162
votes
Why would a healing factor superhero still be afraid of things?
Logan might have a supernatural healing factor, but not superhuman pain tolerance.
Having suffered the horrible pain caused by injuries no other human ever survived could have been a traumatizing ...
- 48.2k
153
votes
Accepted
How can powerful telekinesis avoid violating Newton's 3rd Law?
They could brace themselves against the world behind them.
Basically, they would subconsciously learn to simultaneously exert an equal and opposite force spread out over a much larger area behind ...
151
votes
Accepted
In a fantasy world where physical training has no hard limit, why isn't everyone a superhuman?
Consider why you personally cannot run a 10 minute mile, or lift 200 lbs 10 times, do a backflip and land on your feet. Or why you are not expert with the bow and arrow. Or expert at throwing darts. ...
- 304k
141
votes
How do you assassinate someone who is protected by precognitive people?
You poison him using small amounts of drugs that accumulate over time.
Basically, slip food laced with [insert some toxin that accumulates over time and requires > 1 week to kill with here] - the ...
- 18.9k
115
votes
Why might the government keep the gold at Fort Knox, even though super-villains steal it all the time?
Supervillains are going to commit huge crimes somewhere. It's what they do. The trick is to predict them, and the easiest way to do that it to bait them.
Ft. Knox is well-known and (in theory) highly ...
- 36.4k
102
votes
Accepted
What mechanism can prevent super-healing heroes from accidentally budding?
Quorum sensing would be a very effective mechanism. This is a real life biological mechanism which is used by many small creatures like bacteria. Basically, it's a way of detecting how many similar ...
- 131k
100
votes
Would a 4-dimensional being be able to see inside other people?
Can you as a three-dimensional being see inside a two-dimensional circle? That depends on your position relative to it. When you are looking right at its edge, you can't. But if you are above or below ...
- 48.2k
100
votes
Accepted
Why might the government keep the gold at Fort Knox, even though super-villains steal it all the time?
Tour Ft. Knox, the world's second-biggest distraction (just behind Area-51)
You bet there's gold in Ft. Knox! Everybody knows that. Little Johnny down the street knows that! Tibetan monks in ...
- 114k
98
votes
Why would a healing factor superhero still be afraid of things?
The possibility of being buried alive is a very powerful fear.
The Old Croghan Man was a mummified body found in a bog estimated to be about 2000 years old dug up in Ireland.
Imagine that body was ...
- 1,154
96
votes
How to Kill the Thought-Crime Killer
The problem is already solved. Joe will die in solitary confinement from thirst or starvation, as his guards and the officials responsible for replacing them all drop dead.
"I should bring Joe his ...
- 22.4k
92
votes
Accepted
Everyone believes everything Joe says. How can he get around it?
Just tell the truth - and be specific.
Joe's superpower appears to be a problem in one of two types of situations:
He says something that isn't true ("I am a green stegosaurus!").
He says something ...
- 99.6k
91
votes
What mechanism can prevent super-healing heroes from accidentally budding?
There is exactly one important cell - the Core
The Core is what coordinates the super-healing. Every other cell is unimportant and will simply die when cut off from a "normal" body. They can't really ...
- 17.7k
89
votes
Everyone believes everything Joe says. How can he get around it?
He could train himself to turn every statement into a question: "Good morning, isn't it?"
- 1,757
82
votes
Accepted
Putting Ant-Man on house arrest
How do they keep normal people from jimmying the anklet with a screwdriver? By making it tamper-evident. Sure, it's possible to compromise the electronics, but you're going to have a lot of explaining ...
- 36.4k
78
votes
Accepted
Taxing the superhero industry
Add a two tier tax that targets heroes doing property damage. First, a small flat tax for all heroes to help cover any damages incurred by villains and subsequent hero suppression of said villains. ...
- 4,262
76
votes
What's the most effective way to use my skill-copying superpower?
Start flying... a lot.
the longer the flight the more you will absorb, but the real benefits is close proximity to dozens of people with the SAME skill at the same time. Languages will come first. ...
- 78.3k
70
votes
Scientific/biological basis of someone with unlimited willpower?
Greg is clearly brain damaged, we know that selectively damaging certain areas of the brain causes drastic and "interesting" changes in behaviour. For example damage to area 24 of the anterior ...
- 44.7k
69
votes
Superheros and capes
NO CAPES
The capes conversation in Incredibles captures it best.
Don't get me wrong, I've always been an apologist for Batman's cape. It's awesome and I convinced myself it's bulletproof or a glider, ...
- 5,182
69
votes
Why might the government keep the gold at Fort Knox, even though super-villains steal it all the time?
Plausible deniability for ransom
Between abut 800 AD and 1066 AD, Viking raiders terrorized Europe.
The raids reached such a pitch that local kings would pay ransom to Viking bands to leave them ...
- 2,451
69
votes
Accepted
What job could someone do better with super-strength, but without actually revealing that they have it?
Prep Cook Service
à la
Some food establishments use prepackaged meals and are essentially microwave services. Others are high end joints where each tiny piece of radish is painstakingly carved. Many ...
- 788
68
votes
Accepted
Personal Teleportation: From Rags to Riches
Space elevator.
The cost of sending astronauts and basic materials like water, food and oxygen to the ISS are enormous. The risks associated with firing a tube of metal filled to the brim with ...
- 15.4k
67
votes
Could a really fast man catch a bullet?
Assuming the Required Secondary Powers, certainly.
The superhero in question is capable of running at 100 times the speed of a bullet. For simplicity's sake, we assume that the bullet is a standard 5....
- 8,082
66
votes
Identify Batman without getting caught
Let him be exposed to more UV light. Like secretly replacing all Gotham city street light bulbs with ones with higher UV radiation. Then...
Credit to whoever created this meme pic that I found via ...
- 1,383
66
votes
Accepted
How do I change this guy's ability so he isn't so powerful?
He lacks "Drawback Mitigation"
Most super powers come with an inherent mitigation of risk associated with their power. A few examples:
Super strength: Increased bone strength and durability ...
- 13.7k
66
votes
How to defeat a pyrokinesis user using tech and science
Shoot Him In The Head
You haven’t specified that he has any kind of supernatural senses, so a well placed sniper shot from well out of his visual range, (3km has been done but let’s make it 2km for ...
- 18.2k
65
votes
Accepted
Everything Joe says will become true. Can anybody notice?
Yes. Very easily, depending on what Joe wants to change.
Edit: additional assumptions.
1) the universe takes the path of least resistance to validate his statements. Therefore, rewriting the past ...
- 1,784
65
votes
What mechanism can prevent super-healing heroes from accidentally budding?
Healing is partially or totally spiritual.
Each hero has billions of cells, but just one soul. Only the body portion with the soul can regenerate.
If the body is torn into multiple small pieces, the ...
- 134k
65
votes
Everything Bob says is false. How does he get people to trust him?
You misunderstand trust: I trust Bob completely.
A lack of trust comes from unpredictability and betrayal. Bob hasn't betrayed me because I trust him completely: he will always speak falsely. ...
- 114k
65
votes
How to give a rationality-inducing drug to an entire software company?
Luckily for you someone has already developed a large scale system to deliver performance improving chemicals to all the staff employed within a premises, you just need to piggyback on it.
The ...
- 272k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible