http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2010/02/political-pundits-on-civil-war-iron-man-was-right/
I thought it was interesting back during the civil war storyline that it was very obvious that the reader was supposed to take the "anti-registration" side. Of course(as the linked article makes clear) this was a storyline written during the tail end of the GWB presidency and was a clear allegory for crackdowns on civil liberties and the Patriot Act.
Except... it was a TERRIBLE allegory. The anti-registration side was basically arguing for unaccountable vigilantism. The waters got muddies because later writers stacked the deck even MORE against the pro-side by making them favor registration for ALL super-powered individuals regardless of whether they intended to fight crime or not. This turned it from an argument about vigilantism to one about forced conscription by government.
But on its face, the point that if you're going to fight crime and stop supervillains(the job of police and the military) you should be part of an official group with democratic accountability and not just a bunch of vigilantes is pretty hard to dispute unless you're pretty hard core anti-government and don't think that they have a monopoly on legitimate force.(in which case roving crimefighting militias of regular folks with guns should be fine too)
Of course it all became moot when the whole registration effort turned out to be a nefarious plot, but I think that the linked article shows that the civil war dispute was a seriously flawed allegory.
I thought it was interesting back during the civil war storyline that it was very obvious that the reader was supposed to take the "anti-registration" side. Of course(as the linked article makes clear) this was a storyline written during the tail end of the GWB presidency and was a clear allegory for crackdowns on civil liberties and the Patriot Act.
Except... it was a TERRIBLE allegory. The anti-registration side was basically arguing for unaccountable vigilantism. The waters got muddies because later writers stacked the deck even MORE against the pro-side by making them favor registration for ALL super-powered individuals regardless of whether they intended to fight crime or not. This turned it from an argument about vigilantism to one about forced conscription by government.
But on its face, the point that if you're going to fight crime and stop supervillains(the job of police and the military) you should be part of an official group with democratic accountability and not just a bunch of vigilantes is pretty hard to dispute unless you're pretty hard core anti-government and don't think that they have a monopoly on legitimate force.(in which case roving crimefighting militias of regular folks with guns should be fine too)
Of course it all became moot when the whole registration effort turned out to be a nefarious plot, but I think that the linked article shows that the civil war dispute was a seriously flawed allegory.
