Poll of the Day > Realistically, how would Superhumans be handled in the modern world?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Something that often passes my mind is how Superhumans would be handled in this day and age. My guess is between forced relocation and registration, or a mixture of both.

But, when we have the Superman's of the world, how would one be able to regulate a one-man army?

Probably accused of touching a woman he saved by carrying her in his arms against her will.

She didn't say anything at the time, of course, but 25 years later, she's totally offended and realized she's a victim.
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Assuming said person was discovered at a young enough age, I'd imagine said child would be taken and molded into a living weapon.
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I think something along the lines of The Incredibles.
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SonnerAnarchy posted...

how would one be able to regulate a one-man army?

You wouldn't, and that's how you create a super-villain.
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I honestly think theyd be killed outright
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EclairReturns posted...

You wouldn't, and that's how you create a super-villain.

Fair point. I think in the The Flash: Flashpoint movie, Superman for example landed in the city and instead of being taken care of by good and loving parents, he's imprisoned by the government and studied. Upon rescued he was completely traumatized and though still physically capable of beating anyone to a pulp, he mentally couldn't for a while.

If the behavior of various youth and adults of our society based on their upbringing is any indication, being taken and molded into a living weapon and/or treated as an outcast will more than likely cause more trouble than harm.
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Registered, imprisoned, and exploited at best, straight up killed at worst.

People bitch about gun control laws now, but imagine if someone had an invisible gun that fired nukes, that was part of his body and couldn't be removed. How many people would want that guy living in their town?

Now go one step further. Imagine someone has the power to control minds, or turn invisible, or any number of other powers that basically exist solely to violate other people's civil rights. How would we react to THEM?


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They'd be treated in about 100 different ways, with the bad outweighing the good.

Like was already said, The Incredibles offers what I feel would be realistic glimpse at such a situation were it to arise.
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It doesn't matter how we'd react, because the moment we pissed off the wrong one it would be like a school shooting fucking Hiroshima
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I can see a forced registration system in place ala the Marvel universe. Just not as brutal.
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EvilMegas posted...

I can see a forced registration system in place ala the Marvel universe. Just not as brutal.

Even in Marvel, it never really started out brutal.

Which was always sort of the point when the actual talented writers were telling stories about that sort of thing. It wasn't really until the later, talentless hacks started writing it as ham-fisted allegory that it became eye-rollingly stupid.


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the incredibles is probably closest. they'd be around but like, if they do things outright they'd get sued an shit.
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Registration and forced monitoring, with some probably being quickly ID'd and winding up in labs. I know fiction has cops secretly supporting vigilantes, that's less likely to fly IRL. Plus groups like the ACLU would make conventional crime-fighting impossible, so heroes would likely be used more for disaster relief and possibly military-use.

It's kinda different in comics because heroes started out earlier, participated in the war effort, etc, so they'd gradually get better PR which carries over to the ones who followed them up. Heroes starting out today would more credibly be viewed with suspicion.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

EvilMegas posted...

I can see a forced registration system in place ala the Marvel universe. Just not as brutal.

Even in Marvel, it never really started out brutal.

Which was always sort of the point when the actual talented writers were telling stories about that sort of thing. It wasn't really until the later, talentless hacks started writing it as ham-fisted allegory that it became eye-rollingly stupid.

To be fair, hero sentiment would gradually change over time so the brutality would seem more permissible. And then eventually you have villains running these organizations so...
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Depends where they are. I think they'd generally be forced into government servitude.
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The_tall_midget posted...

Probably accused of touching a woman he saved by carrying her in his arms against her will.

She didn't say anything at the time, of course, but 25 years later, she's totally offended and realized she's a victim.

As long as you're being that one obnoxious guy who has to compulsively turn every single conversation into a contemporary political debate, don't forget to bring up Clinton's emails and something about Obama's birth certificate.
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Zeus posted...

To be fair, hero sentiment would gradually change over time so the brutality would seem more permissible. And then eventually you have villains running these organizations so...

I was referring more to how, when Chris Claremont was writing X-Men back in the 80s, the plot was well-written and plausible. First, mutants are registered "for your own safety". Then the need to carry around ID that you need to show to "prove" whether or not you're a human or a mutant. Then the stores that only cater to one or the other. Then the camps. Then the armed killer robots hunting down dissenters. Each step followed slowly, one after the other. The end-state didn't happen overnight, it literally took decades to go from "Oh shit, mutant terrorists just killed a senator" to "Most mutants are living in concentration camps." Each step was minor on its own, but it helped justify the next little step. It wasn't until 30 years later that you could really look back and realize just how fucked the world had become.

In short, in happened in a very believable way, exactly like it would in the real world. Exactly like it DID happen in the real world - basically, it was written as close to a straight-up allegory of the Holocaust as you could get without screaming "GET IT, THEY'RE JEWS!"

But then 20 years later, much shittier writers decided it would be cool to do the same storyline only with superheroes in general and not just mutants specifically, and it was written in a way where it took all of about 30 minutes for the pro-Registration side to work exclusively with super-villains, start throwing literally anyone who disagreed into an extradimensional prison without trial, and sending psychotic clones of Thor to murder anyone who got in the way.

The first version was believable and poignant, and had some very relevant and uncomfortable things to say. The second version was poorly written and stupid (which is why they jettisoned almost the entirety of the plot and only kept the name of the storyline and the idea of having Cap and Iron Man argue over it when they made the movie).

But you hit on the point I was basically making - that minor injustices and acts can be justified in the moment, but which in turn can help lead to darker and darker steps as people become more desensitized and the people you're oppressing become more dehumanized (and as the apparatus of oppression itself becomes more institutionalized). Genocide almost always starts out in small, relatively innocuous ways.

Marvel's premise started out as nothing more than "people have the right to know who their neighbors are, we should make people with powers register". Nothing else. Nothing brutal about it at all. Everything perfectly fine and safe and humane.

It wasn't until later that everything eventually goes to shit.


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There would be a hunt to document, restrain, and control them.

There are already people who are upset that citizens can have guns, you think these same people would be okay with people who have super powers roaming around unchecked?
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I just wish from the bottom of my heart that whatever superhero it is, whatever their superpower is, they are flat earthers.
The shit storm that arises from that would be amazing.
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shadowsword87 posted...

I just wish from the bottom of my heart that whatever superhero it is, whatever their superpower is, they are flat earthers.

It'd be more impressive if they can literally fly up into space, and have a much stronger platform to argue from than everyone on Earth.

Though that starts to brush up against one of my personal pet favorite thought experiments - if God is real, and Jesus came back tomorrow, would anyone believe him, or would we all just assume he was a crazy lunatic? And even if he DID start doing miracles, how many people would just assume it was some sort of fakery done via advanced Earth special effects tech or some sinister alien invader using space tech to exploit our own beliefs?

We live in a world where David Copperfield made the Statue of Liberty disappear and Criss Angel spontaneously combusted - walking on water seems like it would be child's play.


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We live in a world where David Copperfield made the Statue of Liberty disappear

did he put it back after
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The turtles got it back.

But I'd imagine a real life superhuman would be the target of pretty much every intelligence agency. The CIA, Russians, would pretty much do whatever shady shit they do to get at and use/dissect you. Pretty much all your family and loved ones would suffer cartel violence at the hands of legitimate governments.

I feel like it would change a lot. Maybe they would exterminate on sight at first... Until they realize that they could be trained to be a weapon for whoever. They might also have the registration thing so that they can keep an eye on you. Figure out your strengths and weaknesses to destroy you if needed. Or to make you do whatever they want. Once they were too many, maybe a relocation camp or extermination of some to balance the scales. Eventually, way in the future, maybe they would be accepted as normal people. If they just appeared right now, they might have a better shot at being treated normal. Though, some would be taking to see how they work and if they can replicate it. It is also possible a war would start. Idk. A lot could happen...
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dedbus posted...

The turtles got it back.

Radical reference bro
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dedbus posted...

But I'd imagine a real life superhuman would be the target of pretty much every intelligence agency. The CIA, Russians, would pretty much do whatever shady shit they do to get at and use/dissect you. Pretty much all your family and loved ones would suffer cartel violence at the hands of legitimate governments.

Plus the thing that most people never really think of, and that comics and comic movies deliberately ignore (because they're working from stories that were originally created 60+ years ago), is that the ability to maintain a secret identity is almost nil in the modern era.

It's going to be difficult for Batman to drive into the secret tunnel that leads to the Batcave when a satellite in orbit tracks him the first time he does it, and every major authority (or someone like Lex Luthor) figures out exactly where he's going (and thus, who he is) in about 20 minutes. Heroes like Spider-Man being forced to change into costume in an alley are going to wind up on multiple security cameras they didn't notice. And the first time a hero gets hard enough to bleed at a crime scene, the government now has your DNA on file.

It might be possible for someone with superpowers to potentially stay hidden if they used them sparingly and subtly. But someone blatantly putting on a costume and heading out to fight crime (or a villain dressing up to use powers for evil) are going to lose their anonymity pretty damned quick.


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Zeus posted...

To be fair, hero sentiment would gradually change over time so the brutality would seem more permissible. And then eventually you have villains running these organizations so...

You have a fantastic point, look at the current GOP, ok?
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Other: Brought back to some lab for testing, probably for the rest of their lives.
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ClarkDuke posted...

Zeus posted...

To be fair, hero sentiment would gradually change over time so the brutality would seem more permissible. And then eventually you have villains running these organizations so...

You have a fantastic point, look at the current GOP, ok?

He's the billionaire playboy we need, not the anachronistic WWII-era supersolider we want.


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A combination of extermination and military recruitment.

The ones that willingly sign up for military service (or can be manipulated, tortured, bargained with to work for the military) will be rewarded. The ones that don't want to cooperate will be exterminated.

Pretty simple, really.
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Mead posted...

I honestly think theyd be killed outright

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ParanoidObsessive posted...

if God is real, and Jesus came back tomorrow, would anyone believe him, or would we all just assume he was a crazy lunatic?

This has probably happened several dozen times throughout human history and God just said "fuck it, humanity ain't worth it bro."
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Regulation without monitoring.
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Celebrities. Identities instantly exposed. The government can't lock them away if the public is watching. I have to wonder why the government would even want to lock spider-man away. In most comics is sort of a given that the government doesn't really take them seriously. I don't see the point of registering them either, it's not like you can take away their powers. The government will keep an eye on them whether they're registered or not, because that's where my tax dollars go irl. <_<

Superman can stay, but nuke-man from Heroes can go somewhere else, screw his rights. He's a freaking unstable nuke.

Probably forced slavery, 'cuz capitalism
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Anyone who could turn invisible would def have to be put on some kind of sex-offender like list
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I think the publical reaction and any laws that get passed are going to be dependent on how the situation plays out.

How many superhumans show up? What sort of people get powers? Where do they show up? How well connected are they? What sort of press coverage do they get in the early days?

That sort of stuff would be the deciding factors in making a prediction about this.
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What power levels are we talking? Someone say, of Spider-Man or Aquaman levels would be pretty powerful, but not so powerful they couldn't be stopped. Those would definitely either be taken and studied or taken and weaponized. Someone with powers like Superman or the Hulk would be feared and hunted while the military tries to devise a way to destroy them. If the government can't control it, they don't want it around...no matter how much good it may do.
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Yellow posted...

I have to wonder why the government would even want to lock spider-man away.

That's not why his identity is a secret, it's because he doesn't want super villains attacking MJ and Aunt May.
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Zareth posted...

Yellow posted...

I have to wonder why the government would even want to lock spider-man away.

That's not why his identity is a secret, it's because he doesn't want super villains attacking MJ and Aunt May.

Yet they still do. And I think some of the villains even know who he is...
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Military, always
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captured and experimented on
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Yellow posted...

The government can't lock them away if the public is watching.

Sure it could. All it really has to do is manufacture the consent of the governed, which is something it's very, very good at.


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Theyd kill them by any means necessary and then say that toxicology reports showed weed in their system
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You folks should read Worm, great story.

Reality shows.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

ClarkDuke posted...

Zeus posted...

To be fair, hero sentiment would gradually change over time so the brutality would seem more permissible. And then eventually you have villains running these organizations so...

You have a fantastic point, look at the current GOP, ok?

He's the billionaire playboy we need, not the anachronistic WWII-era supersolider we want.

A super-solider president, sounds amazing, ok?
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