A Really Big Challenge

Inspired partly by Watchmen.

Superheroes, the denizens of comic books, the superpowered defenders of justice, have always been revered and hated throughout history, both their's and ours. However, in alternate history most discussion of superheroes is either ASB (which is fascinating in its own right) or Deconstruction, based on the (fairly realistic) assumption that all real-life heroes would have to be sociopaths.

But is there a way to create, in good realistic alternate history, superheroes, starting in the '30s? Obviously there would be no superpowers or insane martial art skills, but could there be some kind of movement in response to the rife organized crime to form vigilante groups that fight crime of all kinds?
 

Hendryk

Banned
In real life, people who practice vigilante justice while concealing their identities, and wear an outfit intended to scare their enemies, tend to look like this:

Ku-Klux-Klan.jpg


Note that many did see them as brave protectors of local communities.
 
In real life, people who practice vigilante justice while concealing their identities, and wear an outfit intended to scare their enemies, tend to look like this:

Pic

Note that many did see them as brave protectors of local communities.

Is it just me, or does the one on the left look slightly bored?

But anyway, even if you negate supernatural occurences (and the more ASBish nin-supernatural occurences) superheroes are going to stretch plausibility in any scenario, but that's why its a challenge-not a question of plausibility, but a question of maximum plausible plausibility. Anybody who does the things you said will probably not be quite right in the head, but neither were the gangsters of the '20s, and they ingrained themselves into the public consciousness then and now. Now chnge that into crime fighting and you get an instant deconstructed hero.
 
Perhaps if some areas had gangsters running cities, or at least influencing police departments, then it would be useful for people to form their own vigilante groups and hide who they are, and they wouldn't even have to be sociopaths.
Say New York City or Chicago is controlled by people who run organized crime. Somebody could choose to fight against the system by going against these criminals, but he decides it's safest for him and his family if he wears a costume. Maybe the gangsters would recognize him because he used to work with them. Maybe he's a cop and has seen other cops take bribes. It would make the most sense if he recruits a lot of people he knows to fight with him. I think it would stretch credibility if only one or two people are taking down a lot of gangsters. And then with a large group of vigilantes, there comes the issue of how do you keep them all organized and following a uniform code of rules?

And similar stories could go for areas where members of the KKK run things.

You could bring in sociopaths after the non-sociopath characters are established.
 
Top