, whenever he needs some quick extra cash (originally mentioned by Larry Niven). The Superman TAS episode which introduced Mr. Myzxypltk shows him reflecting his heat vision off the bathroom mirror to shave.

Which shouldn't work any better than the coal-to-diamond gimmick really, unless Clark's beard is a lot less invulnerable than every OTHER part of him or that mirror is a lot more resilient than is usual.

Granted that it's about as realistic as anything you see in comic books. Nonetheless, it did make for a funny scene.

[Batman]

Superman crushing coal in his hands until it crystallises into diamond, whenever he needs some quick extra cash (originally mentioned by Larry Niven). The Superman TAS episode which introduced Mr. Myzxypltk shows him reflecting his heat vision off the bathroom mirror to shave.

Which shouldn't work any better than the coal-to-diamond gimmick really, unless Clark's beard is a lot less invulnerable than every OTHER part of him or that mirror is a lot more resilient than is usual.

Granted that it's about as realistic as anything you see in comic books. Nonetheless, it did make for a funny scene.

Oh absolutely. It was mostly a followup to Mike's 'the coal crushing thing shouldn't work' post.

[septesix]

How's this for a mundane use: Making superhero movies! Think about it, you don't need expensive CGI or stunt man to do many of the effects anymore, you can just have the guy with the superpower doing it for real! Of course, it's trickier with the super villain part, especially if they decide to take it for real...

Although, obviously this doesn't work for the speedster heroes. and any plot involving locales outside earth is still going to be expensive anyway...

[Formless]

If there are real superheros walking around, why not save money paying the superhero to act and just make a documentary of their actual work?

[Lord of the Abyss]

If there are real superheros walking around, why not save money paying the superhero to act and just make a documentary of their actual work?

Because you can have dramatic fight scenes filmed close up, without the camera crew getting fried by stray plasma bolts or taken hostage by the villain. After all, they make war movies despite having real wars; same principle.

[Styphon]

Could Superman really do that? It seems to me that a person's fist isn't exactly a sealed environment; the coal would just crumble and squeeze out of the little cracks and spaces between his fingers and his palm. Also, even if we presume he can create an airtight seal between all of his fingers and his palm in every way, despite all of the irregular shapes involved, there is very little further compression he can perform after achieving that seal, because his fist is already closed.

I imagine this gets hand-waved these days by the fact that his super-strength is actually supposed to be some form of extremely short-ranged psychokinesis (or it was the last I checked, anyway), which is also how they handwave leverage issues (like picking up a car by the bumper without just tearing off the bumper, or flying around carrying a ship without ending up flying through the ship).

Why they call it "tactile telekinesis", I couldn't tell you.

Which shouldn't work any better than the coal-to-diamond gimmick really, unless Clark's beard is a lot less invulnerable than every OTHER part of him or that mirror is a lot more resilient than is usual.

Back in the day (I ran across it in the early 90s, it may be present elsewhere) he used to do this trick with a piece of Kryptonian metal... which addresses the resilient mirror issue, but has a whole other problem in the "everything from Krypton is Super" brain bug.

[Majin Gojira]

How's this for a mundane use: Making superhero movies! Think about it, you don't need expensive CGI or stunt man to do many of the effects anymore, you can just have the guy with the superpower doing it for real! Of course, it's trickier with the super villain part, especially if they decide to take it for real...

Nah, think of it as Pro Wrestling. For some time, a character gets to be a face, while another character gets to be a heel.

Some folks like playing the villain, afterall.

Why they call it "tactile telekinesis", I couldn't tell you.

Simple Alliteration

[Solauren]

I can see Telepaths and Psychic's being hired by the police.

Imagine Charles Xavier as a detective, questioning someone. Good luck lying to him.

Or imagine the effectiveness of an object reader on a Police force.

Take the bullet out of the body, they read it, leads you to the gun, read it, leads you to the shooter.

Even better if their 'object reading' abilities extend to living and dead beings. Just 'read' the body, or the scence, and go from there.