A new kind of super hero

When I hear stuff about the bad things people are doing around the world, I always wish I could go over there, somehow being protected from harm, and tell people to do the right thing, and out of those thoughts came the idea for a new kind of super hero.  The idea is that he, or she, doesn't have super strength, or invisibility, or lasers shooting out of their eyes, or anything like that.  They have no power to do anything, but they are impervious to people doing something to them.

In fact, what I'm thinking is that, if anyone tries to kill him, or injure him, the injury just kind of bounces back to them.  If anyone tries to kick him in the face, he will be fine, but the person doing the kicking would suddenly feel a foot in their own face.  If anyone tries to shoot him, the instant the bullet reaches his chest, it will suddenly enter the chest of the shooter instead.  If anyone tries to cut off his head, the sword will pass through his neck without doing damage, and the executioner's head would suddenly be separated from his body.

But, what happens if the executioner is only following orders?  Is he really the one responsible for the act, or is it the guy who gave the order?  When I described this to my daughter, she thought it should be the guy actually swinging the sword, but I thought it should be the guy who gave the order.  I'll describe the reasons a little later, but let me give some more description first.

My original idea was that the guy would be a reporter, but then I realized they could just take his camera and cell phone, and he wouldn't be able to let the rest of the world know anything, so I decided that he also had the power to broadcast what he saw to the rest of the world.  That way, any injustices he saw, everyone would know about.  And I think he should be able to broadcast his own ideas, in addition to just images of what he's seen.

However, there should be a limit to the way in which these ideas are broadcast.  I think he should only be able to broadcast words, and not actual thoughts.  Thoughts are too compelling, and I want what he transmits to be on equal footing with any words that anyone else might say.  His only power is really to break down the barriers of communication, not convince people that he is right.

Since I originally envisioned this person as being me, and since I originally envisioned myself as going to the middle east to solve the ISIS problem, I also wanted to have the ability to speak and understand all languages, but if this is going to be some kind of comic book super hero, I wouldn't want it to appear that we thought it should be some westerner going over there to fix things.  It would probably be more effective if he was actually some poor farm boy from the Sunni Iraq area, and then he wouldn't need to learn the language.

However, what if, after he (or 'she', my daughter keeps reminding me) solved all of the problems in the middle east, wanted to go to, say, North Korea to solve that problem?  Either then they would have to have the power to speak Korean, or maybe, once one problem is solved, the power transfers to someone else from within the culture that is being fixed.  I actually like this better because we can then get to know another person, and see the world through a new persons eyes.  Also, I envision each of these stories as lasting quite a while, so by the time one story is finished, we'll be ready to meet someone knew.

And should we really call them problems?  I'm trying to not be judgemental here (or, actually, I'm trying to be judgemental, but with the appearance of being non-judgemental).  What he's really doing is simply breaking down the barriers of communication and letting everyone know what's really going on, and then letting them decide.

What I kind of envision here is that this guy, or girl, simply woke up one morning knowing they had these powers, but not really knowing what to do with them.  They probably start locally by exposing a few crimes, but then get inspired to tackle bigger and bigger issues.  They have this vague feeling that they were given these powers by God (or Allah, or aliens or whatever), that they have a mission, and that the powers could be taken away at any moment if God (or Allah or whatever) suddenly decided he, or she, were unworthy.

However, there is no actual confirmation that this is the case.  God, or whatever, didn't actually speak with this person, and didn't tell them what to do with it.  The person isn't perfect, but thinks that maybe God chose him or her because they had good ideas of what's right and wrong, and thought that they would make mostly good decisions and give good direction to everyone.  This is important.  I've never liked religions that claim that their sacred texts are infallible, such as the Koran claiming to be the exact words of God, or the Bible having been inspired by God.  If God hasn't actually spoken to this person, he has no real authority other than by convincing people that his ideas are right.

Now you might think:  "So what?  So what if the guy can go anyplace without being harmed?  He still can't stop bad people from doing bad things!  He can't put the bad guys in jail!"  But, he can let the world, including their own followers, know what they're doing.  If potential ISIS recruits could see what ISIS is really doing, can see soldiers gunning down innocent women and children, they would be a lot less likely to be recruited, and the soldiers already working for ISIS would probably think twice about what they were doing.  If the people of other nations really saw what was going on over there, and their leaders knew that everyone knew what was going on over there, they'd have a lot more incentive to become involved themselves.  Also, in the case of North Korea, not only could this person let the rest of the world know what was really going on there, but, more importantly, they could let the people of North Korea know what the rest of the world was like, and let them know more about what was really going on in their own country.

Some interesting things that can be done with this:

The guy is powerless, so they could just lock him in a cell so that he can't see all the injustices being done.  However, by the time this happens he would have already become well known, and transmitted a lot of views of injustices.  By then he will already have a lot of people on his side, even from withing the group who has captured him, and he'll still be able to transmit from within his cell; then, you could have one of his captors set him free.

In the beginning, the hero would tell people who he was and what would happen if they tried to kill him, but they wouldn't believe him, and they would try to kill him anyway.  Then people would try to get smart and order someone else to kill him, but that wouldn't work, and the person who ordered the killing would be the one who gets killed.  People who still try to think of ways to "outsmart" the power, but it would always know who the guilty person was, and they would always be the one who dies.  Eventually people would stop trying to kill him, and he would be able to just walk through the conflict effortlessly.

There are two ways a person can lose the power.  Once peace is restored, and the hero no longer needs the power, the power should just leave him one day, and he goes back to leading a normal life.  However, if the power goes to the hero's head and he begins mis-using it, he should lose the power at the most inopportune time, and end up getting killed.  Then the power would transfer to someone else to continue trying to restore peace.