Can you defeat the Marvel Universe? (stips inside)
You're teleported into the Marvel universe as you are right now.
You're given an average house in a random city in the United States, and just enough money to
sustain yourself and the house for 10 years. You are allowed to get more money however you want,
but you are always guaranteed enough money to survive.
You can also go anywhere you want, you're not constrained to the house, or even the planet.
Your goal is to conquer the Earth within 10 years.
Sounds impossible, right?
But here's your special ability.
You gain the Powers/Abilities/Skills of anyone you defeat in combat.
Meaning if you beat Wolverine, you get his claws, healing factor, and even his adamantium
skeleton.
If you beat the Punisher you get all of his weapons training and combat knowledge.
If you beat Doctor Strange, you get all of his magical abilities.
And so on.
Defeat is defined as any situation in which your opponent can no longer or is unwilling to continue
battle. Whether that be by death or incap or whatever.
This power does not only apply to heroes either, so if you beat a random bodybuilder you get all of
their strength.
Powers and skills that you've "sapped" also stack. So if you can lift 200 pounds, and beat
somebody who can also lift 200 pounds, you can now lift 400 pounds. And then if you beat another
person who can lift 200 pounds, you can then lift 600 pounds.
This applies to skills as well, so if you beat 30 Olympic sharpshooters, then you pretty much have
impeccable aim, because you have the aiming ability of all 30 of them at once.
You do not take people's personalities or intelligence, unless they directly relate to a combat
ability. So if you beat Iron Man, you get all of the knowledge necessary to operate his suits, not his
skill at chess, memorized history facts, ect.
You do not take away the powers and skills of those you defeat, but only copy them and add them
to your own skill set.
Also, for the sake of keeping things fun, assume your morals aren't going to get in the way. You're
a sociopath or some shit, I don't know.
What's your plan for world domination?
Personally, I would start by training in martial arts for a few years, until I'm good enough to enter
low-level tournaments. Every opponent I beat would dramatically increase my skill. I'd do this for a
while, until I'm good enough to start trying to beat low-level heroes or villains. Hopefully, by
keeping a low-level profile and continuing to slowly work my way up the power ranks, I'd be able
to become too powerful for anybody to stop me before I'm noticed.
I recall a similar thread not long ago, where I think it was Digi that basically pointed out that it would be impossible, because at some point the gap between your abilities and the guy next on the list simply becomes to great.
You can still (to some degree) make a list on who you need to take down, to both secure your takeover but also to ensure that you have the required power to take on the next level of power. For instance if you manage to beat street level (which would be a good place to begin imo) suddenly the next on your list would be someone that is meta, and so on. And even when you combine alot of power you would still end up at some point running into Odin who will just stomp you into oblivion. And given that you don't get the intelligence of these guys, I'll happily admit that I will not have the required skill to in any way shape or form, utilize their tech which would be required for this take over to be even remotely succesfull. Atleast imo.
First I would go to Leech. He's just a kid, should be easy to bend his arm enough to make him surrender. *BAM* Say hello to a fancy ability to turn off mutant powers.
Next, Franklin. Just walk to the unsuspecting kid, turn off his powers, and the same armbar trick as before until he surrenders. Universal-level reality manipulation would certainly come in handy for the MU conquest.
And go on from there, basically. Stomp all the MU Earth heroes and villains with the two powers mentioned above for an insane versatility, then take on the stars.
No what I'm trying to point out is that the jump in powerlevel from one tier to the next can be quite huge, making it quite difficult to get to the next level. I wouldn't like my own odds personally. But to each his own.
I know a way to beat some, however everything relying on tech to defeat a opponent I might as well toss straight out the window.
This would be achievable even without the power-gaining stips.
10 years is a long time to scheme to take over Marvel Earth.
I'd start with anonymously blackmailing SpOck regarding his true identity. Use him to defeat The Avengers (because, you know, he actually did that) and then drop reveal his secret to the world.
Then I'd go and spend a year or two with Sue Storm, she seems kinda easy.
After that, I'd post up the "home movies" on youtube, send Reed into a tailspin, destroy the FF and whatever remained of The Illuminati.
Then I'd call Surfer, see if he's feeling suicidal/depressed. 95% chance that he'll just hand me his powers - he does that, a lot.
Leech less so than Franklin. Besides, ten years is plenty of time to befriend Leech, for example. Or Reed, or Johnny, or Alicia, or anyone else close to them. Once you are buddies with one of them, it would be easy to get introduced to Franklin.
The Franklin Plan is a pretty good one. It might be hard to get to them but you have 10 years. Just don't happen to do anything around any of their numerous allies and end up with something like an invisible force shaft through the brain.
With stacking you could probably get a hell of a lot of power just by beating down a few random teens or homeless people and gradually upping the ante and taking on weightlifters, bouncers, martial artists etc. Presumably you are getting a durability increase of some kind even from beating ordinary humans, so you can make use of your strength - what exactly stacking human durability gives you I don't know.
With all your knowledge of the MU and characters' habits and weaknesses it's not hard to see a way to becoming more powerful than most characters (on earth anyway). But if the people you defeat retain their powers it might be wise to kill them outright. Who wants to be looking over their shoulder all the time in case an angry Magneto or someone comes looking for revenge? Of course that would also draw more attention from the heroes...