Listen, I hate to agree with people who support Lex Luthor (I'd rather not have a president with that insane of a criminal history, thank you), but I think their concerns surrounding superheroes are warranted.
Maybe I'm just cynical, but I've never been one to trust powerful people without good reason. Yes, the heroes have helped us time and time again, but that won't count for much if they decide to turn on us. For example, the Spectre has done considerable damage in the past, as has Green Lantern (the one who briefly went by Parallax), Obsidian (who's been brought up on this blog before), and a vast number of other heroes! Hell, when possessed or mind-controlled, any of these heroes can do real harm. Is it really smart to rely on people who've killed people, refuse to tell us who they are, work against our government, and have no real way to be stopped?
Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I'm not dead! I'm glad nazis or aliens or insane criminals haven't taken over the world! The free reign they have, though, is just unnerving to me.
Do you know who stopped the Spectre? Superheroes.
You know who stopped Parallax? Superheroes.
You know who not only stopped Obsidian but saved him from himself and brought him back to the side of the righteous? Superheroes.
See, this is where my patience tends to run out with this thought experiment. Treating "superheroes" as a collective that is both entirely singular and yet wholly alien. They do nothing but show themselves in utter respect and deference to law, justice and morality, FAR more than myself, you or ANYONE reading this blog. And what do they get? Suspicion for things they didn't do and blame for the problems THEY SOLVE. My god it makes me feel like I'm taking crazy pills. What would it take for some people to be satisfied? For the world to ACTUALLY end? For the heroes to step back and let us all get annihilated in our beds for us to get the message as to who is on which side and who's policing whom?
There is NO SOLUTION to "protecting ourselves" from superheroes. OTHER THAN MORE SUPERHEROES
(The fight between Superman and Captain Marvel, from the iconic speculative fiction novel Kingdom Come. Art by Alex Ross)
The idea that the government. The government you and I know of. Corrupt, glacial, bumbling and partisan needs a "backup plan" against superheroes requires taking the fearmongering of people like Lex Luthor and Amanda Waller at face value. There someday, someway, somehow there's going to be a magic switch that gets flipped. And ALL of the superheroes are going to go bad at the exact same time. For no actually explicable reason, with no imminent solution, and without any actual response. (Leaving aside the fact that our current heroes going bad would almost instantly lead to the cropping up of an entirely new generation of heroes against them)
People say "what if a superhero gets mind controlled?" as if that's not a thing that is CONSTANTLY happening. Do you know what gets done about it? The hero either shakes it off themselves, bringing in the perpetrator or their allies step in to keep them from causing any irreversible damage and then they do that first step anyway! Whenever governments or police forces try to intervene in that process they run in guns blazing, full of reactionary violence that either makes the situation WORSE or accomplishes nothing other than wrecking a few million of our tax dollars at work.
Let me ask you friend. What chip is the government going to play if Superman goes rogue that is going to be more effective than whatever the Justice League's plan is in that scenario? Because let me tell you, the government's plan always skips DIRECTLY to killing Superman stone dead without ANY investigation or consideration. And the Justice League's plan not only stops the immediate threat, AND brings in the guy responsible but it ALSO doesn't cost us a Superman! The Suicide Squad? We trust a government black ops team made out of psychopaths, murderers and assassins being held at explosive gunpoint? Why? Because they're "OUR" psychopaths?! Because we can kill them if we get jumpy enough on the wrong news cycle?!
Superheroes do not have "free reign", their actions are IMMENSELY restricted compared to the actions of police or military. They don't kill, they avoid property damage to the greatest possible extent, they don't believe in the EXISTENCE of the CONCEPT of acceptable losses or civilian casualties. They have to fight the worst of the worst with one hand tied behind their back because even the guy who is holding the world bank hostage with a freeze ray isn't allowed to die! You think that situation would be IMPROVED by government forces firing satellite lasers at Soloman Grundy while he's standing on a crowded street? That armored mech soldiers would be better when their "rules of engagement" include "getting the job done" no matter how many people's livelihoods are reduced to rubble?
The superhero community is just that. A community. A living, reactive collective that works more in the best interest of the global population than any other. They are the most just, most empathetic, most trustworthy organ of "authority" that you or anyone else has ever even HEARD OF. The idea that they hold so much power and yet utterly REFUSE to take up a monopoly on violence is such a radical idea in equality that it straight up BREAKS several theories of political science!
So I look at you, and your "reasonable concerns" and your "realistic cynicism" and I ask you. What is your proposed alternative? What is the secret anti-Superman button the president should have on his desk that would not IMMEDIATELY be used for ill intent the SECOND the intentions of the American government clashed with what is RIGHT. Believing in our heroes is barely even an act of FAITH anymore when they have been bearing the weight the rest of us can't for longer than 99% of us have been ALIVE.
And after getting chased underground by HUAC, after getting shot at, and arrested, and accused, and accosted, and protested and framed over and over and over and OVER again. They stand up in the light of day, heads held high and tell us not to worry, everything is going to be alright. They accept our sheepish apologies when it turns out our knee jerk fear response was wrong. AGAIN. And never miss a step in telling us that we are WORTH protecting.
THAT is unnerving to you?
What the FUCK would make you feel SAFE?!
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