Captain America, Iron Man, and registering people

So Spencer Ackerman recently sided with Iron Man over Captain America in the “should superheroes have to register in order to practice their superherodom” debate. In case that was too complicated: He thinks they should have to register. Ezra Klein agreed, but added another element to the mix: “If the state has any legitimate function at all, it’s to train and regulate people who could accidentally kill everyone in a hundred-mile radius.”

I don’t necessarily disagree with Ezra, but I am a little surprised to hear him argue that. If I recall arguments with my liberal comic book nerd friends correctly, it was the liberals who always argued against things like the Mutant Registration Act. Indeed, the idea of rounding up those with superpowers and registering them for the protection of humanity was explicitly compared to the Holocaust at the beginning of the first X-Men film; the act was proposed a (callous, bigoted) Republican senator. I suppose it’s theoretically possible to make the argument that only superheroes who actually want to enforce laws would need to register, but that’s not what Ezra is arguing here, just that anyone who poses a danger should have to register their persons.

Anyway, there’s more from JVL over at Galley Slaves. It helps that he’s actually read the series in question. I’m working on knowledge that’s a good 13 years old.