Super-Geek

Eric Burns just posted a piece of writing in the style of a wikipedia article and it's really good. It's about metahumans and the civil rights issues around their existence and superiority. It reminded me of something I wrote about a year ago. At the time I was thinking of writing a story (possibly even a comic) about superhero's. Mine is more in the style of a blog article written coincidentally with Eric Burns in mind. I'm not sure if I was particularly successful, for one it's not nearly long-winded enough.

Thursday, May 12, 2005

History Lesson:

The End of Free Powers and the Establishment of the ACS

I noticed some of you guys talking about the ACS and the laws concerning the control of powers. I also noticed that not many of you have a good understanding of the reasons behind the laws so I’m posting a little history lesson, which I hope to flesh out at a later date (when it’s not 3am).

By 1998 the issue of super-power distribution in Australia had gotten completely out of hand. Almost anyone could gain access to super powers. Powers were being won on game shows. Schools were giving out powers with their merit awards. It was even possible to download dangerous and volatile powers from “warez” sites on the inter-web. The whole situation was beyond ridiculous.

There were large moral debates in the public forum about the ethical standing of people that use powers to gain an unfair advantage; be it in sports, politics or business. It was generally agreed that using your power to violate the human rights of another was just as unacceptable as standard breaches of human rights. But the problem was that the vast arrays of different abilities were so hard to legislate for, and every power held countless possibilities for misuse. How were the government and the law enforcement services to keep up? Groups of “super-people” with similar ideals were banding together, in some cases to protect themselves and their families but more often than not their aims were more sinister.

With the number of people with powers growing and the rate of crime and misuse of powers skyrocketing the government had to do something to restore order before the country was completely out of control. And they didn’t have a lot of time.

On July 11^th of 1998 the government passed several new laws that made it illegal to possess or use powers without the express permission of the Government of Australia. They declared a general amnesty on super-powers lasting till August 1^st, anyone could turn themselves in and have their powers removed. Anyone discovered using powers illegally after this time would be arrested and held indefinitely under the new super-villain act.

The government formed the Agency for Control of Super-powers whose responsibility it was to capture illegal super-people and for bringing to justice misusers of super-powers. The ACS recruited as many super-people as they could to help enforce their new laws. These “super-hero’s”, as they were dubbed, were wholly sanctioned by the Government and became the only lawful users of super-powers in Australia.

By and large most people accepted the amnesty and had their powers removed, and most of the organised vigilante groups quickly accepted the ACS’s offer of employment. Obviously some refused to accept what they labelled fascist control over the lives of citizens and the crime syndicates were more reluctant to give up any power or advantage. This sparked a long battle that even now still rages.

I’ll try to post something about the ACS soon or maybe a more in depth look at the lead up to the proliferation of free powers. But for now… sleep.

posted by Super-Geek at 3:24am | 0 comments