Could use some brainstorming help

[misfit]

So a while back Joshua and I were talking about using the Fate system for a supers game. I came up with what I thought was an amusing aspect for a character: "Me am smart!" So the basic idea is a not at all bright character. The obvious place to go from there is the physical powerhouse (i.e. most incarnations of the Hulk), but I wanted to play against the stereotype. The thought was instead of physical strength he would have some other power, and we decided on telekinesis. He's not big on fine manipulation, but he's really big on raw power.

That's a good start, but I'm having a lot of trouble with fleshing out the character. Joshua and I have been kicking around some thoughts. I'm certainly not married to any of them. We thought it would be a good idea to throw it out here and see what suggestions other people might have. Feel free to toss in anything. After all, even if I don't like an idea it might inspire something else.

Here are some of the ideas we've come up:

Intelligence and power level are inversely proportional. The more he cranks up the powers, the dumber he gets. Even moving the powers from "off" to "stand by" had a substantial impact on intellect. So he could be reasonably intelligent, possibly even a genius, as long as the powers are off. One possibility here is that he's an AI which limited processing power.

Another thought is that he (or a predecessor) was a product of Cold War attempts to train psis to use as weapons. (Hey, they tried in the real world). The Hulk was, in a way, playing on the fear of nuclear weapons. He was created by radiation from a super bomb. This character could be a variation on the theme, just a different type of weapon. If this background is used, it could also create one of his greatest adversaries. The Hulk and the Leader both gained their powers from gamma rays, but one was brute force and the other intellect. To turn that around, in this case one gets the mental power while the other gets more physical (and probably espionage related) powers.

So, that's what we have so far. These aren't bad ideas, I'm just not getting excited about them. Again, any thoughts people have would be appreciated.

And by the way, I've mentioned the Hulk several times, and that always makes me think of this.

[Joshua]

I also liked the idea of his hero name being "Grey Matter".

Catchphrase: "Don't treat me like I'm stupid..." (You wouldn't like me when I'm stupid... (?))

[misfit]

Right! I knew I was forgetting something we had talked about. LOL There was one other thing, but I'm saving that one as a surprise. LOL

[Wyvern]

Telekinesis, huh? Give him an ability to manipulate a large number of objects at once, make a swirling vortex of knives, or loose bricks, or whatever could be ripped off the ground... "Brain Storm!"

On a more serious note, I kinda like the AI notion - perhaps an AI copied off a real person's mind, and the more processing power it has to spend on telekinesis, the less there is available for simulating the original human brain... In this case, the proper nemesis would be an AI that hadn't been built around the imprint of a real person and had gone rogue and/or insane; perhaps instead of telekinesis, this one gets limited prescience based on predictive algorithms - so it could do things like calculate the exact response one person would make to something it says / does? It'd work better in one-on-one situations, of course...

[Joshua]

That works well... he has psychic powers because he's based on a "real brain" while the other guy doesn't, because he isn't...

We just made Lee Majors... Or the Computer wore Tennis Shoes Or... this?

So, perhaps a personality transfer from a person into a robot body? And then, a purely robot AI in a similar body. I can see the reboot...

The original guy is more of an android... A human-ish body, with a human-based brain (perhaps a dying or quadriplegic volunteer). Perhaps has 100%, 50%, 5% and 0.01% intelligence modes (representing 150-IQ/no powers, a 75-IQ/'typical' level of power,an 8-IQ/'a going for broke' level that's still marginally functional, and a barely human/'all-out, get-the-hell-away-from-me-Galactus' level)
The villain would, in modern times, be more of a nano-tech body. Shapeshifting and exceptional predictive algorithms with strong computer interfacing and hacking.

(PS: I really can't get over the catch phrase... Both "Me em smart!" and "Don't treat me like I'm stupid..." In the game, his collateral damage power is when he turns his intelligence completely off becoming just an angry telekinetic id.)