The Vigilante Registration Act (or VRA) was legislation promoted by the United States Department of Domestic Security, that required vigilantes to register themselves with the United States federal government. The enforcement arm of the Act was the Vigilante Registrations Agency a division of the Department of Domestic Security. It was first commanded by former Army Lieutenant General Slade Wilson and after his "disappearance" (from the point of view of the general public) possibly by Lieutenant Trotter.

It was later repealed in a nationwide vote. (Beacon)

Contents 1 Season Ten 2 Notable Figures 3 Mentions 4 Notes

Season TenEdit

The Vigilante Registration Act, was somewhat the result of Gordon Godfrey's anti-hero smearing, and overall paranoia from the more active nature of groups like the Justice League. Godfrey's vocal dislike of the vigilantes, along with powerful manipulations caused mass mistrust of super-heroes, as demonstrated by people like Cat Grant.

Talk of the bill was soon introduced into the Senate, with chief supporters being members of the United States Military, such as General Sam Lane and Lt. Colonel Slade Wilson. United States Senator from Kansas, Martha Kent meanwhile has strongly opposed the bill, much to General Lane's dislike.

Word of this Bill being passed had caused great forbearance from groups like the Justice League and Rick Flag's Suicide Squad, that second of which has taken dangerous, violent, even terroristic actions such as later attempting to kill General Lane.

The Bill was passed shortly after Thanksgiving of 2010. However, the Government has apparently been taking even more questionable actions secretly, such as approving Slade Wilson's plans to build prisons where he could be allowed torture and possibly even kill heroes, both who agree to register and those who don't. This resulted in more violent actions by groups like the Suicide Squad and even some more aggressive actions of sabotage by members of the League, such as Aquaman and his wife Mera including blowing up secret holding camps the government intended to place the "Registered" Vigilantes in Patriot.

The VRA managed to capture some members of the League twice the first time it captured Aquaman, Mera and Oliver Queen in Patriot. Clark Kent rescued them. The second time (after General Wilson was captured by Clark Kent and sent to the Phantom Zone in Icarus {as revealed in Beacon}). Also at the end of Icarus-and revealed in Collateral-it captured Clark Kent (aka The Blur), Black Canary, Green Arrow, Stargirl, Impulse and Lois Lane at the funeral of Hawkman in Egypt and placed them in a virtual computer controled and simulated dreamworld while they tried to find out how their special abilities can be controlled. Chloe Sullivan and the Suicide Squad managed to free them.

In Beacon the Vigilante Registration Act has become disliked by many people across America, this allows for there to be a nation wide vote on whether or not the VRA should be repealed. The majority votes in favor of the VRA being repealed in a nationwide plebiscite. It is possible that the public was swayed by the intense propaganda effort by Chloe Sullivan and Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane in getting their articles printed in every major newspaper across the country and the attempted assassination of Senator Martha Kent, a prominent outspoken anti VRA politician. While in reality the attempted killing was the work of the clone of Lex Luthor as a tool of vengeance against her son Clark Kent and had nothing to do with the VRA, the general public likely took it as an attempt of a pro VRA fanatic and an example of how extremist supporters of the VRA were. These two events were just enough to sway the vote in favor of repeal.

Notable FiguresEdit

In Support of the Bill

• Lt. Colonel Slade Wilson
• Gordon Godfrey
• Darkseid

In Opposition of the Bill

• Senator Martha Kent
• The Blur/Clark Kent
• Lois Lane
• Justice League
• Justice Society of America
• Suicide Squad
• General Sam Lane
• Cat Grant

Registered Vigilantes

• Oliver Queen

MentionsEdit

• Season Ten: Harvest, Ambush, Patriot, Icarus, Collateral, Beacon

NotesEdit

• The idea of a Superhuman Registration Act has been used frequently in the comics: the Marvel Comics Civil War, Watchmen, Uncanny X-Men, DC: The New Frontier, Powers, and Astro City.
• DC has had their heroes bullied into revealing their identities before. The Justice Society of America in the comics was forced to either reveal their secret identities with the Government or else be labeled communists during the McCarthy years. This resulted in the group disbanding for many years.
• This storyline seems to be a retelling of the maxi-series Legends, which ran across many of the mainstream DC comic titles in the late 1980s. It followed the dissolution of the Justice League of America in the wake of Crisis on Infinate Earths. In the series, Darkseid sends Glorious Godfrey to Earth disguised as reporter G. Gordon Godfrey in order to stir up anti-hero sentiments and pave the way for an invasion of earth. The series culminated with the creation of a new Justice League (later dubbed Justice League International), a team formed by Maxwell Lord and which featured a line-up that did not include Superman or any of the other traditional "heavy-hitters" of the league. In fact, the only veteran heroes on the new team at first were Batman and Martian Manhunter. The series also launched the introduction of Booster Gold and saw Guy Gardner take the forefront as Earth's new Green Lantern.