What If? Superhuman Registration Acts

[Shipmaster Sane]

The militia doesn't have police powers, and pretty much every superhero engaged in vigilantism is engaging in grossly unlawful use of police powers. They don't even begin to resemble legitimate citizens' arrests.

This is why I strongly maintain that Civil War would have been amazingly better if they'd stuck to that and made registration about lawful authority versus vigilantism, with the anti-registration side arguing (like Cap in MCU Civil War) that waiting for lawful authority would "get in their way" and that they're entitled to act illegally because "we're the good guys" and "we're doing the right thing".

That sounds like pure lionization of Registration and flanderization of anti regs into strawmen.

 

[ShadowArxxy]

That sounds like pure lionization of Registration and flanderization of anti regs into strawmen.

*roll eyes*

I literally said it would have been amazingly better if they'd stuck to that, not that this was what went down in the storyline as written. But the anti-registration types never had any legitimate ground to stand on when it came to vigilantism -- the bottom line was they didn't have the legal right to do any of what they'd been doing.

 

[Shipmaster Sane]

*roll eyes*

I literally said it would have been amazingly better if they'd stuck to that, not that this was what went down in the storyline as written. But the anti-registration types never had any legitimate ground to stand on when it came to vigilantism -- the bottom line was they didn't have the legal right to do any of what they'd been doing.

You seem to have misunderstood what I said.

 

[Cyan Saiyajin]

I think the idea of superhuman registration, while reassuring to us baselines would cause more trouble than its worth. As it's guaranteed to provoke the people we have deemed dangerous enough to warrant such a move in the first place. Making these same people agitated and punished simply for not registering would probably prove the scenario the registration is supposed to stop in the first place! Not too mention probably not possible, as people with powers would probably start working on opposing such measures legally, and if those powers include super intelligence or social-fu powers, than the chance of it every getting made is zero.


I certainly wouldn't register if tomorrow I had superpowers.

 

[Deleted member]

I don't think any freedom-loving person would register, though you had best be ready to fight.

 

[Big Steve]

I don't think any freedom-loving person would register, though you had best be ready to fight.

And that's when they imprison you in their prison in the Negative Zone, an alternate time-space dimension that causes nightmares and other psychological traumas. (And plainly meant to be a Gitmo stand-in for at least some writers.)

 

[CarlManvers2019]

And that's when they imprison you in their prison in the Negative Zone, an alternate time-space dimension that causes nightmares and other psychological traumas. (And plainly meant to be a Gitmo stand-in for at least some writers.)

What was it that Reed calculated to most likely occur without Registration?

Honestly, super science types in fiction to me at times, don’t look to understand basic psychology or known everyday behavior or economic trends

 

[Big Steve]

What was it that Reed calculated to most likely occur without Registration?

Honestly, super science types in fiction to me at times, don’t look to understand basic psychology or known everyday behavior or economic trends

Social collapse, the end of civilization, up to human extinction. Because he was trying to turn Asimov's psychohistory into something real. Conveniently forgetting that psychohistory had to be actively supported by a conspiracy of telepaths altering minds and nudging events to prevent unanticipated factors from rending the psychohistorical calculations moot (case in point, the Mule's rise and his conquest of Terminus and the Foundation, which the Seldon Plan didn't account for at all).

 

[CarlManvers2019]

Social collapse, the end of civilization, up to human extinction. Because he was trying to turn Asimov's psychohistory into something real. Conveniently forgetting that psychohistory had to be actively supported by a conspiracy of telepaths altering minds and nudging events to prevent unanticipated factors from rending the psychohistorical calculations moot (case in point, the Mule's rise and his conquest of Terminus and the Foundation, which the Seldon Plan didn't account for at all).

Did he mention Psychohistory in-universe? Also, I wonder in addition to all that math, what historical examples did he use?

Also, nice to see a fellow Asimov fan here

 

[Big Steve]

Heh, sorry, just noticed this.

Did he mention Psychohistory in-universe? Also, I wonder in addition to all that math, what historical examples did he use?

Also, nice to see a fellow Asimov fan here

IIRC, yes, he did specifically namedrop it when showing his calculations to the Mad Thinker. It was the last FF tie-in to the original Civil War story, although they changed writers to have it penned by the late, great Dwayne McDuffie.

And thank you. Between library check-outs and purchases from the library store I've read my way through much, but not all, of his catalog. I admit I wasn't as much a fan of the later Foundation novels, but the original material with Salvor Hardin and Hober Mallow was well-done, and I actually like that it didn't rely much on action-adventure violence but political savvy and understanding people, economics, etc.

It's why I'm so skeptical about the supposed adaptation due to come out.

 

[Bacle]

I think SHRA's are a good idea, but would be almost pointless in any world with super-powered individuals.

Why would super-powered individuals obey any normal laws, when they can bend the laws of physics like a piece of taffy, unless under threat of force or death?

Unless people are willing to support effectively Order 66'ing super-powered individuals who don't register, us mundanes would inevitably end up under the bootheels of super-powered tyrants.

 

[Bear Ribs]

One issue that's Marvel specific is that the governments tend to be so corrupt they spend more time as mind-controlled thralls, alien stooges, or being outright run by supervillains than they do governing.

The real-life US government I might be willing to trust with significant transparency. The Marvel US government would need oversight by a country with a better track record of doing the right thing and taking care of their people, like real-life North Korea.