Comic book fans, like any other devoted fandom, sometimes like to puzzle out the day to day issues of the fantastic characters they follow. When does the hero sleep? How do the glasses protect his secret identity? How does Hero Insurance work?
James Daily and Ryan Davidson, two licensed attorneys and comic book fans, created a blog in 2010 and have been writing articles on the legal issues surrounding the standard operating methods of superheroes and supervillains. Their standard format involves exploring the various real life laws and precedents in law that are the most applicable to a given situation.
Their blog can be found here
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This site provides examples of:
- Cartesian Karma: Discussed on the blog post about mind control. The article argues that anyone who was placed under mind control would probably get off easy in a court of law, since they were forced to commit a crime under duress under the principles of Actus Reus and Mens Rea — essentially, you did the crime, but any conduct under mind control would appear to fail the intent to harm requirement, which essentially eliminates criminal liability.
- Fantastic Legal Weirdness: The premise of the blog.
- Like Reality, Unless Noted: The reason they're doing this with the two major superhero publishers' universes and not, say, Middle Earth or Star Wars. They're interested in performing legal analysis of hypothetical situations to which real law would apply while alternate settings or time periods would require them to invent law whole cloth.
- Our Lawyers Advised This Trope: Naturally.Disclaimer: On this blog we discuss fictional scenarios; nothing on this blog is legal advice. No attorney-client relationship is created by [the act of] reading the blog or writing comments, even if the authors write back. The authors speak only for themselves, and nothing on this blog is to be considered the opinions or views of the authors’ employers.
- Shown Their Work: The authors are both practicing attorneys and cite real law and real cases in their articles to support their interpretations.
