Are superpowers with drawbacks still worth it? This is a question scholars have been wondering for centuries. Invisibility, telekinesis, immortality—to some people, these would be a dream superpower. But when you look closer, it’s not as cool as it sounds. We tend to fantasize about all the things we could do, but reality has a way of ruining everything.
Let’s dive into the most popular superpowers and examine the hidden side effects that might turn your dream ability into a total nightmare.
1. Telekinesis: The Burger Dilemma
I want telekinesis very much. I think I would, if I had telekinesis, abuse that power to the max. But what if the side effect was that you can only move burgers? Obviously, telekinesis isn’t very good if you can only control burgers. Even if you want to control the burgers to then control other objects, you’d be producing a lot of burgers. You wouldn’t want to keep going to the grocery store to buy more burger meat.
However, if you get creative, you might find a loophole. What if I submerged the burger in resin so that the burger could last forever? In addition to that, the resin could be any shape, such as a burger in resin shaped like a spoon or a hook. I could be casting multiple shapes with multiple burgers, creating mechanisms only limited by my imagination.
Despite the limitation, I would say yes, this power is still worth it with a side effect.
2. Invisibility: Blindness and Nudity
Invisibility seems perfect for sneaking around. But here’s the problem: for you to see, light has to hit the back of your eyes. But if you’re invisible, light would just pass through you, leaving you blind. And if somehow your eyes could catch light, they would still be visible, making you a pair of floating eyeballs. Just creepy.
To go fully invisible, you need to be completely naked. You wouldn’t be able to carry anything either. And since no one can see you, they would crash into you all the time. You better not use perfume or even make noise breathing because people would still know you were there.
Plus, if you’re thinking that you could rob a bank—maybe because your richness is your constant thought—a thermal camera would still spot your heat radiation, making it nearly impossible to sneak in undetected.
3. Bringing Characters to Life: The Enemy Within
Imagine you can bring any character you want to life. I’m going to make a character named Griffin who has wings, and we’re best friends and is magic also. Sounds amazing, right? But the side effect ruins it: They hate you.
If everyone hates me, then they’re all going to gang up on me. If there are no consequences with this power, what’s stopping me from making a genie character who grants unlimited wishes? But now, if he hated me, I would have a lot of trouble trusting him.
Unless you create a character who is irredeemably evil and a threat to this world who is a burger, which then you can eat. Eat me and become the very thing you sought to defeat. Still, I don’t think this power is fun with this consequence.
4. Intangibility: Sinking to the Core
Picture this: You’ve just unlocked intangibility. You’re super excited, so you decide to phase your hand through a wall. But the moment you activate your powers, you drop straight through the floor, sinking into the earth.
Gravity takes over. You either deactivate your powers and become fused into rock, suffocating to death, or continue sinking until you reach the molten center of the earth. Unable to do anything, you are just waiting until you decide to die.
5. Super Speed: Friction and physics
A moderate super speed of about 190 mph wouldn’t be so bad. But if we’re talking about speed similar to the Flash without the Speed Force, then it would be a disaster waiting to happen. You would have to generate an enormous amount of force far greater than what the human body can handle, and it would cause your legs to simply rip off your body.
Here’s another thing: Air isn’t empty. It’s filled with elements like oxygen and nitrogen, plus tons of tiny dust particles. As you move through air, you’re rubbing against these particles, generating friction that produces heat. Moving at super speed would generate enough heat to burn your entire body.
Let’s say you don’t burn. You still need to see where you’re going. Human perception isn’t adapted to handle high speed, so moving at super speed would make everything blurry. You would just crash into things.
And in the case that your perception does keep up, the world around you would seem so slow that you’d basically be stuck in time. Having super speed would also mean burning millions of calories every day, so you’d go broke buying all the food needed to keep your metabolism satisfied.
6. Healing with the Mind: The Grass Requirement
Next power: The ability to heal anything with the mind. This power is dangerous, mostly because you would either be sought after by world governments seeking to obtain your power, or you’d end up being the leader of a cult. But despite the risks, it’s an amazing power to have. Anytime you stub your toe, it’s fine. If you fall off the roof, that’s fine.
But with the side effect, would it still be worth it? You can only ever do it immediately after eating a bowl of grass clippings.
This makes using the power really awkward. Someone yells, “We need a doctor!” But you have to say, “Give me a second,” while you start eating grass. On top of that, you cannot let it get out that you have this power because it’s limited to how much grass you can eat a day, which is not nutritional.
If you’re trying to keep a low profile, eating the grass kind of makes you suspicious. Imagine the news report: “After the villain escaped, the child made a miraculous recovery. But bystanders just saw a guy eating grass.”
I vote this power is still very worth it. It’s gross to eat grass, but it’s not nothing. It’s just kind of a bummer.
7. Re-experiencing Shows: The Memory Wipe
The ability to completely forget about a show you’ve watched so you can re-experience it as if it was the first time. This power sounds cool at first, but this kind of sounds like purgatory a little bit.
You’ll just watch the show, forget that you watched it, watch it again, forget that you watched it. Months roll by, years roll by, and you’re an old man before you know it.
If you haven’t seen Adam Sandler’s 2006 fantasy comedy film, Click, I feel as if there is an important and irrelevant lesson in that movie. I think this power is a curse.
And the side effect? You immediately lose interest before you watch the show. Because I consider the power a curse, you kind of made it better, which is the opposite of what we were trying to do here.
8. Teleportation: Lost in Space
As you might know, the Earth is in constant motion through space, moving at around 67,000 mph. It rotates, orbits the sun, and the solar system orbits around the center of the galaxy.
If you wanted to teleport, you would need to calculate the exact position of the Earth through space. Or else you would teleport into space, dying instantly.
9. Immortality: The Lonely Eternity
If you were given the choice between dying in one year or becoming immortal, what would you choose? The choice seems obvious, doesn’t it? But if you’re immortal, you would have to watch everyone you love die over and over again until you don’t have any emotional feelings anymore.
You would live to see the human race die out. You would see the world end. And ultimately, you would be drifting in space all alone for eternity. That kind of exhaustion goes way beyond just being tired on Friday.
10. Time Stop: Blind and Breathless
Time stop would be a dream come true for some individuals, but in reality, it would be a nightmare. The moment you stop time, the molecules of air around you would stop as well, making it impossible to breathe. It also means photons would stop, rendering you unable to see.
So, you stop time and become unable to breathe or see until you either resume time or just die. Great power, huh?
11. Artistic Perfection: The Will Smith Clause
The ability to have your art come out exactly as you imagined it. Yes, I can see it now: the trees, the river, the luscious flowers, masterful composition.
The catch? You can only draw pictures of Will Smith. Yeah, you ruined it. You’ve ruined a totally perfect superpower.
12. Mimicry: Loss of Self
The ability to mimic anything. I’ve always been fond of the idea of shapeshifting. But would I think it’s still cool with a side effect? You lose your true self and have no unique form.
Is that so bad? That doesn’t sound too bad. Having no unique form kind of makes me have a unique form. Sure, I lose my unique form at the end of the day, but I could also fly. And of course, if I can mimic abilities, say hello to the world’s best hacker.
13. Super Strength: A World Made of Glass
Super strength sounds awesome, right? In real life, though, it’s a mess. Everything’s designed for regular people. Meaning that if you were super strong, you would be breaking doorknobs, keyboards, and glasses left and right.
Imagine going to hug your mom and breaking her spine because you don’t know how to control your strength yet. Having super strength doesn’t mean you’re indestructible either. If you punch a wall, because of Newton’s third law, the force that you applied to the wall would be applied back to you with the same intensity, knocking you back and breaking your hand.
The Superpower Trade-Off Table
| Superpower | The Hidden Drawback | Still Worth It? |
|---|---|---|
| Telekinesis | Can only control burgers | Yes (with resin hacks) |
| Invisibility | Blindness & Nudity | No (too creepy) |
| Summoning | Characters hate you | No (too dangerous) |
| Intangibility | Falling into Earth’s core | No (fatal) |
| Healing | Must eat grass clippings | Yes (saving lives) |
| Artistic Skill | Only draw Will Smith | No (too limited) |
| Mimicry | No unique form | Yes (versatile) |
| Time Stop | Cannot breathe or see | No (useless) |
Final Thoughts
Some superpowers with drawbacks are absolute deal-breakers, like sinking into the Earth’s core or being blind while invisible. Others, like eating grass to heal people or controlling resin-encased burgers, just require a little creativity to make them work. So, are they worth it? It depends on how much grass you’re willing to eat.