I was thinking about Wilson Fisk’s whole “anti-vigilante” law in the MCU (or any universe that tries something similar), and honestly, shouldn’t that affect all superheroes? Like yeah, they wear cool suits and save people, but they’re still operating outside the law most of the time.
Batman? Vigilante. Spider-Man? Vigilante. Even someone like Superman, still does things with zero legal authority; at least he did when he was starting out because even though, yes, he saves people from disasters, he still interferes with active crime scenes.
I get that some heroes have government ties (like Cap or the X-Men depending on the timeline), but unless they’re actually deputized or working with official clearance, they’re just well-meaning vigilantes with powers.
So wouldn’t an anti-vigilante law basically criminalize every hero that’s not playing by the system? Curious how they’d try to loop around that—or if the public just picks and chooses who the law applies to.
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Isn’t he himself a villain? I feel like making all superheroism illegal is beneficial to him.
A lot of heroes do have legal sanction and protection, like spiderman an show up to court as spiderman and be allowed to testify, not to mention anyone working for shield
Iirc the law isn’t federal so Wilson Fisk can do bupkis about West Coast Avengers.
I almost wrote out an entire Doylist answer till I realized what group this was in
best guess would be that most of the main Avengers are either dead or operate outside NYC (or are so powerful NYC would just look the other way) so Fisk didn’t feel compelled to specifically address the distinction between “superhero” vs “vigilante”
So if Tony had still been alive, he would have to be addressed by Fisk, being an American citizen, and NYC resident.
but otherwise, the official remaining heroes either have ties to the government, OR don’t really act as vigilantes. Or just don’t operate in NYC.
Like Dr. Strange is around, people know he lives in NYC, but he’s not fighting crime.
Ant-Man lives in San Francisco.
Thor’s an alien and off planet
Hulk doesn’t seem to operate as a vigilante, and She-Hulk is more focused on law.
Captain Marvel is off world
Ms. Marvel is in New Jersey
you get the idea
as for “picking and choosing” other series/worlds have very much used a “pick and choose” system. Hardly legal, but they do what works
the CW verse sometimes operated like this where the local police could be ok with Flash, but not ok with Arrow (though to be fair, one guy just leaves criminals wrapped up for police, and the other was both a straight up murderer in the past, and even if not, left arrows in people)
It would. Enforcement on some heroes might a bit tougher (like Spider-man or Dr. Strange). So Fisk will probably only target ones like Daredevil and Punisher for now. He may reach a point where get gets better technology to take on other heroes, but for now it’s probably just DD and Pun.
Whenever Fisk’s Mayor arc wraps up, the next Mayor will probably repeal the Anti-Vigilante Act.
That’s the goal, yes.
He’s a supervillian, he doesn’t want superheroes around.
Civil War was all about this. As for how the comics treated it (Fisk version), it was just in New York, and at first he targeted people with powers like F4, and set up Thunderbolts to arrest heroes. But it was during election year, and Luke Cage was chosen as his replacement, so he repelled some of the most extreme, but it couldn’t just repelled like that. He himself was to be apprehended during Gang War, and other had to circle aroound like wasp was stopped by the police after she was flying, and she had to swear she wasn’t patrolling.
Like most things dealing in what-ifs, the answer is “it depends”.
There are continuities where Batman is effectively deputized by the GCPD. There are universes and storylines where superheroes are licensed by their governments. Superman is recognized as a law enforcement official in multiple countries around the world.
So it depends on what character, which universe, what story, and where on the timeline you’re talking about.
Fisk’s law in specific would only affect NYC though, so he’d have no authority to arrest, say, the MCU version of Ms. Marvel. If she wandered into NYC and was active there then things may be different; Fisk may have a case. We don’t really have a lot of information about how heroes are handled legally in the MCU following the repeal of the Sokovia Accords.
Yes, it would. The were only certain exceptions to the Superhuman Registration Act, for example. They wrangled ways to not upset Doctor Strange and Thor (Thor having diplomatic immunity) and the remaining mutants after M-Day were registered whether they wanted to be or not.
The rule was tell us who you are, get trained to use your powers safely and then you can work for S.H.I.E.L.D. and get a salary or you can fight crime on your own with a licence. Though you could also choose to simply retire.
Street level vigilantes like Daredevil, Luke Cage and Iron Fist chose not to comply and became wanted fugitives.
In terms of the MCU, Spider-Man, in his current status as an unidentified vigilante not associated with any official government role, has been indirectly named by Fisk.
For other individuals, those still connected to what remains of the Avengers, S.W.O.R.D. or other official government supported organisations would not be considered ‘vigilantes’. Though people like Kamala Khan or Kate Bishop (Fisk would be particularly interested in her) might be.
As far as Batman goes, no. He is a founding member of the Justice League, a recognised organisation, and supported by the GCPD. The government, obviously, can’t have a button to call Superman for help while trying to arrest one of his best friends.
First, a quibble. As Mayor of New York Wilson Fisk has no authority to make new laws. That’s what the state government does. What he can do is create his anti-vigilante task and use it to go after vigilantes for violating laws that already exist. So does his policy of not turning a blind eye to vigilantes apply to truly powerful vigilantes who vastly outgun his entire police force like Thor or Banner? Probably not, if Fisk realizes how outmatched he is. They may be breaking just as many laws but he doesn’t want to wreck his assets by wasting them on fights they can’t win.
It should apply to everyone, the comics kinda deals with this by having cops who dont want to arrest Daredevil mixed in with cops who do. Daredevil gets arrested and one of the cops wants to remove his mask, while other cops defend letting him wear the mask saying “I know you’ve gotta take him in. I get that he broke the law, but we dont perp walk cops.”
Edit: I also remember a part in a comic where a fake mugging happens and Spider-Man responds only for a bunch of cops to pop out and try to arrest him.