Reality warping

Reality warping is a form of superpower normally associated with comic books--Marvel comics in particular--though it was likely DC comics who started it all with Mr. Mxyzptlk.

The ability to alter reality is often regarded as the ultimate superpower in comicdom. Generally, it translates as the ability to reshape matter and energy, turn a person's thoughts or desires into reality, bend time and space and bend, twist or possibly even rewrite the laws of physics. The Joker, wielding the power of Mr. Mxyzptlk as "Emperor Joker", was even been able to rewrite logic itself, for example, making the whole world believe that 2 + 2 equals "fish".

Some of the most extreme reality warpers, like Mxyzptlk and James Jaspers, are not even limited by their own physical bodies and can alter their own stature and appearance at will to become whatever they want to be, no matter how bizarre it might be. This ability seems to go far beyond anything that "ordinary" shapeshifters like Mystique and Morph could even think of in their wildest imagination. Most reality warping individuals, at least in Marvel comics, tend to be mutants. In DC comics, the fifth-dimensional imps that sometimes visit the DC universe, of which Mxyzptlk is the most common and well-known, seem to be the most common and also the most powerful reality warpers. Some mutants with potential for reality warping encountered in Marvel comics are, amongst others:

• Mad Jim Jaspers
• Franklin Richards
• Proteus
• Scarlet Witch
• Jamie Braddock
• Alfie O'Meagan
• Willie Evans Jr.
• Trevor Chase
• Hyperstorm
• Arcadia DeVille
• Mysterious Fan Boy

Apart from the MU mutant reality warpers, many other different beings in Marvel and DC comics also possess reality warping powers, or powers which might potentially be used for reality alteration. These include, amongst others,

• Green Lantern (DCU)
• Mr. Mxyzptlk (DCU)
• Bat-Mite (DCU)
• The Thunderbolt Genie (DCU)
• Qwsp (DCU)
• The Impossible Man (MU)
• Molecule Man (MU)
• Shaper of Worlds (MU)
• Kubik (MU)
• Beyonder (MU)
• Korvac (MU)

Apart from comic characters, there has been a number of science fiction characters who have exhibited reality warping powers of various forms, at least within the boundaries of certain environments and/or restrictions.

• Palmer Eldritch (The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick)
• Anthony Fremont (It's a Good Life)
• The Djinn (Wishmaster)
• IT/Pennywise (It)
• Freddy Krueger (A Nightmare on Elm Street)
• The Mask
• John Murdock (Dark City)
• Neo (The Matrix)
• Jobe Smith (The Lawnmower Man)
• Sutter Cane (In the Mouth of Madness)
• Q (Star Trek)
• Divis Mal (Aberrant role-playing game)
• George Orr (The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin)
• Haruhi Suzumiya (Suzumiya Haruhi series)