NEWS: Superheroes Get REAL!

But we _have_ a real-world Batman. You even know who it is.

This isn't a fantasy world where people dress outrageously and benefit from convenient suspensions of the laws of physics. We do what we can do, within the limits we have.

Nevertheless, we have a real-world Batman, a man who once suffered an outrageous, insane loss at the hands of a criminal. Perhaps uniquely, this man transformed himself into a famous crimefighter. He even fashioned for himself a complex headquarters, a Batcave of technical and communications equipment with which he tracks down criminals and brings them to justice. This being the real world, he has a lot of help

America's Most Wanted always freaked me out. I guess it's not much more than a glorified wanted poster, but trial by media seems like the future of the American justice system. Anyone ever READ the Running Man by Steven King (the movie blew and we all know it).

All of the criminals on 'America's Most Wanted' are on the FBI's list of fugitives; most already convicted by the courts.

Richard Jewel is a better example of trial by media.

John Walsh is a superhero who changed personal tragedy into a crusade against crime. So is, (I forgot her name!) the lady who founded MADD after her child was killed by a drunk driver. BTW, John Walsh's first book was the only book to ever make me cry. Go get a copy.

I don't think _The Running Man_ has anything to do with _America's Most Wanted_. (IIRC, the King novella didn't involve a criminal, but a down-on-his-luck sort who was on the quiz show for the money. The movie had Schwarzenegger as a criminal who'd been convicted on fake evidence.)

Anyway, AMW doesn't try people. It doesn't even investigate crimes. It looks for fugitives, and it finds them pretty often.

But as to your main (and very good) point: Is trial by media the future? I think so, and the future is now. We already do binding arbitration on TV. We have Court TV for major felonies. How long before the two collide?

Greetings, ladies and gentlemen: How are all those Elseworlds be related? Will all of them happen in the same 'RealWorld' or will each one devote with a different 'Earth-Prime' with just one superhero? At your feet, KalEl el Vigilant

PS: Hmmm... And, would the Psycho Pirate be less mad while being in a more real world? Would he be less unaware of his fictionality?

IIRC, the woman who founded MADD wound up as a lobbyist for a distiller. The real world strikes again.

Or, for a more accurate real-world approach, maybe after hearing about a crime that's been committed he'd just visit some local black/gay/otherwise unpopular bloke and viciously assault them based on nothing more than hearsay, then find out that the guy was innocent all along. Standing trial, he'd get let off by the judge with a few hours community service because the local tabloid rag brands him a 'have-a-go hero', and the victim's moved to another town and doesn't want to give evidence.

A spot-on portrayal of vigilanteism in the real world.

same here. i always found the show disturbing. i think likening him to batman demeans the heroic ideal of the character, in a small way.

-= e.

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Trial by media? What trial? The only to make it on AMW is to already have an arrest warrant or conviction made out in your name and to be a fugitive from it.

On the contrary, I think that Mr. Walsh is a very heroic person. He took what could have been a life-destroying tragedy and instead used it as a spur to go on and help catch hundreds of dangerous criminals and save thousands of potential victims.

And he isn't 'Trying' anything. As pointed out earlier, the show is no more a 'trial by media' than the FBI's '10 Most Wanted' website listing is.

(Besides, I think that any prospective juror who answered the questionnaire with 'I know the SOB's guilty because I saw him on America's Most Wanted would be removed from the jury selection pool anyway. That's why they have jury selection screenings in the first place. So again, no real problem.)

A little off aon a tangent, but here's my favorite AMW story.

I used to work in a tiny town in Alaska called Pelican. One night, this guy walks into the bar and sees his wife flirting with a stranger. He goes to the town sheriff and swears up and down he saw the guy on AMW just that week.

The dimwitted sheriff arrests the poor stranger, and he spends the night locked in a room in the fire house (the closest thing we had to a cell). In the morning, it's established that no, he was never on AMW and he is not a fugitive.

The guy seemed to take it in good humor, he didn't press suit against the town, but he never came back, either.

gotta watch your attributions, chuckg.

i only posted one of those lines you were responding to, but they were all attributed to me at the top of the post.

-= e.