Marvel's Civil War: Would you side with Iron Man or Captain America?

**Madame Adequate** · 12-03-2014, 10:17 PM

They tried to set this up as an analogy to other first responders, and the principle isn't entirely unreasonable given the setting (even though a law mandating registration on the basis of who and what you are would never stand up to Constitutional scrutiny) but it didn't make any god damn sense in the execution. Yeah, paramedics and cops and stuff are given extensive training and supposed to be held to account, but superheroes don't choose to be what they are by and large.

Most heroes are gonna do the right thing, and most villains are not, by virtue of their nature. A voluntary scheme set up explicitly to train newbies how best to use their powers, how to keep civilians safe, which kept their identities secret even within most of the organization, etc., would have been accepted by just about everyone except Frank Castle. You'd get some rookies who overestimate themselves at first, sure, but if you get a united front of the Big Shots like Cap and Iron Man and Thor to say "Hey the Superhero Training and Support Act is a great idea, we encourage everyone with powers to register, we can all do better things more effectively" would get a lot of those kids on board anyway.

Instead Tony "Der Fuhrer" Stark decides to fight and throw into negative-zone prison everyone who opposes mandatory registration.

e; Yeah I am pretty confident the movies will do it far better than the comics did, but I will never pass up a chance to bitch about Civil War.

**Madame Adequate** · 12-03-2014, 10:30 PM

hey guys remember that time the side going on about accountability and registration to prevent accidents and stuff ended up killing Goliath and just shrugging their shoulders and moving on without a second thought because eh who cares about stuff like accountability

**Shorty** · 12-03-2014, 10:34 PM

Cap and the side of opposition are concerned with maintaining their privacy. So, okay, sure. Is there any real reason why superheroes could not privately register their details with the government in order to not be held accountable on a civilian level to the rest of the nation? Was there any reason for Peter Parker to publicly unmask himself? Clearly it served as a plot device to swell some drama between the opposing sides, but it doesn't seem like there was a real necessity to it. I don't see why we can't have our superheroes register privately in order to be held accountable on a government level for any misdoings or accidents or so on instead of risking an omission of privacy to the public.

I'm not familiar with the intimate details of SHRA, just trying to arrange a compromise here for fictional events which would work for all parties!

**Lone Wolf Leonhart** · 12-03-2014, 10:53 PM

Just to clarify:

My intent with the original post was to see which character people felt aligned with their ideals if they were in that type of situation.

I was going for comic and movie alike as I imagine the basis is similar for both

**Slothy** · 12-03-2014, 11:10 PM

Originally Posted by Shorty

I don't see why we can't have our superheroes register privately in order to be held accountable on a government level for any misdoings or accidents or so on instead of risking an omission of privacy to the public.

That was what they did. But then the government put Norman Osborn in charge of SHIELD, and Tony Stark not only had to destroy every copy of the registration list that was running loose in SHIELDs database to keep it from him, but also erase all of the information he held in his brain so that they wouldn't be able to pull it out of him with a telepath, or by dissecting his brain if he died. Mind you, that was an excellent story in his solo series, but jayzus it's just a bad idea to have lists of super heroes and all of their secret identities lying around. Sure it means you can't arrest them if they break the law unless you catch them in costume, but it also means you don't get villains getting their hands on the list and systematically destroying their lives. That tends to happen often enough anyway.

**Shorty** · 12-03-2014, 11:12 PM

It's a bad idea to be sure, which is why it was such a great plot piece used in Mission: Impossible. I would still say it's safer to have a privatized list available only to certain individuals rather than the public but hey ho.

**Pant Leg Eater from the Bad World** · 12-04-2014, 12:21 AM

I don't have an answer and I won't read this thread because I haven't finished reading this event yet.

**escobert** · 12-04-2014, 12:37 AM

I lean towards Capin smurf YEAH MERICA's side but, I hate the actor who's played him and Iron man is badass.

**Spooniest** · 12-04-2014, 01:40 AM

Originally Posted by Lone Wolf Leonhart

After a terrible accident involving the super hero team New Warriors results in the death of hundreds of school children, the long debated Super Hero Registration Act is finally made law.

Heroes must register their identities with the government and be trained as proper law enforcement officers. Failure to register is a crime punishable by incarceration.

Uh...

Yeah. Regular old cops are supposed to incarcerate the Hulk. Mm hm.

This storyline is bollocks.

**Shorty** · 12-04-2014, 01:52 AM

Regular old cops don't come into it, the rebels are tracked down by superheroes themselves. Also, Bruce Banner sides in favor of the act and is all for it.