That Is The Question

Today I want to discuss one of the question I often ponder to myself... If I had super powers, would I be a hero? Or a villain? (Fun fact: That's how I came up with the title of this blog.)

It's easy to SAY I'd be all heroic if I got some sort of special abilities bestowed upon me. Use my ice powers to rescue someone from a fire. Use my invulnerability to stop a firefight. Use my influence over the weather to help people dying in a drought. There are so many ways I could help the world if I had some sort of super powers.

But more likely I'd use them for my own benefit. Use my super speed to get to work in a flash and get to sleep in an extra half hour. Use my telepathy to figure out what people really think of me. Use my ability to fly to get away from it all and enjoy unique views and locations. Not necessarily BAD things, just things that might seem a bit selfish.

But that could lead to all kinds of other things. Get annoyed at that car that doesn't stop at the crosswalk and use my telekinesis to make an invisible wall where they should have stopped. Oops. Car totaled. Use my precognition ability to predict the winning lotto numbers. Use my mind control abilities to make people I don't like do stupid things, or confess their misdeeds. Still, this would be bad, but more vigilante level than actual villain.

But it would be so easy to become a super villain with the right abilities and motivation. No one likes the way the government seems to hate to listen to the people. So if I had Magneto's powers over magnetism, or the near omnipotent powers of the Phoenix, I might just take it upon myself to be rid of the world's governments and take over myself. Bend the world to my will. But then I've become an evil overlord despite my best intentions. Maybe I just want to run around with my super strength beating up bad guys. But what if I don't agree on who the bad guys are, and I'm strong enough to take out a tank? Law enforcement decides I'm too big a threat to be allowed to continue, so then it's me against the world. There are so many ways things could go wrong even with the best intentions.

So the question is: How strong is my moral compass? Could I handle the responsibility of that much power? Like I said before, I'd like to think I could handle it and use my abilities for good, but maybe it's a good thing I don't live in a comic book... How would you handle YOUR superpowers?