Question Why Iron Man, Black Panther and other Marvel superheroes are not arrested

In Daredevil the TV show, and throughout many different comics that I've read from Marvel, there is constant talk of how 'being a vigilante and operating outside the law' is bad. Well, how are the actions of Iron Man, Black Panther and Captain America different??? Ok, so when they're working as part of the Avengers, they are technically working for the American Government. So, that's all fine with me. But when they're working by themselves, and not as part of the Avengers (such as the Afghanistan fight in Iron Man I, or the fight at the beginning of Infinity War (won't say anything beyond that, spoilers!), how is what they do different from another superhero such as Daredevil, who has a costume, has powers, fights crime, but is constantly berrated for being a Vigilante, and not being authorised to beat up US citizens. Hell, even in Avengers: Age of Ultron, the AVENGERS are illicitly acting without being ordered to by the US government, making them Vigilantes.

I get that we don't usually see the legal intricacies of the marvel multiverse. They tend to gloss over that in a way that the WU (especially the bits of information in the Boston Brawl I & II, Ayla and the Birthday Brawl, the Outcast stories (when they go to Oz, something I appreciated due to the accuracy of the depiction my country's attitude) and other stories I can't think about off the top of my head) doesn't. We know that all heroes are deputies of their respective area's police force, and are therefore authorised to fight crime. Certain circumstances (such as being present and in a situation when people are being hurt and the police are nowhere to be seen) permits action, so long as a 9/11/000/999 call is made to Emergency services (as show in one of the Outcast stories, can't look the title up, as the forum doesn't seem to like me being logged into two seperate windows, and can end up logging me out, not refreshing to show this, and getting rid of this post).

But still, like to hear what others think. This is one of the biggest questions in all history, along with 'did Han Shoot first', 'Why can Aquaman speak to whales', 'How does the flash not need to replace his footwear every time he runs faster than the speed of sound', 'why the hell does Alex Kurtzman keep writing shit Star Trek', 'why isn't STD dead yet???' and more. Not saying any of those should be answered, just putting it up there on the wall.

Public Opinion, the side we don't see in the movies is how much Tony Stark or Shield (when they were still active) spent on ads and PSAs to sway the narrative to their side saying "Hey we fight aliens so you don't have to". Only for it to switch in Civil War with the Accords

Daredevil doesn't have a a multimillion dollar marketing team on stand by to clean things up for him. His superpower is that he is a blind guy who can "see".

As for the legal stuff of the WU I don't know. Here in the US some states have Castle Doctrine and Stand Your Ground Laws. Now if those are in the WU and apply to heroes is another question.

Two concepts that are regularly abused in superhero comics are Good Samaritan laws and Citizen's Arrest. One might assume that the relevant laws in the Marvel/DC universes give heroes a lot more latitude.

An aside that might be relevant: in comics, the "independent super-hero" appears to be mostly an American thing. 99% of the time other heroes are presented, they are part of a semi-official or official, government-endorsed group. That might have to do with the very different frameworks that Common Law and Civil Law countries operate under. To give an example, here in Brazil a superhero group would HAVE to work as part of the official police forces -- there's simply no openings under the law for the state to outsource the police power. Even São Paulo, a city with a larger budget than every single state in the federation except the state of São Paulo itself, is unable to give real police powers to its "Municipal Guard" -- they are restricted to working essentially as glorified rentacops to protect public buildings.

This is very directly addressed in Grrl Power too, which admittedly is as much about deconstructing superheroics as WA is. Basically, what it comes down to in that series is, you don't have to register superpowers, but if you want to fight crime using those powers, you need to enlist with Archon (yes, enlist - for somewhat questionable political reasons - ones even viewed as questionable in-story - ARC is technically military, even though they are mostly focused on civil police work). It's specifically been mentioned that the only active costumed vigilante who hasn't been either arrested or inducted is Marble Maiden, and that they have had trouble tracking her down despite the fact that she posts selfies of her activities on FB and Twitter on a regular basis.

They sort of give a pass to the Semper Vigilantis, because they have an understanding with them about keeping the whole Twilight Council supernaturals thing under wraps. Note that Pixel, who is a were-jaguar with additional superpowers (and apparently is into spankings , but that's not relevant here - I just wanted to link to a pic of her human form, and this was the funniest one), is in Arc-Light, and there is some discussion about Krona being given dual status with SV and sigh Arc-Dark.

Well, the Black Panther presumably has diplomatic immuinity, and I assume Tony Stark just bribes the establishment as required

And there's always Jennifer Walters ready to defend them in court!

A big difference between Iron Man and Daredevil (at least in the MCU; I'm not familiar with the comics) is the scale at which they operate. Most people don't know about the Hand, so to the public eye, Daredevil is just involving himself in the police's business, doing things they're perfectly capable of doing themselves. Iron Man, on the other hand, is solving problems that are well outside what the police and military are equipped for. Where Daredevil looks like an unnecessary risk, Iron Man looks like a necessary evil.

A lot of more modern Superhero fiction addresses this sort of thing.

My personal Favourite Wearing the Cape does so extensively. In her Universe, in order to operate as a hero, you have to be part of a sanctioned team and are technically part of the National Guard. Technically Astra only has jurisdiction in the Chicago metro area, unless she is explicitly sent elsewhere. And she is bound by the same rules as police, meaning that most of the time she can't enter private property without a warrant. She also has to submit after-action reports and pass psychological evaluations.

They also flag that there are differences between states. Its specifically mentioned that in New York, all active heroes are employed by NYPD.

Meanwhile in Action Figures, while the intricacies of law enforcement get brushed aside flying suppers are required to carry an FAA approved transponder while flying. Failure to do so is considered an invasion of American Airspace.

Kettlekorn wrote: A big difference between Iron Man and Daredevil (at least in the MCU; I'm not familiar with the comics) is the scale at which they operate. Most people don't know about the Hand, so to the public eye, Daredevil is just involving himself in the police's business, doing things they're perfectly capable of doing themselves. Iron Man, on the other hand, is solving problems that are well outside what the police and military are equipped for. Where Daredevil looks like an unnecessary risk, Iron Man looks like a necessary evil.

It is more-or-less the same in the comics. Interestingly enough, iron man fought daredevil in the 'Superior Iron Man' arc, where Tony gets possessed by a symbiote that takes the shape of the Iron Man armour (at least from where I've gotten from the various issues- I'm still saving up for another issue, and due to recent problems with legal fees (they've finally caught that asshole AC man when he tried to hole up in a building...right next to a police station...and then got caught when he walked outside and freaked. He's now awaiting trial for attempted murder and evading arrest. He's also being tried for unlawful entry, but that's just a bonus. He's looking like he's going to get a life sentence for the crimes he tried to commit, with possible chance of parole. Whatever the case, I'm glad it's over...although I still have to pay my lawyer for his services in the previous case. We did win, but Central Park management got most of the money to go towards repair costs for the building. As for the money I got, it wasn't sufficient to pay MY lawyer. So, as a result, I'm going to spend AGES trying to pay him for his services the first time), I haven't been able to grab the fourth and fifth issues). In this, he's also using extremis to keep the population of New York under his control. I'm actually not sure what city it is. He's got his house in that city on Alcatraz...but Daredevil operates out of Hell's Kitchen in New York...and this takes place in the same city as Alcatraz, San Francisco. So, I'm actually not sure what the hell is going on. He restores Daredevil's sight with extremis, and wipes his memory of how the Symbiote is controlling Tony. That's where I left off.