Post by Super Chick on Feb 21, 2015 2:52:43 GMT -7
SHOULD HEROES BE UNMASKED?
by Joe Robertson
The question of whether the masked vigilantes and criminals who roam our streets should be unmasked is one of contention among most of the country's populace. The Superhuman Registration Act tried to enforce it over the past couple of years, but even then there was mass rejection of the idea among our most prominent and known super heroes. Captain America in specific led a revolt against the government for what he believed was a fundamental disregard for freedom in America, something he fought for in WWII and determined was important enough of an issue to turn against his government's law that he felt was unjust and be hunted as a traitor to his country. Steve Rogers was a war hero, but the many in the country forgot that and put him behind bars. He was exonerated of his crimes after the war was over, but was his battle just or was it simply another hero gone awry?
Many stand in the middle on the topic, choosing not to take sides, but that number has swayed more recently after CEO Jeremy Briggs began calling for the masks to be taken off and everyone to be equal. More of the people are arguing for the heroes to stop seeming to elevate themselves above the regular men and women of the country. They want them to take off the masks and stop patrolling our streets as vigilantes but rather to take on the uniform of police or military. These people believe that just because someone can level a building with their fist doesn't make them better than the rest of us, and on some level they are right.
My argument is that just because someone has super powers or mutant powers, they aren't "better" than the average man in that they still have the civil rights granted to them by our Constitution. They are still subject to our laws, and if they steal, assault or kill an innocent human being, they should be brought to justice. But sometimes not being limited by the laws has its advantages. Take for instance the "super villains" that also reside in our city. They certainly have no qualms about wearing masks and taking whatever they want from anyone and everyone. They steal, kill, and worse and oftentimes the only people who can go up against them are the same people we want to limit to our standards of normalcy.
Let's take this a step in another direction. The SRA wanted the identities of every super powered and mutant individual to be recorded in a SHIELD database. We all know SHIELD has its flaws. They are not infallible as the symbiote invasion and many other instances have proven. If we unmasked our heroes, if we recorded their names and their abilities in a database, almost certainly someone evil would get access to it and soon the people those heroes loved would be in danger. And let's face it: that could be me or you! The fact is if they are masked heroes, we simply don't know if we know them or not!
Beyond that, just unmasking a villain (or heo) does not prevent their behavior. People will do what they choose to do. If they choose to do good, we've called them heroes. When they choose to do evil or break laws, we call them villains. In essence, would unmasking these individuals really change anything? I doubt it.
Jeremy Briggs wants to make our heroes less celebrity and more common. He wants us to deflate these role models for our children and restrict them by the same laws that keep our police from being effective. Moreover, the fact that their families and friends would be placed in danger by unmasking them seems to be unrealized by Briggs and his followers. Personally, I think we should leave our heroes alone. Yes they make mistakes, and sometimes they cost us millions of tax dollars for rebuilding our infrastructure, but who else will protect us from Carnage, Galactus, Abomination, Ultron, Kang, Apocalyps, Thanos, Loki from Asgard, or our own world dominating evil leaders like Doctor Doom?
I think instead of unmasking them, we should probably just tell them "thank you."