The Man with the Power

:"See also The Man with the Power (The Outer Limits)"The Man with the Power" was the alias given to a fictional character from the Fantastic Four comics series. He appeared only once, in FF #234 (September 1981) and was created by John Byrne.

Fictional character biography

L. R. "Skip" Collins was a perfectly normal, run-of-the-mill middle-aged man with an ordinary life in a boring town-- which was just the way he liked it. What he did not know was that his life was unusual in at least one way; he had the power to unconsciously alter the world around him in any way he chose (due to an Atomic Weapon test he had been exposed to as a soldier). It was only his own lack of imagination and ambition, and his general contentment in life, that prevented him from making any truly noticeable changes in the world. For instance, he frequently expressed a wish to see his son cut his hair shorter, but since Skip did not believe that would ever happen, it didn't. Mostly, Skip merely thought he was "lucky" from time to time--things just went his way.

When Skip went on a business trip to New York City, that was his idea of high adventure; until the entire city (indeed, everywhere on Earth) was struck by massive earthquakes. This disaster is caused by the close approach of Ego the Living Planet, who wanted revenge on Earth and its people for what Ego mistakenly believed was Earth's involvement with Ego's enemy, Galactus.

Skip, still unaware of his own powers, began to subconsciously assist the Fantastic Four in their rescue efforts around the city. When he saw the FF launching a spacecraft, he mistakenly assumes that they were abandoning the planet (in fact, they were going to confront Ego, but the Living Planet's presence had not been announced to the public). Overcome with fear, Skip wished with all his might that this day had "never happened", pushing his power to its limits, and succeeded in rewriting reality on a global scale. In seconds, the world was back the way it normally was, with no signs (or memories) of any abnormal earthquakes or other damage. However, since the effects were limited only to Earth, the FF and Ego were unaffected. To Skip, the day's only noteworthy events had been a trip to New York, and the fact that the strange "buzzing" sensation that had been in the back of his head ever since his Army days, was now gone. Everything else was perfectly normal.

And that was just the way he liked it.

References

* [http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix/skipco.htm Marvunapp.com profile]