There's A New Sheriff In Town

Then [the sheriff] called Morgan City ...
and Morgan City called Washington ...
and Washington called the Justice League.
-- Saga of the Swamp Thing #23 (April 1984)

The debut of Greg Rucka’s new Checkmate series, and his Newsarama interview hyping it, put a new spin on the age-old question of how governments deal with superheroes. The politics of Marvel’s Civil War splits the costumed community and causes all kinds of problems. Conversely, because Checkmate is the product of The OMAC Project, and follows the events of Infinite Crisis, it is in some ways a response to worries about superhumans. Rucka’s new Checkmate is both sponsored and monitored by the United Nations, which apparently has a pretty active hand in picking its management. However, let’s step back a bit and look at the larger picture.

On DC-Earth, governments and superheroes have a long history together. Many individual heroes have been deputies in their local police forces. During World War II, the United States government organized all the active superheroes (or “mystery men,” if you’re Roy Thomas) into the All-Star Squadron. The U.N. previously sponsored both the original Justice League of America and the original Justice League International. Task Force X, which produced the Suicide Squad, was an American governmental initiative. Various national governments have even created their own superhumans, from Project Atom and the Force of July in the U.S. to the Rocket Reds in the Soviet Union (and, apparently, in present-day Russia) and whatever the Chinese are up to in 52. Finally, the Dome, an international organization exclusive to DC-Earth, supported the national heroes of various countries as the Global Guardians.

Therefore, just like real-world law enforcement, militias, and militaries, superheroes function at almost every governmental and/or jurisdictional level. The Swamp Thing quote at the top of this essay is typical of the hierarchy readers expect. However, in the DC universe, jurisdiction doesn’t stop at the international level. Earth's Green Lanterns are the best example of law enforcement answerable literally to no one on Earth, with broad authority from their masters to do what is best for the universe at large.

Following Infinite Crisis, then, Checkmate comes into the mix. In Rucka’s words, from the link above:

Checkmate isn’t necessarily antagonistic to anyone, initially, but in theory, they don’t care about villains, and they don’t care about heroes. They’re there to maintain a balance. They’ve got their line, and they’ve got a job to do. They could care less if villain xyz is robbing a bank – so what, it’s just money. But – if villain abc is arming his henchmen with pocket nukes to hold seven cites at ransom, then that is a problem, and they’re going to put a stop to it. Giant robot? Call the JLA. The destabilization of a global region by a hero who’s not thinking? They’ll be there to hold the line.

Although Rucka agrees that Checkmate isn’t about “superhero cops” (a la Top Ten, I suppose), from his description they seem to be set up to police superheroes. Not only does this set Checkmate apart from other kinds of super-spy books (unfortunately, I can’t speak to its similarity to Chase, which I never read), this particular mission helps justify the “normal” way superheroes operate.

How so? Well, the question of accountability (“Who watches the Watchmen?”) looms large over the very concept of the superhero. If a superhero is affiliated with a government, that facilitates cooperation with local law enforcement. One implication of such a relationship is that should it ever end, the hero would be subject to arrest, which in theory keeps the hero's behavior in line.

Another is the probability that the hero would be held to the same restrictions as any similar government official. This would include (for example) no illegal searches and seizures for heroes who are police deputies, the possibility of court-martial for heroes affiliated with the military, etc. This also gets us closer to Top Ten-style “superhero cops,” and away from the classic independent-hero model.

The new Checkmate is different because it claims both the authority and the ability to rein in superhumans. While many agencies have always had the former, few have had the latter. To most readers the Gotham City Police wouldn’t stand a chance of catching Batman under normal circumstances; and likewise the United States Army couldn’t bring in Superman. The presence of Checkmate also helps avoid that by-now-clichéd storyline where the Justice League has to fight a rogue Superman.

Thus, the new Checkmate may well become DC’s flagship title for superhero "realpolitik," thereby freeing the other books to tell more traditional types of stories. That would help the new book carve out its own identity, attracting the readers who enjoyed Rucka’s more political work on Wonder Woman and OMAC. It also fits with the new division of labor typified by the various Infinite Crisis feeder miniseries.

Still, as much as the new Checkmate may handle various practical issues concerning superhumans, it may find its work disrupted by two of DC’s most visible and cherished organizations: the Green Lantern Corps, whose relationship with the United Nations is still unclear; and the newly reorganized Justice League of America, whose members are themselves not strangers to politics. One would imagine these issues won't wait long before being resolved. I wonder -- will that crossover be carried on C-SPAN?...

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