"Okay, to start with, the registration issue? That never got resolved. Yeah, it got repealed but we live in a world where everyone's scared. Lots of new, inexperienced heroes sprung up without any guidance while the heroes were gone. Another Stamford could happen any day now."
He pointed out, "So doing nothing? Bad move. But the way it was handled on your side before this was flawed. Secret IDs need to be secret for a reason. Superheroes face much higher risks to their loved ones than cops or other people in public service because they face more dangerous enemies. There is always risk of abuse, even with the most secure database possible. I know people whose secret IDs got compromised. Robin lost his dad. My family almost got blown up by the Reach. Black Beetle almost brain-damaged by baby sister."
He went on, "And the training was flawed. I looked through some of the records - forcible recruitment, teaching teenagers to snipe with sniper rifles. This stuff is all tucked away where people don't see but it's not secret. You just have to dig deep enough into the public records released after the Initiative collapsed. There were kids - young teenagers - that didn't even want to be superheroes being forcibly recruited to the Initiative - even being forced to kill. That's messed up. Having powers doesn't automatically override someone's right to not be drafted into public service."
That was the biggest problem - the draft.
"So how do you have the training without having it abused?" he asked. "What you do is you have a training program run by superheroes, with a government charter, who do have certain metrics they have to fulfill to the government to make sure the quality of the training they're giving is okay - just like schools have curriculums and stuff - but people training isn't automatic recruitment to any superteams or government forces or superhuman armies. Nobody has to register their real name. It's like the Initiative but your secret ID doesn't get compromised. You pick a codename and get your domino mask when you set foot in the door."
He gestured with his hands as he talked making it clear he was very enthusiastic about the ideas he was proposing.
"There are multiple training tracks. For the people that have powers they need to learn to control but they have no interest in superheroing, they can get trained in just controlling their powers and defending themselves without hurting themselves or others when they get attacked. Now this is for everyone, metas, Homo Magi, mutants - no distinguishing between them anymore which helps the public stop doing it, too, and makes sure there's no schools all over or one on one mentoring that's slapdash - it's all uniform."
Having mutants at Xavier's school, and some training under older mentors, and some training under teen teams, that meant it was all over the place.
"At the end of training, they hand in their mask and just go home. Every person that graduates from superhero boot camp gets some kind of encrypted chip that's keyed into their biometrics to prove they trained. In case they want to come back for one of the other tracks later. But it doesn't hold DNA and stuff. More something that, say, activates with a fingerprint. They can prove the chip is theirs and what level of training with it but they keep the chip. No central database that can be hacked or abused. Like their own little certificate."
He went on, "Then there's the superhero track. After the bootcamp basics, the ones that want to be superheroes move onto formal training like the Initiative had but with focus on becoming a superhero instead of just powers control. Once they complete that, they mentor one-on-one under an experienced superhero with a similar power or skillset. After that, they participate in an approved guidance team like the Young Allies or the Teen Titans, or whatever other teams form, where they start to get more autonomy but still have older, more experienced heroes to keep training and guide them who act as mentors to the team. After that, they're free to solo it or form their own independent teams but every member needs their chips that they got at each stage of the training - you lose yours, tough luck. You gotta go back and train again at whatever stage yours left you at. The teams have to register and show they all have their chips but they keep it to code name and no secret IDs get revealed."
He finished. "Training is all voluntary because you'd have to register people to make it mandatory and that's a bad idea, but superheroes that operate without training, if they wind up in a situation where they're culpable for someone's death, the penalties should be steeper. Sort of like how accidentally hitting someone with your car gets you punished if you just weren't careful, but the penalty's even steeper if you were DUI since that's such an actively negligent choice. Not being trained adds majorly to whatever penalties you face and they're set like a lot of other crimes have them set. So people know there are situations where superheroing without having earned your chips will net you ten to twenty, whereas if you have them, it's seen that you were responsible enough to at least put in your dues so it was more human error than gross negligence. If you trained and passed it meant you at least took some measures to protect the public. Usually someone who puts in the work and still messes up, that's more tragedy than negligence. The person shouldn't face quite as severe consequences if they tried to prepare themselves."
He sucked in a deep breath and let it out.
"It's not perfect but it's better than nothing and also better than what the SRA did. Most heroes would jump at training if they didn't have to give up their secret ID and the ones that don't would be afraid of the crazy-harsh legal penalties if they mess up without having trained. And those crazy harsh legal penalties would get the more negligent heroes off the streets for a long time."
He turned to Nate and spread out his hands. That was his idea, Nate.
no subject
He pointed out, "So doing nothing? Bad move. But the way it was handled on your side before this was flawed. Secret IDs need to be secret for a reason. Superheroes face much higher risks to their loved ones than cops or other people in public service because they face more dangerous enemies. There is always risk of abuse, even with the most secure database possible. I know people whose secret IDs got compromised. Robin lost his dad. My family almost got blown up by the Reach. Black Beetle almost brain-damaged by baby sister."
He went on, "And the training was flawed. I looked through some of the records - forcible recruitment, teaching teenagers to snipe with sniper rifles. This stuff is all tucked away where people don't see but it's not secret. You just have to dig deep enough into the public records released after the Initiative collapsed. There were kids - young teenagers - that didn't even want to be superheroes being forcibly recruited to the Initiative - even being forced to kill. That's messed up. Having powers doesn't automatically override someone's right to not be drafted into public service."
That was the biggest problem - the draft.
"So how do you have the training without having it abused?" he asked. "What you do is you have a training program run by superheroes, with a government charter, who do have certain metrics they have to fulfill to the government to make sure the quality of the training they're giving is okay - just like schools have curriculums and stuff - but people training isn't automatic recruitment to any superteams or government forces or superhuman armies. Nobody has to register their real name. It's like the Initiative but your secret ID doesn't get compromised. You pick a codename and get your domino mask when you set foot in the door."
He gestured with his hands as he talked making it clear he was very enthusiastic about the ideas he was proposing.
"There are multiple training tracks. For the people that have powers they need to learn to control but they have no interest in superheroing, they can get trained in just controlling their powers and defending themselves without hurting themselves or others when they get attacked. Now this is for everyone, metas, Homo Magi, mutants - no distinguishing between them anymore which helps the public stop doing it, too, and makes sure there's no schools all over or one on one mentoring that's slapdash - it's all uniform."
Having mutants at Xavier's school, and some training under older mentors, and some training under teen teams, that meant it was all over the place.
"At the end of training, they hand in their mask and just go home. Every person that graduates from superhero boot camp gets some kind of encrypted chip that's keyed into their biometrics to prove they trained. In case they want to come back for one of the other tracks later. But it doesn't hold DNA and stuff. More something that, say, activates with a fingerprint. They can prove the chip is theirs and what level of training with it but they keep the chip. No central database that can be hacked or abused. Like their own little certificate."
He went on, "Then there's the superhero track. After the bootcamp basics, the ones that want to be superheroes move onto formal training like the Initiative had but with focus on becoming a superhero instead of just powers control. Once they complete that, they mentor one-on-one under an experienced superhero with a similar power or skillset. After that, they participate in an approved guidance team like the Young Allies or the Teen Titans, or whatever other teams form, where they start to get more autonomy but still have older, more experienced heroes to keep training and guide them who act as mentors to the team. After that, they're free to solo it or form their own independent teams but every member needs their chips that they got at each stage of the training - you lose yours, tough luck. You gotta go back and train again at whatever stage yours left you at. The teams have to register and show they all have their chips but they keep it to code name and no secret IDs get revealed."
He finished. "Training is all voluntary because you'd have to register people to make it mandatory and that's a bad idea, but superheroes that operate without training, if they wind up in a situation where they're culpable for someone's death, the penalties should be steeper. Sort of like how accidentally hitting someone with your car gets you punished if you just weren't careful, but the penalty's even steeper if you were DUI since that's such an actively negligent choice. Not being trained adds majorly to whatever penalties you face and they're set like a lot of other crimes have them set. So people know there are situations where superheroing without having earned your chips will net you ten to twenty, whereas if you have them, it's seen that you were responsible enough to at least put in your dues so it was more human error than gross negligence. If you trained and passed it meant you at least took some measures to protect the public. Usually someone who puts in the work and still messes up, that's more tragedy than negligence. The person shouldn't face quite as severe consequences if they tried to prepare themselves."
He sucked in a deep breath and let it out.
"It's not perfect but it's better than nothing and also better than what the SRA did. Most heroes would jump at training if they didn't have to give up their secret ID and the ones that don't would be afraid of the crazy-harsh legal penalties if they mess up without having trained. And those crazy harsh legal penalties would get the more negligent heroes off the streets for a long time."
He turned to Nate and spread out his hands. That was his idea, Nate.