InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "there once was..."

nalanzu (nalanzu) wrote in scans_daily,
@ 2009-06-07 22:14:00

Entry tags:

char: green lantern/hal jordan, group: green lantern corps, publisher: dc comics

I may be overanalyzing this.
This showed up in the back of a Superman comic, I think; the bit where Hal Jordan decides what the world needs is another Justice League. There was something about it that really bothered me, and I am wondering if it was just me.

Does this:

remind anyone else of this?

Here it is again. Seriously, am I the only one who thinks that it's just a short step from these-

-to these?

Before DC went all retcon and decided Parallax was a fear demon, Hal-as-Parallax's primary motivation and defining characteristic was that he wanted to fix things and make them right. It seems to me that what he appears to be doing in A Cry For Justice is incredibly consistent with his actions during Zero Hour. It's just a little less, um, drastic.

Yeah. I'm wondering if this is bothering anyone else.

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daningram
2009-06-07 11:02 am UTC (link)

How is it anything like Minority Report? In the movie, these guys were using untested future predictions to arrest first time offenders.

But what Hal's talking about is hunting down and capturing repeat offenders who should already be in jail, but escaped or have thus far avoided capture. Furthermore, unless lawmakers have been asleep for the last 50 years, the tools of the villain trade are equally illegal. It's no more immoral for Hal to bust into Lex's lair and arrest than it is for the ATF to break into the shack of a man who is in possession of illegal explosives and has made threatening comments.

As a matter of fact, uniform police officers are the only law enforcement branch that I know of who actually wait for a crime to be committed. Though all react when an act is committed, everyone else conducts stings, investigations, etc. hoping to catch criminals before they do anything.

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	jlbarnett 2009-06-07 12:06 pm UTC (link)
	that's true. Comic books act like each time a supervillain shows up it's a new crime. But unless the penalty for attempted world conquest is incredibly light most of these villains should always have warrants out for their arrest. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

arysteia.livejournal.com
2009-06-07 05:48 pm UTC (link)

Except for a little thing called *evidence*. Superman bursting into Lex Luthor's labs probably doesn't meet due process standards. I've always assumed that the major problem is that the heroes *know* who commits the crimes, but they can't always prove it to the standards of a civilian court of law. So for them to act pre-emptively, they *are* acting outside the law. Problem.

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jlbarnett
2009-06-07 05:54 pm UTC (link)

Let's look at some recent stories. Lex Luthor creates a giant mecha type thing and ramapages through Metropolis, because he thinks they're disrespecting what he gave to the community. He is beaten and then put in jail.

He's currently out of jail. Now right now it's because the gov't is using his skill. But if the Secret Society of Supervillains had busted him out he would be out illegally.

So Superman could at anytime bust into his secret lair, and take him back to jail for his previous crime, plus the crime of escaping from jail. All the evidence he needs there is the fact that Luthor wasn't in jail when he grabbed him.

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eldabe
2009-06-07 10:31 pm UTC (link)

Good point, but remember that vigilantes are technically operating outside of the law all the time. So, this would just be another not-so-legal type of vigilante actions. On the other hand, it's a great point, especially when you consider that the heroes tend to hand over the criminals to a court of law, and any lawyer worth his salt would go ballistic over illegal breaking and entering of his client's domain.

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eldabe
2009-06-07 10:25 pm UTC (link)

I'd like to apologize, I think I misunderstood your intent. I thought you meant that superheroes should go and find criminals who hadn't yet committed crimes and putting them away.

Well, then I'd say they are already doing that. You think Bruce doesn't try and get the Joker every time he breaks out of Arkham before he commits any crimes? Superman is definitely keeping tabs on Luthor, always. They just don't mention it unless it happens to be relevant to a story. Which goes back to my earlier theory that it's just (supposedly) boring for a reader to read, "Checked Luthor. Eating dinner." every few pages in Actions Comics. I'd personally love that kind of layering and attention to detail, but most writers aren't going to bother, and those that are will only do it to build up some sort of story about Luthor. I think it's probable that Supes is doing it anyway.

We recently saw that, a little bit, in the JLA comic when Hawkgirl checked up on Cheshire in jail. Of course, the point was that Roy was visiting Chesh, but you can tell that the JLA is keeping tabs on known criminals, at least when possible.

But the kind of criminals in the DCU aren't stupid. They know the heroes are on the lookout for them, so they know to be pretty careful when breaking out. Normally they don't just spontaneously make a run for it - they have a plan, probably some sort of violence. The reason Bruce usually doesn't catch the Joker before someone dies is because the Joker breaks out and does something quickly. There's not always enough time to pore through the clues and find him. Plus you have to assume that the Joker is pretty good at avoiding capture when he wants to.

Like I said, I've got nothing against these kind of stories. I'd love for detective cases where heroes set up underground sting operations and track down escaped criminals using logic and methodology - but I don't think they will. And I think the times that heroes failed to do so in the past is mostly the writer's not really thinking through the story.

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