10 Times Superheroes Did The Wrong Thing For The Right Reason
2. The Superhero Civil War
The New Warriors’ mistake cost 600 people their lives and triggered a movement to make every person with powers register with the government. Captain America had seen the corruption and misuse of government power far too often and knew that registered heroes would be limited in who they could help. Iron Man believed that heroes needed to be held responsible and policed. Sides were picked, battle lines were drawn and people were hurt and killed. It took Cap seeing that the public was on Iron Man’s side to get him to stand down.
It didn’t need to come to blows. Iron Man, Reed Richards, and Hank Pym didn’t need to create a clone of Thor and it certainly didn’t need to kill Bill Foster. If Steve and Tony had remembered that they were friends and that Tony had been against registration for years and that Cap was against children putting themselves in harm’s way, they could have found common ground.
Too many young heroes with too much power were using their powers irresponsibly. Of course, they rebelled when they were met with the idea of forced registration but if they were offered help and an opportunity to learn, chances are that many would have signed up willingly.