MIDFORM
My Favorite Superpower
And No, It’s Not Selective Hearing
I am a dye-in-the-wool Marvel fan, pure and simple. I’ve dabbled in DC, enjoyed indies, and ogled original works, but I always come back to the old Stan Lee Circus Of The Stars. I blame my folks, who got me one of those “anthology” books when I was a kid — Dr. Strange. I mean, what self-respecting TTRPGer (tabletop role-play games) didn’t go in for those magical battles between Strange and Dormammu? (not that sappy sequence from the movie… “I come to bargain…” OMG! That should have been the be-all, end-all of memes, but I digress…
Runner Up: Enter The Phoenix
Okay, I’m going to come clean, Phoenix/Jean Grey is my 2nd favorite Marvel Character (bumping Dr. Strange down to the bronze podium). I follow the money, or in this case, the power. And Strange had a boatload. But Phoenix had the “Power Cosmic,” and this creation energy let her make things happen, pretty much whatever she wanted. She was quickly able to take out any opponent and weasel her way out of any situation. Obviously impressive to a military dependent of a teen who knew how to follow the rules but not how to “make things happen.”
And Now The Envelope Please…
My new number one is none other than Scarlet Witch!! Why did I pick this girl who was portrayed as a rather minor character (initially)? Because she embodies the one power, I have always been fascinated with — the EASY Button.
That’s right, folks…
While others suck up the pain and clever their way in and out of situations, Wanda uses Chaos Magic to reinvent her reality. In other words, she doesn’t dodge the bullet; she makes it, so there was no bullet to begin with. In the Wanda Vision miniseries, she was able to recreate her dead husband and have children, who ended up later existing in alternate realities of the MCU. Did you get yourself into a jam? What jam? gone,
Ramifications
The only problem with this power is that it side-steps the learning process. In other words, you no longer have to worry about making mistakes or, more importantly, living with them; you can just rewind them or find a reality where it went right instead of wrong. And you are limited to the cause and effects that you can perceive.
The subtleties of the Universe’s perturbations and how amazing things can be pulled from the forge of fortitude, what we learn in our suffering, are lost to us with the easy button. We do not become better, only cleverer. Not sure that’s a trade I’m willing to make. Is there an easy button for that? I think it’s called grace…
Key Learning: Scarlet Witch may have a great superpower, but it won’t teach me how to be a better me. Serenity in the seasons of suffering will move more mountains. Strive to live that lesson and leave the supers to the comics…
Acknowledgment
A prompt from KP_the_writer for superheroes and why we like ‘em…
For Further Consideration
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