I think it's a bit much to ask a society to just trust unaccountable individuals with secret identities and access to incredible power - including weapons - to use those powers in a way that's best for everybody.
Except for the fact that they have been for decades. That kinda changes the trust balance.
And it's generally understood that anonymous vigilantism is not a positive force for a civilization.
In the real world, perhaps. But in the world of comics, it's been a net positive by any measure you'd care to name.
And there has to be some kind of regulation of superpowers; we regulate firearms, after all.
The distinction, of course, is that in regulating firearms, we are merely putting some restrictions on who may own weapons. By regulating superpowers, you are restricting the very abilities that make superheros who they are. It would be like requiring a boxer or an MMA fighter to register themselves before they be allowed to go in public.
Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions. Ideas must be distinct before reason can act upon them; and no man ever had a distinct idea of the trinity. It is the mere Abracadabra of the mountebanks calling themselves the priests of Jesus. -- Thomas Jefferson
For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and non-believers. -- Barack Obama
We see monsters where science shows us windmills. -- Phat
It has always struck me as odd that fundies devote so much time and effort into trying to find a
naturalistic explanation for their mythical flood, while looking for
magical explanations for things that actually happened. -- Dr. Adequate
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