I'm pretty sure if superheroes existed every major city would take out massive insurance policies against collateral superdamage. Like in the Ghostbusters game.
Why it Would Suck to Live in a World in Which Superheroes Existed
- Thread starter Saltyk
- Start date
Collateral damage is yes the biggest reason by far : S.
Alex Ross's part in the DC series Kingdom Come gave an biblical vibe to superheroes which is a different kind of scary to Watchmen as it was made clear they're beings beyond our power.
Alex Ross's part in the DC series Kingdom Come gave an biblical vibe to superheroes which is a different kind of scary to Watchmen as it was made clear they're beings beyond our power.
There would be many problems stemming from the existence of powerful, nigh-invulnerable individuals running around the world pretty much unchecked. They would probably be almost like nuclear weapons--imagine supers appearing in opposing countries and squaring off against each other! In the comics it's generally assumed that the US is the most objectively good country on Earth (and it seems that superheroes don't crop up too often in other countries, or if they do they certainly don't organize), but imagine the situation between India and Pakistan with superheroes on both sides as well as nukes! The US invasion of Iraq would involve US superheroes attacking and Iraqi superheroes defending, and probably many more casualties, either from the superheroes or from whatever measures each side would take to neutralize the superheroes of the other side (if you know Spider-Man is hiding out in an enemy city, you'd probably just nuke the whole place to make sure you get him, since he could probably take out hundreds if not thousands of your soldiers single-handedly, and many more if he worked with enemy regulars).
However, I think the greatest problem would not be the superheroes themselves, but the rest of humanity, especially if the superheroes were able to set aside their human flaws and be classically 'good.' The rest of humanity would come to rely on them too much. Instead of solving our own problems we would just leave them to the superheroes. Crime? Drugs? No need to address the underlying causes behind these things--just leave it to the superheroes to keep them in check. Having superheroes around would be like having gods walking the Earth--I've read that, in many ways, superheroes are kind of like the gods of today; that is, the way we view superheroes is the way a lot of older polytheistic cultures viewed their gods. We would burden our gods with as many of our problems as we could, and they would be left to either bear the load or throw it back at us and come up with all kinds of demands we'd have to fulfill in order for them to help us. Either way would cause lots of problems. And even if they did handle all of our problems, what would there be left for normal people to do? A great deal of who we are comes from how we handle the challenges we face. If we have no challenges to face, then who are we?
No, I think we're better off living in a world where we have to solve our own problems, and where there aren't super-powerful god-men to pass everything off on.
However, I think the greatest problem would not be the superheroes themselves, but the rest of humanity, especially if the superheroes were able to set aside their human flaws and be classically 'good.' The rest of humanity would come to rely on them too much. Instead of solving our own problems we would just leave them to the superheroes. Crime? Drugs? No need to address the underlying causes behind these things--just leave it to the superheroes to keep them in check. Having superheroes around would be like having gods walking the Earth--I've read that, in many ways, superheroes are kind of like the gods of today; that is, the way we view superheroes is the way a lot of older polytheistic cultures viewed their gods. We would burden our gods with as many of our problems as we could, and they would be left to either bear the load or throw it back at us and come up with all kinds of demands we'd have to fulfill in order for them to help us. Either way would cause lots of problems. And even if they did handle all of our problems, what would there be left for normal people to do? A great deal of who we are comes from how we handle the challenges we face. If we have no challenges to face, then who are we?
No, I think we're better off living in a world where we have to solve our own problems, and where there aren't super-powerful god-men to pass everything off on.
It really doesn't. What Watchmen does is just slightly exaggerate the Cuban Missile Crisis. The superheroes are just extras.woodaba said:
If Superheroes did exist...life probably wouldn't be that different. If superpowers were common, we'd have a good chance of having them. If they weren't, we'd have a good chance of not seeing them.
Let's face it, how many Superheroes do you know that live near your local town in the comics?
Wales only has one hero in total.
Perhaps I'm just a fickle person, but if you want my honest opinion, I feel that the worst part of supernatural beings existing would be the inadequacy. Getting compared to movie characters is one thing. People know I'm not gonna be Tom Cruise or Gerald Butler in this movie and that movie, but if someone existed with the physique of Superman, it would be something women would compared you to all the time, and it'd be harder than it is currently to find someone. Maybe not for everyone but my genes give me almost no reward for working out, so I'll always look like the scrawny nerd.
Again, call me fickle, but you know deep down it would also be true.
Again, call me fickle, but you know deep down it would also be true.
The_root_of_all_evil said:
In contrast, New York City has several, not counting all those Marvel Crossover Comics they do in New York City. If Superpowers were common, there is also the discrimination factor. What's stopping all the Super-people from killing off all the Normals? Guns? Lol no.
If Superpowers are rare, the same thing still applies. There will be people who simply don't feel safe around Super-people for obvious reasons. At the same time, said Superheroes will probably be drafted into the military whatever the case, and would probably be treated as Nuclear Weapons by the United Nations, as in limiting or banning their use in War. But once again, who can stop them if that's what they really want to do?
I would like to point to The Venture Brothers for my explaination, which is set in a world where Super Science, Magic, Protagonists & Antagonists (PC terms for "Good Guy" & "Bad Guy", as the bad guys do this as their job rather than feeling like doing evil, mostly); but nothing has been changed since all the Super Science & Magic is being held by the people who are just as insecure & full of problems as everyone else.Saltyk said:
Throughout history individuals who have accumulated large amounts of personal power have tended to be extremely selfish and villian like, not hero's. Honestly if super powers did exist we would probably have 4 evil super powered people (selfish at least) to every 1 super hero (at least). There would also be plenty who didn't want to get involved or do much with their powers other then just live as comfortably as they could.
It's not much different then what we have now, but at least society can set up rules and use our police force etc to help contain criminals. Imagine if many of those criminals were super powered? Even if it was an even number of villians to hero's the hero's can't be everywhere all the time.....and in general you need a higher ratio of police to criminals to create any sort of order.
Basically we'd be screwed if super powers were real. Especially if they included mass destruction powers on the scale we see in most comics. If we didn't just have to worry about nuking our planet, releasing biological weapons that destroy all life etc but also about random people being able to destroy the world if they get angry enough.....yeah....no security at all.
It's not much different then what we have now, but at least society can set up rules and use our police force etc to help contain criminals. Imagine if many of those criminals were super powered? Even if it was an even number of villians to hero's the hero's can't be everywhere all the time.....and in general you need a higher ratio of police to criminals to create any sort of order.
Basically we'd be screwed if super powers were real. Especially if they included mass destruction powers on the scale we see in most comics. If we didn't just have to worry about nuking our planet, releasing biological weapons that destroy all life etc but also about random people being able to destroy the world if they get angry enough.....yeah....no security at all.
I think if superheroes and villains with real powers did exist there propbably a new word/ phobia for people afraid that the world will be blow up by them.
Isn't that basically true in most superhero universes? Every hero has multiple villains. Many times those villains are as powerful or stronger than the hero. In a superhero world, a bank robbery tends to involve a shootout, but in real life, they are usually pretty tame. In my earlier Swat Kat example, I stated that people (cats?/kats?) basically used tanks to rob banks, and I think that would be true in a superhero world. Hey, if you're robbing a bank in New York City (which has about a hundred super heroes or super hero teams in Marvel comics), wouldn't you feel a little safer knowing you have a tank? At least, the police would be pretty worthless against that.wulfy42 said:
Like you said, the police would be pretty worthless against super humans on their own. They'd need whole new tools and large number to deal with any super powered criminals. Considering that a pretty minor super hero involvement can leave quite a mess (Spider-man's webbing to crushed cars), even to deal with a weak super villain would require some pretty heavy artillery. And forget dealing with Doomsday or Magneto. You need a Superman or Captain America to have a chance there.
How about relating it to the famous we have at the moment? There's hundreds of very powerful people in New York at the moment, but do they go on the rampage?D-Pad said:
Again, you're assuming that people react to them as per comic books. Do you fear the power of Scientology, the crushing grip of the Gnomes of Zurich or the might of the Murdoch Empire? Do you even bother with them?
Think of how much power Yahtzee has at the moment. The power to sell hundreds upon thousands of copies of games just by the intonation of his voice. Is that not a superpower? Do you fear him? Do you think he should be banned?
How much money could you make if Oprah said "I think this is good"? Thousands? Millions?
What sway does Daniel Radcliffe have at the moment? Could he be considered a dangerous weapon?
We only see Spidey, Bats, Supes as weird because we have no real world equivalent. If they actually existed, Spidey would be campaigning for the Democrats, Batman would flogging the Batpad2 and Superman would still be searching for Doomsday Bin Laden. While J. Jonah. Murdoch made an aggressive bid for the New York Planet, as Mary Jane Fox is kicked off the set of Transmorphers.
It's all relative
The people you mentioned don't go around blowing up buildings or causing trillions of dollars in damage and deficit. They don't wake up every morning and say, "I'm going to use my laser eyes to RULE THE WORLD," which is something that a super-person could easily do. Not to mention that there are people who would use their powers to further their own goals without regard for everyone else.
A perfect Video-game example would be Alex Mercer. He's trying to find out what happened to him, while saving Manhattan in the process. At the end of every mission, as well as checkpoints, you get a little pop up that tells you how much money the military has to pay out for your current escapade, as well as the number of civilian, infected, and military casualties that your carelessness or destruction has caused.
Also, your idea of it being relative cannot be applied to superheroes, seeing as they don't exist. Call me the day that Daniel Radcliffe and Yahtzee decide to use their superpowers to wipe out terrorists.
A perfect Video-game example would be Alex Mercer. He's trying to find out what happened to him, while saving Manhattan in the process. At the end of every mission, as well as checkpoints, you get a little pop up that tells you how much money the military has to pay out for your current escapade, as well as the number of civilian, infected, and military casualties that your carelessness or destruction has caused.
Also, your idea of it being relative cannot be applied to superheroes, seeing as they don't exist. Call me the day that Daniel Radcliffe and Yahtzee decide to use their superpowers to wipe out terrorists.
I'd be scared witless finding out I live in a world of comic book or movie screen super-humans. Driving to and from work, or even the movies, could be the last thing you do if some fight that started miles away crash lands right in your way and some other super-person who already had a bad day decides to get involved too. Living in a high rise building is dangerous because someone or something may be flung into it, bringing the whole thing down, so everyone would start moving to more rural areas... Which means having to build the area up to accommodate those people and I doubt criminals of any kind would stay in the cities when everyone else is moving out.
And the taxes... Dear Spaghetti Monster,the taxes. Having to rebuild whole city blocks and bridges, re-paving roads, and repairing monuments because someone with all that power put a plan into motion to finally be rid of some hero or other, then having that plan smashed to bits (yet again). If the economy is bad now, imagine how it would be when sections of major cities have to be replaced.
It would only be a matter of time before all the villains, great and small, banded together in some doomsday scheme that could leave large sections of the planet in ruins, if not outright destroy it. Even if they were to succeed, there'd still be no promise of peace at last as the victors then turn on one another to have bigger pieces of whatever's left, causing even more damage in the process...
Someone hold me ;_;
And the taxes... Dear Spaghetti Monster,the taxes. Having to rebuild whole city blocks and bridges, re-paving roads, and repairing monuments because someone with all that power put a plan into motion to finally be rid of some hero or other, then having that plan smashed to bits (yet again). If the economy is bad now, imagine how it would be when sections of major cities have to be replaced.
It would only be a matter of time before all the villains, great and small, banded together in some doomsday scheme that could leave large sections of the planet in ruins, if not outright destroy it. Even if they were to succeed, there'd still be no promise of peace at last as the victors then turn on one another to have bigger pieces of whatever's left, causing even more damage in the process...
Someone hold me ;_;
That's quite a good point and quite a realistic one to me. I mean, why would someone with superpowers want to commit themselves to such a peculiar, self sacrificing and quite possibly pointless life that comic book heroes. They are still people after all, they would think more rationally then "I must stop crime and beat people up" etc. So your point is a very good one, credit is due hereThe_root_of_all_evil said:We only see Spidey, Bats, Supes as weird because we have no real world equivalent. If they actually existed, Spidey would be campaigning for the Democrats, Batman would flogging the Batpad2 and Superman would still be searching for Doomsday Bin Laden. While J. Jonah. Murdoch made an aggressive bid for the New York Planet, as Mary Jane Fox is kicked off the set of Transmorphers.
It's all relative
In most superhero universes there's a definite afterlife, so that's a plus. Sometimes the technology trickles down too.