☄️👾🥊

But in the short term, a right hook would have to do.

*WHAM!!*

It was followed by a left. Another right. The angle dropped, with it the humanoid form of the cosmic contender-- Rex. In return, his powerhouse opponent for the day slugged him right back. Each blow, accompanied by a shockwave through the air that barely had time to reverberate before a new strike landed.

An Earthborn Alien was in danger of hitting the ground soon. So he put everything he had into an explosive uppercut. Gritting his teeth. Widening his wild eyes. Knocking his opponent skyward with a resounding...

*BA-DOOM!!!!*

With similar force, he flew right into that foe for a tackle that would break right through orbit. A thunderous bellow muted by the oncoming vacuum of space.

____

... In some other, quieter moment, Rex was squatting to see the lowermost shelves of a convenience store. Scratching his head sheepishly. Eventually marching towards the front counter with an armful of items to munch on before the night was through.

At least, before a masked gunman pulled a pistol.

*Ptang-Ptang!*

The first shot bounced off a startled, but ultimately unpunctured hide. Left with the briefest of bruises, while the other shot ricocheted and had to be caught before it hit someone. A long silence would hang over the scene. Someone outside surely heard the gunshots, and would be dialing the police.

But Rex wasn't trying to hold the would-be culprits here.

"Go. Never talk about this again."

And so they ran. The clerk working that night offered a free taquito or something. Rex took the clerk up on their offer, nabbing a plastic platter packed with cheap nachos.

____

On the shores of some forbidden tropical landmass in the Pacific, a giant of metallic cyan wrestled with the more aggressive wildlife of Megafauna Island. With techniques that might have honored pro-wrestlers, judoka, and other iron-gripped grapplers.

He couldn't always be here. Nature had to run its course: the food chain was a necessity. Survival was simultaneously brutal, yet also beautiful.

The spiny sea-beast, an enemy anemone, coated in something mutated from abalone. The winged devil that could turn on a dime after breaking the sound barrier many times over. The isotope-spitters all too recently spawned and the ancient myths made manifest once more.

*ZARRRRRUUUMMM!!*

Some subdued gently. Some slain to prevent a rampage. Yet more left to graze, laze, and proliferate a while longer. All after the glow of an energy stream, cosmic in nature: Rex's signature Zetarium Ray, humming away. Forcing back mighty kaiju until they relented. And those that did not were disintegrated.

Rex loathed that outcome.

____

On the way home, an unopened beer can was lobbed at Rex. Hitting him square in the head. Despite all that he had endured prior to this, he couldn't help but yelp, and rub his head. Searching for the one responsible, and finding no one. Only bystanders that turned away to continue on their paths again. At least a couple of whom, snickered like they thought he had it coming.

"Hrrrmph."

____

When Friday rolled around, Rex got a text. A local superpowered wrestling circuit he got some good gigs from needed to put an act together. Or several.

There were some that preferred the theatrical nature of a good storyline. With these heels, faces, and jobbers, Rex would trash talk, choreograph interventions mid-match, rehearse lines, and ponder on how subsequent encounters might play out later. For the rest, Rex trusted his muscle memory. There were also those who were legitimately here to compete, and any drama they cultivated was for real.

It earned a generous paycheck. That and helping out as a test dummy at a research institute, when they had something for him. Or any other odd jobs.

____

Off in another star system, something came up last minute: an armada of fully-operational battleships were spooling their unique FTL drives. Ready to do away with the anchor of standardized physics, in a way the world they targeted had only just begun to understand. They saw it as a threat to their regal hegemony.

Other interplanetary governments could spare little. Those of the Galactic Volunteer Services with its myriad members and the more uniformed Psionic Patrol were spread thin at the moment. One of the GVS's supervisors, a more seasoned energy-slinging Nypardian, put in a call to Earth.

Alone, Rex hovered. Then he rocketed towards the first dreadnought. Tearing through its sternium alloy innards and wreaking havoc on the engineering section, before punching a hole through the rear impulse thrusters. Being spotted by the yeoman on the scanner console aboard the bridge of the next warmongering vessel. The full brunt of their particle projectors and megaton-yield torpedoes upon him. The fury of the crew and marines on him at intervals.

Likewise, Rex narrowed his eyes. His glowing, hyper-vision enhanced eyes. Looking to board and catch the captain by the collar of his ornate, commanding officer's jacket in a demand for surrender.

Otherwise, rinse and repeat until the cavalry arrived.

____

At long last, as the wee hours of that Friday night came closer, Rex had finally gotten home to begin the weekend.

THE ENFORCERS

A team that started in the Bronze Age. It was formed initially as a club for adventurers costumed or otherwise, bankrolled by its wealthiest members, renowned for recruiting and reforming former evildoers. Into the 1980s as the team expanded, those patron-members would begin purchasing old spy agency assets. With this, they would begin networking with ex-military specialists powered or otherwise also in need of second chances. By the mid-to-late 80s, the team had attained a national presence, and a reputation as a competent planetary defense system.

Still, they were sidelined in terms of popularity. Languishing through the end of the century and barely getting back on the upswing into the 2000s thanks to select members, some of whom no longer even associated with the larger team, which now mostly consisted of diehard moralists and unscrupulous opportunists. Using a revised version of the corporate model from the 90s. But rather than offering a superior product, they merely offered an alternative. Trading off extreme grit for extreme glib. The same nihilism dragged out of the dark and thrown into the light, dressed up in generic memphis design. Into celebrity idol worship and lucrative military-industrial contracts.

Rex is prominently tied to this group. He and others his age were taken in as adolescents under an apprenticeship. But after failing to conform to the house style, Rex-- and others past and future, would be dealt with mercilessly for their resistance.

DOMAIN UNION

One of the early united forces of the Golden Age. More a network than one team, meant to organize costumed adventurers, starting within what would be the allied nations of WWII, with goals to expand across the globe. Its membership largely consisted of low-to-non-powered masked mystery folk, mostly operating at street level, with a few heavy hitters. Mostly of the mystical variety, or in some way representing fantasy and the old polytheistic faiths.

A smaller, surgical strikeforce of combat experienced costumed adventurers and metaforms called the Surefire Squadron operated in multiple theaters of war against axis secret weapons projects. Some squadmates have dual membership with the Domain Union, but the entire DU is only called out overseas on rare occasions. Otherwise they're kept on the homefront to prevent enemy mind-control and morale drops from those killed or missing in action.

Post-WWII, the Domain Union was disbanded following the Red Scare. Surefire Squadron members resigned in protest. In present day most remaining members in seniority try to offer training and a sense of community among metaforms.

From a doylist standpoint, this team consists largely of characters that in real life publishing, have fallen into public domain or were designated as open source to begin with.

R.O.U.N.D. Agents

The Reactive Operations United Nations Directive. A spy agency in the Silver Age. It established an overt ops division headed by agents certified for use of experimental superpower-granting gadgets. Besides baseline or in-house augmented agents, ROUND also signed on external superbeings of varying alignments, holding them to 'patriotic loyalty' oaths. They would also deploy prisoners and captured monsters as they saw fit.

Historically, ROUND was established after the dissolution of the Surefire Squadron and in its own waning years, ROUND's most essential assets would later be sold off to the Enforcers' estate, and former agents/freelancers would find new work there. The organization would come to a conclusive end by 1990, but its actions on the geo-political scale and forays beyond can still be felt today.

PINNACLE PANTHEON

An all powerhouse A-list superteam, started in the Silver Age. Mostly dealing with invasions from other planets/dimensions, world-threatening supervillains, and cosmic crises. The team would gradually go from the world's most respected superheroes to fading out of the public eye towards the 2000's.

Rumors persist that the Pinnacle Pantheon have since established their own city-state, dubbed the Technopolis. An attempt to create a near-utopian society. Public opinion holds that the Technopolis is the breeding grounds for a cult. In reality, the group was forcibly cornered, outnumbered and attempting to retain their autonomy. They continue to defend against large-scale threats, but have become little more than myths, limited to their own slice of paradise. Like a vacation cruise left to go on too long.

PITHY RANDOS

Pithy Randos is a 'powershare' app, utilizing an extra-dimensional energy grid to distribute abilities, equipment, and vehicles to its talent pool of freelance employees, with its staple being team-structures and giant piloted mecha. Though the talent pool can consist of sincere or desperate people, the founder of the service are ruthless scavengers, repurposing the powers and tools of former superheroes for profit and to amass a private army through legal loopholes.

MANTLE ARMY

The multi-corps military of the Subterran Empire, an ancient force of tyranny, and one of the more vastly profitable evil organizations around. Over the years Emperor Fumerole has since expanded from their old thematic enlistments of Mole Scouts, Saurianoid Soldiers, and Magma-Gaunts, to include supervillain, machine, and monsters of all stripes, adopting a corporate structure not unlike that of the Enforcers, achieving similar popularity and trading in the same military-industrial networks. Minus the pretense of social good, they can operate as horribly as they want and be exalted for it.

GOLDEN AGE

On Earth, the idea of a superhero is only just now coming into vogue. Superpowers and costumed adventuring weren't unheard of in prior history, nor even the idea of supervillainy. But the idea of the superhero, and a rudimentary notion of it at best, didn't start until the 1930's.

The general consensus was that the preceding adventurers and detectives/etc. weren't as miraculous as this new wave: the proto-superheroes were mostly low-to-non-powered and largely worked within the constraints of their world and its societies or simply concentrated on matters outside of the awareness of the common folk.

Fantasy dominated this period. The mightiest superbeings of this period were majority magic-based (be it as magicians, wielding artifacts, or being tied to divinity) as had been long-standing. Even the sciences operated similarly, mostly consisting of chemists or engineers who created serums or heavy machinery augmented by unusual environmental conditions. And of course, this period was heavily populated by those mostly operating on skill and wit-- a lower barrier to access.

Early costumed adventurers and superbeings were operating independent of their local laws or home nations. The typical conventions of superheroics like secret lairs or specialized equipment occurred sparsely, along with very rare instances of robotics. Most just kept costumes and a few immediate pieces of equipment on-hand, maybe a car or a plane/autogyro if they were more affluent/connected. Some even directly wielded weapons like firearms, explosives, and blades, as well as a prevalent willingness to use them lethally.

Ties to their respective states mostly occurred in response to WWII, in defense of the homefront and public morale or for the handpicked strikeforces venturing to the major theatres of war to halt Axis Occult/Secret Weapons operations.

ATOMIC AGE

A brief segue between gold and silver.

With the horrifying utilization of weapons of mass destruction and the rise of international tensions between the major nations, many Golden Age heroes retired, disappeared, or were rendered outlaws by Red Scare type paranoia. Covert operations rage across the globe. A rise in attacks by local or otherworldly threats increases between human hubris and concerns from non-human cultures, primarily from space, but also from subterranea and sub-dimensions of this universe.

Few new superheroes appear and the veteran ones still active are stretched thin. Naturally occurring mutations start to spike prominently. Neo Cowboys from circuses and desert towns, in an attempt to keep alive their gunslinging skill, were sometimes also active in present day. Meteing out justice, but also performing for coin.

SILVER AGE

A more defining period of mainstays. Many of the tropes associated with superheroes (lairs/special equipment/recurring supporting casts/personal lore, and most strikingly, the dubious "no kill rule") crop up here. The advent of the atom and the space age usher in a dynasty of science, sometimes stable, other times wreaking cautionary havoc among a populace of widely emerging metaforms and visitors from the deeper cosmos invested in Earth's well-being or its subjugation. Spy agencies began to pull in special talents from among the metaforms. Not just the willing, but turning rogues and monsters in lock-up onto designated targets.

A period known for its bright optimism and bizarre situations, an overlooked aspect of the silver age was the emphasis of the superhero being loyal agent of the state: cooperative with law enforcement, operating per national interests and borders. Some of the period's greatest champions complied in order to remain active as positive forces, as well as for their own safety and those of their loved ones. Resistance was limited and scattered enough that the superhero had become the vanguard of institutional power.

The most major teams of the day were composed primarily of heavy hitters. Other groups resembled social clubs between disparate members-- those groups starting out without the acclaim of the planetary defenders, yet sowing the seeds for their eventual fortune and glory.

BRONZE AGE

A past period that closely resembles the structure of the modern day. This was a time of even splits between the various potential subgenre origins that costumed adventurers could fall into. Many of the patriotically-inclined superbeings of the Silver Age continued to be active here, with a plethora of Bronze Age original newcomers offering more resistance-- a return to more grassroots efforts. Constant was the clash between ground-level problems and the newfound surge of grand scale crisis events.

In addition to the surge in newer grassroots do-gooders, major spy agencies of the mid-century would dissolve or see a consolidation of their remaining power. Former espionage/military operatives would try their hand as freelance mercenaries and security consultants, the most promising of whom were brought onto radically changed rosters of the then major supergroups,

THE ENUMERATION

A bridging gap between the Bronze and the Iron/Dark.

Largely takes place across the 80s. During this period, covert operations were reduced in favor of early 'guided' attempts to create high-end superbeings, the most successful of which acquired the greatest accumulation of nuclear power the world had ever seen by that point. Strides in power armor and mecha had advanced enough to create reliable models in rates that shifted the practice from hoping for a successful one-off prototype to trustworthy manufacturing and common components.

The privatization of supergroups had begun here, requiring patronage in order to acquire cutting-edge equipment and facilities. Though not beholden to loyalty oaths like government operatives, those who found themselves in A-List status would remain in order to receive various benefits and camaraderie.

By comparison, many Bronze Age newcomers, Silver Age stragglers, and Golden Age 'grandparents' were forced to form crude alliances that more resembled halfway houses-- unofficial support groups, rather than superteams proper. These outlier groups depended on each other for survival and were often marginalized within and/or without their costumed adventuring identity. But if nothing else, they continued to advocate for pressing social issues.

THE IRON DARK

The privatization of costumed adventuring and the superhero took a grim turn into the 1990's. Companies that profited enough on the teams-turned-firms grew into megacorporate bodies. The decline in wide-spanning crisis events allowed these megacorps to reconsider how they filled the rosters, buying up new divisions to capitalize on genetic engineering, aging ex-military specialists and bloodlusted grungy recruits, high-tech weapons/armor production, as well as scholarships in the mystic arts. Even more than the superteams, PR and marketing teams took the reins. Not only curating their talent pool to be adored by the public, but subtly influencing the public consciousness towards their vision of history.