Powered Enforcement

There raises, as I flesh out the world of the Others, an ongoing debate within my cranium concerning how the governments of a world largely similar to ours but with the addition of super powered individuals would handle the situation.
1) As best they can.
This seems the most likely course of actions, best displayed in the 4400 from what I've seen. Basically the government uses existing organizations, or creates new ones, to deal with the enforcement of laws on powered individuals same as everyone else. They would no doubt also try and recruit powered individuals to such programs.
But, this rather neatly rules out vigillanttes, and therefore the whole super hero premise I'm aiming for.

2) Crack down.
Another fairly realistic event, though much harsher and moving towards a facist streak. Basically governments would try to locate and detain everyone who has powers and lock them away. This would likly be justified as a move for the greater good and a chance to study various powers so that type (1) could be set up sometime in the future. Alternately powered individuals could just be killed to eliminate any threat.
This would never work for the Others, as it is to serious for the more light hearted overtones. I could imagine this mitght happen in some places in the world early on, but since the Defenders established a presence and powered groups started lobying it has all but ceased. It's also not particularly likely since, while they will be present, I'm trying to not have to many "born with powers" and more "gained powers through weird (often accidental) science" which makes it harder to treat them as a homogenus group that can be easily discriminated against.

3) Collapse
The governments couldn't handle it and the world has slipped into chaos thanks to the overused and undercontroled powers of a few very powerful individuals in the right places. Could have been a full on Apocalyptic war, or just a failure of the government to keep its citizens safe and enforce the law, which stopped all trust in them to the point where loyalty faltered and people stopped listening to the law.
I haven't really given this much thought. I suppose it could easily be a backstory to the Others' world, and the Defenders could actually be the only global political body left, specifically created to bring order back to the world. Again, though, I feel this is too dark, and the necessity of numbers in the Defenders running the world directly would negate the reasoning for the Others to be a seperate organization.

4) Submission
Similar to collapse, but here the powered individuals take over Earth as a ruling class, probably led to it by some over achieving super villain.
Absolutely not, if anyone in the Other's world could pull off full on conquest it would be Dr. Medea, but she has chosen instead to stand in the way of any would be conquerers. These are superheroes, and the defense against these evils is rather the point.

5) Regulation
Similar to type (1) except more slack control. To help it's case, and likely as a response to good works done illegally, the government slackens its laws concerning vigillanteism to enough of a degree that super teams can exist, but the governmetn will be willing to interfere should they overstep their rights.
This is probably what is going to happen for the Others. They are likely to take advantage of this rule in ways it was never expected, but even so I'm not seeing much of a way to get past the child endangerment issues, but I'll burn that bridge when I build it. On the plus side, this gives good reason to have a "no killing" built into the group (unlawful execution or other punishment without trial would well be overstepping the bounds) and sets up an interesting dynamic where governments want vigillantes because they are cheaper than police (free!), a localized symbol of human capacity for good and, perhaps most importantly, lowers reliance on the globe spanning Defenders, whose current position is less vigillante and more global peacekeeper. The Defenders would naturally be the least regulated group, technically being a sovereign power subject to its own laws, but still active in fighting down supervillains world wide. Also raises the interesting question over how none powered vigillantes will be handled.

6) Exclusion
Like type (2), but an exile based more on the decision of powered individuals, likely taken in as noncombatants by the Defenders. This complicates politics considerably, and makes the governments more desperate to have their own powered backup when the villains show up, thus being forced to compromise and even allow vigillanteism.
This is a nice explination, but I do want a fair number of persons with powers around in peaceful occupations within regular society. I don't like the diea of amassing or exiling them.

Hmmm... that's all I can really think of right now. There will probably be a mix of all of these, spread in different parts of the world, except types (2) and (3) which will appear sparringly at best and exist more for the threat of occuring. I suppose a slow collapse is taking place in the most benevolent sense, but that's another story. Type (6) is also likely to show up mostly as a threat, though I do expect some organizations and groups to quickly become dominated by powered individuals, most particualrly religions who find true miracle workers.
I think type (5) is the one to focus on.