Logistics of a real Superhero world

[fireinthedust]

Olgar, thank you for reuniting me with a story I hadn't read since the mid 80s.

Fireinthedust, thank you for sucking all of the joy out of the first thing I had ever read by Larry Niven.

[EDIT] Also, the superstrong baby was in the comics. ACTION COMICS NO. 1

Baby Superman: yeah, I figured. Yet modern versions, such as the DCAU and (much-hated-by-me) Smallville have him discover his powers in adolescence as his body absorbs more sunlight.

Sucking the Fun out of Larry Niven: Oh, I'll do worse!

First, however, let me point out that he's just finished sucking the fun out of Superman and Lois Lane's love. Ball's already rolling, and he's not as much fun as Superman.

Second, let me point out that he didn't even do it right, as there are obvious methods the two of them could have children. (red sunlight, going to another planet... heck, giving Lois powers for nine months plus!)

Third: I read on his Wikipedia page that as part of a thinktank he suggested spreading propaganda among the Spanish-speaking population that hospital ER's kill patients so they can harvest organs from them; the intent was to get illegal immigrants to stop using hospital facilities and eating up resources. It's a solution that could work, I guess, but... eek!

Granted, with the players I've got he would fit right in at a D&D table!

Seriously, though, I don't know him as a person or through his works. I'm just poking fun, so if he's your favourite author feel free to enjoy. I've thought up some gruesome solutions myself (I did an assignment in 1st year proving the math that if we had a world where all arable land was used on crops instead of livestock (so beans for protein, not cow food) we could feed many times the Earth's population, around 18-20 billion. Then I took the math further and proved that if we had an over-race of cannibals eating the vegetarians, we could add something like a third more people (6+ billion) on top of that. I then drew a diagram of a vegetable farmer being attacked by a fang-mawed ape man. Fun times, but no extra marks)

 

[The Red King]

I think I should, actually. I read up on it on wikipedia and it sounds cool. I'm a fan of Alan Moore's deconstructionist stuff and it sounds like maybe there's a connection there?

edit - oh, he wrote on it too... and I can pick it up on amazon for ONLY like $400!

Worth every penny.

 

[Janx]

Since the late 1980s, the Marvel Universe has had some of the construction concept down: Damage Control was originally created by a hero and a villain (Tony Stark and Wilson Fisk) to help clean up and rebuild after conflicts between super-powered beings.

Ah yes, Damage Control. As I recall, it was more of a comedy-oriented mini-series. Kind of joking at the problem of all the super-hero damage.

I think realistically, the amount of damage would depend on the strength and scope of the battles. FEWER people in Metropolis means fewer deaths when the giant robot destroyes the sky scraper. Not that you want large cities with sparse population, but the OP's concept of high population is the exact opposite of the efffect you want to achieve.

Wrecking a few cars, bridges, store fronts (the usual fair for comic book fights) is within the scope of insurance companies and their policies.

I think, though, that you cannot address the logistical issues without addressing the cultural ones. The view that supers are effectively a separate species that will dominate the normal population is a standard (to the point of cliche), and maybe not an unlikely short-term reaction to the presence of super-beings. But I don't think may authors have gone far enough to consider the long-term cultural impacts. And the culture the supers exist within probably matters a great deal.

I would suspect that FEWER supers would reduce the likely hood of anti-super paranoia. 5 Supers are not going to replace humanity as the next step in evolution.

Just like none of us rural Minnesotans thought to hate the 1 black kid in our school (because there aren't any other black people in the county). It's just not in our mindset of consideration. Contrast that to more diversified schools, where people start banding together by obvious commonalities like skin color and nationality.

1 in 10 people being a Super starts making the Mundanes feeling like it's a competition for resources, power, opportunities, success.

It may also be a matter of secrecy or dare I say it, segregation. Stereotypical Supers form an elite team, and hide their identity. We don't tend to think or notice that Clark Kent is really super, because it's not in our face that he is just better than us in the workplace. The SuperTeam is like Seal Team 6. Special, awesome, and in the news as the guys who saved the day. That's no different than other hero stories on the news. It's good to hear the day was saved, but rescuing kittens from trees and thwarting terrorist plots is far seperated from everyday life for the majority of folk.

Having to go to work everyday with OctoArm, who can type 8 times faster than you. Or WeldEye who's laser vision can finish a welding job in half the time as you, and ChickMagnet, the guy who's pheromones means he's the only guy getting any action in the bar would make you start to resent Supers something fierce.

But it you live in a world where Supers form covert anti-crime units (whether sanctioned or not), they're not in your face in the regular scheme of things. No more than people get jealous of those Seal Team 6 guys with how they get all the chicks, save the day by breakfast while balancing a ball on their nose.

 

[fireinthedust]

I think that modern comic books would count as Supers being a significant population. I just don't think that mutants would be the only targets: anyone in tights, let alone with powers, would draw that kind of fire if that were the case.

But are we thinking OctoArm would really be in the general population of typists? He'd be snatched up by every company and made a personal secretary or work as an IT guy or something. WeldEye, too. Eventually WeldEye would only get called in to special projects that need him to go somewhere without tools, like near microwaves dishes or, like, Space. And Chick Magnet would have long ago left the world at large to be on his own island, or as a celebrity.

I think we'd look at them the way we do virtuosos: acknowledge they're the best and go with it. Doesn't matter if they're heroes, if Supers were in the general population they'd still eventually be in charge, or respected, in some manner or other.