Marvel can’t give you superpowers. It just did the next best thing, though, handing fans abilities from across its universe according to the month they were born.
The menu includes Scarlet Witch’s magic, Quicksilver’s speed and Mister Fantastic’s stretching (the genius isn’t part of the package). So you, your friends and your family can now find out what you’d be capable of in the world of Spider-Man, the Guardians of the Galaxy and the Avengers.
And if your month lands you with a dud, don’t panic. Marvel has a second official metric that gives you another shot at the power you wanted.
What your birth month gets you
The assignments come from a new social media video from Marvel that pulls a cross-section of powers from across the MCU, including less iconic movies like Eternals and Thunderbolts*. Every month gets its own patron power set.
Don’t judge your result on first glance. A few of these power sets punch well above their reputation. In the comics, Gambit has been proved capable of bringing down Galactus. Invisible Woman is a god in all but name, with the brute force to blot out the sun and the fine control to build complex constructs like a working jet.
Others drew the short straw. Scarlet Witch and Doctor Strange’s magical talents can rewrite reality itself, but Daredevil was tormented by his enhanced senses before he was trained to harness them. In the MCU, Ghost’s phasing is part of a tragic illness. Ms. Marvel’s hard-light constructs are a lesser version of what Invisible Woman already does.
Your second chance: the state you call home
The video sorts you by month, but a more specific assignment already exists. Back in 2016, Marvel celebrated the then-new U.S.Avengers team with a variant cover initiative from artist Rod Reis, and every state got its own Avengers hero.
Some picks call back to classic lore. Hulk gained his powers in New Mexico, and Thor’s Asgard spent time hovering over Oklahoma. Others simply went home: Ms. Marvel claims New Jersey and X-Men’s Rogue takes Mississippi.
With 50 states to fill, a handful of heroes were assigned by odd trivia. Fantastic Four’s the Thing landed Michigan, seemingly because he shares his codename with an early self-propelled vehicle that was first showcased in Memphis.
For anyone who’d rather be defined by their state than their birth month, this is Marvel’s official list.
Not every state wins
If you’re a Virginian born in October or a New Jerseyian born in November, bad luck. Your powers stay the same either way (though Ms. Marvel can also shapeshift in the comics, since she’s both Inhuman and mutant).
Nevada gets Red Hulk and Vermont gets Ant-Man, both of whom became permanent villains after brief shots at redemption. Missouri fares stranger still. Its hero, Whizzer, is a particularly little-known character with a bizarre origin involving an infusion of mongoose blood.
His one MCU appearance so far is a cameo as one of She-Hulk’s weirdo clients. Trust me, you could do worse.
