Author Archives: Ryan Davidson

Powers: Little Deaths

Posted on March 4, 2013 | 13 comments

The third major story in Powers is entitled “Little Deaths.” It has to do with the investigation into the death of a superhero known as “Olympia,” discovered dead, and completely naked, in a crappy apartment in a seedy part of town. This story lends itself to a discussion on the issue of superheroes and privacy rights. James wrote a four-part series on privacy rights (1, 2, 3, 4) in December 2010, and we had a pair of guest posts on the related right of publicity (1, 2) in late 2011, but I don’t think either of us have come across another story that touches on these issues so directly.

Definite spoilers within, and almost right away. Like most of the Powers stories, this is a murder mystery, but it’s hard to talk about some of the legal issues without giving it away. If you haven’t read it and want to preserve the sense of surprise, go read it and check back. You have been warned.

Also: This story is a little on the racy side. We’re a family blog, but this post is basically a legal analysis of the public disclosure of allegedly private facts, specifically details of superheroes’ sexual histories. If that isn’t something you want to read about, maybe skip this one. Continue reading →

13 Comments

Posted in privacy law, torts

Powers: “Role-Play”

Posted on February 25, 2013 | 24 comments

The second chapter of Powers is called “Ride-Along,” and comprises just one issue. It involves a fictional Warren Ellis, the author of an in-universe comic book called Powers, essentially a meta-version of the real Powers book, going along with Walker for a ride-along. Which is interesting enough, particularly for the meta-textual entertainment value, but neither that nor anything else that happens in that issue is of any particular legal interest.

So we’ll move straight into chapter three, “Role-Play”. We’ll be talking about two more legal issues this time: the expanding discussion of the state of superhero regulation and the interesting possibility of being a conspirator in one’s own homicide. As always, spoilers within. Continue reading →

24 Comments

Posted in constitutional law, criminal law

Powers: Introduction

Posted on February 18, 2013 | 6 comments

Powers is the ongoing police procedural comic written by Brian Michael Bendis and drawn by Michael Avon Oeming. It started in 2000 at Image Comics, one of the more significant “independent,” i.e., “non-Marvel/DC”, houses, before moving to Icon Comics, a Marvel imprint that focuses on creator-owned titles. Powers was its first title. Similar to Gotham Central, about which we’ve written before (1, 2, 3, 4), the series is divided into more-or-less discrete stories, forming the equivalent of episodes in an ongoing TV show. The stories are grouped together into “volumes” akin to seasons. Speaking of which, Powers is currently being adapted into a TV series for FX, but the network ordered a reshoot and retool after the initial 2011 pilot was finished, so while the project is still greenlit, there’s no word on an air date. This time we’re going to take care of some introductory matters and talk about the first chapter, “Who Killed Retro Girl?”, which is available in the first hardcover collection. Spoilers do follow, and will throughout this series. Continue reading →

6 Comments

Posted in criminal law, family law

Arrow: “Innocent Man”

Posted on February 11, 2013 | 14 comments

“Innocent Man” is the fourth episode of Arrow, and once again, Laurel Lance’s role as an attorney takes center stage. The plot this time centers on Peter Declan, a man convicted of the murder of his wife and daughter and scheduled for imminent execution. Oliver deduces that Declan is connected to one of the people on his list, so he does a little digging and figures out that Declan is probably innocent. So he goes to Laurel, hoping that she can intervene in Declan’s case. So we’re talking about post-conviction relief. Continue reading →

14 Comments

Posted in Arrow, criminal procedure, television

Castle: “Swan Song”

Posted on February 4, 2013 | 21 comments

“Swan Song” is the episode of Castle that aired on Nov. 12, 2012. It features two groups to which the First Amendment potentially applies: a religious cult, and a film-maker. The episode touches on or directly addresses several First Amendment issues, though it doesn’t actually name-check any of them. Spoilers inside. Continue reading →

21 Comments

Posted in constitutional law, criminal law, television

Green Arrow # 77

Posted on January 28, 2013 | 24 comments

This week we return to our ongoing series on the Green Lantern/Green Arrow collaboration from the early 1970s. The conceit for this story line was set up in the aftermath of issue # 76, in which Green Lantern and Green Arrow worked together to bring down a corrupt landlord. Hal Jordan, working for the Guardians of the Universe as the Green Lantern assigned to Earth, is a law-and-order type temperamentally inclined to side with the authorities and the status quo. But Green Arrow is largely concerned with social injustice and perceived oppression, i.e., where the legal conflicts with the moral. So when the two meet, and Jordan gets it into his head that there might be something to the idea that what is legal is not always what is just, the Guardians decide to send Jordan off with Green Arrow and a Guardian observer to find the “real America” and maybe learn a thing or two in the process.

In issue # 77, the trio arrives in the fictional town of Desolation, located somewhere in the Rocky Mountains. Desolation is a mining town which still seems to operate on something approximating the company town model, wherein the town’s largest employer is not only a business, but essentially owns and operates all of the businesses in town. In some instances, the operating company became the de facto or even the de jure government for a town.

This issue is a mess. It’s both legally and historically problematic, but even worse, it seems to get the basic ethics of its central lesson arguably wrong. Let’s take a look. Continue reading →

24 Comments

Posted in labor law

The Money Pit

Posted on January 21, 2013 | 14 comments

The Money Pit is a 1986 film directed by Richard Benjamin and starring Tom Hanks and Shelley Long. Hanks plays Walter Fielding, a young New York entertainment lawyer, who with his girlfriend Anna (Long) are forced to find a new place to live on short notice when Anna’s ex-husband returns from Europe, tossing them out of his apartment, where they had been living. They discover what appears to be a lucky break in the form of a stately old mansion which is being forcibly sold to pay for legal fees.

Walter is himself in fairly hot water when the movie begins. Sometime prior to the events of the film, his father, a former partner in what seems to have been a father-and-son law practice, absconded with $2.9 million in client funds. It’s not clear precisely how this was done, but the substance of it seems to be that he made off with the firm’s trust account. Walter is left paying the bill.

To secure the sale of the house, Walter borrows $200,000 from a client. The client happens to be a minor and a stupidly successful pop star, so he can afford it.

So the questions here are (1) whether Walter really would be left to pay his father’s debts, and (2) whether it’s legal and ethical to borrow money from a client under those circumstances. Continue reading →

14 Comments

Posted in corporations, legal ethics, movies

The Atrocity Archives

Posted on January 14, 2013 | 35 comments

The Atrocity Archives is the first volume in Charles Stross’s Laundry Files series. It consists of the novella “The Atrocity Archive” and the short story “The Concrete Jungle.” The premise is that not only are Lovecraftian horrors and other things that go bump in the night real, but they live way down at the bottom of the Mandelbrot set and may be communicated with and/or invoked by computation. The main character is an operative in the British agency known as “The Laundry,” and was drafted in to the agency when he inadvertently discovered the means of invoking an Egyptian god as part of his dissertation research. Many people wind up in the agency in a similar means. Whenever someone stumbles on this sort of knowledge, the appropriate agencies make an offer: work for us, or never publish anything ever again. The name of one course offered to employees of the Laundry is “Computational Demonology.”

You get the idea.

The stories raise several issues for our consideration. First, whether it is illegal to invoke the Elder Gods or other eldritch abominations. And second, whether it is legal for there to be secret laws. Continue reading →

35 Comments

Posted in constitutional law, criminal law

Green Lantern # 76, cont’d

Posted on January 7, 2013 | 11 comments

Returning to Green Lantern/Green Arrow # 76, which we started looking at last month, we find two more issues to discuss. First, whether the tape recorder Green Arrow set up would have been admissible if it had worked, and relatedly, whether Green Arrow can testify to the contents of the tape even if it’s broken. Second, whether the arrest of the villain at the end of the story is legitimate. Continue reading →

11 Comments

Posted in criminal procedure, evidence

Arrow: “Lone Gunmen”

Posted on December 31, 2012 | 4 comments

This episode of Arrow, entitled “Lone Gunmen”, aired back in October, but there’s some really good stuff in it. The main legal issue has to do with Oliver Queen’s little sister, Thea, getting picked up by the police for breaking into a store, while drunk, and trying on some outfits with her friends. Continue reading →

4 Comments

Posted in criminal law, criminal procedure, television