Okay.
Let me say this one more time.
SUPERPOWERS ARE A GAME CHANGER.
There is nothing even remotely similar to super-powers in today's society. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. We don't have men who can fly and emit lasers that can turn corners and freeze water into a block of ice. We don't have women who can juggle main battle tanks for light exercise. We don't--and pay attention, because this part is important--have people who quite literally cannot be replaced in what they can do.
We don't.
It's that simple.
The President of the United States is one of the most important men on Earth, and he's eminently replaceable. In fact, he's up for replacement every four years. Sooner than that for Trump, God willing.
You might say 'scientists are irreplaceable'. Actually, no. Science is teachable, and new scientists, new doctors, new specialists in every field known to mankind are coming along every single day.
But suppose Superman existed (as the only superhero on Earth) and he did his best to make life better on Earth, and he succeeded ... until he got outed, and went into hiding. Who would replace him? Who could replace him? Nobody, that's who. There's nobody on Earth who could do one percent of what he could do on a lazy afternoon.
Now, assume that there's a whole army of superheroes who are employed by the United States, each of whom is an equally irreplaceable resource in and of him (or her) self. But the quickest way to screw them over is to unmask them. How fast would the government put into place legislation to protect their investment, their employees, their unique and individual powerhouses?
Answer: pretty damn fast.
Because superheroes need secret identities. Seventy years of comic books have carved that into the bedrock of pop culture in letters fifty feet high. There is absolutely no denying it. Superheroes whose loved ones don't have powers are uniquely vulnerable, so the government would work to ensure that this vulnerability never got exposed. No judge in the world would actually deny the logic of this.
Likewise, while non-government heroes aren't working directly for them, it's relatively easy to give them a distinct incentive to be a hero by putting in place a powerful incentive for people not to try to unmask them. Joe Bloggs the burglar may unmask Captain Hero in a struggle, but if he outs him, he risks being tried for domestic terrorism. So it's not worth it.
Now, as I said in the chapter, this did not sail through unopposed. There were several court challenges to the 'unconstitutionality' of it. However, given that superheroes were and are a fact of everyday life in Earth Bet, they failed every time. All it requires is for the members of the jury to have been saved in any way, any time by a hero. Or for their loved ones or friends to have been saved in the same way.
The Vikare Act can and would take place in an Earth with powers.
Now can we just fucking drop this pointless argument?
