Are super secret organizations a help or a hinderance?

SHIELD causes more problems than they solve. The same can be said for ARGUS, as well as the DEO. A lot of the time, we have these organizations in fiction that are supposed to help protect the world and keep it safe. However, instead they make things worse. Also, they spend a lot of time going against the main hero of the story, usually to everyone's detriment. I honestly wonder if they exist to be an indictment of government interference.

[URL="https://www.cbr.com/shield-worst-super-spy-organization/"]https://www.cbr.com/shield-worst-super-spy-organization/[/URL]

I think it's a combination of needing antagonists the heroes can't just punch out and a general distrust of government/authority. Even if someone creates whet they plan to be a noble agency, there is always a storyline about that agency being corrupted just waiting to be told.

And think about it if the Gotham PD were efficient, who needs Batman? If SHIELD is successful in dealing with extraterrestrial threats would the Avengers have ever formed? Most superheroes are one or maybe two man operations who don't have red-tape to deal with. It only makes sense that if you are writing those tales that large organized efforts have to look insufficient in comparison.

[QUOTE=QuinnFillory;4156615]SHIELD causes more problems than they solve. The same can be said for ARGUS, as well as the DEO. A lot of the time, we have these organizations in fiction that are supposed to help protect the world and keep it safe. However, instead they make things worse. Also, they spend a lot of time going against the main hero of the story, usually to everyone's detriment. I honestly wonder if they exist to be an indictment of government interference.

[URL="https://www.cbr.com/shield-worst-super-spy-organization/"]https://www.cbr.com/shield-worst-super-spy-organization/[/URL][/QUOTE]

Depends on the story really. MIB seems to do a bang up job.

If the protagonists in question are the super secret orgainization they seem to justify their existence more or less. When the protagonists are outside the secret orgainization, said organization is usually either incompetent, a hindrance, or the actual villain, with one or two members being good people who aid the actual hero.

[QUOTE=Kusanagi;4156798]Depends on the story really. MIB seems to do a bang up job.

If the protagonists in question are the super secret orgainization they seem to justify their existence more or less. When the protagonists are outside the secret orgainization, said organization is usually either incompetent, a hindrance, or the actual villain, with one or two members being good people who aid the actual hero.[/QUOTE]

Even with real life organizations. If the show is about the FBI they are all geniuses. If it is another cop show the FBI are bumbling idiots that just get in the way of the real police solving the crime.

In that vein, do we really need government conspiracies in every show and movie? The clown college in Washington couldn't run a conspiracy to secretly get donuts.

[QUOTE=Captain Smith;4157371]In that vein, do we really need government conspiracies in every show and movie? The clown college in Washington couldn't run a conspiracy to secretly get donuts.[/QUOTE]

But there is also the ongoing proof that whether it was secret or glaringly apparent our friends in Washington would have to assert their authority over any rival. If a Superman or Flash showed up in real life you'd see actual bloodshed between politicians trying to assert that "They" and "They alone" had the situation under control- whether that meant legislating the hero out of existence, getting them on the payroll, or creating a taskforce to pacify the hero would be the only difference.