Legit, in the real world, wolverine's healing factor is the most useful. Other stuff is about tricks. His kind of healing means no cancer, no Alzheimer's, no strokes, no heart attacks, nada. A long, healthy life free of disease of almost any kind.
The only drawback is the semi-immortality. A long life watching others die would suck hard. It's already bad enough with a regular life span.
I wouldn't care. I'd walk out into the world to go see stuff and maybe change some things. I wouldn't stay still or build a life with those powers.
Otherwise, you could look at Howard families by Heinlein for the solution. Which is also to move before people notice, but staying put for periods of time at a time.
The way it always works in media, no. They retain their consciousness and ability. I suppose they COULD do that if they chose, though it would basically just be killing themself.
Teleporpation including the clothes I’m wearing, whatever I’m bringing, and whoever I’m holding. No more dealing with traffic and parking, can travel anywhere in the world in an instant, can get into concerts/shows without tickets, and lots of other useful conveniences.
I'd take Wolverine's healing powers. I have a few chronic injuries that I wrestle with, and it would be amazing to be free of pain. I'd also be able to be reckless again like I was when I sustained said injuries. It would also be pretty cool to smoke cigars, inhaling them the whole time, eat 10 pounds of bacon each week, and other generally deadly behaviors that could be quite enjoyable.
Either Mind Control, like Killgrave’s in Jessica Jones, or if I can cheat a little, Legion’s powers in Legion on FX. He sort of has multiple but they can all basically be chalked up to “mind powers” if we’re being loose with it.
For the record I’m not saying I want to be like Killgrave, he’s a disgusting small monster, but… his abilities are insane. Hard to resist something like that.
As for Legion’s, I mean I’d effectively be a god. Hard to pass that up, tho maybe not if it comes bundled with the schizophrenia.
Honestly this is a pretty good one. It’s basically the “any technology of sufficient complexity is indistinguishable from magic” answer. The Q Continuum were a weird mix of magic/super powers, and even demonstrated the ability to gift those abilities to others at will.
It was just one line but I loved when someone told Q that he was a trickster god to a planet from how much he messed with them in the past.
The implications of that. Ok, without the Marvel movies I highly doubt even 10% of the human race knows what Loki is about. Q was the trickster god for an entire planet. Billions of people knew the legend of Q. He must have been doing stuff to them for thousands of years all across their society. Take the most well known people in history there is still a big possibility that most people hadn't heard of them a century or so ago.
Q was bigger to them than Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, Moses, the Emperors of China, the Monarch of the UK, Plato, and Santa combined to this species.
The power gauntlet from avengers. Altering the very fabric of reality ? Heck yeah, sign me in. Here we go for my big tiddy goth catgirls harem fantasy, enjoy the ride. (Pun very much intended)
Id personally choose power mimicry (the version where you just have to see a person using a power once and can just mimic it at any time) then I'd just build my set of powers
Pick things up with my mind? Super speed? Super jumps? Jedi mind tricks? Premonitions? Force Conference Calls? Lightning? Chokes? Healing? Die and come back as a ghost?
I was going to say teleportation as in Jumper but going instantly to a place outside your field of view seems like trouble waiting to happen. Blink is already good enough.
Do I get the power without possible strings attached? I'd totally be down to be a genie like in Aladdin, so long as I could choose my first "customer". Having to live inside a itty bitty lamp would definitely suck, tho.
There was this one minor character from a book whose title I can't recall (it was about a kid with a dragon eye behind his normal eye and he was transported to a magic realm, i cant remember much else. i read it almost 15 years ago) that can make one wish a day. Every now and again I remember that guy and wonder why he only settled to be a pro soccer player considering his powers lol.
Does it need to be noted as a superpower within the story? If not, I'm saying plot armour. I get to be safe in the knowledge I can't die or be taken out of action unless all plot threads that need me are resolved ahead of time.
The main character of the novel "Infinite Mana in the Apocalyps" literally has the traits "I'm the Main Character", "Plotarmor" and "Nexus Events", so you are good with that choice.
It doesn't make death traumatic. It makes death impossible until a certain point in the narrative, and then death can happen however the author chooses. It means I won't be killed stupidly through a random accident while I still have unfinished business.
Spatial/Dimensional magic from most things that have spatial magic in them. It gives you the ability to teleport, create portals, create/use your own inventory, and even teleport to other worlds.
Ever since I saw it in a TMNT comic book, I wanted the ability to bring to life anything I can draw. I could have literally any super power I want and more with this one weird trick.
Warning, it only lasted one season and was cancelled. But the premise is about a guy who wakes up naked and doesn't remember anything about him, but he knows everything about everything else.
One single superpower, or a suite of powers that exists within a single character?
Assuming that we're talking conventional media (e.g., not religion), and we're talking about powers that exist within a single character, I'd probably take the powers of a witcher, from Sapkowski's novels. They're not immortal, but they live multiple times longer than a normal human. They're not invulnerable, but they're able to take more physical abuse and heal than any normal person. They're able to use magic in a limited way. They move faster and are stronger than humans. So they're not so far outside of humanity that they can't still blend in with and appreciate humanity.
I feel like most other super powers would quickly lead to intense alienation, because you'd be so far outside of the normal human experience that you'd lose the ability to empathize.
Probability manipulation can make anything happen. That's the strongest one. Although ofc big risk of tearing up the fabric of reality by messing with small forces probability and just destroying everything by accident.
Don't even try all the lame excuses about why it is a bad thing. You know who comes up lame excuses? People who are mortal.
I will never get bored
I will accept that everyone I know will eventually die
I am not worried about being trapped in a hole or something because fuck it I will just carry around a collapsible shovel
I am not worried about heat death because I will just solve entropy Asimov style.
If they sentence me to life imprisonment I will just wait them out. Also point out to the judge who sentences me that eventually I will get out since no civilization lasts forever
And if humanity goes extinct I will just remake humanity from my cache of stored fertilized eggs and artificial wombs that I had like a billion years to get working.