Full time hero or not?

Lets imagine a world in which superpowers do actually exist [no jonny depp isnt a superhero, he's just a good pirate!], what kind of role would you have within that world?

Would you be the type who is known to the public as a superhero 24/7? Maybe the type who throws on his/her superhero costume when danger is near thus having a secret identity?

Each one does have its own pros and cons but im just curious as to which one you [as a person] would have?

Myself? I would go for the secret identity. I'ld much rather have a bit of peace and quiet to myself and enjoy my own life as well.

I'd be a private citizen who happens to have superpowers. Fighting crime is for the police. NMJ, man.

what about villains? lol

Hm, that's annoying. Why did the forum tell me my post hadn't succeeded and suggest that I try it again when, in fact, it had? Oh well, +1, I suppose...

I'd be a Tanker named Invincent and I'd be proud to be a hero, the 24/7 type. I'd do local stuff though; cats from trees, small crime, hometown related bits.

Then again I live in Seattle and crime here is vastly different from where I grew up (Houston) so I might not be all that busy being invincible and moreso busy with trying to distinguish myself from the Rain City Superheroes by proving I was invincible.

"No seriously, hit me with that bat."

*KLONK*

"Nothin'."

Wait, me? But I don't have super powers, and I've never really entertained the notion of having them to any great extent. I thought you were asking about our own characters and our preferences for heroes with a secret identity vs. heroes who only have one identity - their public one.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

I'm not one for attracting a lot of attention to myself (no, really, stop laughing), so I think my approach would best be summed up by a quote from Futurama:

I'd be a full time 24/7* superhero!






* excluding 6 to 12 hours every Tuesday, Thursday or whenever the hell I decide to upgrade my costume. It's quite easy to be 24/7 as it only really demands the odd hour here and there - but never when Australasia is awake (the shock might kill them).

Good game, so I'll play!

That said, this is tough. I think if I was "off doing my own thing" when something went wrong, I would feel guilty for not being there regardless of whether I was a public or "secret" superhero.

In the ideal world, I would be a public superhero with either the monetary means to support myself, or receiving compensation from the city/govt. for my services.

In my current life, with the current state of the world, I would prefer to have a secret identity. Saving people would be my own good will at work, rather than an obligation to anyone.

Well I'm very shy, and like to keep myself to myself (shut up, Damz), so I'd likely actually be a bit more selfish with powers I had. I'd likely keep them secret only to use them in day-to-day life for my own benefit. When nobody's looking.

I wouldn't be brave enough to use them to prevent crime anywhere, and I lack the greed to get into anything villainous. Just a little party trick I can use to occupy myself when alone. Of course, that depends on the nature of the power, really. Being able to fly indoors only would get old after a while.

I'd very likely conceal my powers to avoid unwanted attention, but I don't think I could stop myself from helping those in need.

This would of course make watching 24 hour rolling news impossible, the amount of 'strife' in the world would constantly drag me out to assist.

Unless I had a useless super power like the ability to command domestic animals, in which case you'd totally be finding a lot of dogs playing poker in my local area.

If needed I i'd fight, but I wouldn't quit my day job.

Secret identity type, for sure. Mostly because I don't have much faith in humanity and think if I revealed who I was, various military groups would attempt to capture someone like that and dissect them to see if they can reproduce it for their armies. ;P

Most of my characters sort of have a secret identity. But that identity is not really realistic, they are mostly all businessmen who have the luxury of doing the superhero stuff and have a normal life (like I said, not realistic ). Think Tony Stark/Bruce Wayne kind of people. More Tony Stark though (my heroes are most of the time happy people who like to joke around). There are some that can't live without there outfit because otherwise they'd die so they basically don't have a secret identity.

Now whether I would go for a secret identity in real life...I thought about...and I just think that realistically it wouldn't work. As soon as people see someone with super powers then there is no escaping, not in this day and age. Of course if superpowers were "normal" in the world then people probably couldn't really care about another dude with telekinesis . I'd help were I could of course, probably without a suit. And certainly not spandex!

Hmmm... depends on my Superhero power level.

If I were Superman's powerlevel, forget a normal life. I'd pick a small Island to be my home, and convert it to a paradise above ground, and an impenetable fortress below ground. I'd allow people (incl friends and family) to live there, but each and every one would get a background check from me. On this island, I am the State. And every other nation would be given due notice and the promise of massive retaliation if they considered mucking around with my little world.

Like Superman did, I'd likely renounce my citizenship to any one country and consider myself a citizen of the world. For my relationship to the rest of the world, yes, I'd want to help out, even be a hero but I'd want to ensure that I wasn't overstepping any nations' sovereignty (which even trying seems like it happen even when trying to help)...

So, I'd probabably make an arrangement with the United Nations; that anything major the world wanted me to do must be voted on and approved by that body. They'd have to change their voting to be more equatable, though - those 5 permanent security council members would have to go if they want me to consider them legitimate. Otherwise, I'd try my best not to get too involved, as I can't see it working out in the long run unless I literally take over the world, which I would not want to do.

I'd pretty sure I'd make secret excursions to other countries here and there, pretending to be normal person and doing all kinds of exploring and touristy things, but I'd try hard not to get involved unless it was UN-sanctioned, as detailed above

If my power level were less, say in the Spiderman range, I'd probably still continue to live the a somewhat normal life (meaning I'd try to keep a secret civilian identity, regular job), but I'd certainly try to find ways to use my powers to benefit myself, my family and friends, and others in need (although I likely wouldn't go too far out of my way for the latter - no patrolling like batman does)

I would be running around an office building in a blind panic 24/7.

Being a crime-fighting superhero would be great but (assuming I was going to get the powers of my main character) I'm not really sure how much use I could be. Basically, she sets things on fire, ranging from a small, zingy, ooh-you-toasted-my-marshmallow-to-perfection flare to a holy-crap-that's-a-lot-of-fire kaboom. Or, occasionally, she lightly chills things and slows them down. So...maybe she could dive into barbequing emergencies and grill a lot of steaks while cooling the beer? Anything else seems like it could be fraught with danger and collateral damage.

"I stopped the robbers!"

"Well, yes, technically. But their charred corpses are now lying on the pavement next to the building you burned down."

I think, on balance, even if I was trying to helpful then a secret identity would probably be a good idea.

With my luck? I be someone without superpowers who gets kidnapped all the time. Perhaps I even arange a kidnapping in the hope that some nice hero comes to rescue me.