Superhero Power: Electrical Control

[Diamond Cross]

Electrical control is a power that allows a superhuman to manipulate and control electricity. Not necessarily generate it.

However, within the last few days I've realized something about that power in a use I don't think I've ever seen used in comics. And I'm not sure if anybody else has ever thought of this before.

The thing about this power is, you can effectively control people's body with manipulating the right electrical impulsed from the brain. This is deadly enough. BUT.....

You can also effectively shut down the brain using this power by not allowing it to generate electrical impulses that control the body.

So electrical manipulation by itself is a very deadly power.

 

[frankthedm]

Having a power 'go off' inside someone is justifiably deadly for TK, PK and CK as well. And it wouldn't take a lot of power to do it either given how vulnerable human brains are.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

You should also be able to manipulate all kinds of tech, depending on how fine your control is.

"Nice battlesuit! Ohhhh, what's that? Your life support system is powering down? Nighty-night..."

"D'ya ever wonder what happens when your cellphone's battery overloads? I can get you that answer..."

 

[LightPhoenix]

When you really think about it, a lot of powers are quite powerful when applied to the real world.

To continue the electrical manipulation example:

Not only the brain is electrical; most cells maintain a voltage gradient across the cell membrane (called membrane potential). It's necessary for nutrient transport. If all thought is based on electrical patterns, you could conceivably read a person's mind by detecting those. Similarly, you could control them.

All elements are made electrons and protons (and those jerk neutrons); if you can manipulate them on a small enough scale, you could have all sorts of interesting effects; nuclear fission/fusion, transmutation, electron lasers, plasma lasers, photon generation, so forth.

Really, it's all a matter of fine-tuned levels of control.

 

[Morrus]

Yeah, like LightPhoenix says, I guess it would be down to the level of fine-tuning and accuracy.

Plus knowledge; just because you can control electrical impulses in someone's body doesn't mean you understand what each one does and how exactly to, say, move an arm left. It's would be a very, very complex and tiny puzzle - on a target which is probably in motion at the time. You'd have to know what each one of a million different impulses is doing at one time, what it is for, how to alter each of those million impulses, make sure you target and manipulate each one correctly.

 

[coyote6]

Yeah, most supers don't have the know-how and fine control necessary to do that sort of thing.

But it has come up in comics -- Magneto has done electromagnetic things to brains, various telekinetics have grabbed various internal organs, and I think some electrical hero or villain effectively stunned or dazed someone by messing with their brain. I may be thinking of superhero RPGs on that last one, though.

 

[pawsplay]

It would be difficult to do mind control or whatever, but it would be utter simplicity to knock someone out by creating an electromagnetic pulse, or to cause a seize by rhythmically charging one side of the brain, then the other.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

"Don't tase me, bro!"

 

[invokethehojo]

I like your line of thinking, however I have to say that manipulating the electricity in the central nervous system would be very tough, because you can't see it you would have to have a very good understanding of how that nervous system works. I would say this would be of any "device" you could manipulate. Anyone can smack a computer, but only someone who knows how to use one can make it do what you want... and I would say that this power would work the same way.

Of course that is just my DM take on it.

 

[kitsune9]

There are other things that one can do if you combine a knowledge of neurophysiology and electrical control.

Certain parts of the brain are responsible for motor control. Shut down those and you've killed your victim as their heart stops. Or if you're able to fine tune it, you can paralyze them as brain cannot send impulses to the muscles to move.

You can increase the physical pressure behind someone's eyes through overloading the electrical stimulation and cause blindness. As long as there's pressure on the eyes itself, your victim cannot see. Once the pressure is relieved, eyesight can return to normal.

You can overstimulate electrical impulses around the ears and create a nasty background noise inducing hearing loss or deafness.

If you alter the electrical impulses in other parts of the brain, you can induce various mental illnesses as the brain will become chemically unbalanced. As master manipulator can create bipolar depression, megalomania, and a host of other diseases. Or if you just shut off the memory functions of the brain, your victim will not know how to fight you or won't even remember who you are! Your victim doesn't even have to be aware that you're the one doing it. Assassination by mental illness!