Marvel's 'Outlawed' event is no 'Civil War' and it's unlikely to have too many lasting effects
Spoilers for 'Outlawed' #1
Marvel has been teasing the Underage Superhuman Welfare Act for quite some time now but now that it's finally here, it's honestly a bit of a letdown. Starting in the pages of the event one-shot 'Outlawed' #1, superheroes under the age of 21 are no longer permitted in the United States by law but while that sounds like a pretty big deal, it's really not when you think about it.
Quick recap
A dragon attacks a youth summit that's secretly being guarded by the Champions, leading to Viv Vision going berserk after she's accidentally hit by Power Man's chi. The combination of the dragon attack and Viv's destructive rampage causes Coles Academic High School to collapse on Ms Marvel / Kamala Khan, who is in her civilian guise at the time.
In the aftermath of the incident, Viv is presumed dead, underage superheroes are outlawed (hence the title), a task force unironically named C.R.A.D.L.E is formed to bring them all in and the legislation is both passed and named "Kamala's Law" after Ms Marvel, who is seriously injured as a result of the strain of taking a whole building on her back.
'Outlawed' vs 'Civil War'
On the surface, 'Outlawed' is a story with a lot of political relevance considering we live in a time where more and more young people take to activism and are shut down by older people who claim the youngsters don't know what they're doing but here's where it all breaks down. When you look at the bare facts of the situation, the incident at Coles Academic was just a Wednesday for the Marvel Comics universe. More devastating incidents with more casualties, both civilian and otherwise, happen on a daily basis here without anyone batting an eye.
Even the Stamford Incident, which kicked off 'Civil War', involved the deaths of over 600 people. One might argue that the politicians were just waiting for an excuse to crack down on young heroes and while that may be true, it still doesn't make up for the fact that the whole "catastrophe" is a lot less impactful than many of the actual tragedies we've witnessed in comics.
If the incident actually had been as devastating as it was hyped up to be in the run-up to 'Outlawed', we could have expected to see at least a few of the big-name superheroes (and not just has-beens like Justice, Speedball and Timeslip) coming out in support of the law, adding some depth to the whole thing. But as it stands, 'Outlawed' does little more than introducing a plot point that will inevitably be forgotten as soon as the next big event comes along.
Besides, now that the law is in force, there's really no way to enforce it for an extended period of time. Sure, C.R.A.D.L.E. might go around hunting down heroes who go out on patrol but say an alien armada attacks the Earth (like they're going to in Marvel's summer crossover event 'Empyre'). Are the authorities really going to divert resources to carding the heroes who are out on the street providing much-needed support?
We hope not because that would just be ridiculous.
The 'Outlawed' story continues in new volumes of 'Champions' and 'Power Pack' arriving in stores on April 8 and a new 'New Warriors' series releasing on April 15.
