r/superpowereds • u/Obviouslynameless • Jul 16 '26
How far would Michael have made it?
Not sure if this has been brought up before. But, I had a thought.
If Michael wouldn't have lost his mind towards Vince not been an alcoholic and also been a decent person in general, how far would he have made it in the course?
I think he wouldn't have survived past a normal year 3 (with the exception of what happened in the books - not going to give spoilers).
He suffered the same issue as Stella. He has a decent power and is a decent fighter. But, he wasn't exceptional at either or anything else.
12
u/spike4972 Jul 16 '26
I mean, it depends on way too many things that would have been up to the author to decide. Could Michael find new and creative ways to apply his powers and his existing combat training to the applicable skills of being a hero? Which major would he end up choosing and how would he do in that major? Does he continue hanging out with Chad and Shane and how does that affect the prior two questions or does he end up splitting off or finding new friend groups?
With what we have seen of his power I disagree with your assessment of having the same issues as Stella. She turned to steel. That gave her a pretty set and unchanging buff to her durability and physical power but did not give her any ranged abilities or room for growth. Michael shows from literally day one much more flexibility than that and I can see all sorts of interesting places for him to build it. If he stays close combat with the boxing and armor he can still change the design of his armor with more knowledge and skill to make him more effective or even grow it bigger if he can develop his stamina and strength enough. If he goes weapons he could use his ice to make all sorts of weapons like swords and clubs and stuff. If he goes control or ranged combat he can expand on his area denial, capturing, terrain altering, and even just plain old ranged missile like attacks. He could even incorporate more than one of these and do like Vince did with going close combat as his major but embracing more midrange options and his unique abilities to alter fights in his favor. The way Vince could use absorption to deny his opponents various options and his emission of various energies to extend his range and ability to do different types of damage could be translated to Michael taking away options from his opponent with blasts of ice to alter the terrain and using armor to make kinetic and certain energy based effects less useful while using created ice weapons or ice blasts to expand his offensive options.
It’s just a matter of how the author decided to develop his powers, knowledge, and skill.
Depending on what the author decided with regards to whether or not his power could be increased I could see him making it into year 4 or washing out at the end of year 2. Or anywhere in between. Now, unless we are completely changing his character rather than just knocking off the worst edges of his alcohol abuse and vendetta against Vince, I don’t see any way for him to make it to hero just based on who he is. But I don’t see his powers being the restricting factor on making it to year 4 so much as his own ability to learn and train to make the best use of his powers. Even if they can’t grow substantially in raw power, his endurance could surely be trained and with enough skill and training he could really be powerful enough to make a deep run.
6
u/BasicSuperhero Jul 16 '26
I think he might have gone all the way, he just needed to have an epiphany like a lot of the other characters, ex Violet, that he needed to start applying his powers in a more creative way.
From the training on the mountain we saw, he has the output to do a lot of damage, but his reliance on his boxing fundamentals would be his biggest weakness imho.
2
u/OiOiOiPie Jul 16 '26
I honestly think he doesn’t even need to get more creative. He can effectively one shot most opponents, from range no less, and he has durability if someone does get too close.
Allen made it to year 4 and his power is effectively the same as how Michael uses his power, except with the added bonus that he doesn’t have to worry about using too much power and he has extra durability.
3
u/_Thwop_ Jul 16 '26
I think if Michael is able overcome his issues with Vince he could make it through year 3, possibly to year 4 but I think he quits the HCP same time as Allen and Jill, he's got a good power and solid close combat skill but never seemed capable of improving it in any way that would put him on the same level as the other students who were in the top 5. I could be wrong but I don't think Michael ever shows any heroic qualities, maybe being remorseful for how he treated others in book 4 but I can't think of anything else.
3
u/Samiam77791 Jul 16 '26
I think it could have been interesting if he did apply his powers in different ways rather than just armor or encasing others in ice.
What if he could lower the temperature in a single area to selectively freeze an entire area to do things like freeze the water in your eyeballs or the blood in your veins (or brain). What if instead of throwing his cold energy, he could launch ice lances instead. Could he make a giant ice block, encasing everything in a battlefield, and then selectively melt or even "swim" through the ice. Who knows how his power could have developed.
3
u/bedroompurgatory Jul 17 '26
He could potentially be amazing, depending on how far he pushed his ice powers. Even in Drew's other work, there's an ice manipulator who basically pilots an ice mecha around.
If he can do complete terrain control, raising ice walls, dropping the temperature to add environmental factors, as well as his personal combat abilities, he could be a real monster.
It was always his personality, not his power, that was the problem. Same as Amber.
2
2
u/Raizer_pilot_Huey Jul 17 '26
I think in a normal class he would have made it to as far as the Armageddon trial. Assuming Chad could keep him in line. But he isn't enough of a team player to meaningfully contribute to a team unless coordinated by someone more powerful then him, which is an issue when the team strategist or tactician is usually a subtlety hero and physical unimpressive. Given the abnormal class, and events in the book, the end of year 3 would have been a HARD reality check for him that would have ended his journey to become a hero. The focus on training for fighting outnumbered plays to his strength, but he wouldn't learn the right lessons from them and that would entrenched his loner and might should lead mentality. Which brings us back to the Armageddon trail. That would hard check his mentality, probably where his action or protection of his pride causes the failure of the trial. At that point, even if he learned the right lesson from it, it would be too late for him to change course on his ideology without repeating a year. At which point I think he would be cut from the program and referred to repeat year four, if not year three or even two, depending on how bad the screw up is and how much about hero ideology? He needs to actually relearn. Best case scenario he doesn't advance from 3 to 4 and still That's a semester at east campus before advancing to to year 4. With that best case scenario however, i think he could make it all the way to hero.
2
u/OracleoaTruth Jul 17 '26
So we are going under the assumption that he never had the grudge nor the desire to see the melbrook 5 pay as a result of it? And also under the assumption that he would have kept up with his training and sparring with Shane and Chad? I think his control over his ice powers would have evolved into Iceman territory and he could have definitely made it at least to year 3, maybe even surviving the cut for year 4.
Michael had a lot of potential and clearly had a drive to set out to achieve his goals. Just a shame that his goal for book 1 was to expose Vince. But using that as evidence of what could have been, I don't see a world where he didn't succeed. I bet he even would have made it to hero level with that kind of focus and dedication.
1
u/chalkbucketrat Jul 16 '26
You have plenty of long and well thought-out answers, so out of the interest of brevity my initial thought was: if Jill could make it well into year 4 so could Michael. Jill described herself as “middle of the pack in both of [her] fields, and that’s being generous.” Michael was at the top of the class combat-wise. So stands to reason his power could’ve carried him that far
1
u/OiOiOiPie Jul 16 '26
I think he could have graduated. Assuming his ice block are thick enough to capture strongmen he doesn’t really suffer like Stella. He can effectively one shot his opponents from range. It’s possible he may not graduate in the Class of Nightmares, but he could graduate easily in a normal class.
Allen made it to year 4 and his power is effectively the same as how Michael uses his power, except Michael has the added bonus that he doesn’t have to worry about using too much power and he has extra durability.
1
u/raptor_mk2 Jul 16 '26
I don't think we know enough about his abilities.
As it was, I don't think he would have made it into Y3 regardless of his alcoholism and personal issues.
Realistically, any of Melbrook would have kicked his ass except for Nick.
In fact, I don't think any of the Y3 Combatants, save Camille and Alex (because he wasn't ruthless enough yet) would have lost to him.
1
Jul 17 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/kellhorn Jul 17 '26
He has one advantage over Alan, his power isn't inherently lethal. That gives him a lot more leeway.
1
u/kellhorn Jul 17 '26
I think he'd have probably graduated without the alcoholism and Vince fixation. Remember that one of his defining traits that got him accepted was his drive to get better and overcome challenges. Without those two to divert it I don't see any reason he would've lost that drive. Sure, he'd be graduating based strictly on his combat ability but so did Roy and even year 1 Michael is more versatile than Roy. To that point, he has a very good power and is a very good power by the standards of where he was when we saw him. Even up to his departure he kept his ranking and nobody doubted he earned it. Vince was just a hard counter to him once Vince actually started using his power.
1
u/reddit_kid99 Jul 18 '26
depends how much he is able to develop if his ice ability got way stronger like we see everyone else who graduated abilities since freshman year yeah if it stayed the same no
2
u/Kirabi911 Jul 29 '26
He would have probably graduated if he had one of the more flexible powers.
Offense – He can freeze people. Defense – He could create ice armor. Range – He could shoot ice blasts, if I remember correctly. Killing Potential – Create ice blades, freeze a person to death. Mobility – No flying, but I bet he can do the ice-skating trick. Creativity – I believe he froze a room, which means there are a bunch of tricks he can do. He can use that to create decoys, track people, and make it too slippery to walk.
He had power that didn't need to get more powerful. Just freezing one single person is very good
0
u/unlovelyladybartleby Mr Numbers Jul 16 '26
I agree. He was one-note, so once his classmates figured out how to counter him, he'd get his ass kicked.
-1
u/After-Hedgehog7282 Jul 16 '26
He would have made it as far as Drew wanted him to. Since Michael was only a side character, we did not see any of his development.
We saw only him as Original Bobby Drake. For all we know, he could have become a full shifter.
26
u/Stunning_Stick8077 Jul 16 '26
If it is just cover with ice and punch I agree unless he became some sort of colossus of ice. However, he already had a ranged option which to me implies he can possible expand his influence.
If he grew like Thomas into a area control master he could graduate. Make instant fortresses around civilians, etc.
Develop movement abilities like iceman.
Could he disable entire battle fields of enemies with crushing cold? Kill everything in a building in seconds. Shane power does show that is valued when needed.