I was just talking about this today! When I was a kid, I was super-sensitive to bad smells, to the point where sometimes I would refuse to play in my friends' houses if they smelled like salami or potpourri or whatever, but when I was 11 I had to have my nose cauterized because of nosebleeds, and ever since then my super power has been to not be bothered by bad smells anymore. I can still taste my food and smell nice stuff just fine (as far as I can tell), but things that most people find completely nasty -- like, I can smell them, but they just don't freak me out the way they do other people. It served me well when I worked in a group home for developmentally disabled adults (most of whom were in diapers), and I think it's gonna be an awesome super power to have when I become a parent. And also, y'know, when the apocalypse comes and I have to survive on dead rats and ditchwater.
Fiction expresses the author's point of view. If you don't bear this in mind, or don't notice it, you may find that an author causes you to accept their point of view by making it appear to be just how the world works. But that could be just me. So, for instance, when you read the Bible -
Damn it, people. At no point in the story is it said that the Trump is a super-hero, only that he has the superhuman ability to shamelessly promote himself. Having a super ability does not make one a hero, nor is he necessarily a villain either. He could simply be an oddity of nature or a mutant freak or some other sort of twisted, disgusting form of humanity that you wish would hide itself under a bridge, likely named Trump Bridge.
I have the ability to get into conflict with bad people. I don't even have to know them. They'll just come over and say something intolerable, and away we go! Everybody else is so outraged that they make it clear I'm unwelcome in the community if I so badly mistreat a shining example of what humanity should be. Then years later, someone who is sort-of still in touch with me will ask HOW DID YOU KNOW?! How did you know that monster was the devil on steriods? He (or she) has split the community! We never saw it coming! How did you know? I can never answer that. It's always something as subtle as a hundred foot neon sign with fireworks shooting out of it, and I really can't see how anybody else didn't see it. It must be a super-power. I'd rather have invisibility. ...Or breath that can scare away bird-dogging bosses...Or no super powers...It's a damn curse!
Scott, I resemble you in the first panel. And, like you in the first panel, I've gotten similar responses from my co-workers. (I wonder if I should shave my head to make the PHYSICAL resemblence more literal. Maybe that would help me...)
Does anyone else remember when comb-overs were something balding people did for camouflage, while others simply parted their hair? Now the term is applied to both sets of people, which annoys my OCD sense of English. (I spend A LOT of time suppressing such annoyance, but the meds help....)
Wikipedia on Daredevil: "In the course of saving a blind man from the path of an oncoming truck, Matt is blinded by a radioactive substance that falls from the vehicle. The radioactive exposure heightens his remaining senses beyond normal human thresholds, enabling him to detect the shape and location of objects around him." That's his "radar sense".
His friend Echo may be the only Deaf superhero - completely deaf; however, Hawkeye, for one, had badly injured hearing for a while. Short-term impairment isn't uncommon for superheroes, such as temporary deafness after the bomb explodes.
Insensitivity to pain is sometimes portrayed as a superpower, since you can do things that should hurt way too much, but how else you get that is leprosy: I gather that sufferers from that look like heck mainly because when they hurt themselves they couldn't feel it.
May 22, 2012
Reader Comments (33)
Wait... do you admire Donald Trump? I remember you saying that you can't respect anyone with a combover.
I'm glad that someone else remembers that Trump has gone bankrupt multiple times.
Also, great metaphore
That last line comes dangerously close to reality.
Trump is more of a super villain.
Excellent punch-line.
You have just positively identified Donald Trump as a super-villain!
But Spider-man isn't considered a superhero by most of the non-superheroes in the marvel universe!*
*depending on continuity/point in that continuity
You never said he was a hero - looks to me like you're describing a villain...
I was just talking about this today! When I was a kid, I was super-sensitive to bad smells, to the point where sometimes I would refuse to play in my friends' houses if they smelled like salami or potpourri or whatever, but when I was 11 I had to have my nose cauterized because of nosebleeds, and ever since then my super power has been to not be bothered by bad smells anymore. I can still taste my food and smell nice stuff just fine (as far as I can tell), but things that most people find completely nasty -- like, I can smell them, but they just don't freak me out the way they do other people. It served me well when I worked in a group home for developmentally disabled adults (most of whom were in diapers), and I think it's gonna be an awesome super power to have when I become a parent. And also, y'know, when the apocalypse comes and I have to survive on dead rats and ditchwater.
Are you trying to imply that Donald Trump is a super villain? And if not, why not?
Great comic, but for some reason I now can't stop visualizing an orange-hued Scott with a hideous comb-over. Please make it stop.
Brave - messing with the rich and famous. Definitely super hero material. Side-kick Kid-Missy?
I have the ability to crush grapes with one hand. Somehow I had always thought that a super-power would be more impressive.
I don't suppose you have an Amazon Kindle Reader subscription option?
Brilliance. Sheer. Brilliance.
The ability to talk without saying anything is clearly a power used for EVIL.
Fiction expresses the author's point of view. If you don't bear this in mind, or don't notice it, you may find that an author causes you to accept their point of view by making it appear to be just how the world works. But that could be just me. So, for instance, when you read the Bible -
Last panel....Brilliant!
Making an implausible ridiculous comparison like that is unfair to Spiderman. The donald sure has made an art out of gilding a turd.
What can I say, Scott... Last panel says it all.
Damn it, people. At no point in the story is it said that the Trump is a super-hero, only that he has the superhuman ability to shamelessly promote himself. Having a super ability does not make one a hero, nor is he necessarily a villain either. He could simply be an oddity of nature or a mutant freak or some other sort of twisted, disgusting form of humanity that you wish would hide itself under a bridge, likely named Trump Bridge.
Have you ever noticed that Representative Boehner (also orange skinned, and bad hair) and The Donald are never in the same photo?
OK, but isn't Daredevil's superpower deafness? So there is one comic-book hero whose "power" is actually a deficiency.
I find that the second panel, having no retort to Trumps' ability to sell himself is brilliant.
I have the ability to get into conflict with bad people.
I don't even have to know them. They'll just come over and say something intolerable, and away we go! Everybody else is so outraged that they make it clear I'm unwelcome in the community if I so badly mistreat a shining example of what humanity should be. Then years later, someone who is sort-of still in touch with me will ask HOW DID YOU KNOW?! How did you know that monster was the devil on steriods? He (or she) has split the community! We never saw it coming! How did you know?
I can never answer that. It's always something as subtle as a hundred foot neon sign with fireworks shooting out of it, and I really can't see how anybody else didn't see it. It must be a super-power.
I'd rather have invisibility.
...Or breath that can scare away bird-dogging bosses...Or no super powers...It's a damn curse!
Scott, I resemble you in the first panel. And, like you in the first panel, I've gotten similar responses from my co-workers. (I wonder if I should shave my head to make the PHYSICAL resemblence more literal. Maybe that would help me...)
That last panel... that's gold, Scott.
Ok...that...hurt...
Having to think this early in the morning caused pain, but I found myself enjoying it.
Uh oh...this could be bad...wait...that is good...wait...
The ability to talk without saying anything is the only super power you can obtain by earning an MBA,
You would have to be diligent with the conversation, because who you're talking to will determine whether they want to listen or not.
Does anyone else remember when comb-overs were something balding people did for camouflage, while others simply parted their hair? Now the term is applied to both sets of people, which annoys my OCD sense of English. (I spend A LOT of time suppressing such annoyance, but the meds help....)
Wikipedia on Daredevil: "In the course of saving a blind man from the path of an oncoming truck, Matt is blinded by a radioactive substance that falls from the vehicle. The radioactive exposure heightens his remaining senses beyond normal human thresholds, enabling him to detect the shape and location of objects around him." That's his "radar sense".
His friend Echo may be the only Deaf superhero - completely deaf; however, Hawkeye, for one, had badly injured hearing for a while. Short-term impairment isn't uncommon for superheroes, such as temporary deafness after the bomb explodes.
Insensitivity to pain is sometimes portrayed as a superpower, since you can do things that should hurt way too much, but how else you get that is leprosy: I gather that sufferers from that look like heck mainly because when they hurt themselves they couldn't feel it.
And in further accessibility news:
http://www.overheardeverywhere.com/archives/009913.html
And, shouldn't this comic have subtitles for disabled readers? Or do you get that with RSS?