--- description: X-Ray Vision? No... title: Stephen King Chooses A Superpower image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd1f1dba18a06dea3/698862f8524fc07cf8df46eb/question-everything-stephen-king.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Sep 11, 2015 # X-Ray Vision? No... by Stephen King  NEW YORK, NY - JULY 10: Actor Haley Joel Osment discusses his new series "The Spoils Before Dying" at AOL Studios In New York on July 10, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Adela Loconte/WireImage) NEW YORK, NY - JULY 10: Actor Haley Joel Osment discusses his new series "The Spoils Before Dying" at AOL Studios In New York on July 10, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Adela Loconte/WireImage)Getty Images; Photo Illustration by Mia Tramz for TIME At first I thought telepathy, but you’d hear some pretty nasty thoughts. X-ray vision? No, you might see some really nasty things. Superstrength? Might hurt someone without meaning to. Mind control? Too tempting—absolute power corrupting absolutely and all that. But would I like to be able to just jump into the air and fly like Superman? Yes, but without superstrength and invulnerability, I would probably be shot down by fighter jets acting on the authority of Homeland Security. I guess the best one would be superspeed, like the Flash. You know, just turn it up to 11 and pull the knobs off. Burn that sucker. _King is an author_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/question-everything/4028395/stephen-king-if-you-could-have-any-superpower/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/question-everything/4028395/stephen-king-if-you-could-have-any-superpower/"},"headline":"Stephen King Chooses A Superpower","datePublished":"2015-09-11T17:02:43.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:08:34.360Z","description":"X-Ray Vision? No...","url":"https://time.com/collections/question-everything/4028395/stephen-king-if-you-could-have-any-superpower/","keywords":["Stephen King","Question Everything"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd1f1dba18a06dea3/698862f8524fc07cf8df46eb/question-everything-stephen-king.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd1f1dba18a06dea3/698862f8524fc07cf8df46eb/question-everything-stephen-king.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/question-everything/4028395/stephen-king-if-you-could-have-any-superpower/","name":"Stephen King Chooses A Superpower"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Question Everything: What Superpower Would You Have?","description":"TIME hit the streets to ask New Yorkers several offbeat questions designed to provoke and prod the brain.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/3l1m5UCM/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-09-18T14:45:23.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/3l1m5UCM.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/collections/question-everything/4028395/stephen-king-if-you-could-have-any-superpower/","duration":"PT1M8S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/collections/question-everything/4028395/stephen-king-if-you-could-have-any-superpower/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```