Maybe he can change his personal alloy at will? He’s going with brass/bronze since as a chaperone he needs to look semi-formal, changes into gold for formal occasions, and becomes steel when it’s time for physical labor. That would be kinda cool.
I always thought gold, particularly when early on we learned he could transmute metals into at least gold. I figured he was transforming the metals into something resembling his coating.
What makes you assume that “powers” are always something that could even be situationally useful? I mean, other than the fact that you can probably find a situation where ANYTHING is useful, if you look hard enough.
The Rainmaker program has students whose powers are nigh-useless for superheroing. I imagine some of their number will wind up being kids who have, essentially, spot-on-the-wall talents. (That is, a power that is no more useful than putting a spot on a wall.)
A good point, in comics you almost never see people with powers that are useless for fighting/committing crime, while it’s slowly more common it’s only because they use them as cannon fodder or joke characters or like in the X-men to demonstrate that most mutations don’t create terrifyingly powerful beings but instead people that aren’t really that better than any other human.
For the usual superhero content, they’d make for boring stories where over-the-top action, heroics, and villainy is what’s expected.
That said, some good writer could probably write a heartfelt story about guys like that. In particular, I’m thinking Kurt Busiek since his “Astro City” series is slice-of-life of people living in a world with superpowers (heroes, villains, civilians). He already has 1 or even 2 stories about super-powered folk who don’t want to be either hero or villain- but the fact that they can handle themselves in a fight when backed into a corner disqualifies them from our topic (people with utterly useless powers).
Speaking of Bouncing Boy, this also reminds me of the Legion of Substitute Heroes, the sort of sister-team to the Legion of Super-Heroes. Despite being rejects from the LoSH’s recruitment, they too can handle themselves in a fight when needed, so they don’t count as well.
Hm. I haven’t really read X-men much. Aren’t there stories where mutants are getting persecuted despite having no real dangerous superpowers? It’s an illustration of the ugliness of prejudice. I’m guessing there are…
I can’t help but hear “Down is easy” in the voice of Remo from Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins. Right before Chiun turns off the lights and makes him do the training course in the dark, resulting in a “Whooaaa!” and a very loud series of crashes.
And Marlocke makes a worthy dismount. In a moment we’ll get the scores from the Judges…
And here are the scores:
USA 9.5 GBR 9.2 SPN 9.5 GER 9.3 RUS 4.2
The highest and lowest scores are thrown out, so the total is 28 out of 30. Marlocke moves on to the next discipline…
Huh. The Human Alloy is gold. I was expecting something like chrome or shiny steel.
Same. I was thinking a la Silver Surfer.
Given “Alloy”, I’d say something more like brass or bronze.
That colour looks a lot like some brass jewelry I have. So I’d vote brass for body and bronze for his hair.
He’s goldinium (my name for gold/titanium alloy).
Maybe he can change his personal alloy at will? He’s going with brass/bronze since as a chaperone he needs to look semi-formal, changes into gold for formal occasions, and becomes steel when it’s time for physical labor. That would be kinda cool.
I always thought gold, particularly when early on we learned he could transmute metals into at least gold. I figured he was transforming the metals into something resembling his coating.
Geez, the power to turn into a balloon? In what situation would that help at all?
Having usable abilities never seemed to stop Zan and Jayna.
Form of water!
That’s basically what Bouncing Boy did, and can be quite helpful since for one you don’t have to worry about falling to your death.
What makes you assume that “powers” are always something that could even be situationally useful? I mean, other than the fact that you can probably find a situation where ANYTHING is useful, if you look hard enough.
The Rainmaker program has students whose powers are nigh-useless for superheroing. I imagine some of their number will wind up being kids who have, essentially, spot-on-the-wall talents. (That is, a power that is no more useful than putting a spot on a wall.)
Three cheers for the Piers Anthony reference!
A good point, in comics you almost never see people with powers that are useless for fighting/committing crime, while it’s slowly more common it’s only because they use them as cannon fodder or joke characters or like in the X-men to demonstrate that most mutations don’t create terrifyingly powerful beings but instead people that aren’t really that better than any other human.
For the usual superhero content, they’d make for boring stories where over-the-top action, heroics, and villainy is what’s expected.
That said, some good writer could probably write a heartfelt story about guys like that. In particular, I’m thinking Kurt Busiek since his “Astro City” series is slice-of-life of people living in a world with superpowers (heroes, villains, civilians). He already has 1 or even 2 stories about super-powered folk who don’t want to be either hero or villain- but the fact that they can handle themselves in a fight when backed into a corner disqualifies them from our topic (people with utterly useless powers).
Speaking of Bouncing Boy, this also reminds me of the Legion of Substitute Heroes, the sort of sister-team to the Legion of Super-Heroes. Despite being rejects from the LoSH’s recruitment, they too can handle themselves in a fight when needed, so they don’t count as well.
Hm. I haven’t really read X-men much. Aren’t there stories where mutants are getting persecuted despite having no real dangerous superpowers? It’s an illustration of the ugliness of prejudice. I’m guessing there are…
It was a very common theme in Marvel’s New Universe of the late Eighties.
I can’t help but hear “Down is easy” in the voice of Remo from Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins. Right before Chiun turns off the lights and makes him do the training course in the dark, resulting in a “Whooaaa!” and a very loud series of crashes.
@Mike…I LOVE that movie!!!!
A very young Kate Mulgrew and a very old-looking Joel Grey made that movie awesome (and holy fishbits, he’s still alive at 85-ish).
One of my favorites too. I know the acting by the “bad guys” was laughably bad, but dang, was it fun to watch.
Dang. Tyler made that jump without a grapple hook or anything? He’s really gotten over his fear of heights.
Grapple hook a balloon is a quick way to go down 🙂 aren’t they sharp?
He didn’t jump. Cecil’s bouquet hit him from below.