Originally Posted by
bat39
If you think about each of these too hard, the problems emerge.
Take the moral code one. Yes, it is what has traditionally motivated superheroes. But moral codes are a lot harder to be certain off when you drag real-world politics into it, and we happen to live in one of the most politically and socially divisive eras of American (and possibly global) history.
Here's a question for you...how should superheroes deal with bank-robbers? The traditional answer is simple - apprehend them and hand them over to the authorities. That's the answer that would have been provided and endorsed by mainstream media, politicians across the spectrum, and frankly, most average law-abiding citizens, 20 years ago, or even 10 years ago.
Today, you'd have people saying that superheroes apprehending bank-robbers is 'immoral' and that they should let them be, if not actually rob banks themselves and distribute the spoils among the 'people'.
You'd also have people saying that for superheroes to do the 'moral' thing, they should shut down the activities, violent or non-violent, of this group of people or that group of people. Or that they should support this cause or that cause. And inevitably they would be seen as a 'villains' by anyone who doesn't agree with their actions politically.
Then we get to the government option, which I do feel is perhaps a more realistic one. But the question arises - are superheroes deployed at home or overseas? Are they law enforcement or are they soldiers?
If they're soldiers, you'd either have a superhuman arms race, or complete military domination by whichever side has the superheroes.
If they're law enforcement, then you have questions about legal boundaries and police-community relations. Would superheroes constantly be facing charges of police brutality? What counts as a 'reasonable use of force'? Does using psychic powers violate a suspect's right to privacy? How could you prove that evidence hasn't been obtained illegally using psychic or other powers?
Not to mention, lately, policing has become a very divisive political issue as well.
And then we come to the paid superheroes. If this was a thing, I'm guessing superheroes would be akin to a) private military contractors, b) private security, c) law enforcement consultants.
PMC's runs into some of the same problems as them working for the military with arguably even less accountability. Them being law enforcement consultants runs into similar issues to them being cops (though I guess in such a case they might only agree to work with the cops on select cases where they're really needed and which also tallies with their own moral code?) Private security I guess is the 'safest' option because they would be restrained by the law to a considerable degree, but it would also give them a very limited mandate.
To sum up, in real-life, a superhero with a 'moral code', if they are sufficiently powerful enough, would inevitably be seen as a tyrant by those opposed to their actions. Being in the military or police, or being consultants to them, raises similar questions facing the real-world military and police (and in the military example, could lead to a global arms race). Being security guards limit their scope considerably.