The I-9 requirements: To be issued Metahuman Database credentials, for example, you must have A and B – OR – A or B and C – OR – D, E, F etc (I warned you about the OCD). In this case: A and B are name and costume. If you took the trouble to design your own digs and put your name out there, then you obviously came to play and you are eligible. If you don’t have one of those, but you do the things that supers do ( C ), you might qualify so you are at least named in the draft. Further, if you just do what you do and it ends up doing it brings about interaction with card-carrying members each event counts as my D, E, F etc and you might be a super whether you like it or not (which goes for Galactus and the Anti Monitor and Howard the Duck alike). There is a single overriding caveat to all this, a Serious Applicants Only clause: the character must be voluntarily putting themselves in danger for whatever activity they are into. This rules out all entertainers, so until Eminem and Ziggy Stardust show up and stop a bank robbery, don’t bother me with singers, dancers, or hackers. And if that doesn’t seem fair, I quote George Carlin who said “They’re my rules, I make them up.” or my Dad who said “Life’s not fair.”

 

In the interest of being at least reasonable, though, I can see a common sense argument that says ‘Luke Cage isn’t a superhero; he’s just some guy in jeans knocking people over. Chuck Norris can do that.’ As a nerd, I might reply to this hypothetical argument that Luke Cage actually used the professional name Power Man in the comics and was a member of Heroes For Hire and even was part of the Fantastic Four for a while, but afterwards I would concede that the modern take on the character certainly does not meet a Golden Age of Comics standard. So, to stem any irksome common sense discussions I will make a couple of big, sweeping generalizations.

 

Gold Standard: The character uses a name and costume. No others need apply.

Silver Class: The character is professional grade whether they make use of classic standards. Any character that has three or more separate qualifying events with a gold member gets you an upgrade.

Bronze Medal: Any character that makes the show with a gold member, even once can squeak by for this grade.

Paper Grade: I don’t have a specific idea of who might qualify for this class, but I’m certain there are enough hypothetical or questionable nutjobs out there that I need a safety net.

 

 

Keep in mind that even I am not pathologically OCD and these categories still just represent rules o’ thumb to ballpark some of these characters and not tags I’m burning into the entries.