My Honest Opinion

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by malloyd

Is he actually defrauding anybody? I mean his name basically *is* Clark Kent. It's the Superman thing that's closer to fake.

Well, Clark Kent has not, to my knowledge, ever admitted to being responsible for the massive property damage he causes when he plays dress up.

If you give a fake name to the cops and fly away, whatever you did was not a legal citizen's arrest or any other kind of legal act. If you are involved in a violent, destructive event, especially if there are multiple felonies involved, in strict legal terms, it's not really optional whether you choose to let the police know who you are. And I'm pretty sure that the owners of the destroyed property feel pretty defrauded, as they can't sue the appropriate person, but only some pseudonym that doesn't legally exist.

Of course, it's very understandable why he would act that way. But someone with GURPS Honesty couldn't.

Originally Posted by malloyd

I think he might get a pass on the illegal alien issue too, because of the physical impossibility of the United States deporting him to his now nonexistent home world - there are some UN conventions that forbid you to criminalize someone continuing to live on the planet because nowhere will accept them. I suppose he really ought to apply for refugee status on the grounds being returned to the toxic (kryptonite filled) environment of his shattered native planet would endanger his life.

Superman should absolutely qualify for refugee status. The fact remains, he never applied, not in any media I'm familiar with. What he actually did do, as far as I can tell, is enjoy the benefits of falsified paperwork which allowed him to leapfrog past other, legitimate refugees who were honest enough to actually rely on the system instead of obtaining a false identity.

Originally Posted by malloyd

Though I dunno, the Kents might have formally adopted him, which would cover both of those. You'd think they'd have had to have *some* sort of paperwork straightened out somewhere to do stuff like enroll him in school.

Yeah and because his identity as Clark Kent is a secret identity, the paperwork was obviously falsified. Relevant information, including the identity of his parents, was deliberately suppressed. Again, understandable, but if Superman had GURPS Honesty, he'd have to clear that up as soon as he came of age.