The birth of the true age of heroes happened at the end of the 19th century. When Atlantis was discovered not in the Atlantic Ocean, but in a corner of Africa known as the Eye of the Sahara. Atlantis was discovered by Maxwell Obadiah Widener an American inventor famous for his Steam-powered flying ships. He was doing a world tour showing the Might of the Newly formed USNA Air Navy, showing the Europeans, America was stronger than ever now the Confederacy had been dismantled. The European Empires had all eyed the post-war Americas as someplace to expand to.
While overflying the “Colonie de la Mauritanie” a part of the French Empire, he saw the remains of the lost city on an uninhabitable part of the Desert. He landed, and grabbed up as many artifacts as he could, and flew back to the US to set up a proper exploration of the city.
Although most of the ancient city had been destroyed by flood and then the desertification. There were enough artifacts and remains to increase Humanity’s knowledge of science and magic.
Shortly after the discovery, the first superhumans showed up. German Ubermensch was the first, they were stronger faster, and among the most handsome men on Earth.
The second group of Super Humans was the Amazons, women warriors just as perfect as the Supermen of Germany.
In Imperial Japan Magic Girls started to show up, they were girls with the abilities of Magic greater than most wizards.
And eventually, a small group of Heroes in New York who were Just as Strong as the Supermen and Amazons, with just as much ability with Magic as the Magic Girls started protecting New York's Jewish Ghetto.
Though everyone knew it was related to the Discovery of Atlantis, most people remained in the dark how those powers manifested.
This abundance of super-powered humans led to the Olympics becoming an event where nations would showoff the skills and powers of their mightiest heroes.
Germany and Russia both found that they could use special indoctrination techniques to ensure Loyalty and make the Supermen and Amazons into Super Soldiers.
In 1914, a rogue assassin killed an Arch Duke of the Austrian Empire, the world was faced with its First Global War, very quickly normal human soldiers and Demi-Humans proved to be no match for Supermen and Amazons. Every Empire on Earth picked sides. Due to the popularity of English in the USNA, as it was considered the common trade language. The USNA allied itself with the British Empire in the first world war.
The end of the War happened not because of a great strategy, but because of a global plague which made fighting a global war too costly to maintain. All the nations and empires agreed to hold off of hostilities. To make matters worse several of the major empires such as Russia and Germany, had civil wars led by super-villains. Which overturned the established imperial powers and created new totalitarian states, with powerful dictators.
This became the golden age of Super-Heroes, in places like the United States of North America, The British Empire, and The Republic of France, while facing off against the powerful foes of Stalin’s Russia, Hitler’s Austrian Empire, and Mussolini’s New Roman Empire.
During the Golden Age, heroes were made officially parts of Law Enforcement agencies, while villains and crime syndicates used superpowers to do the crime.
At the start of the second Global War, The Roman Empire tried to seize control of Mauritania to gain control over Atlantis which had become internationally agreed to be a world heritage site, to be governed by France but open to all nations equally.
The Roman invasion was coordinated with Austria so that Rome would take all of North Africa While Austria would invade France and Spain. Giving full control of Atlantis and the Mediterranean ocean to the Fascist world. Stalin who disliked Hitler chose that time to invade Poland, and Eastern Europe and declared war on Hitler.
Since the World couldn’t allow the Fascist powers to invade Atlantis, and because Russia had chosen to go against Austria, the World was divided into two major fronts.
Japan had been at war with Russia over control of China since 1894, neither side refused to give up, and both powers had split control over most of Asia. Being a strategic stalemate Stalin hoped to get both the British Empire and the USNA to declare war against Japan. His bartering chip would be aid against Hitler, and Mussolini.
It worked, since the USNA had always wanted some excuse to spread its influence and capitalism to Asia, While the British Empire had always held territory in China close to where the Russians and Japanese fought.
The war ended up having battlefronts on every continent including South America and Antarctica, as Hitler was building Secret bases in these places. Hitler was searching for the other lost cities that were connected to Atlantis, El-Dorado the lost city of Gold and Lemuria.
Near the end of the War, the British Empire fell when Austria Invaded England. The USNA had to retake England, France, and Spain while also fighting Japan to a standstill, while Russia had taken Most of the Austrian Empire, eventually executing Hitler. To the horror of the world, Hitler was murdering Jews, gay men, and gay women, by draining their blood. Many felt was done to create a Vampire Army. As many Vampires had joined with Hitler. It was even rumored that Hitler was actually a secret Vampire himself.
Due to the cost of the Global War, Russia gave up control of much of the lands they won in their war to local governments who swore loyalty to Stalin. Conversely, Land captured by North Americans were given back to the local populations without as many strings as the Soviets.
Japan near the end of the War surrendered to North America handing over full unconditional control to North America in hopes to avoid being invaded by Russia. In turn, The USNA made Japan, Korea, and part of China's official Territories of the US. Starting the short-lived age of North American Imperialism. Which ended during the Chinese-Korean War of the 1950s where China and half of Korea fell to Newly risen Soviet funded Chinese supers. Japan however eventually became a full state, with full rights, as the native American Majority descended from the same people that eventually became Japanese.
This split the world into two equal halves. Governments fell into either USNA allied, or Soviet Allied. However, neither side was willing to start another global war, as new cold war heroes powered by atomic energy could destroy cities, and lay waste to entire regions of the Earth if they got out of control.
This was seen during the short-lived 1948 Israeli-Arab war, which ended up causing radiation sterilization of the entire middle east. When a pair of supers one Palestinian and one Israeli went full out trying to kill each other. They succeeded in killing everything including each other.
Fortunately, the world was no longer tied to petroleum power and was forced to use Nuclear power and electrical energy instead.
This led to the Silver Age of Heroes, where the cold war and fear of the most powerful supers meant heavy regulations of supers. Gone were the days of independent anonymous heroes. Every hero in every nation had to register their true identities to their government, and the most powerful had to be kept in isolation from the general public to prevent large scale disasters. Everyone was fearful of what the Atomic Age Supers could do.
Due to the strict regulations of this time. There was a rise of underground heroes, called Anti-Heroes. Anti-Heroes were not looking to support the military-industrial complexes of the superpowers but honestly wanted to do what was right locally, even if it meant breaking the law.
During the 1960s, War broke out in South East Asia. Soviet-sponsored local supers had attempted to overturn French authority in Indochina (Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia)
American Government Heroes went to South East Asia, and defeated the Soviet incursion, while at the same time brutalizing the region in a way which caused Civilians globally to be outraged and demanded the USNA Heroes to pull out of the region.
Due to public demand, Public Heroes were no longer allowed to be used to invade, only to defend. While oversight of Super soldier programs made it increasingly difficult for western powers to unilaterally make war. At the same time, the Soviets had a shift in power, Stalin and his supers had passed on, and the young generation wanted more freedoms and less authoritarianism.
These things caused the 3rd age of heroes, to be officially recognized in 1970, the Bronze age. The shortest era of Heroes, as it saw the transition back to Local heroes dominating the headlines, and the global superheroes became officially unwanted unless a global threatening villain showed up. Surprisingly this was also the age, when Super-villains became more common, as they no longer had the world powers supporting them.
