The Flash #135: Finally, a proper supervillain trial?

[thelazyreader]

This is a follow-up to my previous post about the Three of a Kind crossover featuring Flash, Green Lantern and Green Arrow. This issue concludes the story with a criminal trial. Unlike the comic book trials I've read here before this one is pretty straightforward: no clones, no sidetracking, no questionable judgements, and what's more, it gives a rare glimpse into the legal status of superheroes in the DC universe.



Previously: Kyle Rayner, Wally West and Connor Hawke went on an Alaskan cruise and found supervillains Sonar, Heatwave and Hatchet on the same ship, planning to revive the insane electromagnetism-manipulating Dr. Polaris. This issue, written by Grant Morrison and Mark Millar, begins after the crisis is resolved and the villains captured.

For some reason the defendants are pretty open about what they did.



One would think the above confession would merit a guaranteed 'guilty' sentence. But the villains have gotten themselves a really smooth lawyer. He starts by leveraging their sheepish honesty for a little sympathy.



Heh. Like me, the heroes can't believe he said all that with a straight face. According to the prosecutor this is the guy Lex Luthor regularly hires for legal assistance. He moves on to the 'discredit the witness' tactic.



The legal status of superheroes in the DCU is somewhat of a murky area, so I found the revelations in the above page very interesting. Not only does DC have its own form of government registration for superheroes, this predates Marvel's Civil War by several years. That said it doesn't seem registration puts anywhere near as many restrictions on DC heroes, seeing they get to keep their identities secret from the government(Also, does the real-life 12th Amendment say anything about witnesses using aliases in court?).

Getting back to the story, once Polaris woke up he took the cruise ship apart in seconds and left the passengers to drown. Kyle couldn't do anything because he was fighting Sonar.



Polaris then decided to use his magnetic powers to melt the polar ice caps(however that works) and flood the world before Wally stopped him using the first General Principle of Electromagnetism.



I absolutely love the fact that Morrison(or Millar?) wrote Wally as a guy who regularly reads scientific journals in this issue. While Geoff Johns likes to downplay Wally's scientific knowledge and hype Barry Allen as the Flash who uses science to beat supervillains, Morrison/Millar remembered that Wally had studied for a doctorate in Physics and is far from a layman in such matters.



There's the whopper. Weinstein argues that since the trio were working for military intelligence they can only be tried in a military court(where they'll be tried by the same corrupt Generals who authorised their mission). Just when it looks like the bad guys are about to dodge justice, Connor delivers another whopper.



Apparently the Alaskan State Attorney has the power to overrule a military court, and since the incident took place in U.S. territorial waters off Alaska, the bad guys are going to jail after all. (Although they'll probably just break out or join the Suicide Squad...)

I can tell that at least a small degree of serious legal research went behind this issue. Possibly why this is one of my favourite issues from the Morrison/Millar run on The Flash.

Comments

[auggie18]

Wow, is this buy-able in trade? Because it was really cool and I would love to spend legal tender on it.

[thelazyreader]

This issue is collected in the Flash: Emergency Stop TPB, but the other two issues of Three of a Kind aren't. However this one does a good job of recapping the story from the earlier two during the trial, so it can be read as a stand-alone.

[omgwtflolbbqbye]

I love the meta-shoutout to comic publishing schedules where villains plan for a month before every exploit.

[daningram.insanejournal.com]

Err, the 12th Amendment refers to electing a president and VP...

I really wish writers who insist on court scenes would spend a little time studying the law to at least convincingly fake it. There's no reason why they couldn't have just created some fictional act.

Also, the way their lawyers says "Oh, it was just a small petty crime that went wrong." is a pretty poor defense. That's still felony murder, and many states execute criminals for that. In addition, why would a lawyer hold onto something absolving his clients until the end?

Lastly, are we really supposed to believe that, even if Sonar was hired by the government, that they'd make any effort to bail them out? The entire thing was a SNAFU of the highest order. Those generals that would have hired Sonar et all would be more interested in burying them, not trying to help them avoid a dozen charges of murder.

[fyborg23]

When I saw him mention the twelfth amendment I thought "hey! that's not the right amendment!"

The fifth amendment covers the right not to self-incriminate oneself in a judicial proceeding, and I suppose I could see a superhero pleading the fifth when testifying if vigilantism is illegal in the DCU.

I think Lex Luthor would retain a more competent lawyer than this guy-- but I'm sure it'd be rather difficult to keep up with the caseload! I wonder how often Luthor sues and gets sued. (And how many of those lawsuits involve Superman ;] )

[daningram.insanejournal.com]

I just don't think Grant is a details kinda guy, and details is what the law is all about.

[thelazyreader]

Would the detail about the Alaskan State Attorney be correct then?

To answer your earlier comments

-The prosecutor was aware Weinstein's arguments were flimsy. It appears he was mostly trying to create doubt and buy time till he could get that declaration in the end.

-The military mission in question created a diplomatic incident with Iraq, with the US government denying any involvement. Presumably it was a rogue operation by a few generals, or that the three crooks simply knew too many dirty secrets to let them face a public trial.

[daningram.insanejournal.com]

I don't know if the Alaska thing is legit or not, but I rather doubt it. Federal law trumps state law 100% of the time, and the US military is associated with the Federal government.

As for the other stuff, I just can't see any General being willing to bail out Sonar etc given how poorly things went. But that's exactly what we see. Rescueing a powerful American metahuman from Iraq wouldn't create a big incident (even if we weren't at war with them at the time), but three criminals unleashing Polaris on innocent civilians?

That would cost any General their stars, career and possibly result in jail time. They wouldn't touch it with a 100 foot pole.

[alexanderlucard]

(Also, does the real-life 12th Amendment say anything about witnesses using aliases in court?).

Wrong amendment but the US legal system does provide the ability for a person to use something other than their real name if it's what they are more known by to the general public. Like say, Hulk Hogan instead of Terry Bollea during the McMahon steroid trials of the early 1990s or Jesse Ventura instead of Jorge Janos.

[alchemyprime]

Yeah. Besides, they could have gotten away with claiming that the 9th and 5th allow them to, and since they are more known by, say, Green Lantern than Kyle Rayner, it does not violate the 6th.

[darkblade]

"the US legal system does provide the ability for a person to use something other than their real name if it's what they are more known by to the general public."

How would that apply to say Batman or Superman whose civilian identites are well known public figures themselves?

[thelazyreader]

I doubt Clark Kent is anywhere near as well known as Big Blue.

As for Batman, the Wayne brand name is well known Bruce is pretty hands-off with regard to Wayne Enterprises. He himself is mostly known within Gotham upper-class circles.

[q99]

He does do lots of photo-ops for the Wayne Foundation charity and such.

While he's not hands-on, he is a big 'face'.

[icon_uk]

In the trial of Deathstroke, Nightwing was sworn in under his codename, as an expert witness, the defence tried to have him barred, but it was pointed out that it was allowed, citing the case of Batman in "The State vs Joker" as a precedent.

[zyriex]

Wow, this is pretty amazing overall! Ditto the "is this in trade?" question.

Also. Tony & Reeds, this is how you enact some sort of registration/legal oversight without pissing all over the Constitution!

12th Amendment talks about election procedure....So yeah.....

[sarno001]

I vaguely recall hearing that Bart was the only speedster capable of recalling everything read at super speed. Am I way off base?

And really - is it possible Kyle had a headache? Does he drink a lot of coffee? I think I missed the part where that was the best way to discredit a superhero, especially one trained by the Green Lantern Corps. You'd think Luthor could afford a better lawyer...

And I get that Morrison isn't the best a writing details, but why the heck would he choose to write a trial? I can understand wanting to stray from your strengths as a challenge, but you'd think someone on the editorial staff would double-check the crazy legalese.

[digitalraven]

Speaking of details, Kyle wasn't trained by the GLC. Because the GLC didn't exist when he got given the ring.

[sarno001]

Uh, yeah... um... fail...*slinks away*

[thelazyreader]

Other speedsters can retain what they speed-read only temporarily, but it's not clearly defined how long. That said for the Flash even a few seconds is long enough to read all that and get back to the courtroom.

[q99]

And even once it fades, you can grab the *one* book you need before you forget, and re-read the needed info normally.

[icon_uk]

Yes, Bart is the only one who retains speed-acquired knowledge for good, other Flash's lose it after an indefinite period.

[daningram.insanejournal.com]

All Wally would really have to do is note the page number and briong it to court. Not exactly hard ;)

[silicondream]

This issue, written by Grant Morrison

Millar did get co-credited on the writing here too. I don't know anything about the behind-the-scenes division of labor, but I get the feeling that each of them was responsible for the more them-sounding bits of dialogue. (For instance, Kyle sounds more Morrisonny and Wally sounds more Millaresque, but maybe that's just me.)

[sianmink]

Brotherhood of Evil Mutants?

OH POLARIS

[fifthie]

I can't believe how un-smug this is.

[blackruzsa]

Whoa-ho, I'm always intrigued by detailed cases in the court, especially in comics.

[equinox216]

Then for your reading entertainment (if you don't already know about it), I refer you to Law and the Multiverse!

[blackruzsa]

o3o
*trots over to site*
Thank you.

[psychopathicus_rex]

I have to say, while the villains are obviously the guilty parties here, I do kinda agree with what their lawyer is saying. They clearly DIDN'T intend to kill all those people, what they were doing could indeed be interpreted as smuggling, of a sort (although smuggling a live human probably counts as human trafficking or the like), and they are indeed basically uneducated lunks who spend most of their time coming up with, as he puts it, 'half-baked plans'. That being said, that still means that they're guilty of, at the very least (and please correct me if I'm wrong here), forty-two cases of accidental manslaughter and massive destruction of private property, i.e the cruise ship and the ruined luggage and so forth of all those aboard it. That's one hell of a blunder. They're going away for a loooooong time.

[philippos42]

Probably felony murder, really. If someone is killed in the commission of a felony, it's prosecutable as murder rather than manslaughter. Though state law may vary there.

[psychopathicus_rex]

It probably does, because the definition of just what is and isn't a felony often varies a good deal from state to state.