How would the worlds media real handle Superheroes

The US Government is not the Evil Empire you see in the X-Men movies. Superheroes would not be dragged off to containment centers for vivisection, dissection, or any other brutal surgeries.

Why? Because it's an incredibly public figure doing an incredibly public service. Sure you can make Joe Schmoe, cornerstore deli owner vanish without -too- much trouble. But do me a favor and disappear Paris Hilton. The backlash of her disappearance and societal upset would be pretty harsh. And if the conspiracy theorists were right, and they would be, there's a -chance- that the action would be traceable back to the government. One "Daily Show" book-push later and the Government's got a huge issue.

Ultimately it would be in the Government's best interest to handle the situation -delicately-. Not only for the PR/backlash from the populace. But the last thing anyone wants is to create a super-villain. For the most part I imagine the government would handle costumed crimefighters like it would handle war heroes. So long as they're not -too- destructive and actually save people, rather than endangering them.

At least some portion of the government would want to quantify the superheroes, of course. And you'd wind up with a Hero Registration act on the floor of congress. Who knows if it would actually -pass- or not. But it would be there.

But no. They would not capture, contain, quarantine, study, and vivisect or dissect a superhero. Supervillain? Plausible. Vigilante? Possible but not Probable.

-Rachel-

No organization, not even the US Government, is monolithic.

Within any government there are various agencies working at cross purposes. There would be some people trying to capture and analyze super powered beings...these people would get ahold of any villains that were captured.

Within the same governments, there would also be agencies working for the welfare of the super beings they saw as useful or helpful; trying to hinder press releases of sensitive information, honest attempts to give them resources and data, etc.

The tide of public opinion will rise and fall, but the fact is that there would eventually be a scenario similar to Marvel's Civil War. After a large, unignorable disaster, there would be a movement to identify and register heroes, and force them to work as government agents. Some heroes would comply, others would go underground and become vigilantes, hunted alongside the villains they protect us from.

Eventually, the vigilance against the vigilantes would subside, the vigilante heroes would become 'cool' again...until the next big disaster.

As Doctor Manhattan put it, "nothing ever ends."

However, as to the OP; the media would handle them like they handle everything else: with one hand reaching for unbiased journalism, and the other reaching for money.

Every powered being or spandex wearer would have to deal with Paparazzi; the villains would not be able to kill enough to get the others to back off. The heroes and villains' responses to the press would vary like stars today; some would break down under the pressure (young RDJ or Drew Barrymore) while others thrived (current RDJ and Drew Barrymore).

One factor is that powers or no, anyone who puts on a spandex suit (unless it's a ninja outfit) wants to be seen (even a reluctant Hancock). Some heroes would try to operate underground 'in plain clothes' if their powers supported that, but by and large, all kinds of people who wanted their 15 minutes of fame would be putting on the colorful spandex, powers or not. Kevlar prices would skyrocket.

The real fun would be when various agencies would be staging events for the press to create a 'brand' for their hero, much as celebrities perform publicity stunts today. "Hey, homeless guy. I'll buy you a bottle to put on this suit and rant over on that corner about conquering the world. A guy in red spandex will knock you down, try to make it look good, but don't actually fight back. Don't worry, we won't press charges."

What I wonder is whether superheroes would eventually hit a longtime equilibrium of acceptance, as anime seems to have, or would it continually rise and fall, like the 'waves' of superhero movies we get?

detainment and experimentation.... investigative reporting.

The Marvel Civil war thing was a bunch of BS.

The Stanford incident? The only big players on the enemy team, required power suits, they attacked before said villains could suit up. The guy who exploded, he'd never shown that much power before, hell he's only infamous for accidentally giving a super hero cancer.

In turn, the government passes a law, a law that they'd already passed during the 'everyone hates mutants' days, passed and had thrown out for being unconstitutional.

Never mind putting a known drug addled madman in a position of power.

Yes, the execution of the Civil War story was horrible. However, the concept was sound.

i think the world of professional sports would want to know which of the linebackers are juggernauts, which swimmmers are aquamans and which boxers are ironfists...

everone would need dna testing for the meta gene.

This is even before you get to what the internet would do to you. I am NOT having:

- Perez Hilton sniping at my costume sense or revealing if I'd had a couple of shots after work
- People setting up TwitFaceSpaceBook accounts in my name, trashtalking other heroes and hinting at saucy antics
- ANYONE photoshopping my head onto Power Girl's "leaked" sex tape stills

I'm surprised no one has linked to this site yet.

Check it out, there's some cool stuff in there that might answer some of your questions.

Supreme Power by Marvel in 2003 would probably be a good starting point for our governments reaction to supers.

Indoctrination and manipulation as long as they are useful and compliant, (attempted) extermination when they stop being useful and compliant.

You may disagree with me, but with all the crap someone would have to go through, whether with a secret identity or not. If they had super Powers, I actually think there would end up being many more super Villains then Super Heroes.

After so much crap, a Hero might eventually give up, or turn to some other path. With great power, comes great responsibility and all that jazz. One to many times though, it's been shown that once a single individual gains so much power, it tends to go to their heads.

So I think Villains would outnumber the Heroes at the least.

Pawn Shop Owner: So, Skull-Crusher McEvilton, what brings you into my shop today?
SCM: Got, um, like twenty digital cameras. Like new, only dropped once.
PSO: Been farming Tech Salvage. eh?

John Mayer might accidently reveal Jessica Simpsons' alter ego:
- Sexual Napalm.

There was a PnP RPG game called Aberrant, that had this same question...

The world was amazed at the supers... and they trully became the focus of the world. The media was hungry for then, for any kind of scandals involving then. They pratically shaped many aspects of the world...

War was changed by the supers. Companies of super-beings were formed, everyone of then able to tackle any government.

Fashion was changed by the supers. What was cool was directly tied with then and their visual styles.

Entertainment was changed by the supers. Television, movies, art, sports... all with a "super" touch...

When I first created a toon, I remembered that game. And I started a minor thing on its honor... On the Aberrant games the supers were called "Novas"... So all my toons have Nova on their names...