I don’t have a TV but have been catching up to the show Heroes on Hulu and Netflix online (here’s how to watch them outside of the US). It seems that most of the characters are so busy trying to save the world from some crazy plot twist when their powers would be more useful in the hands of you, the traveler.
If you could steal the powers of 3 characters ala Peter Petrelli, you’ll want to take the best ones to be a super-traveler.
Hiro Nakamura – Teleportation
Time travel is a good power too, except that you could screw up the space-time continuum, or your mom. So take his power to teleport anywhere he pleases and use it to skip airport lines, visa hassles, and swing by Paris for a few hours after work. The best part is you can take your friends with you, just make sure they’re holding your hand.
Nathan Petrelli – Flying
Sure, teleporting gets you from place to place, but flying gets you the best camera angles. There won’t be too many other photographers that will get the shots you do. Adrian Pasdar, who plays Nathan, actually starting flying in the 80s with Tom Cruise in Top Gun (clip below).
Micah Sanders – Technopath
This little kid has the ability to talk to machines and have his way with technology (“technopathy” not techno-party). A great gift to have if you can’t figure out a train ticketing kiosk in Chinese or are baffled by the payphones in Europe. You could also be mischievous and get free plane tickets or manipulate ATM machines but borrowing wi-fi and avoiding speed traps is as far as I’d go.
Take 2 More
It’s unfortunate the writers of the show couldn’t give any female characters some good traveling powers, but here are two that are close enough.
- Daphne Millbrook – Can move at super speeds, useful for obvious reasons.
- Molly Walker – Think Facebook is a good way to find old friends, try just thinking about them to get the exact location.
Superheroes doing super things are nice, but superpowers could really make routine tasks, like traveling, so much easier than thwarting villains. What is truly special is that so many people already are super travelers, with no magic required.
I want all of them!
I’ll take Hiro’s teleporation. Flying doesn’t interest me too much, but now swinging by Hong Kong then to Argentina and Sweden all in the same afternoon, now that would be cool.
They all come with some risk elements though! What if you teleport right in front of a bus or something? hehe
That’s where some super healing power comes in. On the show Heroes though, those logical dangers are avoided by…well…they aren’t mentioned.
If I could choose one superpower it would be flying. Without a doubt. My second choice would be to have the ability of being invisible.
Invisible is a great one for traveling and a nice superpower in general. I’d have to say that healing (like Wolverine) would be my preference. The nice thing about it is living 400 years would give me plenty of time to travel the world.
I think I would like to have either the power to “influence people” . What powers would you like to have?