Is There A Place for Cops in a World of Super Heroes?

My grandfather was a police officer so I was raised with a healthy respect for members of the law. But I also grew up as a comic book fan so I was constantly exposed to a fictional world in which police officers are not particularly effective. I mean, in a world with Superman what good is your average officer on the beat?

For the most part it appears like the police in comics are just their to clean up after the heroes. They pick up the villain who has been conveniently left for them either wrapped in webbing, a batrope, or bent steel. They calm down the multiple onlookers who have been both panicked and exhilarated to see a super battle right before their eyes. Sometimes the police with shake the heroes hand and thank him for a job well done. Sometimes the police will gripe some sort of complaint as the hero swings or flies off to save someone else. That pretty much describes every interaction between police and super heroes.

But not all police are so passive in comics. While Batman keeps the streets of Gotham safe, he would not be nearly as effective as he is were it not for the help of Jim Gordon. As depicted in the pages of Batman: Year One and in the film Batman Begins, Batman recruits the help of Lieutenant Jim Gordon when he sees that Jim is the only honest cop in Gotham. As Jim Gordon rises through the ranks of the Gotham police force the two develop a healthy relationship that works towards their mutual goal of cleaning the streets of Gotham.

Batman is not the only hero who has a close relationship with the police. In Alana Moore’s brilliant comic book series, Watchmen, the character of the first Nite Owl while fighting crime by night is a police officer by day. So is the Martian Manhunter’s secret identity, Detective John Jones. These two individuals who respect the law, ironically flaunt it every night in their super hero guises. Same for The Spectre, though his identity may not matter since he is no longer among the living in his new super hero role.

Technically the entire Green Lantern Corps is a police force so I have to wonder if that distorts their view of the regular police officers patrolling our city streets. Certainly there is no special training needed to become a Green Lantern so that certainly separates them from traditional law enforcement. But they perform the same duty. A Green Lantern and a police officer both are meant to keep the peace.

Looking at the Green Lantern Corps one might ask why super heroes don’t join regular law enforcement. There are similar goals and methods between the two. While some heroes methods would not be condoned by the police, such as The Punisher, there certainly should be no objection to the actions of a Superman. Superman, and other heroes like him, is practically a deputized member of the police by the simple acceptance by the police of his actions.

"I am the LAW"

In contrast to Green Lantern, who is a super hero recruited as a cop, you have a character like Judge Dredd who is a cop who has been elevated to the level of super hero. Since his first appearance in the pages of 2000 A.D., a popular British anthology comic, the character of Judge Dredd has been portrayed as the ultimate law enforcement officer in a dystopian future. While there is nothing super human about this character, much like the Punisher or Batman, he is portrayed in a world of super humans and has been featured in crossovers with other super hero characters.

In many ways, super heroes are striving to be very similar to any typical law enforcement organization. They arrange themselves into groups with clear hierarchies, they represent their position with uniforms, even their emblems could be seen as a sort of badge. The Legion of Super Heroes, a group of heroes from the 30^th century in the DC Universe, show their membership by all wearing identical rings.

Police protect the public in reality. Super heroes protect the public in fiction. But the super heroes cannot be everywhere at once. The world of fiction is a reflection of the society that produces it and since the police are an important part of our society they shall continue to play some role in the worlds of our fiction.