Nonsensical politics applied to superheroes
I dont hate the idea of politics applied to superheroes because it can lead to some interesting stories. I also dont hate the idea of a registration act because it has been handled great with Watchmen, X Men, The Incredibles, and even in the Dark Knight Returns. I just dont think those things were executed very well in this comic. If you are going to add politics to a medium like this I want it to be executed in a way that makes sense and is engaging. Unfortunately I dont think it was either. I was planning on reading the whole story arc, but I just couldnt get past this issue. Ok so the story begins with Nitro destroying a city and the people blaiming superheroes for the death and destruction. I dont really see how this is the heroes fault. Nitro was a supervillain so this is a villains fault and its not like the heroes didnt try to stop him. They were simply fighting a ticking time bomb and simply couldnt stop him. It also doesnt make sense that the heroes get all of the blame. The government knew this person existed and knew how big of a threat he was. If the government left a man with the power to destroy an entire city free they should have dealt with it. If the heroes couldnt stop him, then it is the governments fault for letting vigilantees handle an issue that was clearly an issue of national security. The blame doesnt belong solely to the heroes. It is also the problem of the government and the villain who did this. The comic even points out how illogical the peoples' complaints are when Johnny Storm points that the Fantastic Four defeated Galactus a villain who would have devoured the entire planet if they hadnt stopped him. I was willing to look over this fact if the rest of the story seemed promising. Then we get to the Registration Act. Ok so if the heroes turn over their secret identities and become government agents they can still fight crime and they also get paid and benifits. This doesnt seem like a bad thing to me. They will be able to legally continue what they do and continue helping people. Their big complaint seems to be that they will have to give over their secret identities and may endager the ones they love. This is a noble argument, but couldnt they just approach the government and tell them that they will sign it and give over their secret identities if they protect their families or just to keep their identities classified. That seems to make sense to me. I was even going to forgive it after that, but it finally became to much to bare when it came to Captain America's reasoning for opposing it. He says that the heroes have a right to oppose it it and the government has no right to do it. Except they kind of do no matter how heroic they are they are still vigilantees breaking the law. They are lucky they havent arrested them if we are adding real life politics and laws into this world. I dont want to get into how stupid it is about the Mutant Superhero relationship. This was a very polarizing comic and you will either love it or hate it. I have given my reasoning for hating it. I think you will have to determine how you feel about it on your own.
