Marvel Comics has a villain problem… in the best possible way. See, the Marvel Universe is full of the most dangerous villains you can imagine, bad guys who make life difficult for everyone. Some of them are criminals who just want to make a living (and even among this group, there are some out there who treat it like a business and others who don’t care about who gets hurt). There are political villains, people who want to take over the world, garden variety nihilists, evil monarchs, incels (there are definitely incel villains in the Marvel Universe, spare me your outrage in the comments about the misuse of the word), just about every kind of evil you can find, each of them with different powers and abilities.
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These extranormal attributes are what has made them such a challenge for the heroes and the authorities, but they don’t have to be just used for evil and mayhem. Many of their powers are honestly pretty useful for a lot of things, but especially for everyday life. These villains’ lives outside of their crimes would honestly be rather easy if they used their power for the normal stuff that we all do all the time. These ten Marvel villain powers would make your every day life a snap, making their users’ day a little brighter.
10) Super Speed
Marvel has a decent crop of speedsters. They aren’t usually as fast as the running men and women of the House of Ideas’ distinguished competition, but when it comes right down to it, even someone who could run hundreds of miles an hour and not breach the speed of sound is super fast to a normal person. At Marvel, super speed is often a somewhat villainous power; their first speedster was a villain (although Quicksilver would go good eventually) and bad guys like Speed Demon have showed how useful it can be for crime. It would also be very useful for real life. Who needs a car when you can run faster than one? Getting around town would be a snap.
9) Time Travel
Kang is one of the Avengers’ most storied villains and it’s all because of time travel. Time travel is one of those abilities that is usually used by villains because it’s the kind of power that allows you to tailor events to whatever you want. It’s also a power that only someone who doesn’t care about consequences would use. In your normal life, time travel would be extremely useful. Need a rewind because you made a mistake? Time travel. Want to win a bet? Time travel. Did something stupid that hurt your significant other? Time travel. Sure, you wouldn’t want to go back in time and try to change anything major (the whole killing Hitler thing is an example; we don’t know the consequences of that action, so doing it could ruin everything). Plus, if the time travel powers also included temporal manipulation, allowing you to fast forward or rewind time, it gets even more useful.
8) Reality-Altering
Reality-altering powers are one of those things that you have to be careful with. There are two kinds of reality-altering villains out there. You have the ones who understand what they’re doing, who have grown into their powers and use them with monstrous efficiency. Then there are the ones whose powers broke them completely, driving them insane like Jamie Braddock. Even heroes who use reality-altering powers fall into this binary; Scarlet Witch’s worst act with her powers came when she was in the midst of a breakdown. As far as it goes, reality-altering powers would be very useful for a normal person. It can be something as simple of transforming things into other thing you need, but there are also times when maybe the laws of physics need to be turned off for a minute. You’d have to be careful with them, but a smart person could find loads of uses for it
7) Teleportation
Teleportation is a power that is way more than just getting you from point A to point B. There are numerous different types of teleporting in the Marvel Universe. Sometimes, you have villains like Azazel who can blink from one place to another. Then you have ones like the Spot, who is able to use his holes to do things like reach another position. There are teleporters who open portals to elsewhere, which can be used offensively. It’s basically the ultimate movement cheat and think about how many times you could use the various teleporting powers of Marvel villains. Vehicles would be a thing of the past for you, because you can go anywhere (well, as long as your powers didn’t have limits) and if you want to be a little immoral and had Spot type powers, you could get your hands on anything out there.
6) Telepathy
One of the big differences between Marvel and DC is the place of telepaths in their various hero and villain hierarchies. Telepathy is much more powerful and prevalent in the Marvel Universe and some of the most dangerous villains use it. Someone like the Shadow King is powerful enough to touch every mind on Earth through the Astral Realm, and even the weaker ones can defeat just about any foe without mental defenses out there. The power to read and control minds is an ability that is easy to misuse, but just imagine how much utility it has. It would allow you to know exactly what people around are thinking, which would make misunderstandings a thing of the past. You could know whether anyone is lying to you and could use your powers to stay out of trouble in a variety of ways.
5) Healing Factor
Wolverine and Sabretooth have the most brutal battles in the Marvel Universe, and healing factors are the only reason they’ve happened. Healing factors take a couple of different forms; there are people who just heal faster and then there are those like Sabretooth, who not only heal faster but can replace entire limbs and haven’t aged in decades. While the full healing factor – no aging, no disease, no poisons can affect you, you can regenerate any limb, and the like – would be the one that would make everyday life even easier (I’ve always thought about the effect of a healing factor on the muscle building process and how it would make it so much easier to get strong working out) but even just having one that caused wounds to close faster would be useful. Everyone gets hurt, so everyone could use it.
4) Super-Intelligence
Super-intelligence is one of the most useful powers in any superhero universe, with Marvel having so many super-intelligent heroes and villains it’s not funny. Sometimes, it’s an actual power, like with the gamma-infused Leader, and other times it’s just people who have studied a lot (intelligence in the Marvel Universe is basically like magic; smart people are all amazing polymaths that know everything), but both of these kinds of super-intelligent villains are dangerous. Their intellects have allowed them to create all kinds of weapons and machines, using them to vie with the most potent heroes. Imagine how much easier your life would be every day if you had super-intelligence; you could study and figure out ways to solve any problem, creating machines that could not only make day a snap, but also could make you billions.
3) Shapeshifting
Shapeshifting is a duplicitous power by its very nature. The ability to change into other things is perfect for someone who wants to steal or trick others. Villains like Mystique have been able to use their powers to become titans in the black ops world; did you know Mystique is a billionaire? Because she is. On top of being able to pretend to be anyone else and fool people, some shapeshifters can transform into metal or shape their limbs into blades and other instruments. Being a shapeshifter might seem like the kind of power that only someone with bad intentions would use, there are a lot of simple things you could do with it. Need to take something out of the oven? Just make your skin into something that can stand heat. Need to cut something up? Change your finger into a blade. You could even use it to make outfits, allowing you to have the best looking clothes. It’s a power with massive utility, even in every day life.
2) Magic
Magic is one of the greatest powers in any superhero universe, but especially the Marvel Universe. Magic is the wild energies left behind by creation, harnessed by sorcerers over the millennia and transformed into the various magical disciplines. Magic can be vastly different from user to user; someone like Baron Mordo has studied all kinds of magic and has a spell for everything he needs. Other lower-level magic users might have some spells that they are really good at but no skill for others, limiting their abilities. The most powerful magic users are akin to gods. Magic in your every day life could be extremely useful. Levitation, matter manipulation, teleporting, mental powers, and the like can all come from magic and all of them have utilities in normal lives. Sure, you might be selling your soul to a demon every time you levitate a can of Coke to you, but it would make your day easier.
1) The Power Cosmic
The Power Cosmic has empowered the most powerful beings in the Marvel Universe. It’s basically the energy of the cosmos and gives its bearer amazing power. There’s super strength and invulnerability, the power to move faster than the speed of light, energy manipulation, and matter manipulation, all of which make Power Cosmic users into titans. It might seem like overkill to use it in your daily life, but super strength and invulnerability would definitely make life easier. Energy manipulation could allow you to cook with a stove, put out fires with a thought, and things like that. The matter manipulation is the best for everyday use, though. You can make food out of anything or make a pile of diamonds that you sell to make money instead of going to work. The Power Cosmic is one of the most useful powers for universal conquerors and for homemakers.
What Marvel villain powers do you want? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!
