This is what happens when you don’t have a Superman Code.
The premise of The Darkest Minds, filtered through a somewhat more jaundiced worldview: all the teens in the world apparently become mutants, and not all of them survive the process. The survivors develop superpowers. The US government then somehow manages to convince all of these kids’ parents to let them get put in impromptu concentration camps — with nary a word from any civil rights group, from the ACLU to the NRA — where they are then turned into I don’t know this is not really making any sense at this point. I mean, seriously, don’t any of the guards have kids themselves?
Anyway: in order for any of this to be plausible, the power levels of the surviving children would have to be off the charts; which is maybe correct, since at least one of the lead characters can pick a human up with his mind (which implies that he could also squeeze you like a grape, or at least throw you a mile up in the air and see if your flight mutation kicks in). I think that the other lead is a teleporter, or somebody who can move through walls — yeah, sure, that’s not dangerous — and now the mutants are all going to go all Magneto on the world and start a revolution, or something. Which ends with all the normies in camps, but then the normies put them in camps so fair’s fair.
You know what prevents super-dystopias like this? A Superman Code. “Truth, Justice, and the American Way.” Sure, it’s hokey and corny — but it also keeps Kal-el from getting up one morning and saying Gee, I think that I’ll take over the world now*. I dare to suggest that this is a Good Thing.
Moe Lane
PS: Yes, I’m overthinking a show that panders to teenagers. Dagnabbit, I have every right to do that. And get off my lawn!
*I am privately convinced that, in the DC universe, everybody knows who Superman ‘really’ is. They say nothing because, well, what’s your victory condition there? How does taking away a source of sanity from the most powerful superhero on Earth benefit the human race, again?
Interesting that you brought that up. First it’s the reason that Superman would never kill anyone, including Zod, which makes the first Cavil Superman unwatchable as far as I’m concerned. (No I have not let that one go).
If you want to see Superman no longer tied to the Superman Code just read the Injustice Gods Among Us series, it shows just what would happen when that happens. It’s based on the video game and
I’ve read the first few mini series and I did enjoy it.
Sure, leave it to the (atheist) cat to point out that’s (one of) the point(s) to most of the world religions as well…
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Mew
Hmmm. This is, to put it mildly, idiotic.
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Any government is only able to be tyrannical, as long as it has power over it’s people. It is the ENTIRE POINT OF THE SECOND AMENDMENT. The Founders wanted to make sure that the government would ALWAYS have to be careful of what it did- that in the most extreme sense, it would have to be accountable to it’s people.
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If you all of a sudden turn an entire generation into super powered people, the Founders would probably nod approvingly and say ‘Well, that takes care of that.’