10 Comic Book Inventions That Could Actually Change The World

2. Mother Boxes

PING! PING! PING! Mother Boxes, yet another Jack Kirby creation (and another from the New Gods/Fourth World story cycle) are semi-sentient handheld computers that appear to be able to do, well, almost anything. Amongst other things, one can use a Mother Box to, 1) Summon a BOOM tube. 2) Heal you if you are injured or sick (like a super first-aid kit, of sorts). 3) Rearrange the molecular structure of matter (y€™know, just in case you felt like it one day). 4) Profoundly affect gravity. 5) Do complicated sums. 6) Scan for life-forms (those precious little life forms). 7) Warn you of impending danger. 8) Act as a personal shield if ever you are attacked. 9) Communicate telepathically with you. 10) Create energy blasts (in case your battlesuit happens to be at the cleaners). Mother Boxes are also known to sacrifice their own lives in the defence of their users. Would your iPhone do that?

Amazingly, Kirby appears to have prefigured the rise of handheld computers, smartphones and tablets by several decades, with a Mother Box appearing to a modern reader as being some sort of super-tablet. They draw their powers from The Source (yes, New Gods pre-dates Star Wars, as well) and, over the years, have become a one-stop-shop for literally anything a stuck writer needs. If I had a Mother Box, well, I€™d certainly be a lot more organized. Also, my high score on Bejeweled Blitz would be a heck of a lot better! The fact is that, one-day in our lifetime, we may actually see devices very similar to Mother Boxes being unveiled. Just imagine that.