10 Legal Problems Superheroes Don't Like To Talk About
1. The Problem With Illegal Aliens
Immigration law is a federal issue, and a hot button topic… but what about genuine illegal aliens? Superman and the Martian Manhunter - two of the most powerful members of the Justice League - are aliens with little in the way of legal status in the US.
Let’s look at Superman, since he’s the most famous and probably one of the most problematic. Now, US immigration is a tricky process, but Superman would have issues from the beginning. If we stick with the version of his origin story that says that he was born on Krypton and arrived here as an infant, was found and raised by the Kents, and never revealed himself to anyone official until adulthood, then straight away we run into an issue.
Kal-El has never had any form of genuine identification: his biological parents technically abandoned him in the US, and his adoptive parents must have forged or had forged the child’s identifying paperwork in order for young Clark Kent to obtain a social security number, get into school etc etc.
Adopting a foundling is made very difficult by state law: the Kents will have pretended that he was their own boy. Then there’s little Clark’s medical history: he won’t have one, and the Kents wouldn’t want him examined by doctors just in case it was discovered that the baby wasn’t local.
Superman is that rare thing: an alter ego with as much of a presence as his civilian identity. Superman doesn’t just arrive, save the day and leave: he makes speeches, does interviews, meets Presidents and appears in front of the Senate, and everyone knows that Superman is an extraterrestrial.
Clark has all the identification and paperwork, faked though it may be, so Superman’s the one who’ll need to sort out his immigration status. Will the US government make allowances for the fact that this is freakin’ Superman we’re talking about? Absolutely.
But they’ll also need to know what he calls himself when he’s not Superman, where he lives, whether he’s eligible to pay tax, whether as a citizen he’ll need to give up Kryptonian secrets to his new country, whether they can legally draft him into the army or any other form of military service. It’s a can of worms...