# Legality of super heroes **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 27, 2016, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-super-heroes/747345 "2016-02-27T23:12:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2016, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-super-heroes/747345/21 "2016-02-28T21:56:31Z")
The webcomic Grrl Power takes the sensible position that while supers can use their powers as they like so long as they don’t hurt anyone, if you want to stop criminals you have to get a badge. No vigilantism. And they don’t recruit people at gunpoint Marvel Registration style, they just offer supers lots and lots of money to work for them. The lawsuit/property damage issue is touched on too some, such as in the advice on how to minimize the issue. One bit I recall offhand is the recommendation to throw bad guys into the ground, not through walls; that not only does less property damage (the earth being mostly a big ball of rock) and is much less likely to hit an innocent person, but any property that\* does\* get damaged is probably going to be government owned. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2016, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-super-heroes/747345/22 "2016-02-29T09:34:24Z")
> [@furryman](#): > > I remember reading a short story where the guy fights crime for awhile, then is hit with a ton of law suits. He moves to a remote island to get away from it all. A really early example of this is the original _King Kong_ sequel _Son of Kong_. Although it isn’t a great film, kind of just a quicky-sequel, at the beginning Denham is being swamped with lawsuits over all the damage & deaths Kong caused in NYC, and flees back to Skull Island to escape them. Kind of a hip idea for such an old film. This idea is one of the things I really liked about the first trailers for _Batman v Superman_. Usually once a superhero arrives it’s all just happiness & peace and waving & cheering for him. I loved how they opened the sequel with the idea of everyone being incredibly suspicious of him. Who is he? What are his intentions? Where are his loyalties? And the idea that now that there’s a god-like being on Earth, like it or not, absolutely **everything** would change. The whole notion of nation-states, militaries, religious cultures, strategic alliances, regional conflicts, everything would be effected. And even though _Man of Steel_ ended with him reassuring the US military that he’s _‘…about as American as you can get’_, it looks as though three years later things have changed a bit. He’s got his own personal squad of Praetorian Guard, S-emblazoned soldiers, and he’s very arrogant and dismissive of this uppity ‘bat’ vigilante daring to challenge his authority. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2016, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-super-heroes/747345/23 "2016-02-29T11:06:16Z")
Well unless their are obvious super villains that stand up and challenge them, I frankly think it would be hard for them to find much to do. Now the comics show police cars chasing bank robbers, or some mega plane about to crash where supes flies in and becomes an extra plane engine but such things are actually pretty rare and I doubt supes would be standing by ready to do such jobs. So to really be effective he would have to be in tune with police radios and in such cases he would practically be a deputy because someone flying in at 200 mph and jumping into a tense crime scene would cause alot of problems. And thats just Superman who has the ability to fly anywhere and see anything so how about lesser heroes like say Spiderman who can only go as fast as they can sling web and who might be miles away from a crime scene or burning building or even a cat who’s stuck up a tree. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2016, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-super-heroes/747345/24 "2016-02-29T17:34:38Z")
> [@furryman](#): > > I remember reading a short story where the guy fights crime for awhile, then is hit with a ton of law suits. He moves to a remote island to get away from it all. The title “Batman v. Superman” has always suggested to me that the movie is going to show them winding up in litigation. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2016, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-super-heroes/747345/25 "2016-02-29T20:29:55Z")
Heh. Could be _Batman ex rel. City of Gotham v. Superman ex rel. United States_. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2016, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-super-heroes/747345/26 "2016-02-29T20:39:55Z")
… ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2016, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-super-heroes/747345/27 "2016-02-29T21:25:44Z")
For a handful of superheroes, it really doesn’t matter what the law allows. How are you going to enforce your decisions on Superman, Hancock or, to a lesser extent, the Hulk, if they don’t want to listen to you? ---
**Author:** ![Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blue_blistering_barnacle/32/3386_2.png) [@Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blue_Blistering_Barnacle)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2016, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-super-heroes/747345/28 "2016-02-29T22:22:37Z")
“Remember the Keene act!” “Spirit of '77!” ---
**Author:** ![chorpler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chorpler/32/2888_2.png) [@chorpler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chorpler)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2016, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-super-heroes/747345/29 "2016-03-01T04:17:17Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > The webcomic Grrl Power takes the sensible position that while supers can use their powers as they like so long as they don’t hurt anyone, if you want to stop criminals you have to get a badge. No vigilantism. And they don’t recruit people at gunpoint Marvel Registration style, they just offer supers lots and lots of money to work for them. > > The lawsuit/property damage issue is touched on too some, such as in the advice on how to minimize the issue. One bit I recall offhand is the recommendation to throw bad guys into the ground, not through walls; that not only does less property damage (the earth being mostly a big ball of rock) and is much less likely to hit an innocent person, but any property that\* does\* get damaged is probably going to be government owned. Similarly, the “Super Powereds” series by Drew Hayes involves a group of college students at one of the University of California campuses, and who are also enrolled with a bunch of other students in the secret “heroing” college for “supers” (people who have superpowers they can control). A bunch of people get cut each year until only ten people graduate from each class of several hundred incoming new students. The ten who pass are legally allowed to be “heroes,” which means they can fight supervillains when the need arises. Part of the hero training involves minimizing collateral damage and lawsuit/compensation potential. Non-“hero” supers are allowed to save people from attacks and disasters and clean stuff up and whatnot, but are not allowed to fight supervillains. So this group of friends has to deal with the knowledge that unless they’re the absolute cream of the crop, they won’t get to continue on and become heroes. (They also have a Deep Dark Secret that they have to try to keep, but that’s not relevant to this discussion.) I’m liking it quite a bit, but it’s not finished yet. The books are divided by school year, similar to Harry Potter, and I think they’re available to read free at the author’s web site. I will have to take a look at this “Grrl Power” webcomic. It sounds interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blue_blistering_barnacle/32/3386_2.png) [@Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blue_Blistering_Barnacle)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2016, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-super-heroes/747345/30 "2016-03-01T04:30:05Z")
> [@chorpler](#): > > Similarly, the “Super Powereds” series by Drew Hayes involves a group of college students at one of the University of California campuses, and who are also enrolled with a bunch of other students in the secret “heroing” college for “supers” (people who have superpowers they can control). A bunch of people get cut each year until only ten people graduate from each class of several hundred incoming new students. The ten who pass are legally allowed to be “heroes,” which means they can fight supervillains when the need arises. Part of the hero training involves minimizing collateral damage and lawsuit/compensation potential. Non-“hero” supers are allowed to save people from attacks and disasters and clean stuff up and whatnot, but are not allowed to fight supervillains. So this group of friends has to deal with the knowledge that unless they’re the absolute cream of the crop, they won’t get to continue on and become heroes. (They also have a Deep Dark Secret that they have to try to keep, but that’s not relevant to this discussion.) > > I’m liking it quite a bit, but it’s not finished yet. The books are divided by school year, similar to Harry Potter, and I think they’re available to read free at the author’s web site. > > I will have to take a look at this “Grrl Power” webcomic. It sounds interesting. Sounds a little like Magellan , a webcomic. But little emphasis on the ‘legal’ part, and I think they have a much better graduation rate. ---
**Author:** ![Lorne\_Armstrong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/87869e/32.png) [@Lorne\_Armstrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lorne_Armstrong)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2016, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-super-heroes/747345/31 "2016-03-01T07:13:22Z")
I always wondered how Clark Kent could get a TB test being that they’re required for many jobs. Obviously, the needle wouldn’t pierce his skin. Also, what if he got a job that required fingerprints? Wouldn’t that out him as Superman? ---
**Author:** ![Find\_Friends](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@Find\_Friends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Find_Friends)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2016, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-super-heroes/747345/32 "2016-03-01T08:48:28Z")
I’ve often wondered how involving an apparent minor, such as Robin, would actually work out. This would also apply to Green Arrow and Speedy, and any number of DC duos. I recall reading one reprint in which Batman went from being a suspicious vigilante in the eyes of the police to accepted deputy of the law upon the recommendation of Commissioner Gordon. That’s fine, but it left off answering how Robin’s participation, however willing, could be legally acceptable. The term “child endangerment” comes to mind. There was one story from the Fifties, with a splash panel showing Bruce and his ward Dick in a courtroom, being legally forced apart. There were shadowy overhead images of each in their costumed identities. But the story involved only their civilian identities. (Naturally, there was a pleasant resolution.) We never saw any officials try to confront the Bat guy and say that they wished to speak to him about a sensitive matter. ---
**Author:** ![Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blue_blistering_barnacle/32/3386_2.png) [@Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blue_Blistering_Barnacle)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2016, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-super-heroes/747345/33 "2016-03-01T13:53:12Z")
> [@Find\_Friends](#): > > I’ve often wondered how involving an apparent minor, such as Robin, would actually work out. This would also apply to Green Arrow and Speedy, and any number of DC duos. > > I recall reading one reprint in which Batman went from being a suspicious vigilante in the eyes of the police to accepted deputy of the law upon the recommendation of Commissioner Gordon. That’s fine, but it left off answering how Robin’s participation, however willing, could be legally acceptable. The term “child endangerment” comes to mind. > > There was one story from the Fifties, with a splash panel showing Bruce and his ward Dick in a courtroom, being legally forced apart. There were shadowy overhead images of each in their costumed identities. But the story involved only their civilian identities. (Naturally, there was a pleasant resolution.) > > We never saw any officials try to confront the Bat guy and say that they wished to speak to him about a sensitive matter. In “The Dark Knight Returns”, Commissioner Gordon retires and his replacement makes it a priority to arrest the vigilante, Batman (who has himself come out of retirement). When he is spotted with a new " ‘Boy’ Wonder", the new commissioner instructs her assistant to add Child Endangerment to ‘the list’. ---
**Author:** ![SpyOne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@SpyOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpyOne)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-super-heroes/747345/34 "2016-03-02T14:18:53Z")
> [@furryman](#): > > I remember reading a short story where the guy fights crime for awhile, then is hit with a ton of law suits. He moves to a remote island to get away from it all. The central character of the comic Ex Machina tried fighting crime after he got his superpowers, but shortly figured out that it just doesn’t work like it does in the comics. So, he decides to try to do some actual good in the world, and runs for mayor. 😉 It makes for an interesting story, with most of the action set in the “present day” where he is Mayor of New York, but occasional flashbacks to stuff that happened when he was “The Great Machine”. ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-super-heroes/747345/35 "2016-03-02T15:02:37Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > How are you going to enforce your decisions on Superman, Face it, superman’s arch-nemesis is a guy who’s only super power is baldness. If he wants to try to take on the entire US, the government can train thousands of bald guys in giving melodramatic speeches to utterly ruin his day. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-super-heroes/747345/36 "2016-03-02T18:05:37Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > There’s a [legal blog](http://lawandthemultiverse.com/) dedicated to these kinds of questions. One of the famous ones is Superman’s immigration status in the US - the consensus seems to be that he would fall under a clause providing US citizenship to abandoned children found in the US, unless proof of a non-US origin is shown before their 18th birthday. > > > [@Finagle](#): > > > > Wait, what? Being found in the wreckage of an alien spacecraft isn’t proof of a non-US origin? > [@RealityChuck](#): > > It was established in continuity: the Kent found him and gave him to the orphanage as a foundling. After a few days, they decided to official adopt him. > > Clark would have been issued a birth certificate as a foundling. I believe the point is that proof of a non-US origin would have to be presented to _authorities_ to the extent that an official ruling could be issued (e.g. from Family Court) before the person’s 18th birthday. Otherwise, you could say that even for a mundane case of an abandoned child, _some_ proof exists _somewhere_ that the child was not actually born in the country where they were found, even if that proof is unavailable to authorities. The legal principle is about the fact that the child, being a person with rights and all, deserves to have a reasonably clear and secure legal status. You can’t just let an innocent person spend their entire life in fear that a birth certificate will show up at age 50 and lead to their deportation to a faraway country where they don’t know the language and have to rebuild their life from scratch. Superman presumably would have been issued a “foundling” birth certificate (these do actually exist) and would have adoption papers identifying him as the new Clark Kent. If these papers were not officially overturned in the time allowed, then he is conclusively deemed a US citizen for life. And no, being found in a crashed alien spacecraft isn’t proof of a foreign origin. A human parent with US citizenship could have come across a crashed and abandoned alien spacecraft while wandering around Kansas and decided, in a fit of deviousness, to abandon their baby there. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-super-heroes/747345/37 "2016-03-02T18:32:32Z")
> [@Lorne\_Armstrong](#): > > I always wondered how Clark Kent could get a TB test being that they’re required for many jobs. Obviously, the needle wouldn’t pierce his skin. Also, what if he got a job that required fingerprints? Wouldn’t that out him as Superman? That was a problem on the TV show Smallville, the inability to take his blood due to needles breaking. The fingerprint thing is an interesting question, but to do it you’d need Superman’s fingerprints, and how are you going to do that, give him a cup of coffee then steal it from the wastebasket? And since Clark is such a do-gooder it’s unlikely that his prints are on file. Of course this is a reality in which people can’t tell that Superman is Clark Kent without glasses on… ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-super-heroes/747345/38 "2016-03-02T18:40:57Z")
> [@Lorne\_Armstrong](#): > > I always wondered how Clark Kent could get a TB test being that they’re required for many jobs. Obviously, the needle wouldn’t pierce his skin. Also, what if he got a job that required fingerprints? Wouldn’t that out him as Superman? Back in the Silver Age comics, Superman was able to give Lois Lane a blood transfusion (temporarily giving her super-powers) by puncturing his own skin with his fingernail. So he’d better be careful scratching himself, or he’ll end up looking like Edward Scissorhands. (We won’t discuss the fact that, not only is Lois a compatible blood type, but she can accept blood from an alien donor with a totally different ancestry. The wonders of comic-book science!) ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-super-heroes/747345/39 "2016-03-02T19:10:53Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > (We won’t discuss the fact that, not only is Lois a compatible blood type, but she can accept blood from an alien donor with a totally different ancestry. The wonders of comic-book science!) Well, yeah, Krypton blood is poisonous to Lois… unless she has super-healing, of course. And we all know that a human transfused with Krypton blood (under Earth’s sun, anyway) gets super-healing power. So she would be perfectly fine. Look, you can’t argue with Science, you know. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-super-heroes/747345/40 "2016-03-02T19:16:48Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > …Of course this is a reality in which people can’t tell that Superman is Clark Kent without glasses on… Speaking of which: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Y8iRvQdSGA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Y8iRvQdSGA) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-super-heroes/747345.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-super-heroes/747345.md?page=3)