OT: Current World Events...What Would Superman Do?

[Yaddo 42]

Yeah, I did find myself in this thread wondering if it would be just Superman that would exist in our world. Since it's Ash's topic, it's his playgorund for what would become real and to what degree.

Superhero offspring commodities trading. Could someone like the girl really freelance with ease? The temptation to monopolize her would be so strong, she'd have to be shielded from the general public because of the lone wolves and fringe types. Like with the extraterrestials issue you mentioned earlier, I could see the government taking her into protective custody, for her own safety and not allowing someone with so much power to be loose.

It reminds me of the girl in the Phillip K. Dick book, Clans of the Alphane Moon, IIRC. The girl who could reverse time in small areas. She was on call at all times to reverse accidents to save lives, working with paramedics. Her powers seem put to a noble use, but she is a sad shell of person used like another piece of equipment, who isn't even allowed to have a real life. She spends her days reversing death, but sometimes doesn't arrive at the scene until after the window her powers work in has passed, and knowing that she is only staving off for a limited time what none of us can escape. Talk about guilt and pressure.

[Inyarear]

I don't know whether this super-environmentalist would be freelancing in the most transient sense--working for whoever pays her the most on any given day--but I imagine corporations would draw up short-term contracts with her so that she works at one place for a month or two cleaning up ALL of their messes, and when that job is finished ("Pleasure doing business. Let's do that again some time!") other corporations would proceed to offer short-term contracts of their own. For all the damage any corporation can do to the environment, it's bound to take a while before any of them come up with another big job for her to do after they've had their past pollution eradicated. Meanwhile, business deals between corporations in this matter could certainly be mutually beneficial; one might see superhero trade circles with various companies having contracts with each other to pass superheros from one to the next when the job is finished. There is the danger you mention, though, of the superhero in question being somewhat dehumanized by such treatment.

The government would certainly take an interest in any superheros that did occur, as it did in Watchmen and as it does in The Incredibles. How much the government would be involved, though, would depend on the number and variety of superheros; if there were just a few, the government would have a very marked interest in their value to national defense and their well-being. If there were thousands or millions, as in DC's Kingdom Come, their powers would not be nearly so scarce, and therefore not nearly as valuable or important to the government. As with space ships, when it takes billions of dollars to make one, the government pretty much monopolizes the business, but if space ships only cost a few million dollars, most large corporations would probably have at least a few of their own. So too, if superheros were numerous and they reproduced as easily as any ordinary human does, businesses big and small would be the forces with the most active interest in superheros, with the government getting involved mostly just for taxation or (occasionally) conscription purposes.

By the way, I've also read a very amusing book called "How to be a Superhero" by Doctor Metropolis which spoofs books of business advice in suggesting ways for superheros to carve out a career for themselves, exercises to practice with their powers, finding fashions that fit their style, the dynamics of teamwork, and a special bonus chapter on being a supervillain ("On The Other Hand, Maybe You're Evil"). It plays upon a lot of this stuff, especially in its advice on finding a proper superhero headquarters and the finer points of developing a mutually abusive hate relationship with an arch-nemesis. (It proposes seeking high-crime neighborhoods in order to have legal grounds for imposing vigilante justice. It also talks about how to write an evil business plan for supervillains.) For a good dose of humor and ideas on what kinds of challenges superheros would face, that book is a good guide.

Whatever kind of Superman you have, I'll bet there are a lot of different angles you could play in a story about how the real world would affect him and how he'd affect it back. Ever seen that hilarious essay by Niven, "Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex?" That's good for some laughs and a lot of serious thought if you ever had a real Superman. (Reproduction is no mean feat if one partner is super and the other is not!) Capitalism being one of my favorite political subjects, maybe I ought to do an essay like Niven's, with the subject being the business potential and risks of superheros, and how they might affect the market.

[Inyarear]

As far as I know, although Superman breathes, he doesn't actually have to breathe to live. This has been established in numerous comics and movies in which Superman is shown in situations (such as punching his way through the center of a planet) where breathing would be thoroughly impossible. Whether he even needs to eat or drink (with all the energy he soaks up directly from solar radiation) is actually somewhat in question as well, though he may eat and drink for social reasons, just as he might be breathing in public as necessary to help him blend in as Clark and not draw attention to himself. Starving, dehydrating, or suffocating Superman might be impossible.