Silly question. Why is it evil for the government to have magic and Kryptonite?

[AllisterH]

As the title says, I never really read a reason WHY it is considered intriniscally evil for the government to try and acquire magic and kryptonite.

I mean, without them, the US really has no defense versus the much more powerful Kryptonians...so wouldn't that make them the underdogs and as such, they would be in the right?

[ryerye17]

Act of aggression?

You know, why do we have the NPT? So that we can regulate which countries have nuclear weapons/WMD's.

[Jmacq1]

Because traditionally the government and military in comic books are corrupt, incompetent, evil, or some mix of all of the above, and the DCU is no different.

Because if they were good and competent, there would be far less need for superheroes in the first place. Plus, "Superheroes vs. the Government" is always a good standby story.

In a "real world" scenario I'd think it would be perfectly logical and reasonable that all the governments of the world were scrambling to get their hands on such things, but in the superheroic fantasy world of the DCU, we know that the Superheroes will always save the day in the end (since the name of the comic is say, "Superman" and not say, "US Government Comics"), so the government's attempts to find countermeasures is heavy-handed and ultimately only going to lead to trouble.

[AllisterH]

Act of aggression?

You know, why do we have the NPT? So that we can regulate which countries have nuclear weapons/WMD's.

Yes, but there's a understanding that no country has the upper and. For all of the US' nuclear arsenal, it's a mutual lose lose situation when compared to China and Russia.

The current status in the DCU has the kryptonian with all the power, it basically would be if only America had nuclear weapons and Russia or China decided to get their own.....

re: Government is evil
Heh, I do wonder though if writers understand just how silly that angle is? It made sense when the sheer number of troops on the government side could overwhelm the heroes but hasn't superman been shown by himself able to solo the entire US military? Hell, I remember a JLA storyline where the big 7 were shown able to easily handle the US army...

So doesn't that make the government the underdog?

[IvCNuB4]

If I lived in a world where "Amazons Attack" Washington DC , and a bitchy Teen Of Steel brings down Air Force One, I'd be amassing powerful weapons too ....

[AllisterH]

If I lived in a world where "Amazons Attack" Washington DC , and a bitchy Teen Of Steel brings down Air Force One, I'd be amassing powerful weapons too ....

Heh

They even mention this and have it played for laughs where the president tell Alura that she owes him a play because of her daughter...

Yet still, the americans trying to get kryptonite and magic is automatically assumed to be evil...

[Sean Walsh]

......because they're using it to harm.

I mean, if the US government had access to magic.....don't you think they should use it to, say, CURE CANCER???

But instead, they're using it as a weapon against Kryptonians.

It's not having it that's evil, it's how they plan to use it that is.

[Slaughter]

I don't see anything showing the governament to be evil for getting Kryptonite or Magic. They ARE a bit too agressive, though. They killed Zor-El, tried to kill Zod and the US governament is now on a campaign to whip the population into anti-kryptonian histery to prepare the people for total war. On the other side, we're talking uppity demi-gods, total war and genocide here. Black Adam was but one, and he laid waste to Bialya and would've turned China into a wreck if they didn't stop him. Now imagine a army of thousand black adams, no, Supermen showing up and laying waste to earth. They would outright genocide humanity out of existence. We have nothing useful to them. Slavery would be useless because they have a labor guild of supemen. To them, it would be like killing a nest of roaches. Even if most kryptonians are peaceful people, some hundred soldiers with a expansionist attittude would be enough to conquer Earth. Also, there's Zod, who tried to take over Earth once.

If I lived in a world where "Amazons Attack" Washington DC , and a bitchy Teen Of Steel brings down Air Force One, I'd be amassing powerful weapons too ....

Same here. In a world where a army of yellow ringslingers and a universe-destroying cosmic horror can suddently appear and lay waste to New York, I'm surprised there aren't more anti-alien measures. In our universe, the US Armed Forces were once focused on a war against the Soviet Union that would involve lots of nukes, EMP and submarines. But today they're now focused on the threat of terrorism and rogue countries. In the DC Universe, alien invasions are frequent. How many we had since the 2000s? From the top of my head, I can remember Sinestro Corps, Imperiex, Qwardians and a attempt to stealthy control earth by the Reach. In the DC Universe, the world's armed forces would probrably be focused on fighting alien invasions and meta-humans. I'm surprised they don't have MORE anti-superman measures after King of the World, and even more surprised that its SQUAD K, not Brigade K.

[JCAll]

Having magic and Kryptonite aren't necessarily evil. Superman would probably accept it as a precaution, like with Batman.

But when swarms of guys with Kryptonite weapons and every migician in the DCU attack Superman out of the blue keeping him from doing his job, just because they don't trust him anymore things may be getting out of hand.

When the government starts funding black opps organizations to build Kryptonite laced clones of Doomsday with the specific tack of assassinating Superman immediately so he can't be a threat in the future, things have DEFINITELY gotten out og hand.

When Lex Luthor is given free reign to kill as many Kryptonions as possible, and Brainiac and Doomsday become people the government aspire to be like, @#$% has just hit the fan.

[WorstThingUS]

As the title says, I never really read a reason WHY it is considered intriniscally evil for the government to try and acquire magic and kryptonite.

I mean, without them, the US really has no defense versus the much more powerful Kryptonians...so wouldn't that make them the underdogs and as such, they would be in the right?

It's not. It would be irresponsible for them not to given Kryptonian history and indeed, even Superman's own history. And I don't think it's been suggested that it is. It's Sam Lane that's clearly show to be a bad guy, not the government itself.

[Jmacq1]

But once again, the only storytelling reason for the government/military to have these weapons is to use them against the characters we already know (as readers) to be heroic.

Hence, we as readers know it's "bad" because we know it'll get turned against the heroes undeservedly. Chekov's gun, basically. It exists purely for someone like Lex Luthor or Same Lane or whoever to come along and pull the trigger.

Once again, unless they come out with "US Government Comics" where the government starts solving all its' own problems with superhero-tech, the story telling focus is always going to be on the heroes solving the problems and saving the day.

It may not be realistic for the government to be so incompetent and/or corrupt all the time, but once again...if they weren't, there'd be far less need for superheroes within the superhero-oriented storytelling setting DC has created. Just like in both DC and Marvel you don't really see all these megascientists they have around curing cancer, AIDs, ending world hunger, etc... Ye olde "Well, we can't solve all their problems for them" excuses are just BS to keep the setting looking like the "real" world so it's relatable.

(That whole, "We can't solve all their problems for them" excuses are extra BS when many of the megascientists are humans themselves...do the heroes go around preventing other geniuses from helping humanity, or just the ones that occasionally dress up in costumes and fight supervillains?)

[AllisterH]

That's the thing about it.

Can you name me ANY storyline where this type of tactic doesn't get pooh-poohed from the outset?

I honestly wonder if writers know how much of a political angle they're putting on it?

[Mat001]

Clark himself made it clear that if he ever became a threat after his Gangbuster phase, he wanted the means to stop him to be in the hands of the only person he trusts to get the job done. That's Batman. Clark has feared that the governments could use Kryptonite to make him do things that he doesn't want to do or as we've seen, try to kill him when he hasn't done anything wrong. He didn't trust any government in that regard. And as we've seen here, Sam Lane is doing this because he's never trusted Superman. Not from the get go. It just so happened that Kara and the Phantom Zone breakout played into his favor.

Clark believes in a level of trust, regardless of how naivee it seems.