Post by Edward Reed on Apr 18, 2009 19:27:38 GMT -8
to know the truth of history is to realize its ultimate myth and its inevitable ambiguity
------------------------------------------------------[/center]
It started in 1942 during WW2 when hope and moral was down, the first Guardsmen appeared in New York City. They were a group of men and women, mere friends, who sat around their local bar drinking and overtly frustrated that they could not do their part in the war. They talked of their adolescent years and the heroes they looked up to and in the end, one man decided to change his life. It started with an idea, a wild, singular notion that seemed better fit for the Captain Marvel comics his nephews read. But the idea remained, growing over the days until one night Jamison Bolin donned a simple costume of monotone clothes and a black mask and set out to stop a robbery at a neighborhood convenience store. Less then a week later, his friends joined and the media eventually caught wind of their caped crusades. By the help of colleagues on the legal side, they were able to grow from a mask vigilante group to superhero stardom. They called themselves the Guardsmen, lead by a man only known as Captain Manhattan. As leader, he declared while the heroes of WW2 fought for the world, they would look after the homestead.
Superheroes and vigilantes began to crop up everywhere, spurred on by the popularity of the Guardsmen but none seemed to be able to gain the fame and foundation as they had. However with heroes came villains, building into a unimaginable status of the every day man. To retaliate, the Guardsmen grew from the original five friends to adding four more people, mere strangers but good heroes. The Guardsmen worked diligently for years and when WW2 ended in 1945 no one wanted to end their heroing career.
Six months prior, Manhattan was killed in the line of duty and his second in command, The Baron took over. Through him they kept the team going but as time wore on, the Guardsmen became more of a publicity stunt and began to lose sight of what they represented. Teammates became discouraged, fought and quarreled amongst themselves and eventually left. The Guardsmen ultimately disbanned under bad grace when The Baron was found dead in their Bronx headquarters in 1947. It was ruled as suicide.
Vigilantism cropped up again and lasted till 1952 when the New York City mayor put a ban on them. He had decided they caused more trouble then the criminals and the only way to be rid of them was to crack down on masks. However villains remained a petulant thorn in NYC’s side and the hero ban was lifted in 1956, four years later when crime skyrocketed out of control. The second attempt at the Guardsmen was formed but this time it was government sanctioned with a strict screening process. The second team was nearly 3 times as big as the first and in result when the Vietnam war started in ‘59 half of the Guardsmen were sent with American soldiers as apart of the “Guardian Task Force”. The masks were once again used as a publicity stunt and it backfired on the proceedings, just as the soldiers that returned and labeled baby killers and spat upon so were the Guardsmen. This reflected on the respect of the remaining team that remained behind to protect their city. Therefore to promote their heroes, the NYC side dropped their strict regulations to let in more garden variety masks.
During this time, President Johnson choose to ignore the issue at hand and focused solely on his envisioned Great Society. He was assassinated on June 5th, 1967 during a rally by James Bronson, a man who worked for the New York Times. He had been one of the writers against the war effort and labeled a “commie” by the president during a conversation with Robert McNamara. Bronson lost his job, his wife left him for another man and his dog was hit by a car. He chocked it up to the president and in a drunken stupor one evening, a familiar looking man sought him out. Two weeks later, he carried out a horrific coup made by the vice president. The assassination was smoothed over by the government and blame was cast towards the East. Nixon was ushered into presidency and pushed forward on the Vietnam war effectively ending it in 1969. A peace treaty was signed and the last of the soldiers were sent home before Christmas. Nixon nixed the hero ban and kept the Guardsmen but the war had changed many. The few that remained became government property and the name Guardsmen was dropped due to the bad publicity attached to the name.
In 1973, President Nixon resigned after the Watergate scandal was revealed to have involved both him and his team of government heroes. He was succeeded by Gerald Ford who pardoned Nixon and his heroes in 1974. Gerald Ford turned his concentration to the Cold War while superheroing lost its luster and fell into the waste side till 1978, during his last year in office. NYC has had a recent burst of crime, the rise of arsonist in the Bronx are only the tip of the iceberg and former Guardsmen from the second attempt have stepped forward to start a new batch of heroes to restore their good name and give rising villains something to fear.
Please note, this is set in a alternate history of the United States.
[/size]