Superpowered beings and Law

[Neonchameleon]

The "Dammit, but that setup was ham-handed, and this should be better" side. Neat idea, but the execution was lacking, IMO.

I mostly liked Dark Reign, though (except for some details, like Ares and Sentry).

Me too. I would have very possibly supported the Superhero registration act that Jen Walters was advocating in the Bugle right at the start. The devil would have been in the details. But the Superhuman registration act that the writers went for in the actual storyline was wholely and completely wrong (negative zone prison? Um... no.) On the other hand the single most respected superhero in America (Cap) behaved like an idiot and didn't even try e.g. calling a press conference. Not equivalent but it left me against Tony rather than for Cap.

 

[Wednesday Boy]

The split seemed kind of forced to me; some of the pro-registration side's measures (rounding up superheroes and throwing them in the Negative Zone, creating a crazy Thor clone, etc.) seemed too villainous to be in character. That colored my reaction.

I can see that.

I liked the story because of the shades of grey in it. At the core of the issue (i.e., before the pro- side started doing the too villainous stuff that you mentioned) both sides have both valid arguments and poor arguments. It turned Tony Stark into an adversary that was a greyish between hero and villain. Which to me made him a more interesting "villain" than your typical black and white comic book villain (like Osborne).

I guess overall I liked it because it made me think more about the rationale and point of view on both sides and evoked more emotion in me because of the philosophical debates that framed the story. That doesn't happen very often from most comic book stories that have more defined moral sides.

 

[Janx]

What side were all of you guys on in Civil War?

I like Captain Lockley's answer.

 

[Micp]

i suppose from seeing your ideas that you are aware of the civil war saga, but maybe you could also get some inspiration from the DC comic Kingdom Come in which the superheroes ends up getting an ambassador in the UN (the ambassador being wonderwoman), thus technically being recognized as an independent nation. maybe that is something you could use?

 

[Ed_Laprade]

What side were all of you guys on in Civil War?

Didn't read it. My first thought was: Super villains are gonna volunteer to be registered? Yeah, right! And, of course, those living in other countries would be laughing their butts off! (Oh wait, Americans don't believe in 'other countries'.)

 

[shadzar]

Really surprised nobody has mentioned this yet, but one easy way to think about it is to look at Godzilla.

While "modern society" may be more intelligent or more technologically advanced, they are just what he has to scrape off the bottom of his foot. He sees them simply as inferior and they are not really worth associating with and has no respect for them.

So for a "super-powered" being to adhere to your laws, then they must see you as responsible enough to make such decisions for THEM.

 

[hopeless]

Just a thought

Regarding Civil War and Superhuman Registration,

I didn't like that personally, at least at the game table. Players generally don't like the idea that their fun-fun characters are heavily regulated or hunted down by the goverment. The idea was too confining IMO. And also the Ultimate doesn't address the issue well enough. In my opinion my version is the best one for a Superhuman RPG (but I'm a "little" biased), because any regulation on superpowers should be game-enhancing, not choking it down. So instead, let's go with pro-superhero regulations, not anti-superhero ones...

About House of M (these are the three words I believe?),

This is also a bad idea for me, at the table. So now players fight normal villains, and there are only few supervillains left in the world. Great? How about more supervillains, not less? I don't know... I really had to create an alternate timeline of Marvel to make it playable. But this is just me.

Now me I was thinking what would happen if all of the heroes of the next generation and even about to emerge currently were required to attend a college or course to teach them how to use their powers properly and how the law relates to them?

Of course my version would also mean they've been all brainwashed to obey the commands of the mastermind behind this corporate-military run program so instead of loads or very little opponents or heroes you know have a mix of experienced, veteran, very old and very young heroes facing an overwhelming force of supers under the control of a Lex Luthor-like mastermind who has already disposed of the world's most powefulest super heroes... admittedly in my version the world's only hope lies in a band of retired supervillains stepping forward to help train the remaining free novice superheroes against an almost invincible enemy...

Too much maybe, but plenty food for thought...

 

[Janx]

not having read the full thread, here's what I think would probably happen:

The 2nd ammendment right to bear arms will be invoked as reason that supers are technically legal to exist. They are in effect a living weapon.

The military will want a squad of supers, as a secret weapon against enemies. They will also want a way to neutralize enemie powered forces.

law enforcement agencies (federal and local SWAT) will want supers teams for a similar reason. Since these are seperate agencies, they'll each want their own. Because the US military has a long standing policy of NOT being used as a police force in its own nation (there was much discussion about this after Katrina), the military's team can't be used.

local cops don't care about vigilantes. Especially if all they are doing is beating up crooks and tying them up. Sure the mayor and the DA may bark a lot about it, but the cops on the street have other problems to worry about. Just like they don't worry about finding the guy who stole your 8-track player.

If the supers stick to the "comicbook heroes code" then the public will like them and appreciate that they are the only force protecting them from super villains. The local authorities (DA, mayor, chief of police) may even condone their actions in some legally cautious speech.

Once a vigilante starts being involved in serious damage and deaths, then the cops have to worry about it and the public outcry will happen.

This is where ideas like mutant registration acts come into play. Because if gun ownership is regulated while respecting your right to own one, so can super powers. That will be the platform of political figures looking to get elected on fear ticket. There will be super villains supporting this, because it will help them find the super heroes.


As a creative person, I'd want to take a fresh approach to this concept. Super hero teams that are accepted by the public has been done (Fantastic Four). Super hero registration law politics has been done (Smallville, X-Men).

Since I live in a country where gun control laws exist and vary from state to state, while permitting people to own guns in most places (except DC, Chicago and New York as I understand it), people don't strongly resist these laws, nor does it stop being from using them to protect themselves.

So, let's live in a world where all the good guys registered their powers. Maybe its a secret database, because the government wants to protect privacy, while ensuring IT knows where the powers are used, in the event of crime, or national need. Kind of like a ballistics database crossed with the selective service registration.

Let's assume that the noisiest political problem is akin to what we get with the NRA or when somebody's committed crimes with guns and there's a wave of people shouldn't own assualt rifles histeria but nothing really changes.

In this world, super villains are basically terrorists, because the effects of their powers are about as devestating to the public.

Supers who fight them, if its a victory, will probably be lauded as heroes. Hereos who go on Punisher style killing sprees will be wanted. Heroes who do more damage than goood will also be wanted.

I'm not sure that reveals any new problems for PCs to explore, but it won't sound like a copy of x-men days of future past or the current season of Smallville.