Poll: The Mutant registration act/Superhuman Registration Act

[malestrithe]

Yeah that battle caused a lot of damage, but this is a superhero universe where stuff like this happens all the time. Marvel has an agency designed to clean up messes like this called Damage Inc. In the DC universe, that tends to be handled by Wayne Industries.

Would not support an MRA/SHRA because it will cause too much harm for the hero's families. Secret identities serve a purpose. You would not want your villains to come to your front door to take revenge on your relations. Civil War proves that if you reveal you secret identity to the world, your aunt will get shot and the only way to fix it is to make a deal with the devil that will cost you your 25 year marriage in the bargain.

I would, however, support a Stormwatch like group. Not the New 52 version, which seems to think that keep the Earth around is more important than protecting the people on it. Instead, the original version whose job it is to come up with contingencies to counteract heroes and villains should they get out of hand. That would be a better use of my tax payer dollars.

 

[spartan231490]

No one should have to register just because they have an ability. I wouldn't support a mutant/superhuman registration act any more than I would support a martial artist registration act, or a chemist/explosive expert registration act. The fact is, that some people will always have abilities that give them the choice of wreaking mass destruction, that doesn't mean that they will, and that definitely doesn't mean they should be treated as though they might.

Most, in fact i would hope ALL, chemical explosive experts have a government approved degree, which means the government knows about them. That's pretty close to a registry when you think about it. If there was an explosion involving the experts specialty close to his home you can bet the police would be knocking on his door pretty quick.
Also the companies the experts work for have permits to use those explosives AND an employment registry of the people qualified and authorized to use them. The permits coming from the government usually.

You'd be surprised. Maybe all chemical explosive "experts" have a government approved degree, but you would be surprised by the number of people with absolutely no background in college chemistry who are capable of making things like thermite, napalm, gunpowder, ect. Probably even C4. Chemistry is actually really simple, and the ingredients for a lot of this stuff are very easy to get. If a homemade bomb went off, I would bet good money that more than half of the people capable of making it wouldn't show up on any government list. Certainly, if a commercial device went off, the list of people with access to it would be very short, but most of this stuff can be made at home very easily.

 

[Casual Shinji]

If super powered mutants actually inhabited our world I don't think they would live long enough to even get registered.

It's not like we could put them in jail or under heavy guard if they decide to break the law. The horrible truth is that we would probably kill them before they gain the capacity to cause massive amounts of death and destruction.

 

[xdom125x]

It depends on the form of registration, really. Lets use the Superhuman Registration Act as an example. It varied from book to book between "all supers need to be registered", "all supers need to be properly trained by the government" "all supers are drafted into the military without the ability to opt out", and a few other versions. I can agree with the first and second because the abilities these people have make a lot of them seriously dangerous. I'd prefer if the registration was a sort of secret list (high level clearance necessary to view it), so that the heroes that want to protect themselves and their loved ones from attack (supervillian or otherwise), but still wanted to be on the right side of the law could do both. But that type of secret would be impossible to keep for long. As for the superhero draft, that is a whole other problem. They are still people and didn't choose to get the powers they have, so I don't think they should be forced to be an army for anyone. I don't want the tech based superheroes drafted either, but they at least had a say in getting their powers.

I know that the mutant registration act usually gets the "it's the first step towards genocide" response, but a ton of mutants are literally living weapons that put guns to shame with how much damage they can do. So registering them seems pretty reasonable.

Of course, these registries should also list all tech based superheroes because they are just as large of a threat as people who were born with superpowers, and there isn't really that much practical difference between if the superpowers are natural or artificial.

 

[PurePareidolia]

I don't think the argument is relevant - superheroes are vigilantes who operate outside the law. "Registering" them as opposed to deputizing them under police jurisdiction would be a pointless effort, like calling for all software pirates to register themselves.

 

[Sean Hollyman]

I'd rather not let everyone know my power, keeps it a surprise see.

 

[370999]

Definitely not. You cultivate an environment where mutants are accepted & taught how to control their powers. Any bad use is investigated, and if it wasn't deliberate then they're given a free pass. There isn't anything different between mutants and humans in terms of what rights they should be given.

Also, we had this topic quite recently

there is a kid who has the habit of randomly killing anyone near him.

He wants to go for a walk in the local shopping center.

A character like Rogue get's knocked unconscious, I go to check her pulse...

There is a mutant who is able to alter reality to his dreams. There is no way to control it. What happens if he dreams of a zombie uprising.

 

[the abyss gazes also]

This idea of the "honest" ones is sort of interesting but looks at morality from a comic book stand point. If you apply comic book powers to the real world you end up with something more like "Watchmen" then you do the family friendly versions of any Superman franchise.

Now if you want to argue that they might resist registration, that I can agree with. But people resist gun registration. That doesn't mean it should be banned. Dangerous people are dangerous.

This does bring up the specter of Japanese interment camps, but, while I would probably support the registration act, I would not if it included something like this. That is just a recipe to create a but of jaded, angry people with eyeball lasers. But making people go to a Xavier style school to learn to control their powers would be smart.

While I think the damage in Avengers was unavoidable, or more to the fact that if the heroes weren't there the invading army would have broken more buildings and bodies than the heroes, just think back to many other fight scenes in comics, especially the one on ones. How many times have you seen Superman throw someone through a building? If it weren't drawn in a mostly sanitized environment, how many people do you think he has killed while flinging people around? Pre-the new 52, the big blue boy scout was oh-so very helpful, but if you go back to his first comics, he is really an uncaring, over zealous dick.

 

[Shinsei-J]

Civil War proves that if you reveal you secret identity to the world, your aunt will get shot and the only way to fix it is to make a deal with the devil that will cost you your 25 year marriage in the bargain.

I love you. I laughed so hard for 5mins that I almost through up, congratulations.
Though I do completely disagree with your point.

If People who own cars or firearms have to register themselves the guy with the power to boil you alive with a thought probably should too.

Well, if we look it in the way it was done in comics / cartoon I see a good reason to be against it: Those registartion facilities were run by Nazi-esque assholes who just wanted a "to kill" list.

But if it is a proper handled institotion: Yeah, basically what you wrote.

This is how i see this whole thing and infact I dont think people will be as evil as everyones saying.
Fact is just like any type of racism it's going to take time to heal but most mutants will see the point in registering.
The others will be fine because if they see the mutant who do register are being treated fairly, given schools like the x-men one and special rights for their and others saftey it will only be some time before they see the point to.
I don't even think it would be a regestery thing might just be a medical record or something.
But all in all it just has to be known for if someone holds up a bank with heat vision and thus abuses their power the authorities need to know.

 

[the clockmaker]

I would be entirely in favour of a superhero registration act and putting masses of reasearch into being able to put down superhumans if needs be. I mean, think about it, who do superheros answer to? What is to stop them deciding that we are unfit to rule ourselves? What happens if superman has a pychotic break?

Superhumans are pretty much a dictatorial wet dream in that it is the strongest immediatly enforcing their will upon society. They decide what it right and wrong and we cannot do anything to stop them.

And note that they very rarely seek to fix anything through the proper channels, spider man does not try to become a fireman, superman does not want to be a cop. That is because while they do care about what they think is right, they care more about being seen to be the one who doing the good. These are not stable people.

So I say, register all superhumans at birth, afford them all human rights and allow them pursue careers for the greater good if they wish. Then, if there is anyone, anyone at all shooting laser eyes down station street without authorisation, put them down.

 

[RJ 17]

If there was a guy out there who could create a supernova with just his body, I'd probably want someone keeping tabs on him.

Somehow I just don't think it would be too hard to keep track of someone like that, registration act or no registration act.

The key is to know what he's up to BEFORE a city gets vaporized.

As for me, yeah, I'd want super people registered. I'm not saying lock them down in a federal bureaucracy that demands 700 pages filled out in triplicate before you can go out and stop a bank robbery, but knowing who is who, who can do what, and where these guys are located isn't that invasive.

Sentient Captcha Strikes Again!
"Know Your Rights"

 

[Stalydan]

Supported on the basis that it wouldn't be an open system like anybody could see your power or identity just by looking for your name in a search engine. If somebody wants to reveal themselves then they could but they shouldn't be forced to.

Of course, I'd also say to that people with superpowers could become "heroes" but only if they demonstrate they're stable people. Train them all to use their powers responsibly but not let them become vigilantes. They could use their powers in self-defense and to perform a citizen's arrest but not become crime fighters if they're not signed up.

 

[malestrithe]

Civil War proves that if you reveal you secret identity to the world, your aunt will get shot and the only way to fix it is to make a deal with the devil that will cost you your 25 year marriage in the bargain.

I love you. I laughed so hard for 5mins that I almost through up, congratulations.
Though I do completely disagree with your point.

Sorry about that.

What's wrong with Stormwatch? It should be a viable option in a world where super powered heroes live. I'd rather have an agency policing superheroes and villains then what amounts to political hogwash like registration acts are.

 

[Fappy]

Assuming this is a hypothetical comic-type universe we're talking about I would have to say no. Considering New York city has incredible regenerative powers and the heroes we are trying to tie down are consistently saving the world from the brink of the abyss every other day I don't see how a government registration act would actually accomplish anything at all. It was a dumb idea in Civil War and it would be a dumb idea in any other universe that operates on the same rules.

 

[BiscuitTrouser]

That would only hold water if we had any policing of our own protectors.

Considering police in the US can do damn-near whatever they want...

I don't see how making mutants into police to protect against both evil mutants and evil people would make things any worse.

Registration or no, some mutants/humans will be evil and some will be good, and some that we hire to protect us will turn evil.

I thought the entire point of a "right to bare arms" was that people could hold firearms to prevent the policeforce/government from holding power of force over them. No matter how corrupt the police get we still have that. And we do have SOME policing of our own protectors. Mutants cant be matched by your every day man. Ever. Under any circumstances. Which really puts us at a disadvantage.

 

[rayen020]

It's one of those things. If it was based on discrimination like the Mutant registration acts were then no. If mutants weren't being discriminated against and there were superhumans in the mix then yes. That was the difference to me. There were superhumans but the only ones who had to register were mutants. But if all super powered humans had to register then i would support it. even if i was a superhuman.

 

[Risingblade]

Either way the average person is fucked :/