Something for the Weekend

I’m trying to get a feel for how the voting-age people of would respond to a Metahuman Registration Act proposal, similar to Marvel Universe’s Mutant Registration Act and their later expansion, the Superhero Registration Act.  I think it’s a fairly safe bet that something along these lines would be proposed, but what form it would take, how much popular support it could muster, and how restrictive it would be are all questions that bear investigation.

Let me be clear: I do not propose to identify or delineate the actual provisions of a bill of this nature at this time; for one thing, it ought to develop over time, and the best way for that to happen is for the community to start thinking about it and discussing it.  To that end, I’d like to throw the question out there for your OCs to answer; further, I’ll list the responses of my characters so you can get a sense of where the issue will stand if no one else votes.  For the record, I’ve only included characters who are legally able to vote- characters who have a felony conviction on their record, for example, have not been given a say since they are expected to sit out the election, twiddling their thumbs.  Similarly, neither Sadie Hawkins (who is underage) nor Aristotle or Garanthraxus (who have no legal presence in this country) have been given the opportunity to weigh in.

For: 9 (39%)

Faye Wheeler- “I don’t understand why people are worried about it, really- I mean, we already have selective service for men when they turn eighteen; how is it any different to add a little bit that requires metahumans to identify themselves to increase awareness and public safety?”

Eloise Hammer- “Of course we should know who the metahumans around us are!  Those people are dangerous!”

Harry Trafalgar- “It’d make law enforcement a lot safer if we had some idea of what we were getting into; this wouldn’t be a cure-all, of course, but it would be a step in the right direction.”

Jacob Kramer- “Too many metahumans hide their identities and then act as if they’re above the law; requiring them to be answerable for their actions by making their identities public would cut down on this sort of reckless irresponsibility.”

Luke Vance/Apollo-“Criminals have always hidden their identities; traditionally, heroes have not.  When heroes hide their identities, how are the people they’re sworn to protect supposed to distinguish them from the villains?”

Zebediah Slade- “At some point, we are all accountable to someone; the problem is that masked vigilantes are accountable only to themselves and God.  Of those two authorities, one is dangerously flexible, while the other has what I can only describe as a nearly unbreakable policy of noninterference.  In short, it is up to human social institutions like the government to make and enforce laws that protect the public welfare, and allowing vigilantes to hide behind a mask of secrecy undermines their power and authority.”

Papa Joe- “Requiring heroes to reveal their identities could only help, capische? When you make it illegal for heroes to hide their names and powers, then only criminals will hide behind a mask and most everybody else will either sign on or go underground.  I know I would feel a lot safer with fewer loose cannons in the city!”

Reggie Lepusalleni- “Hey man, I gotta put my name and sh—on record for the f---in’ jury.  If they ain’t gotta do it, it’s entrapment or some sh—like that, right?”

Vassily Zyuganovich- “It is not that it will make it less perilous to confront a metahuman if we just know who they are; it is that in so knowing we can prepare, and that makes everyone safer, both officers and bystanders.”

Against: 9 (39%)

Angelo Troisi- “How long do you suppose it would be before the government, realizing that it’s in a bind, opts to draft metahumans to fight in some stupid border skirmish or other, eh?”

Hilda Jotunsdottir (Heretic)- “Placing that much power- and make no mistake, knowing who is a metahuman and who is not is power- in any single organization’s hands is dangerous and could easily be the precursor to a totalitarian state that would be much harder to root out than to simply prevent in the first place.”

James Harkness- “Metahumans are largely isolated in our culture and do not really consist of a separate anthropological group, per se.  Forcing them into the open, however, would change that dynamic, leading to a true elite as well as fostering a great deal of resentment between those people with metahuman abilities and those without.  Historically, forcing a division of society has been fatal to the parent society; even if we, as a people, were to survive, America as a culture would be utterly transformed, and there is no guarantee that it would be for the better.  Indeed, a not inconsiderable amount of evidence suggests that any such change would be catastrophic and traumatic.”

Evin Vance (Pyrite)- “Hell no.”

John Grady/Whiskey Jack- “The tendency of governments to grasp for power is bad news for the governed.  As such, it is the responsibility of the people and their guardians to be wary of any attempt to infringe upon their privacy, as humanity’s track record for knowing what to do with new information and when to stop is historically very bad.”

Madeleine Crowley- “Perhaps I’m being reactionary, but I have to wonder: once the government has identified all the metahumans, what’s the next step?  Do we then hunt down sorcerers?  Gifted athletes?  Anyone who’s been trained to fire a gun? Anyone with self-defense training?”

Shem- “Other countries have singled out portions of their populations for various reasons throughout history- the gypsies in Russia, the Jews in Nazi Germany, the Japanese in America- and it hasn’t turned out well for the minority groups.  Do we really think we’ll be any different?”

Alessia Troisi (Tyche)- “If you make wearing a mask a crime, pretty soon only criminals will wear masks.  That’s not hyperbole, by the way.  Metahumans who do not wish to divulge their identities will either go underground or continue their vigilante activities without any form of oversight.  As a result, police will end up having to divert manpower to track down metahumans who might otherwise be harmless as well as heroes who would otherwise be on their side; in the meantime, metahumans who have always been a threat to society are unlikely to curb their activities at all, thus further overloading a system that cannot be stretched to cope with the new and increased demands.”

Anne Friedland (Network)- “As a computer security specialist, I have some idea just how insecure data kept on Pentagon servers really is; if we can’t trust the government brains to keep our nuclear weapon codes and bank accounts safe, do we really want them sitting on a list of all the powerful metahumans living in the country?”

Neutral: 5 (22%)

Kortney Hollis- “I guess I just don’t understand the debate.  I’m not against registration in principle, but I would want a degree of certainty that the information gathered would be at least as secure as my social security number.”

Victoria Vance (Liberty Belle)- “Put it up for a popular vote; I do not have an opinion either way at this time, nor do I see any way in which it could affect me, personally, but I can certainly understand if not everybody feels the same way.”

Kachay Vance (Will-O-Wisp)- “Frankly, I’d be more concerned with getting the names of metahuman criminals into the hands of the public, although I can see how that might be problematic from a keeping-the-people-safe standpoint.  Creating a new class of supervillain seems problematic, and we might want to explore the ramifications in more depth before we commit ourselves in one direction or the other.”

Eleanora Martinez- “I’ve got mixed feelings.  Like most people in law enforcement, I can definitely see the professional benefits that would accrue to having more detailed information about any potential unsub; the problem is that, to some extent, we rely on vigilantes to take up the slack in situations that regular police are ill-equipped to handle.  Attempting to force metahumans into the public eye could have a chilling effect on the amount of help we could rely on and that, by and large, would not be good for anyone.”

Regan Chapman- “Hey, man, say what you want.  No one will ever learn that my secret identity is Supercilious Man, Master of the Cutting Sneer!”