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Reality warpers. Can't live with them, can live with them (if they so wish it). Out of all the over-the-top powers that comic book creators have thought of, reality manipulation has to be the laziest. I'm sorry, I just can't get behind it. People often think that telepathy and telekinesis are already overpowered, but what about those characters who can destroy whole universes in a blink of an eye? You wouldn't want to be on their bad side.

Deus Ex Machin-I told you not to piss them off!

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Legion, The Beyonder, Doctor Manhattan, Doctor Doom (that one time), Dream (Sandman), the Living Tribunal, Enchantress (DC) Scarlet Witch, Mister Mxyzptlk, Galactus, Molecule Man, Eternity, The Sentry, and, of course, the most overpowered being of them all, Franklin Richards, just to name a few, are some of the worst characters ever. I mean that with all due respect, of course. With the convoluted nature of the comics, it's hard to fault writers to create characters that can manipulate reality to how they choose. Heck, even Superman has been hypothesized as having limited reality manipulation abilities. But, do they have to give tens of characters the ability to bend reality to their will?

It's a convenient way to do retcons or change established history, bring characters back to life, or explain away any continuity change that's too hard to leave to imagination. These characters are living, breathing (well, you get what I mean) cheat codes. They have a direct line to the source code of reality, and they have write-access to do whatever the fuck they want with everything. Basically, they're the avatar of comic book writers who are too lazy to think of a more probable solution to any given problem.

Sure, they'll reason that one character is stronger than the other, and that the range of manipulation is more limited, but it's still a pretty lazy power to have. It's much lazier than unexplained magic even, at least magic can be reasoned to having a price to pay. Manipulating reality doesn't have any sort of side effect. They can kill, revive and reconstruct anything they want. Truth be told, they could end any problem by just snapping their fingers.

The usual limitation that writers give is almost always a mental disorder. Legion (of FX's Legion), the son of Professor X, has multiple personality disorder, effectively splitting up his powers into however many personalities he has. Scarlet Witch has had a storied history of mental instability. Her hex powers also give an unpredictability to how effective her powers are. But, by just saying "No more mutants" she had effectively removed the collective powers of an entire species in one go. Now, that's fucked up.

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Some have the convenient excuse of overexerting themselves, as if their powers are dependent on a physical muscle that they're using too much. While others are inhibited somewhat and accessing it would require tremendous amounts of red tape. Really though, if people want to limit these reality warpers' powers, then they should've just limited the number of reality warpers.

I guess one of the only ones I'm fine with is one of the OG, Doctor Manhattan. The way his powers are explored and how his characteristics are fleshed out has got to be a masterclass in storytelling. Sure, I hate that there's a being powerful enough to wipe out all of existence when he so wishes, but he's so unabashedly aware of his absurdity, that it almost makes complete sense. The way he distances himself to his former species was so superbly written that I don't even mind if he just up and decides to create humans because he feels like it.

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If they're going to create godlike characters, then the least they could do is commit to it and not make the characters try to fit in with the everyday crowd.

Back to life, back to reality

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Now, translating these characters to the big and small screen is an entirely different beast. On one hand, they run the risk of a collective eye roll whenever a character is too powerful that they can basically finish a movie in under a minute. But, when done right, they could make for very compelling stories.

Take for example, Legion (again, of FX's Legion). Let me reiterate how terrible a comic book character he is. Sure, his actions have led to major storylines (and alternate realities) like Age of Apocalypse and Age of X. But yeah, he could alter the course of reality whenever he pleases. FYI Age of Apocalypse in the comics starts because Legion travels back in time with the intention of killing Magneto. Unfortunately, it was in a time when Professor X and Magneto were still friends, so Xavier dies while trying to protect Magneto, effectively wiping Legion from existence as well. Because how can one exist when one's father is killed before one is born. Best not to think about these things too much. Anyway, I digress.

Noah Hawley (creator of the TV adaptation of Fargo) adapted Legion for TV as well. At first, I thought that it was almost impossible to do, and I have to admit, I slept through the earlier episodes. Don't get me wrong, I love Fargo, but I just couldn't get through Legion (slept through the pilot episode of Game of Thrones too). I was wrong though. After I watched it again, I have to say that it's positively brilliant!

Sure, Legion (the character) is still unstoppable, but it was done in a way that played well with his mental instability. Mr. Robot's the only other show that I could think of that compares. It's visually stunning, and it plays on the quirks of his condition. Unfortunately, the same can't be said of other adaptations.

Scarlet Witch (of The Avengers), for example, had her powers significantly reduced just so she could be bearable to watch. Imagine if when she says "Die Thanos" and the Mad Titan bites the dust, there wouldn't be any need for Infinity War, would there? It's like she's effectively saying "No More Marvel Movies". I'm sure the DCU wants to have someone like that on their side.

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Death would be meaningless, there would be no stakes, and there would be no compelling stories. Legion is an exception, but reality manipulation will cause a superhero movie extinction.

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