W
hile Chapter 1 looks at the history of the Silver Age comic books, this section details the history of the Silver Age period in Freedom City. Assume unspecified real world events happened in Freedom much as they did in our own world, in true comic book fashion. You can also use the comic book history in Chapter 1 and your own knowledge of the Silver Age as a source of inspiration for further events in Freedom City’s history during this time.BEGININGS AND ENDINGS
The commonly accepted date for the start of the “Silver Age of Heroes” in Freedom City is early 1960, when the Freedom League was founded, signaling an end to the fallow period in the wake of the breakup of the post-war Liberty League, when Freedom City had no team of heroes to call its own. The years leading up to the forma-tion of the League saw the appearance of several new heroes who became members, while the years immediately following featured an explosion of new costumed super-types.
The exact ending of the Silver Age era is somewhat less clear (just as it is in the real world), although most place it around the late 1970s, as public views of heroes begin to change, and many newer superhumans—like the Atom Family—operate less in the public eye.
It is also when many superhuman criminals begin to adopt the tac-tics of working behind-the-scenes or even from within the system to subvert it, forcing heroes even more to the fringes, with vigilantism on the rise. The timeline here ends in 1976. The years leading up to the Moore Act and the banning of superheroes in Freedom City are described in the Freedom.City.setting sourcebook and the Iron.Age sourcebook.
1960
March: The death god Hades, enraged at Daedalus’ recent activities as a crimefighter, uses the unwitting aid of a foolish mortal wizard and launches an invasion of Freedom City from Tartarus. A number of heroes, including Centurion, Lady Liberty, Bowman, Daedalus, and the Raven band together to drive off Hades and his forces. Zeus forbids Hades from directly interfering with the mortal world again.
The heroes, realizing they can deal with threats more effectively as a team, but legally prohibited from using the name Liberty League, band together to form the Freedom League.
June: The new American Elite Government Intervention Service (AEGIS) begins recruiting law enforcement personnel, assuring AEGIS will have accurate intelligence before taking the field. AEGIS Director Jack Simmons proposes partnerships with the superhero community and promises AEGIS will fight for superhero rights and prevent another witch-hunt like the HUAC. With the enthusiastic support of Centurion, many heroes agree to cooperate with the new agency.
Noted psychiatrist Dr. Arthur Levitt begins developing mechanical devices to better study the nature of fear. Adopting the identity of Fear Master, he becomes a foe of the Raven.
Roger Usher, head of the terrifyingly corrupt Usher family, dies, leav-ing his son Alister in control of the family’s criminal enterprises. The new Usher scion, with the approval of his sister and lover, Felicia, leads his family business into new depths of depravity.
1961
February 13: Dr. Atom purchases the newly constructed Goodman Building and moves there with his family.
Alexander Rhodes develops incredible mental powers from the awak-ening of his ka. Discovering he is the reincarnated soul of the ancient Egyptian hero Heru-Ra, he takes on the identity of the Scarab, using his abilities to fight crime.
“Mad Dog” Rae forms the “Dog Pound Squad,” a special Freedom City Police squad meant to combat superhuman violence.
Overshadow, recognizing the Scarab as his ancient enemy and fear-ing discovery before he is ready, launches Operation Inundation, a plot to seize simultaneous control of every institution in the Western world, giving his Penumbra a week to organize. The Scarab discovers the plot before it is initiated, but no one in the government listens to him other than Jack Simmons. Last-minute action by AEGIS and Freedom City’s superheroes is all that stands between SHADOW and world-conquest.
Dr. Jonathan Darke, the former second-in-command of the Invisible Empire, takes advantage of Overshadow’s momentarily weakened position and shoots him, seizing control of SHADOW. The Nazi mastermind is only able to survive by transferring his mind into an immature clone.
Michael Reeves, a brilliant, sickly albino living in the sewers, driven mad by the misery of his condition, forms a religious cult around himself. Calling himself the Conqueror Worm, the messianic luna-tic sends his “Night Crawlers” to rob and murder anyone who offends his ever-changing moral dictates, frequently clashing with the Raven.
1962
AEGIS tracks SHADOW to the estate of Dr. Darke, who is killed in the ensuing shootout. The general consensus that Darke was the founder of SHADOW allows Overshadow to recover his strength in secret.
Quick action in stopping SHADOW gains AEGIS considerable respect in government circles. However, to further silence his critics, Director Simmons insists AEGIS take on the toughest cases available.
Overshadow manages to track down the sorcerer Crimson Mask. As one of his previous incarnations was a member of the Báthory fam-ily, the criminal mastermind is able to banish Stefan Báthory’s ghost.
Overmind then charges the Crimson Mask with reforming the Thule Society.
FREEDOM CITY SILVER AGE HISTORY
Fifteen year-old John “Jack” Carlton, attacked by a bully, discovers he has near-invulnerable skin and superhuman strength. Keeping his new abilities secret, he begins working to master them.
In Haiti, psychology doctoral student Cassandra Vale, while studying whether simple belief in supernatural abilities has an effect on the reality of such things, becomes the host of the Voodoo loa La Siren and active as the heroine Siren.
The Egyptian god Horus the Avenger comes to Earth to fight crime in the mortal world.
In Freedom City, Jordan International Airport undergoes a major expansion.
A superhuman calling himself the Leopard King raises an army of brainwashed “Leopard Men” and launches an invasion of the newly liberated nation states of Africa. At the request of King M’Zale of Dakana, the United Nations sends Uniforce to intervene in the conflict. This is the first recorded use of UN troops to fight supervillains.
Avril Griffin, daughter of Lady Celtic and the Human Tank, is empow-ered by the Spirit of Britain as the new Britannia.
October 24: Bryant Haiday, a young man obsessed with supervil-lains and the fun they seem to be having and inspired by United Nations Day, adopts the identity of Doc Holiday, waging a series of holiday-themed crimes.
1963
Nicholas Gorman, son of the WWII hero Sergeant Shrapnel, hav-ing inherited his father’s powers, joins AEGIS under the codename Shrapnick, using his powers to sabotage Communist forces in Eastern Europe.
The stunted telepath Jacques Crenaire, known as L’Enfant Terrible, is convicted on 17 counts of murder and sentenced to life in prison.
Astronaut Chuck Shepard is lost to a rogue “black hole,” which trans-ports him to another world. Becoming that world’s champion and granted their life-extension technology, Shepard becomes known as Space Ranger.
The Lor Republic and the Grue Unity agree to a tentative peace, induc-ing a state of détente between the two interstellar governments.
In Freedom City, the military supply depot on Blackstone Island is decommissioned.
The Mobile European Network Acquiring Control of Earth (MENACE), a group of European fanatics, steals the plans for the Inexistence Gun, a weapon that alters causality. In response to the threat, the UN activates Team Alphabet, an elite group of 26 super-spies.
1964
April 11: AEGIS opens Blackstone Penitentiary, a prison specially designed to hold superhuman inmates, on Blackstone Island. The United States Department of Justice makes Blackstone the de-facto prison for superhumans in the United States, moving criminals there from prisons across the country. Jerry Kramer is appointed Warden.
June 2: The Maestro uses a visit by the Beatles to mind-control thou-sands of screaming fans. The Freedom League manages to thwart the evil mastermind’s plans.
Ingrid Hildebrandt is able to temporarily regain access to the power of die.Walkürie, becoming a foe of both Lady Liberty and Centurion.
A newly resurgent SHADOW infiltrates the United States and Western European military with I-Bots (Infiltration Bots) to foment conflict. The androids are able to bring the United States and the Soviet Union to the brink of nuclear war before the plot is foiled by an alliance of Centurion and Bogatyr.
Overshadow begins enacting grandiose, seemingly insane schemes against the nations of the world, all the while using the belief that he is insane to cover his true agenda: the theft of information and new technology, allowing him to construct a powerful suit of battle armor.
The scientist Dr. Norman, while performing experiments on force field technology, is killed in an explosion that destroys his South Sea island base. His estate is left to his former lab assistant, Dmitri Korcek, secretly a KGB spy assigned to steal Dr. Norman’s inven-tions. Among the Doctor’s inventions, Korcek discovers a device that makes the user invisible. He changes the name of his company, Korcek, Incorporated, to Invisible, Inc.
1965
August: Omega manages to pierce the dimensional barriers and invades Freedom City with an army of Omegadrones. The dark lord of the Terminus is driven off by the Freedom League and Dr. Atom.
Theseus, the son of Siren and King Thallor of Atlantis, joins the Freedom League as Sea King.
Brigade Six, a secret branch of British Intelligence, forms to deal with threats too dangerous for regular agents. Troy Griffin (Agent Silver), who has developed an invulnerable skeleton and eyes as well as physically aging at a far slower rate than his twin sister, Avril;
Elizabeth “Betty” Munroe, a Ministry of Powers trainee with the power to levitate and training in espionage (Agent Black), Charles Parker (Agent White) and Anne Gordon (Agent Gold) are recruited as its agents.
Samantha Cline, an attractive young researcher at ASTRO Labs, steals some experimental pheromones, as well as a flight harness and web projector, and begins her career as the seductive Luna Moth, clashing often with the Raven despite his ability to resist her charms.
1966
Gathering a group of elite thieves and mercenaries, Korcek organizes Invisible, Inc. into an organization of industrial saboteurs.
September: Filmatic produces the Freedom. Friends, a cartoon loosely based on the exploits of the Freedom League. Although campy and childish, the show is extremely popular.
Warden Kramer accepts the assistance of Daedalus in redesigning the cellblocks of Blackstone Penitentiary to reduce the chance of
Overshadow frees Nacht-Krieger from his light prison. Driven mad by his years of imprisonment and the dark shadows infecting his mind, Nacht-Krieger goes on a rampage, attempting to steal an arcane artifact from the Hunter Museum. White Thorn returns and attacks the shadowy creature. Scarab and Beacon are drawn to the battle and White Thorn attacks them as well before the three heroes join forces against Nacht-Krieger. Recognizing Beacon’s power as that of his sister, White Rose, White Thorn sacrifices his life to imprison the shadow creature beneath Pyramid Plaza and transfers his remaining power to the new light bearer, his soul finally rejoining his beloved twin and dear friends in “the light beyond life.” Scarab takes the responsibility of keeping Nacht Krieger imprisoned.
Tomb-robbing archaeologist Dr. Reese Browder unearths the tomb in which Hades hid the Adamant armor. Touching it, he activates
the ancient artifact and his soul is torn from his body and absorbed into the armor. Adamant goes on a rampage, causing much destruc-tion until he attracts the attendestruc-tion of Horus the Avenger. Drawn to the god by its purpose to destroy the divine, Horus and Adamant engage in a terrible battle. Horus, realizing he cannot destroy the Adamant, uses his Ankh to banish it to a distant netherworld. Over the next several years, the armor is freed and then entrapped again as no one seems able to destroy it.
In San Francisco, a renegade Clockworker, one of the constructs of the Time Keepers meant to maintain the time-measuring Dolorous Clock, having experienced emotion and fled his duties in a stolen time machine, arrives in the city. Becoming a guru known to the locals as the Tick-Tock-Doc, he declares war against “the tyranny of time,” leading his followers, who call themselves the Counter-Clock Culture, to destroy clocks across the city, giving them advanced tech-nology to further their goals. Their actions earn them major threat status with the FBI.
1968
After a frightening encounter with a drunken Arrow, the Bee-Keeper retires from costumed villainy.
Team Alphabet is able to cut off MENACE’s access to the Arsenal Outside Time, where they had stolen their temporal weaponry, and put an end to the organization once and for all.
Jack Carlton adopts the guise of Kid Gargoyle and begins fighting crime in Freedom City.
During a battle in the sewers, the Raven knocks the Conqueror Worm over a ledge, leaving him clinging to a sewer pipe. Reaching to save his enemy, the Raven loses his grip when the villain surprises him with knowledge of his feelings for Dr. Sin’s daughter Jasmine, caus-ing the Conqueror Worm to fall to his death. The messianic villain’s ever-faithful assistant, Ligeia, is sent to Providence Asylum.
In Sedona, Arizona, former hippie and crystal enthusiast, Lorinda Bryant, while searching for new stones in the desert, discovers a cave with several prehistoric drawings and a small altar with a perfect lapis-lazuli upon it. Taking the stone, Bryant is compelled to place it against her forehead, allowing it to bond with her and granting her incredible mental abilities. Calling herself Countess Azure, she gath-ers a group of followgath-ers who donate their worldly goods to her with which she purchases a large commune.
1969
July 20: The Apollo 11 spacecraft delivers the first humans to the Moon. The inhabitants of Farside City watch the mission carefully, now aware of the speed of humanity’s technological development.
Selene, an ambitious member of the Farsider royal family who was born without mental powers, uses the fear of humanity’s technologi-cal development to attract a large group of followers. The group seizes the power of the Moonstone, which Selene uses to gain men-tal powers superior to her kin and seize control of the city. Taking the name Lady Lunar, Selene orders the royal family executed although one member, her young nephew Mentac, manages to escape to
Earth. The insane usurper, backed by the crater apes whose aggres-sion she has amplified, proceeds with her plans to build a space fleet to one day conquer humanity.
September 9: Chester Brown, the hero known as the Bluesman, passes away. All of Freedom City mourns the gangbusting hero and Mayor Herbert Huntington honors him with a statue in Liberty Park.
The grove in which the statue stands comes to be known as Heroes’
Knoll.
The renegade Star Knight Rojan Lhar, pursued by his former compa-triot A’Lan Koor for first trying to conquer a primitive world and then trying to seize control of the Star Stone, source of the Star Knights’
power, flees to Earth. Taking the name Blackstar, he hides among Earth’s supervillains and seeks to amass enough power to storm Citadel and take the Star Stone by force. However, A’Lan Koor tracks the renegade to Earth and joins the Freedom League as Star Knight, constantly foiling Blackstar’s schemes.
October 14: A scouting party from the Grue Unity infiltrates humanity. Seeking to infiltrate the Freedom League, the alien plot is foiled when one of their number, R’ik Faax, finds sympathy for the human race due to his telepathic contact with them and exposes his fellow Grue. For his betrayal, R’ik Faax is banished from the Unity and marooned on Earth, where he creates the identity of freelance journalist Rick Fox and joins the Freedom League as the shapeshift-ing Pseudo.
November 12: The Raven, after breaking up one of the Usher family’s brothels and discovering dozens of teenage runaways held captive there, decides to put an end to the criminal family once and for all. The savage battle ends when a desperate Alister Usher throws a flask of acid at the Raven who ducks, resulting in Felicia Usher being horribly burned. The maimed woman stumbles into the fireplace, knocking several burning logs askew and setting the family manor ablaze. The Raven tries to save the Usher siblings so that they may face trial, but Alister Usher fights him off, carrying his sister deeper into the fire. After the blaze consumes the mansion utterly, only several badly charred corpses are found.
Taurus starts watching brilliant Hanover Institute of Technology cyberneticist Dr. Victor Reeds, intending to bring the young genius into the Labyrinth in a few years.
The Malfidians, the personal guard of Lady Lunar, are sent to Earth, where they set up a base of operations in a gravel quarry in central England. Their mission is to procure rare materials and prepare for an invasion of Earth by Farside City. Uniforce learns of the plot with the assistance of the Associates, a pair of time travelers from the future who claim to be agents dedicated to preserving the timestream from interference and who interact with this timeframe by sending their minds to possess bodies in the past. The Associates also make Uniforce aware of the Futurekin, the Associates’ opposite number with which they are involved in a “temporal war.” Uniforce is able to defeat the Malfidians and expose the involvement of Zeitgeist, who had possessed the body of Lady Lunar’s chief advisor. With her guard defeated, Lady Lunar pledges peace with the Earth.
With the waning of the hippie movement, the disillusioned Tic-Tock-Doc abandons his followers behind a time-curtain, preventing them from aging, to travel with an alternative rock band, eventually aban-doning them as well to travel through time in the hopes of finding something as fulfilling as his beloved hippie culture.
1970
By this year, the UN has established no less than six different agen-cies to deal with superhuman threats including Uniforce, Team Alphabet, the United Nations Science Advisory Council (UNSAC), and the United Nations Paranormal Enclave Committee (UNPEC), established to deal with locations that fall outside the traditional definition of nations, such as Atlantis.
Legal issues and “creative differences” with the League result in Freedom.Friends going off the air.
Dr. Reeds is injured in a laboratory explosion. Taurus arranges to have the lab destroyed and leaves behind evidence that Reeds
Dr. Reeds is injured in a laboratory explosion. Taurus arranges to have the lab destroyed and leaves behind evidence that Reeds