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championofnyx · 1 year

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For your prompt, what superhero or supervillain would go on trial for war crimes?

The corner of my superhero interests has grown very small in the past few years to the MCU and Young Justice cartoons, so I'm gonna stick with them so I don't get something wrong.

Civil conflicts are sometimes not included under international law depending on so many, frankly, idiotic factors, but for the sake of this post the coup and short civil conflict in Markovia, Young Justice season 3, will be included under the category of international law, first looking at Baran Bedlem. In flash shots of the season 3 finale loyalist forces were shown being pulled out of what either were mass graves or would have become mass graves without intervention which implies the wilful killing or planned wilful killing of noncombative soldiers. Which is a war crime if it occurred in multiple locations, which I am assuming it did given the context of a brief civil war/conflict. This brings in the scale needed to classify something as a war crime. In the same episode, Brion Markov summarily executed Bedlam, an act that can be a war crime, however, it lacks the scale to be classified as a war crime vs. just an illegal act.

I would also like to note that in the world of young justice, everyone who participated in Meta-human trafficking is swimming in assorted Crimes Against Humanity with widespread enslavement, imprisonment, and inhumane acts. Bedlam would be included in the list of people tried for these if there was a tribunal (it's not uncommon for people to be tried for both WC and CAH) but also Dr. Jace, Dr. Eckys, Count Vertigo, and all their collaborators.

Also, Meta-trafficking that was argued in Bialyia under Queen Bee during the annexation and following conflict with Quarac and its nationals could be considered a War Crime if civilians or noncombatants detained (or disappeared) concerning the conflict were used for experimentation or gene activation. And if those taken are used as soldiers of either Bee or the light within Greater Bialyia, that would also be a war crime under Article 51 of the convention for the protection of civilians. "Protected persons may not be compelled to undertake any work which would involve them in the obligation of taking part in military operations." Again with Bialyia, in season one, it is mentioned Mari Logan that border crossing targeting civilian property is a common occurrence, and that practice would also be classified as war crimes.

Moving over into the MCU briefly, what happened to Bucky Barns would be considered a War Crime. He was a wounded, non-combative soldier who underwent medical and scientific experiments, which can be classified as inhuman under the language of the 1865, 1906, and 1929 Genova conventions. He was taken during a multi-state armed conflict and so his protection and a POW would carry over after the conflict ended so long as he remained with the power that took him (I know in some comic books he changed hands but I believe in the MCU he was with Hydra the whole time). Article 51 from earlier would also have protected him when, as the Winter Soldier, he was deployed in other armed conflicts and military missions, though the application of this article can be a little hazy due to the law changing during this imprisonment. While it's not a big surprise that the fictional Nazis committed War Crimes, in the same movie, the premise of the project insight is one but Crime Against Humanity when utilized in peacetime, and a War Crime if used in an armed conflict.

The entire program runs on the premise of committing summary executions of anyone that is deemed a threat directly after their possible crimes are determined, used on a wide scale, and part of official policy. If project insight had been launched, Nick Fury and any other high-ranking SHIELD members that contributed to or operated the program would be guilty of Crimes Against Humanity, and if used in the context of an armed conflict, War Crimes (and if I'm being honest I bet Fury has done a ton of other shit that would turn the Rome Statute into a to-do list but he's keeping that to himself apparently).

There are many more supervillains and superhero actions that I would like to say can be considered War Crimes, however, the application of international law could become very tricky given the nature of more irregular/vigilante work that superheroes/villains often engage in. That's why adaptations such as the MCU have tried to adjust international law with materials such as the Sokovia Accords in Civil War. Writing this got me really excited into thinking about what changes would need to be made to accommodate the nature of superhero worlds. I'm probably gonna post more in the next few days about how the notions of War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity would need to change in a world with superpowers because I can't stop thinking about it now. Thank you for the prompt!

#young justice #Captain America Winter Soldier #Bucky Barns #Writing Asks

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