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'''For policing super heroes:'''
* C: [[To Catch Heroes Hire Villains|Recruit a group of evil, criminal-minded supervillains to police the heroes]]. The local [[Tailor-Made Prison]] filled with the heroes' [[Rogues Gallery]] should provide no shortage of potential [[Boxed Crook
* D: Create a [[Slave to PR|PR campaign]] and outreach program that emphasizes the perks of registration: [[Hero Insurance]] to repair collateral damage and protection against civil lawsuits, a possible government salary and [[Super-Hero School|training to develop your powers and people-saving skills]]. Works best to draft/enlist the top tier superheroes, so that second and third stringers that look up to them will be inspired to register. However, if any of the A-listers decide to go against it, the hero community could be embroiled in a ''[[Civil War (Comic Book)|Civil War]]'' that makes both sides look bad.
* E: Don't make a big deal out of it; trying to force a large number of superhumans into doing something is a pre-emptive measure. Instead, wait until you have a suspect safely under the [[Power Nullifier
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* A positive version appears in the manga and anime ''[[Somedays Dreamers]]'', where in current-day Japan, magic users are registered with the government, trained to control their abilities and use them responsibly, and licensed to offer their skills for hire.
* Used as part of the setting of the anime/manga ''[[Zettai Karen Children]]''. Schools regularly scan students for psychic powers and give mandatory psychic power suppressing limiters to those who have them (which marks them as espers to the general populace, who often discriminate against them). For the people too powerful to be completely limited, it is illegal for them to attend school unless they're part of a military organization that guarantees that they're under control. Presumably this extends to adult society as well, although it's never shown. Unlike the other examples, registration is portrayed as a good thing, or at least as the best compromise that can be achieved when there's both humans and espers advocating genocide.
** Espers with future predicting powers have predicted that this will directly cause the downfall of humanity, by inciting a muggle vs esper civil war (which the espers will win, by destroying everything). A major ongoing plot is whether it can be averted via positive relationships between the main characters (the 3 strongest espers and their muggle "handler")
* The
** It appears more reasonable than others, but the execution is marred by {{spoiler|1=the very influential (the Mayor seems unwilling/unable to disagree with him) Maverick's collusion with Ouroborus to 'promote' NEXTs as superheroes, and the fact the [[Hanging Judge|lawyer]] associated with Hero TV - the company through which registered superheroes work - is himself secretly a vigilante and [[Serial Killer Killer|killer]].}}
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* Back during the "Acts of Vengeance" [[Crisis Crossover]], a
* ''[[Civil War (Comic Book)|Civil War]]'': The big 2006 [[Crisis Crossover]] from [[Marvel Comics]], centered around the Super Human Registration Act and the superhero community's reactions to it ([[Let's You and Him Fight|an all-out slugfest]]). The X-Men stayed out of the whole conflict, perhaps so that attention wouldn't be drawn to the trope's overusedness. What's especially problematic here is that the meaning of the SHRA seems to [[Depending on the Writer|change from comic to comic]]
** Part of the reason for all this chaos in-story seems to be that the registration act itself is only part of the picture. At the same time, there's a general government push to co-opt the superhero community and rein in its rogue elements. So while the SHRA itself may not mean anything but "anyone with superpowers has to register with the government," you still have creepy black ops types drafting supersoldiers.
** Perhaps [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshading]] how overblown the concept was in ''Civil War'', the spin-off series ''Omega Flight'' noted that the [[Marvel Universe]]'s Canada had had a
** Another big problem with ''[[Civil War]]'' was the pro-reg side being led by people who actually had means to make normal law enforcement and military agencies less than near-helpless against metahuman criminals and de-facto private armies (never mind the diverse array of alien, extradimensional and time-travelling conquerors threatening the Earth), means not requiring dangerous experiments on people or production of notoriously difficult to control robots, [[Reed Richards Is Useless|but pointedly refused to do so]].
* In a neat bit of historical reference, The [[Bronze Age]] ''All-Star Comics'' series [[Retcon|revealed]] the reason the Justice Society had broken up in the '50s: they were called before a [[Captain Ersatz|thinly-disguised version]] of the House Un-American Activities Committee and asked to reveal their identities. Unwilling to do so but also unwilling to go against the law, they stopped operating for a time. (In a [[Post-Crisis]] [[Retcon]], this was changed to the actual HUAC.)
** In the [[Post-Crisis]] [[The DCU|DCU's]] background (related largely in the short-lived series ''Chase''), the act passed by the HUAC actually kept any superheroes from operating openly from 1951 until at least the '80s or '90s, but by the time [[Superman]] showed up it had been largely forgotten by the public at large and quietly abolished with no fanfare.
** In ''[[The Dark Knight Returns]]'' continuity, however, the government prohibitions on superheroes are stronger, with Superman himself having been strong-armed into being an operative of the US government.
** In the Reboot version of the ''[[Legion of Super-Heroes (
** Pre-Crisis, several heroes were granted exemptions (due to their "special status" or "special relations with law enforcement") from Congress' demands, and allowed to continue to operate: [[Superman]], [[Batman]] (and Robin), and [[Wonder Woman]]. In reality, of course, these characters were among the few superheroes continuously published through the 1950s (while the rest of their JSA cohorts weren't), a time when superheroes weren't as popular as other genres (Westerns, horror, etc.).
* In the critically acclaimed series ''[[Watchmen (comics)|Watchmen]]'', the rise of costumed vigilantes in the '30s resulted in Congressional legislation authorizing superhero activities - which was repealed in [[The Seventies]] after fed-up police went on strike nationwide and mass rioting ensued. After the "Keene Act" is passed, the only superheroes permitted to ply their trade legally are those who work full-time for the government, including the world's only genuine superhuman.
** The Minutemen also faced the House Un-American Activities Committee. They came up with a compromise to the request to identify themselves to the committee: Each member was to reveal their identity to ''one'' member of the Committee. That member was to put their name into the enormous stack of names they wanted the FBI to do a background check on without any flags reading 'this person is <Superhero name>'. Then they would speak to the committee as a whole in their costumed persona. As a result, the heroes were investigated in their true identities, while limiting the number of people who knew who they really were. The only member of the Minutemen to not accept this compromise, Hooded Justice, resigned.
* This is a central point in the comic series ''[[Powers]]''. The main characters are [[Buddy Cop Show|Buddy Cops]] who investigate crimes related to registered and unregistered superpowered heroes and villains. The registration is in effect from the start, and being caught unregistered has a lot of legal woes tied to it. In fact it's even illegal to own a COSTUME unless you're registered which must make fancy dress parties a nightmare in this world. {{spoiler|Things go further for awhile in some issues, when after the local version of Superman goes insane/senile and decides that he's God and tries to enforce morality on the world, the use of any powers becomes illegal}}.
** It then lampshades this as of course the ONLY people who follow a law as ridiculous as that are the HEROES. The psychotic supervillains still run riot, the only difference is that now only badly unerqualified humans are left to try (and fail) to stop them. In the end the heroes return, realizing that justice is a lot more important than "The Law".
* A ''[[Darkwing Duck]]'' comic where several superheroes led by a [[Fantastic Four|Mr. Fantastic]] [[Captain Ersatz]] arrived in St. Canard city and tried to enforce a
* In ''[[Astro City]]'''s "Confessions" arc, the government of the titular city starts a registration act. It does not go well. {{spoiler|It turns out the Mayor was an alien shape shifter who was trying to destroy Earth's best defenses. This was found out when The Confessor, a Catholic Superhero Vampire, shot him to death with a stake gun.}}
* This happened when reality got changed so that Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman never existed in the 2009 series ''Trinity''. The alternate [[The Flash|Flash]] delivers an epic [[What the Hell, Hero?]] when he orders the solders trying to arrest him (in the middle of a battle against supervillains!) to do something useful and actually ''be'' heroes.
* The X-Men have brought this up as a plot every few years. Considering that the titular team's [[Wolverine|most prominent member]] is a short, bad-tempered Canadian with unbreakable claws that can cut through almost everything, with a [[Healing Factor]] that makes him close to invincible, the [[Have You Tried Not Being a Monster?]] angle most of these stories go for kinda falls apart.
** Except when you consider how much he's mellowed and how often he's worked with various governments.
* The ''[[
== Film ==
* The film ''[[The Incredibles]]'' inverts the situation: After a series of successful lawsuits against [[Superhero|Super Heroes]] leads to a wave of anti-hero sentiment, the government relocates them a la the Witness Protection Program and helps them lead normal lives. Note that the agency keeping track of the supers also existed in what seems to have been a regulatory/support role before these events, and none of the supers seemed to mind it.
** It's implied in the DVD extras that at least some members of the agency think the heroes have gotten a bad rap, and hope they can return to active service someday.
** It's not all
*** Again, like the Witness Protection Program, that requires them to keep the low profile.
** It also made it easier for the [[Big Bad]] to keep track of surviving heroes.
* The ''[[Generation X]]'' made-for-TV film deals with a harsh mutant registration act. Any mutant who doesn't register before their powers first flare up is imprisoned and considered a terrorist threat. Considering that most powers in the film are [[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?|small-scale]], [[Coconut Superpowers|low-budget]] and don't cause nearly as much property damage as you see in comic book panels, the knee-jerk reaction falls partly into [[Adaptation Explanation Extrication]].
== Literature ==
* The [[Wild Cards]] books had the '''S'''enate '''C'''ommittee on '''A'''ce '''RE'''esouces in the 1950s, in an alternate-history version of the anti-communist hysteria of the time. Its target was "Aces," rare people given superpowers by the Wild Card virus. In 1954, all people with super powers were required to register with the Federal government under the Exotic Powers Act, and were drafted into government service under the Special Conscription Act.
* After the emergence of the psychic Talents in [[Anne McCaffrey]]'s ''[[Tower and The Hive|Pegasus]]'' and ''[[Tower and The Hive|Tower]]'' books, the first thing they do is preempt what they see as the inevitability of this, creating their own registration organization and making sure it's used only for good.
* Telepaths in [[Katherine Kerr]]'s ''Polar City Blues'' and other books in the same universe are marked with a "P" tattoo on their jaw. No coercion or punishment is mentioned; however no telepath can go unnoticed by another for long, especially if they haven't been trained and the only place to get the training is at the school which does the branding...
* Subverted in the two ''[[Temps]]'' shared world anthologies, in which all British "paranorms" are required to register with the Department of Paranormal Resources and, in exchange for a monthly stipend and a cheap suit, can then be called up as government operatives and penalised for vigilantism. Mostly, the paranorms view this the way most people view government interference in their lives; annoying, but not worth making a fuss over.
* Imagers (basically mages) in [[LE Modesitt JR]]'s Imager Portfolio are required to join the Collegium. This organization is run by and filled with Imagers, and occupies a venerable but somewhat precarious place in the local power structure. It trains imagers, keeps them out of trouble, and acts as something of a special ops/intelligence/research agency for the governmental
* The Ministry of Magic in the ''[[Harry Potter]]'' universe, which regulates the wizarding world in the UK, forces Animagi (wizards with the rare skill of being able to transform into a specific animal) to register with the government or face prison time.
* This is one of the core elements of ''[[Shadow Ops]]''. If you're a Latent (magic-using human) in the United States, you've got three basic options. the first: a fairly comfortable (or uncomfortable, if you force the military to come after you) imprisonment while having your abilities fully suppressed for the rest of your life. The second: join the military. Again, for life. Third: Bullets, lethal injection, or the electric chair, depending on area. [[Double Standard|Unless you're rich, related to a senator, or a famous celebrity.]] And if you're unlucky enough to manifest powers in one of the "prohibited" schools (necromancy, sentient elemental conjuration, gate magic, negramancy) or use a "legal" school in an illegal way (a physiomancer ripping apart human flesh, or a terramancer controlling animals) then you've only got the former two options. The ethics and morals of this system are debated extensively over the course of the book, with security versus freedom being a core theme. Ultimately, the protagonist decides he can't support a government that effectively imprisons and enslaves its own citizens for something they have no control over, and effects an escape.
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* The government agency "Checkmate" is attempting to do this in Season 9 of [[Smallville]], willing to use kidnapping and murder to try to force superheroes under their thumb.
** In Season Ten, the government passes a "Vigilante Registration Act" with some help from {{spoiler|[[Darkseid]]'s influence.}} Several episodes later, efforts spearheaded by Senator Martha Kent get it repealed.
* In the short-lived, live-action sitcom version of ''[[The Tick (animation)]]'', superheroes are required to have a hero license to operate within the City. However, the application process for such is simple and requires no background check, so the Tick easily makes up a false name to be listed as his secret identity. Furthermore, the consequences for not having a license are nonexistent.
* ''[[The 4400]]'' in one ep mentioned that a politician crafted a law forcing all 4400's to register their powers with the guv'ment.
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* The ''[[Champions]] 5th Edition'' [[Tabletop Games]] has a Superhuman Registration Act in its game universe [[Backstory]]. It uses it in an uncommonly sensible
** Technically, those that are not registered are considered to be vigilanties and, as such, criminals. This is rarely enforced except in extreme cases; Vigilantes who kill opponents are considered criminals and are hunted by the law.
** Supervillains get no such option; those that are
** All countries have
* In ''[[Paranoia (game)|Paranoia]]'', being an unregistered mutant is punishable by death. Since just about ''every'' player character and NPC is a mutant of some sort or another, and very few are registered, things can get interesting very quickly.
* In ''[[Warhammer
**
** And if the beacon were allowed to go out, the Imperium would collapse and pieces of humanity would be eventually eaten by [[Eldritch Abomination
* The Moore Act in the "[[Dark Age|Iron Age]]" setting of ''[[Mutants and Masterminds]]'' made superheroes illegal in Freedom City. Named after Mayor Franklin Moore (who, in turn, was named after [[Alan Moore]], creator of the Keene Act in ''[[Watchmen]]'').
* White Wolf's ''Aberrant'' had a rather underhanded variety. While there is no official law requiring Novas to register, their powers tend to be hard to control without specialized training and medical care. Both are available only from Project Utopia, so most of them end up there, policing their "unenlightened" brethren. In the process they're also {{spoiler|'''''unknowingly sterilized'''''. It should be no surprise that the setting concludes with every Nova on Earth discovering this fact and going on a [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]] that pretty much [[The End of the World as We Know It|wrecks the entire world]] - after which the authorities destroy all records of their crimes and claim that [[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity|all Novas inevitably go insane]], and systematically kill them from that point on.}}
** on a lighter note in the world of Aberrant there also exists image firms like Appellate Lexington, that will register a super identity and make up a costume for you {{spoiler|of course the next page has an anonymous Op Net user declaring the firms as a Utopia net to catch (identify/keep tabs) those Novas that evade Project Utopia's Rashoud Facilities}}
** Practically speaking, the main reason that the major world governments did not press for a super registration law was twofold: a) voluntary compliance would 'out' most novas anyway, as there were a myriad of perfectly legal ways to make a ridiculous amount of money using nova powers and b) between their freely wiretapping everything to a degree that would make the NSA weep in envy and their own nova investigators, the multi-national intelligence agency known as the Directive could pretty much break any secret ID short of Divis Mal's in about a week -- and routinely did.
* Taken to extremes in ''[[Forgotten Realms]]''. The nation of Cormyr requires all
== [[Video Games]] ==
* In the [[Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game|MMORPG]] ''[[City of Heroes]]'', where super-powered individuals are, indeed, required to register their powers, identity, etc. with the local authorities in order to get their superhero license. This makes the superheroes official agents of the government, and gives them full rights to beat up anybody who wears gang symbols, black hats, or hooded robes. There is, however, a [[Shout-Out]] to the trope in the game's [[Backstory]]:
** There's also a number of variations on the theme: villains are ''required'' to register their identities and powers as well, but their IDs are (depending on who you ask) either the property of the government, as all villains have to break out of prison as their tutorial, or property of Arachnos, which controls the Rogue Isles. There's also a number of references in the game to various histories of the "registered superheroes": some fought in World War 2 voluntarily as heroes, especially against German superpowered squads; a group of heroes led a harsh and ultimately controversial rampage against drugs; and so on. The latest incarnation of the Superhero Registration Act as it exists in the game today wasn't passed until the mid-to-late eighties, at which point ''sanctioned'' vigilantism in Paragon City began to skyrocket. There's also a number of
** Of course, [[Fanon|roleplayers in the game are free to interpret the laws as they see fit, much like every other part of the game, even if their opinion goes counter to established canon.]] Some characters have identities which are secret from ''everyone'', even the government. In fact, there exists every level of publicity for a character, from identity-secret-to-everyone-no-exceptions, to my-hero-name-is-my-real-name.
* For ''[[Champions Online]]'', see Tabletop -> Champions above.
* A program similar to the above Babylon 5 example exists in ''[[
** This program was continued by the Dominion.
* In the third ''[[Mega Man Star Force]]'' game, it becomes impossible to [[Transformation Sequence|EM Wave Change]] without first joining up with the Satella Police and getting a "Transcode." As Geo demonstrates in the beginning of the game, trying to Wave Change without a Transcode locks up the Hunter-VG and makes it impossible to use.
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* The Webcomic ''Fellowship of Heroes'' offers a world with a voluntary superhero registration project to give heroes official sanction, with an organisation that doesn't hunt down unregistrated heroes. Still, "Indie" heroes are considered rather controversial.
* In [[Everyday Heroes]], only those superhumans who are active crime-fighters are required to register with the government. For a while Mr. Mighty held a series of civilian jobs. (He couldn't be a crime-fighter after marrying a former villainess.)
* In [https://web.archive.org/web/20130904204902/http://www.heroesofcrash.com/ HeroesOfCrash] registration is an optional thing that helps superheroes get assistance from the government if necessary. It's possible to be a non-registered superhero, but it involves trade-offs.
* The Webcomic [http://sidekickgirl.comicgenesis.com/ Sidekick Girl] has this but it's a bureaucracy (for both heroes and villains) making it even more evil.
* The [[Ciem Webcomic Series]] has in its expanded universe a Judge Belliah of the [[Acceptable Political Targets|9th Circuit Court of Appeals]], a [[Complete Monster]] who [http://dozerfleetwiki2.wiki-site.com/index.php/Timeline_of_events_in_Comprehensive_Gerosha#Gerosha_Abolition tries to start one]{{Dead link}} via judicial activism. And [[The War On Straw|political mobs]]. In the end, all he succeeds at doing is winning over [[Even Evil Has Standards|two supervillains]] to join [[La Résistance]] in freeing an [[Emotion Eater]] [[Reality Warper]] powerful enough to save all of them; and gets said [[Emotion Eater]] [[Reality Warper]] [[Banned in China|banned in Belgium]].
* [[Averted Trope|Averted]] and discussed in ''[[Spinnerette]]''. The supreme court has evidently decided that superpowers fall under second amendment protection, and laws have been passed enabling superheroes to act within the legal system without revealing identities to anybody, but there are also groups that oppose this state of affairs and want to take this trope more literally.
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* Also appears in the early-'90s ''[[X-Men (animation)|X-Men]]'' cartoon, though the "Mutant Control Agency" in that series is "a private organization, occasionally supported by the government", and the registration is seemingly done voluntarily. Later, the government tries to shut it down when they notice the X-Men breaking, determining that if mutants were taking violent action against the organization than it was getting too extreme. Apparently nobody in the government checked to notice that the control agency had plans to send giant robots out to abduct any mutants that registered, and likely cause more damage than the mutants they were supposed to protect the common humans from.
** And Later in ''[[X-Men: Evolution]]'' when Former Principal Edward Kelly is running for Mayor and one of his plans is for a Mutant Registration Act, to essentially segregate Mutants from humans and treat them like an inferior race. The X-Men are unwilling to get involved due to the way it could backfire. The Brotherhood, not so much.
** The Mutant Response Division in ''[[Wolverine and the X-Men]]'' is charged with finding mutants and "registering" them-this often means holding them indefinitely. The creators mention in the commentary that the "Mardies" actually have good reasons to exist and would be a positive thing if they weren't led by a [[General Ripper]] and caught between Senator Kelly and Magneto's bids for all-out war. Their success rate is pretty abysmal against the Brotherhood and the X-Men until they build the [[Killer Robot|Sentinels]] and Master Mold, [[
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Superhero Tropes]]
[[Category:Super Registration Act]]
[[Category:Super Title Index]]
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