Saturday, October 5, 2019

On Superheroes and Accountability

I’m kind of in the tail end of an emotional crisis, I think? You know, one of those strings of weeks where I just keep telling myself I’ve contributed nothing to society, and can’t find a job because I’m apparently just that useless, and not sure what I can do about that.

Also my dad wants to see Joker, which is a bit of a surprise? Not that I’d mind seeing it, I just wasn’t expecting Dad to be into it.

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On Superheroes and Accountability

There was a post shared by the Texts from Superheroes Tumblr account, which itself screenshots and links to a Mashable article, that made me think about this. The gist of the article was that in The Dark Knight the resolution is hinged upon Batman using a device that accesses all of the cell phones in Gotham City to use them to locate the Joker. Mr. Fox is horrified at this, calling it an invasion of privacy, and Bruce can’t help but agree, but sees it as necessary. They shut down the device after its one use, and Mr. Fox resigns as Batman’s gadget-maker afterward.

However, in this year’s Spider-Man: Far From Home, the Plot involves Peter being given a computer system called E.D.I.T.H. in Tony Stark’s will, which also allows one to access any computer system in the world, including cell phones. It also gives someone control over an army of killer drones. The main Plot hinges on who gets control of this system. But unlike The Dark Knight, the possibility of destroying this entire system never comes up. In fact, no one really calls the thing unethical at all, and it’s more a question of who deserves this power rather than whether or not that power is too much for one person.

And that’s… kind of weird, guys.

Ever since the Marvel comic event Civil War, there’s been a lot of questions about accountability and the amount of power superheroes should have. That event is set off by a fight between D-list superheroes and some villains that led to the destruction of an elementary school, leading to people calling for superheroes being made answerable to the government. The problem was that the pro-registration side was essentially asking superheroes to be law enforcement, like police or even SHIELD agents, saying that at least that way they’d be accountable to the public for anything that went wrong.

Except… they wouldn’t be. As the past few years have shown us, in many instances there are cases where the police and other forms of law enforcement aren’t held accountable for anything they do wrong. I’m not going to be one of those people that tell you that cops are all evil, but facing the facts there are plenty of examples of bad cops who just get away with it. And even beyond that, we have things like the TSA being allowed to grope you at the airport or the terrible conditions of immigrants being detained at the border or the NSA illegally going through everyone’s phone and Internet data. Now imagine if the people perpetrating all of these abuses on the government’s behalf have superpowers.

That’s a bit terrifying, isn’t it? And according to some people at Marvel Comics, that’s the position we were meant to take: pro-registration. It’s awkward as fudge too, because there’s a scene where an anti-registration black superhero is killed by a cyborg Thor clone (just… roll with it), and all the pro-registration characters say “Well it’s what any cop would have done if faced with a threat! You can’t blame us for that.”

Put that on the list of “Things That Have Not Aged Well.”

One of the problems I had with CW’s Supergirl is that the show runs on the premise that our title character works for a government law enforcement agency, and at no point does someone have a problem with this. A Kryptonian, one of the most powerful types of beings in the known universe, is on a government payroll, and we’re all okay with this? Working for a government agency that has a database with the names and information of all extraterrestrial immigrants (and it’s only a bad thing when the bad guys steal it)?

It’s also a bit baffling because a lot of mainstream superhero fiction already has shown how these things can go wrong. Justice League: Unlimited did a much better storyline about how superheroes having too much power can be a bad thing, although to be fair in that show it wasn’t with invasive surveillance or government control as much as a giant laser gun from space. 

I understand that there’s a need to do more with superhero fiction than just “This person has powers/gadgets! And FIGHTS CRIME!” But Far From Home’s Plot involves casually handing a human rights violation to a high schooler, and the only questions we’re meant to ask are “Is Peter worthy of this responsibility?” instead of “HOLY S*** THAT IS TERRIFYING POWER FOR SOMEONE TO HAVE!”

The question of superhero accountability is a compelling one, which is why it’s come up in fiction so often. If you’re making superhero fiction, you’ve got to be thinking about it, especially in a time when we’re seeing how dangerous it is for people in power to have a lack of accountability. Just handing your heroes access to all of the private data in the world is just plain disturbing. And I’m not against the idea of superheroes working for the government, but there’s definitely has to be some work put into why this isn’t a terrible thing, why we shouldn’t be terrified of superhuman law enforcement.

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