Would you become a superhero?

The moment the nation hears there's a super running loose in my city, the media will descend on it, as will every tourist imaginable, causing crime and harm to skyrocket as people set stupid traps to try to capture the super. That makes the police mad, the governor calls out the National Guard to assist, and the president offers to assist by having Langley watch the city from spy satellites. I'm not nearly as concerned with helicopters as I am with the unseen "eye in the sky". It becomes the biggest regional manhunt since the DC snipers.

At that point, I will suddenly show up briefly in the city 60 miles north.


Actually, I cannot think of doing anything but being the hero. Not because I'm a glory hound, but because it is the chance to do right. I'm steeped in the lore of the "old" non-angst heroes (Lone Ranger, Phantom, Sgt. Preston, Doc Savage, etc.) and I can't see myself shirking the chance.

That said, I would probably begin making discrete inquiries into the full law regarding citizen's arrest. I'd also look into training to be a SWAT team member and see if I could not take a legal way to use the suit.

I would don the suit as a hero, I think though I'd use it for reaslly big stuff like disasters of all sorts from extreme weather to say a ship sinking to terrorist attacks. I think my biggest problem though would be deciding how far to go? As a super would it be acceptable to say go free people who have been falsely accused of spying and could face a death penalty? The problem here is if I'm the only super on the planet and nominally based in the US what do I do when my own government is practicing the same policies?

and while I might play a vigilante in game, as a real world super, I wouldn't go on a killing spree in an attempt to make things better. I might trash your operation and deliver you to the authorities but killing would only be an option if innocent people were in immediate jepordy and it was a last option.

And what do I do about say my family? Where do I draw the line? I have a brother in the military and what if I see him on TV held hostage? Do I go in and free him and his buddies? Do I sit there and watch him die just so some hardliners can show they mean business? How do I tell my family I had to let my brother die because I represent something bigger than a bunch of ******* countries posturing over a bunch of useless crap?

Dang, getting all marvel superheroee there... sniff... sniff

Sell it. After making sure (a) there's nobody out looking for it ("Apple presses charges after loss of iSuit" - no thanks) and (b) I get some sort of legal contract set up not just to give me a percentage of whatever profits come from it, on top of the initial cost, but that the tech is used as widely as possible - military, police, fire being the obvious ones, but also construction, disaster rescue, returning mobility conveniently to those that have lost it, who knows what else.

See my Guides and Tutorials

Can't I have a magic sword instead, or inconspicuous nanomachines that give me psychic powers?

#6 (something else). Travel. I'd go places that I normally couldn't go: mountains, jungles, etc. Probably take to climbing up high skyscrapers and other dangerous locations because I could, etc, and generally just wandering and exploring (I'm weird that way) in relatively safety. I'd still would try to be as discreet as possible, not wanting to give away the suit's secrets. Then...

#3 (testing) While doing the above, I'd be discovering what the suit can do. Knowing how it amplifies abilities, I'd probably try to make some money with it, preferably mostly legal haha. I can think of lots of ways that super strength, toughness, and great communication ability would lend towards accumulating wealth. As I got richer, I'd find ways to amplify my abilities: make/have made special tough, fast bicycles that are powered by me (my suit), self-powered gliders as well (if I'm that strong, I could probably push a pedaled/prop glider pretty fast). Heck, being 100 times as strong, I could probably use workable wings. This should help in my 'getting around' ability. Finally...

#5 I think my inner heroine would finally come out and I'd try to do something about the bad things that go on in the world. I'd likely get into a world of trouble, but I still think I'd try. By then, maybe I've built a good enough communcation network and travelling ability, along with some base of operations (or 3), where I can maintain some sort of secret identity, if not actually keep my existence mostly a secret (doubtful, modern intel is awfully good and finding out what they want to).

When I'm finally caught (it's likely inevitable no matter my precautions), I'd hope to 'make a deal' in which I can become 'deputized' or whatever, and actually become a legal law-enforcer, preferably still clandestine so as to be able to keep some sort of normal life outside of enforcing. This would, of course, involve convincing the powers-that-be into letting me keep using the suit (maybe a slight possibility once they figure out it only works for me and assuming they can't reproduce),

more likely... maybe they'll just confiscate it from me and keep experimenting. Let's be real - once the governments are hellbent on getting you, it will be just a matter of time. Perhaps I'd spend sometime imprisoned as they experiment on me to find out why the suit only works for me. Maybe, eventually, they'll revert to letting me use it again (but only as their agent). More likely, I'll be released a some point (probably years), a poor broken shell, never to see the suit again, telling people what I used to be, and them looking at me like I'm one of those UFO-abductee claimers...

I hope I never get a suit like this...

Hmm. After reading some of the responses here, (some good, some bad), if I got my hands on it... and if I could muster the will to do what I currently consider the 'right thing', I think I would... destroy it.

The amount of bad stuff that could happen so far outweighs the amount of good, that I think we can't yet trust that kind of power to one person. (Not that it's completely godlike, but still).

Just one example of how it might be seen by others: imagine the threat people of differing cultures might feel if, for example, the USA got a hold of this tech. (I use differing here to mean, 'disagreeing with'.) If I were them, I think I might feel... threatened. And feeling threatened, well, Yoda said it: "Fear leads to anger... anger leads to hate... hate leads to suffering."

Superman, which is what people would think of the wearer of this suit as, (though Supes is much stronger), wouldn't really work in the real world - it would be hard to find someone willing to restrain their use of their superpowers to that extent, and a whole buncha problems would ensue the more it was used.

If I were in my 20s, I would probably consider using the suit and becoming a superhero. It would require a lot of research into how to keep a low profile, and targets worthy of attention. Just going after street crime on the low scale probably isn't worth the effort and risks involved.

However as I'm nowhere near my 20s anymore, and injuries are easier to come by, and longer to heal, I would have to pass. The trick of the matter would be finding a worth individual to hand it off to. I don't really know that there's much in the way of institutions I'd trust with that equipment.