If you had superpowers and advance combat training...

If you had superpowers and advance combat training, would you fight crime because "it is the right thing to do" or only if you are getting paid?

>fighting crime
Crime is more profitable.

Only if I'm getting paid. I'd sooner look into breaking into the entertainment industry as a stunt double or fight coordinator than go out and risk my neck for peanuts.

I'd do it now if I lived somewhere with worse crime than "my package got stolen when I wasn't home"

What level of super powers are we talking here? If I'm practically invulnerable and capable of tearing apart a battleship with raw brute strength, I'd consider lending my services to the military and let Uncle Sam take care of me. Or Uncle Wong, or Uncle Ivan, whoever could set me up the nicest.

i would get a really accurate bear costume and try to live life with a herd of wild bears and see if they accept me as a fellow bear. if that doesn't work i'll use the costume to rob a bank and frame the bears who saw through my ruse.

I'd fight crime for free, bask in fame but refuse all the advertisement deals and stuff. I'd cultivate my image as a paragon of justice.


... Then, secretly, I'd use my powers to do whatever the fuck I want out of costume. Murder, rape, anything goes. I mean, who's gonna fucking believe the witnesses anyway? I will be the one investigating it as a 'mystery supervillain' anyway.

Jesus Christ, user! Why didn't I think of that?

Depends if there's others meta humans.
If there are, then hero.
If not, then criminal.

I'd sequester myself, wife and kids to a very remote area like I've always dreamed off. Move away from society and live somewhere peaceful and quiet hopefully my kids inherited my powers too. They'd grow up with Christian values and I'd let them believe God gave them powers to do good in the world. I'd probably do good as well so they learn by example.

i'd do it for fun

and the girls

I'd do it only if it were officially sanctioned by the government. Vigilantism is illegal for a reason

Can I get bitches for payment?

I probably wouldn't go out of my way to fight crime, it's not exactly Mogadishu-meets-Detroit levels of crime here. Perhaps get a government job if my powers are really perfect for whatever role would save lives their.

I couldn't NOT use my powers to help others, even inaction would be morally wrong if you're in a unique position to help. But I honestly don't think vigilante crime is the best way to go about it.

If we're talking higher level, invincible tier powers then I would consider meddling in the affairs of other nations. Preventing ethnic cleansing, saving political prisoners, interrupting executions for dissent or failing to ask your family's permission to marry or something.

I guess if I had the opportunity I'd use my powers to fight extreme oppression rather than crime. Being bulletproof or super strong doesn't exactly equip you to make a country like India any less corrupt for example, but you could step in an stop a village of Sikhs getting massacred for their religious beliefs for example.

Only thing that makes me hesitate with that is you don't exactly get a choice which 'crime' you combat. Governments are famously blanket in their approach to punishment without regard for circumstances.

I wouldn't do neither, because you really shouldn't draw the attention of government on you. You will either become a pawn or enemy, nothing in between.

I'd probably just stay inside shitposting on here all day either way.

Unless I had deity tier powers, I wouldn't do a fucking thing. Acting as a superheroic arbiter of right and wrong is just going to get your throat slit in your sleep, or poisoned, or your house bombed. The minute the government decides to track you, your private life is over and you either end up in a coffin or rebelling against the government.

Think about how stupid it is that superman, in the age of satellite imagery and cell cameras everywhere, is somehow untrackable in his private life. It's asinine and only works because he's in a comic book.

>Only thing that makes me hesitate with that is you don't exactly get a choice which 'crime' you combat. Governments are famously blanket in their approach to punishment without regard for circumstances.

Not necessarily. Especially at the street level cops can have a lot of leeway and personal fiat, for instance. Sometimes that's a good thing (cops letting you off with a warning instead of a ticket), other times it's a bad thing (corruption, racial profiling, cops are assholes, etc)

A 'sanctioned vigilante' would probably be the same way

I would do it because being a super hero has been my number one fantasy ever.

Though I would break criminal's limbs often since people need to be hurt to actually learn not to do stuff. No killing tho.

This exactly.

"How powerful am I" is a really important question. If I'm not essentially unstoppable I'm keeping that shit on the DL and finding very subtle uses for it in the private sector. But if I'm capable of wiping out a country on my own, I'm striking a deal with the government. I keep them happy in exchange for them keeping me happy. The way to hold a nation hostage isn't to defy it or take it over. The most effective method is to give the-powers-that-be a large stake in keeping me content. Assuming getting rid of me isn't an easier option, and under the stipulation that they'll only deploy me when absolutely necessary.

But then I personally don't mind becoming a tool for oppression. That might bother some people.

this pretty much

Do I get paid? Unless I am basically god, I wouldn't bother doing so for free. Who would want to fuck up their lives as a vigilante or government stooge by revealing to the world they have powers pro bono?

Really, depends on what powers I had.

If I did go all hero or whatever, I'd probably get thrown in jail for being a vigilante or people would hound me to fix all of their problems. I'd probably try to be a hero at first, for the bitches, but after so long it'd just be too much effort for almost nothing.

If what I could do is really subtle, like invisibility and enhanced hearing and sight, then I'd probably work with the police or in the government. Because then I'd have a job that people could only do with expensive equipment, giving me some level of job security since I can be more subtle about it.

Really the only good outcome I can see out of any of this would be if I became like Doctor Manhattan. Because then I could just strut around in my birthday suit on mars and not have to put up with any of that shit.

I guess the conclusion I'm coming to is that modern society makes the idea of being a superhero a huge pain in the ass once you really think about it. Kind of like how said.

I will just become an Antihero, I would only fight against crime if it’s something that really affects something I care about like “someone trying to murder my parents”.

Of course I wouldn’t go for the “no kill” code if that happens though

>isolating children
The worst kind of parent

I think I'd rather fight the established powers that create the circumstances in which crime is allowed to thrive.

lol

What's with the quotations? Is it wrong to want to help people?

widespread crime can't exist without the complicity of the police or military.

Either
A: It shouldn't be illegal
B: The police are not an effective deterrant

either way, it is ultimately the responsible of the government to ensure a safe and civil society, and if they can't do that, they need to be reformed or replaced.

I mean sure, if I see somebody getting mugged and I'm Joe invincible, I'm going to stop them. But coddling people and using your powers to do for them what they should do for themselves seems like a waste.

that's actually a great idea for a story
A super hero leading a triple life, by day he's a Hero trying to catch The Villain, by night he's The Villain, and off the clock he's a mild mannered citizen.
This has to have been done before, right?

Depends on superpower. If I was sufficiently powerful I'd wipe out bankers and globalists

If I had super powers I'd just become a cop for those benefits and triple overtime

Think about how ludicrous it is to assume that somebody gave you special powers just so you could go beat the shit out of somebody else with special powers because they are 'evil' and you 'good'.

What kind of fucked up system is that? Hell, it would make more sense if people were given powers and put into competition with one another than it would to create an endless cycle of violence and oppression caused by vigilante justice. Ideally, you should be allowed to do whatever you want with your gifts, no one should "force" you to fight crime or terrorists or whatever.