34: The Comic Book Investor

Fanfic

Once upon a time, a comic book nerd existed. To be more honest, he was obsessed with comic books. SO much so, that he swore that no problem existed that could not be solved by comic books. On top of that, he told everyone he could get to talk to him about it that, if he had even so much as ONE ability that comic book characters had, never mind a set of them, he could change any world they wanted to give him! His obsession was so great in fact, that he made it his life's goal to prove it. He attended conventions, wrote fanfictions and discussed possible alternative universes, created clubs and groups based on comics and the like, bought and sold rare editions, and generally proved himself the king of the nerds. And, as time went by, he proved himself.

Using comic book allegories, he created classes that could teach almost any skill to almost anyone. He made several fortunes in comic book trading. He became an inspiration and author to many hundreds of series, movies, and tv shows. He even brought about an uneasy world peace by training and creating a generation of super-soldiers and superheroes!

Then he got hit by a truck.

A passing ROB (and comic book nerd) was SO impressed and inspired by his life, that he… ROBed him… into WORM with a well-trained body and the ability to grant the powers, talents, applicable knowledge, and untrained abilities of any possible version of any (canonical) existing superhero on his metaphorical level to other people and receive in return any one ability of the being, but only once… with one exception. Due to the ROB's own inner debate over DC vs. MARVEL, which the OC couldn't solve for him despite the two of them hashing it out for many years in the In Between, if he granted a person a MARVEL power, he could also grant a DC power, as long as they weren't antithetical (no Tony Stark and Plastic Man), or overly complimentary (no Lex Luther super-mind and Jean Gray Phoenix Tele-path and -kinetic… brr.)

A few years of mostly granting peak-human and below talents and abilities anonymously (including giving Dragon a Tony Stark that turned himself into an AI in order to survive the shrapnel and palladium poisoning he was facing), he was finally up to the level where he could grant minor powers. Power scaling in comic book worlds sucks.

As such, he made his way to Brockton Bay, just six weeks after Taylor triggers, in order to start his real plan for the future. As such, with the wish to have the knowledge of his engineering, he grants Taylor Hebert, the Queen of Escalation herself, the abilities of an etymology-obsessed and themed Batman.

Let the games begin!