Colin Perkins
Charting Super Powers From Awesome to Absurd
by Colin Perkins - August 11, 2011 - 12:58 PM

[Click to enlarge]

I’m not the biggest superhero fan, but for some reason I am very engrossed by the incredibly detailed graphical breakdown known as The Illustrious Omnibus of Super Powers.

The winner of the silliest super power/superhero name combo goes to the character that can turn into an animal, vegetable or mineral. His name? Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man. C’mon, man. You have an amazing ability to become whatever you want and that’s the name you came up with? You should try transforming into a creative person for a few minutes and thinking up a new name.

If you could have any power on this list, which one would you choose?

[Via Fast Company]

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Comments (11)

  1. This company makes the most amazing, silly, inventive, and beautiful posters/graphics. Their rap names poster is my favourite

    posted by Nicole on 8-11-2011 at 1:12 pm

  2. Superman (the Man of Steel) should be on there in more than just one place…. I mean, sure he’s got super strength, but he also has heat vision, X-ray vision, super-speed, the capability of flight, is impervious to injury, and he can withstand the extremes of space without any external forms of protection or source of oxygen.

    -”BB”-

    posted by Bicycle Bill on 8-11-2011 at 1:35 pm

  3. That poster is missing tons of people, so many that it’s not worth it to list them all.

    posted by Anne on 8-11-2011 at 2:17 pm

  4. I have always wanted to be able to read people’s minds (but that would kind of suck after a while). I think flying would be awesome!

    posted by Suz on 8-11-2011 at 3:22 pm

  5. I would love to have super-speed like The Flash. I would be able to get so much done.

    posted by Vicki on 8-11-2011 at 7:41 pm

  6. Flying. Definitely flying. I used to dream as a child that I could fly if I ate firecrackers. Luckily never tried it ;)

    posted by Thasha on 8-12-2011 at 12:04 am

  7. Never a superhero fan, was more into making fun of grown men running around in tights being considered tough guys.

    I just always loved on the old Superman TV series how Superman would stand there and laugh as a bad guy would empty his gun on him, then the bad guy would run out of bullets and throw his gun at Superman in disgust, and Superman would duck to not get hit by the gun!

    posted by Wayne Stevens on 8-12-2011 at 8:50 am

  8. Although my eyesight is not strong enough to read all of the powers listed on the chart – I’ve always wanted the ability to understand and speak every language. In “The Hitchhiker’s Guide” this ability was from the Babel fish, and in “Farscape” it was a translator microbe. Either way, when I am in a city like New York, where you hear so many different languages, this is the super power I want.

    posted by James H on 8-12-2011 at 9:15 am

  9. Wolverine is misplaced. His main super power is regeneration, his claws were a later addition.

    posted by heathen on 8-12-2011 at 10:00 am

  10. @heathen:
    Wolverine’s claws were indeed part of his mutation. Prior to having his skeleton laced with adamantium, his claws were bone (as revealed in Wolverine #75.)

    My favorite super power is both awesome and absurd. It is from the Japanese titles “Read or Die” and “Read or Dream”: paper mastery. Paper masters (“kamitsukai”) can manipulate paper, not only to move and shape it, but to strengthen it to a level comparable to metal, thus allowing it to be used as a variety of weapons, shields, and tools.

    posted by amaneaux on 8-12-2011 at 11:15 am

  11. several of these have the same character under different names, often even on the same bubble–”Angel” and “Archangel”, “Jamie Madrox” and “Multiple Man”

    posted by Katherine on 9-13-2011 at 12:32 am

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