Would you support the Superhuman Registration Act?

[William300]

So, with the MCU getting it's own version of Civil War I was hoping to hear peoples' opinions on the law. As you know the Superhuman Registration Act forced superheroes to reveal their identities to certain government and military authorities and sign up with SHIELD (or other government/military groups?). What is necessary? Was it right? And was it dangerous (considering has a history of being infiltrated by enemies like HYDRA)?

Thoughts? And..Who's Side Are You On?

One rule for the debates! No creating homicidal clones of demigods!

[HaveAtThee]

It's a childish idea. Even if someone like Thor, Hyperion or Hulk existed and I felt the need for superheroes to register with the law, that really wouldn't do anything to a god or an alien or a monster.

[dragonmp93]

I still think that the law is a pretty bad idea and pretty stupid too; so im in the Anti-reg side.

[PlanetaryDevastation]

Depends. In reality yes, story wise no because it takes out some of the fun. It would be dangerous but no more dangerous than any other police/military job. If the law basically outlawed vigilantes and required one to be trained then yes I would support it. If it was if you have superhuman powers so you have to work for us whether you want to or not and there was not a wartime draft thing then no.

[Tofali]

Superheroes are just vigilantes that operate outside the law while Govt Institutuions are just a butch of suits with their own agendas.

So I think i will sit this one out while i wait for either one of them or both to convince me otherwise when the movie comes out.

Superhuman being profiled and forced to register by the Govt is just plain illegal.

[William300]

It's a childish idea. Even if someone like Thor, Hyperion or Hulk existed and I felt the need for superheroes to register with the law, that really wouldn't do anything to a god or an alien or a monster.

Well, wouldn't Thor would be immune to the law because he's both from another dimension and he's technically a diplomat. Hard to say sense he wasn't around for Civil War. He probably wouldn't wan't to get involved anyways.

[MindofShadow]

If I lived in the world of alien invasions and evil robots, I think I would be alright with some costume weirdos punching them in the face

i'd definitely be moving out of NY though

[HaveAtThee]

Well, wouldn't Thor would be immune to the law because he's both from another dimension and he's technically a diplomat. Hard to say sense he wasn't around for Civil War. He probably wouldn't wan't to get involved anyways.

I was just using those characters for examples, considering how powerful they are. What in the holy heck could the US Army do to them? The amount of firepower and collateral damage that would cause for human armies to even hurt someone like Hyperion or Hulk would negate the basis for such a law (repercussions for collateral damage). I think that's why the story didn't really work, because it's useful for street-level heroes or base metahumans like Spider-Man, Cap and Daredevil. It's pretty useless for herald-level superhumans.

[Midnight_v]

I'm gonna say... no. No. I think not. Not with the invasion of privacy stunts that the NSA and the such pulled.
The desire for them to compel low level psychics working in concert to influence the public would be too strong.
I was in the military, and in law enforcement, and I think... on paper this law sounds good. In execution it could turn out really really bad. The government tends to see people as assets, and if super human... probably weaponized assets that would invariably be used for evil, or subversion, or internationally (leading us to war most likely), or as we saw in the civil war... persecution of dissenters. All in all bad business. Also... man, if I was a supervillan and you roundded up all the super human data in one database or info~storage unit of choice? I'd totally get that info, and do... HORRIBLE things to mary jane and aunt mae, and sharon carter. I mean I'd literally run out of refrigerators to stuff them in so much so that I'd give the info to OTHER VILLIANS I wouldn't even bother auctioning it off. I'd just post it on the internet on wikipedia, 4chan, and you tube let if go from there.

So ultimately, you might get a instance where hero's retire and never reveal to keep their families safe. However, villians... we don't care what law you pass we're going to break ALL THE LAWS anyway. Ymmv.

[William300]

We also need to keep in mind the presence of HYDRA. They had infiltrated SHIELD, and Senator Stern (or whatever his name was), was a HYDRA agent. If there are still HYDRA members in the government they could easily use the law to their advantage. Makes me wish they'd go ahead with the Red Skull hiding in the government as Dell Rusk story.

[tg1982]

Superhuman being profiled and forced to register by the Govt is just plain illegal.

It's kind of like re-instituting the Draft, tbh.

Another thing is. Who decides who the "bad guys" are? The'd work for a government not the people, they essentially become soldiers or weapons for that government, getting sent to the next "hotspot" for said government's interests, not the interests and well being of the people, who a hero ultimately serve.

[Midnight_v]

Its similiar at least to selective service. Where you could totally get drafted or sent to work basically slave labor for the dept.of labor so its basically a mad scheme on so many levels.

[Derek Metaltron]

Yeah I'd be Pro-Reg, just as I was during the event. If I was a person who lived in the Marvel Universe and knew that I could get caught in the midst of those sorts of power battles, I'd want to know the good guys were trained properly if nothing else. It's more the decisions those who oversee the system which can be the issue, not the system itself. What If: Civil War proved the SHRA could work if a trustworthy and democratic fellow like Cap was calling the shots. Even Tony wasn't as bad as Norman Osborn was.

[MyriVerse]

I'm not really sure for the MCU. It seems drastically different from the Marvel Universe. The Marvel Universe is a lawless frontier at the best of times, so I think it's wrong to try and tame it with laws that can't really work. The MCU, on the other hand, seems more like the real world with just a few super-beings thrown in.

Still, I am opposed to any sort of mandatory military service.

[Expletive Deleted]

It really depends on the superhumans involved. How many of them there are, how powerful they are, etc.

Generally speaking, I think a lot of basic superhuman abilities could be effectively regulated by existing laws. Vigilantism is already against the law. Robbing a bank is still robbing a bank. You'd need some additional regulations to handle things like unaided flight or super-speed (ie. some sort of licensing system), but nothing approaching Civil War-style registration.

That said, the more esoteric and the more powerful you get, the harder that becomes and the fewer good options remain. How do you regulate precognitives and the super-intelligent? How do you regulate time-travelers or people who can alter reality? How do you regulate walking WMDs? You'd need new laws and the ability to enforce those laws. Even if that doesn't start to look a bit like registration, it probably looks like a massive, dystopian increase in the scope, power, and reach of law enforcement.

Basically, on the low end of the scale we don't really need registration and on the high end of the scale we're boned regardless.