Batman & Superman: Pro-Reg. or Anti-Reg.?

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leatherwing

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Edited By leatherwing

Poll Batman & Superman: Pro-Reg. or Anti-Reg.? (23 votes)

Batman Anti-Reg. & Superman Pro-Reg. 30%
Batman Pro-Reg. & Superman Anti-Reg. 22%
Both Anti-Reg. & Other Pro Reg. 70%
Both Pro-Reg. & Other Anti-Reg 9%

My friend and I are having a debate. We were talking about the idea of DC having a Civil War storyline like that of Marvel. I suggested that Batman would lead the Anti-Reg. side and Superman the Pro-Reg. side. He suggested it as the other way around. I'd say we both gave some good points as to why Bats or Supes would lead each respective sides. Here were our reasons:

Me: Batman Anti-Reg. & Superman Pro-Reg.

In Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns, we see Batman come out of retirement and have a showdown with Superman, who had become a government employee. Many may argue that that universe was just Frank Miller's twisted version, but we've seen Superman side with the government in other stories too, and almost never Batman. While both Batman and Superman are opposed to giving up their identities, I believe that if it came down to it, Superman would be the first one out of the two to register with the government and give up his identity. In The Marvel Civil War storyline, the event that triggers the Registration Act is the blowing up of an elementary school. After an event like this and rants from enraged parents and people, Superman would probably reluctantly register and become the leader of the Pro-Reg. side out of guilt.

Him: Batman Pro-Reg. & Superman Anti-Reg.

Although Batman has always kept his identity secret, an event that makes people want superheroes to register, must be bad. Maybe even so bad that it could cause Batman to lead the Pro Reg. side. Batman has never trusted superhumans. He's even developed contingency plans to take down his own friends, in case they ever go rogue. On the other hand, Superman has always worried about keeping his identity a secret to protect his family. This would motivate Superman to lead the Anti-Reg. side, even if he is against his bestfriend.

What are your thoughts? Who would lead each side? Would they both be on the same side? Or would someone else lead one of the sides, or two other people leading each side? Let me know in the comments below, and please vote!

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TimeLordScience

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They'd probably both be anti-registration.

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Pizzaman

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#2  Edited By Pizzaman

I think they'd both be Anti-Reg.

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MatthewParker

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Superman would be Pro-Registration, and Bats would be Anti-Registration.

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Saren

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Batman is likely to be more Pro-Registration than Anti- because of his fundamental distrust of superhumans, but he's more likely to build a metahuman-monitoring system like Brother Eye than side with the government.

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Night4345

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@saren said:

Batman is likely to be more Pro-Registration than Anti- because of his fundamental distrust of superhumans, but he's more likely to build a metahuman-monitoring system like Brother Eye than side with the government.

This.

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VoloErgoMalus

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@saren said:

Batman is likely to be more Pro-Registration than Anti- because of his fundamental distrust of superhumans, but he's more likely to build a metahuman-monitoring system like Brother Eye than side with the government.

Register his identity with the government and sell out? Work for a higher authority than himself? Fat chance. He's right up there with GA in terms of outlaw superheroes who would never go pro-reg.

And Superman is extremely likely to be anti-reg as well. He doesn't want the boundary between his secret identity and superheroics (or those between others' as he cares about other people) to be erased because he identifies as a volunteer just doing his bit, given his extraordinary powers. He believes that real superheroics come from the heart, not government compulsion, and that no man is a mask.

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Squalleon

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I really don't know, Batman has shown plenty of times a distrust towards Super-humans but I really don't see him working for a goverment or any authority he doesn't respect or infuence heavily.
Superman would either be anti-reg because without secret IDs he would lose his chance on a human life or wouldn't take part at all, seeing it as another one of those moments in human history/politics he shouldn't interfere.

I see Luthor as the leader of Pro-reg and Wonder Woman as the leader of Anti-reg. Luthor for obvious reasons and Diana because of her views on freedom, her compassion seeing the heroics of the super-hero community and their true will to do good, her role as themyscira's ambassador and because she knows a open Identity can bring enemies to their doorstep but also because of her warrior's spirit she certaintly wouldn't back away and would take part at an event like this.

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Saren

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#8  Edited By Saren

@darthmummy said:

Register his identity with the government and sell out? Work for a higher authority than himself? Fat chance. He's right up there with GA in terms of outlaw superheroes who would never go pro-reg.

Read:

he's more likely to build a metahuman-monitoring system like Brother Eye than side with the government.

Batman might not keep the registration aspect, but he'd have ways and means to eliminate every single errant metahuman on file and ready for deployment just like Tony Stark had the S.P.I.N tech.

Batman thinks Green Arrow is an Errol Flynn wannabe at the best of times. He's nothing like Green Arrow and never has been; a lot of the stuff Batman has done over the years would have Ollie frothing at the mouth and ranting about fascism. Both pre- and post-Flashpoint, Batman created/co-created Brother Eye after deciding metahumans couldn't be trusted.

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VoloErgoMalus

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#9  Edited By VoloErgoMalus

@saren: I agreed with the proposition that Brother Eye Batman is more likely than pro-reg Batman, but not that that pro-reg is more likely than anti-reg. And I didn't say he was very much like GA, only that they were alike in that they'd both turn out to be firmly anti-reg.

Regardless, the whole Brother Eye thing does give me pause. Batman does like to be very private and keep his secret identity while he spies on other heroes and pokes his nose into their business. This hypocrisy sort of reminds me of a certain former NSA director who supposedly valued his privacy. So maybe pro-reg isn't such a huge jump from Brother Eye, as long as the rules of registration don't apply to Batman, who's meant to be enforcing them.

Sheesh, he spends a lot of time doing stuff he tells people not to do. He imposes on everyone but himself with his attempts to restructure his environment. Apparently he's the only one allowed to commit or fight crime in Gotham. Imagine an even more hypocritical Batman who held the bat-family to the no-killing rule, but not himself.

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BlackWind

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#10  Edited By BlackWind

Honestly neither should be pro. Batman is soooo huge on secrecy, but he feels everyone needs done monitered and spied on, but would never work for the government or anyone he didn't think he could control. And Superman as he says "needs to be Clark." He needs separation of the identities and knows the government isn't always honest..

But these days people love to twist Superman into either a government slave, or a tyrant dictator.

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VoloErgoMalus

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#11  Edited By VoloErgoMalus

Honestly neither would be either.

But these days people love to twist Superman into either a government slave, or a tyrant dictator.

Or something similarly intimidating. It's just comic book cynicism. People don't value good Superman for what he is. No, he has to be a hard-minded warrior badass or struggle with the incessant urge to dominate the world.

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redleader1

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If they are in character than most certainly both would be pro registration. Batman is already weary of super powered people and superman would be willing to do what he beloved would protect the most amount of people. Batman is not anti authority it's just that he needs to go outside the law in order to fight the corruption if gotham so it is logical that if the situation is right he would join the pro registration.

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Jphu8414

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#13  Edited By Jphu8414

Anybody who says that Superman would be Pro-Reg clearly doesn't known anything about the character. If anything he would be just as Anti-Reg as Batman or any of the other heroes.

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SilverPool

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#14  Edited By SilverPool

Neither of them are d bags like Tony Stark. They'd both be anti-registration because of the threat registration could have to the heroes' families.

I doubt Batman would be cool with pro registration after the Crime Syndicate revealed Grayson's identity.

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BlackWind

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#15  Edited By BlackWind

@darthmummy: I'm suddenly reminded of some XTREME 90s kids wondering why Static wouldn't kill drug pushers because its what their stupid Leifeld-esque comic heroes would do. And Virgil got depressed because he was appalled that young people thought a hero was a gritty killer.

The government has done too many shi*** things for any hero in DC to just say "these are definitely completely trustworthy people."

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Boynerdgeek

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#16  Edited By Boynerdgeek

Meh...I never think DC will do Civil War. People often forget that DC Universe and Marvel Universe works differently. Superheroes in DC Universe tend to be more heroic (sure they have some disagreement but at the end they will find a way not to lead a big superheroes war among each other) and is worship by people while heroes in Marvel Universe tend to be more argue with each other regarding who is right, who is wrong etc.

In the general sense, DC comics is about super heroes who happen to be people, while Marvel is about people who happen to be super heroes.

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Benk111

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in the dc universe the government knows many superhero's secret identity and with people like amanda waller in the government there's no way either of them would trust the government. Also batman and superman have a better friendship than steve and cap; so, they're more likely to make a group decision.

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Boynerdgeek

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#18  Edited By Boynerdgeek

@benk111: Yes ! you totally make a great point. Superman and Batman have alot of time spend time together :)

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Battle_Forum_Junkie

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dernman

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@pizzaman said:

I think they'd both be Anti-Reg.

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TDK_1997

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Both of them will probably be Anti-Reg since both of them don't trust the government that much and wouldn't want anyone to know their secret identities. But in the same time there is a higher chance for Batman to be Pro-Reg since he doesn't trust every single superhuman out there and would likely be Pro-Reg just because of that. And in the same time he would never do it simply because he would not side with the government or other authorities with so much power and will probably construct something like Brother Eye again.

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frozen

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#22 frozen  Moderator

Meh...I never think DC will do Civil War. People often forget that DC Universe and Marvel Universe works differently. Superheroes in DC Universe tend to be more heroic (sure they have some disagreement but at the end they will find a way not to lead a big superheroes war among each other) and is worship by people while heroes in Marvel Universe tend to be more argue with each other regarding who is right, who is wrong etc.

In the general sense, DC comics is about super heroes who happen to be people, while Marvel is about people who happen to be super heroes.

DC had a great story called Kingdom Come. Civil War promptly ripped it off.

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frozen

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#23 frozen  Moderator

Batman distrusts both super-humans and the Government. He'd probably start his own personal program to monitor but that doesn't make him pro-reg either; probably more anti-Government reg.

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Black_Arrow

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@saren said:

Batman is likely to be more Pro-Registration than Anti- because of his fundamental distrust of superhumans, but he's more likely to build a metahuman-monitoring system like Brother Eye than side with the government.

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Boynerdgeek

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#25  Edited By Boynerdgeek

@frozen: nope. That is outside continuity story. Besides the main plot of Kingdom Come is Old Gen Heroes (in this case DC Superheroes) vs Heroes created by Image Comics in 1990's (this story is Mark Waid making fun/parody to Image Comics back in 1990's)

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Anjales_II

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If fully in character Superman would never side with the government because he will registration as a form of oppression of freedom, and he's gone up against the governments' attempts to control others. He also values secret identities and would never attempt to compromise his own or anyone else's. The only reason Supes might even consider registration is because of some immense guilt or plot that forces him to do something uncharacteristic, and if Supes joins the Reg, it will be reluctantly.

As for Batman, he's always been a rebel at heart, and has a massive distrust towards both Metas and the Government. He agrees with the idea of monitoring the Metas but does not trust the government with that valuable info, especially if they end up using villains like the Suicide Squad in a way similar to the Thunderbolts. So what Batman will do is, in a way play both sides. As Batman, he stands besides his allies and fight the government agents attempts at oppressing some heroes.

But as Bruce Wayne, he'll endorse and finance the Pro-Reg group, and enable the government to have access to a number of Metas' private info, but before any of that could be put into use, he takes the data himself and destroy the government's databases. Then he uses this data for his own monitoring system that allows him to keep tabs on all metas and with contingency plans already in place to take them down if necessary. In a way, Batman makes his own side where he doesn't enforce a law that forces metas to give their identities but at the same time, he's still has satellites and monitoring systems that keeps them in check.

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VoloErgoMalus

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@frozen: nope. That is outside continuity story. Besides the main plot of Kingdom Come is Old Gen Heroes (in this case DC Superheroes) vs Heroes created by Image Comics in 1990's (this story is Mark Waid making fun/parody to Image Comics back in 1990's)

Well there was the matter of the group of heroes and villains led by Batman and Lex Luthor to keep Superman's forces in check. But it was more complicated than an open conflict central to the story like in Civil War.

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frozen

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#28 frozen  Moderator

@boynerdgeek said:

@frozen: nope. That is outside continuity story. Besides the main plot of Kingdom Come is Old Gen Heroes (in this case DC Superheroes) vs Heroes created by Image Comics in 1990's (this story is Mark Waid making fun/parody to Image Comics back in 1990's)

Well there was the matter of the group of heroes and villains led by Batman and Lex Luthor to keep Superman's forces in check. But it was more complicated than an open conflict central to the story like in Civil War.

Essentially, this.

Though being outside continuity is irrelevant, Kingdom Come impacted DC and evidently it's success Marvel.

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Boynerdgeek

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#29  Edited By Boynerdgeek

@frozen: @darthmummy: you can say that...but at the end what is morale/message that Mark Waid want to tell in Kingdom Come is that Heroes vs Heroes is bad things...but nowadays Marvel prefer to do big major events about Heroes vs Heroes for example Civil War, Avengers vs X-men etc. Nowadays Heroes have to act like heroes. Not argue with each other and become a jerk

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VoloErgoMalus

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@frozen: @darthmummy: you can say that...but at the end what is morale/message that Mark Waid want to tell in Kingdom Come is that Heroes vs Heroes is bad things...but nowadays Marvel prefer to do big major events about Heroes vs Heroes for example Civil War, Avengers vs X-men etc. Nowadays Heroes have to act like heroes. Not argue with each other and become a jerk

Yeah, Kingdom Come's resolution was a lot better than Civil War's. The heroes of Marvel didn't learn a thing from Civil War. They've become a joke in a way, twisted out of character.

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Boynerdgeek

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#31  Edited By Boynerdgeek

@darthmummy: and...this is why I read Justice League comics nowadays compare to Avengers. I want heroes to be like heroes, saving people and earth from villains and disaster. I don't want to see Heroes argue with each other about who's ideology is better.

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Deranged Midget

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Jnr6Lil

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In my DC Civil War fanfic that was made in the aftermath of JLU I made Superman as Pro-Registration and Batman as Anti. Even though Batman distrusts metahumans and Superman prizes his identity, Batman is also extremely rebellious and Superman is extremely loyal to the American people. If the people called for registration rather than CADMUS which is what happened in my book, Superman would side with them.

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thatguywithheadphones

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Clark would probably just back out of being a Superhero and just restrict himself to just saving people, but without any of the public figure stuff.

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casper4690

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Going with both supes and bats being anti-registration . I'd actually want to read something like this , as long it's not by Bendis.

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VoloErgoMalus

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Batman doesn't care about breaking the law, in fact he has to in order to fight crime the way he wants. He'd see registration as an unacceptable blow to the considerable freedom of action which his operations (and ego) require. Ultimately, he would maintain a low profile and continue his vigilantism as the government scrambles to contain high profile metahumans that elicit public interest. Anti.

Superman would be against registration initially, but would foresee a future in which elements of the government and military-industrial complex that had long sought to control him pursue him in a hugely expensive nation-wide manhunt, ostensibly in order to prove the law's enforceability, in an extended conflict that divides the population and prevents him from doing good. Ultimately, he would leave the country in the hopes that it inspires opposition. Neutral.

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stormshadow_x

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Superman would stay Neutral