LNH20/Meta: the silver and bronze ages

[Lalo Martins]

So we've been discussing whether or not the Net.astic Nine was the 
premier group of the 60s, and what else was around back then. Here's my 
proposal, in a timeline format. I didn't stop the timeline at the silver 
age, because I wanted to also explore how it influences the later history 
that we had already discussed.

1950s: After the Golden Age fizzles off, some heroes continue, and new 
ones sporadically appear.

1958: The US government begins using powered agents, both for military 
and intelligence/counter-espionage purposes, but always individually and 
answering to the normal military or intelligence hierarchies.

1959: The first proper computer network is demonstrated. Inspired by the 
concept, the premier heroes of the US East Coast, West Coast, Great 
Britain, France, and Japan get together for mutual support, creating the 
second-ever supergroup, The Network. Soon a few more heroes join.

      The Network deals primarily with:
      - Monsters
      - Mad scientists
      - Organized crime
      - Supernatural and extradimensional threats
      - Global pan-terrorist organizations, mainly WHATEVER

1962: The Network investigates stories about a town that seems to 
occasionally pop up in various places in the US. They find the town, and 
its resident hero, Google.mesh, locked in a ages-spanning battle with the 
tyrant ApocaLISP. The (somewhat jaded) residents call it only The Village.

      The Network puts a lot of effort into giving the town an 
infrastructure that would allow it to be a nearly-normal part of the 
world, including a wireless connection to the telephone system that would 
later be the inspiration for cell phones. In the end, they spent so much 
time there, that they decide to just stay and make the place their 
primary base of operations (they didn't have one before this, meeting on 
individual members' secret lairs). The town votes to rename itself 
Net.town in their honor.

1963: Four members of the Network decide to retire from public-eye 
heroing, and instead focus on their work as explorers of the 
extraordinary. They join with an unrelated group of four explorers. In 
the team's very first adventure, an unrelated bystander gains powers and 
joins the group, which will become known as the Net.astic Nine.

1964: The Network is so popular, that by this time powered individuals 
are generally known as net.heroes and net.villains, or net.men in 
general. (In the 70s, feminism would replace net.men with net.human. In 
the present, a growing movement wants to replace even that with 
net.persons, Tori being one of their poster children.)

1968: Net.town “promoted” to Net.city, since the Network's presence and 
its slightly-above-average technology has making it grow like crazy.

1969: America is divided into a hippie-friendly, anti-war side, and a 
strongly nationalistic, pro-war, anti-communist side. The Network isn't 
very popular with either; the former public appreciates their heroism and 
their global character, but takes issue with their readiness for 
violence. The latter public clamors for an American net.hero team. Their 
clamors are answered: a new team called Y.O.N.D.E.R. (Young Organized 
Net.hero Defense and Emergency Response) makes its debut, pitching itself 
as a new-generation, all-American team for modern times (= Bronze Age).

      Secretly, Y.O.N.D.E.R. is a joint initiative of the military, 
intelligence, FBI, and a few key private interests; most of its members 
are either pre-existing, usually experienced military/intelligence 
net.agents, or manufactured specifically for the group.

      That's not to say the group doesn't succeed, or even that it's 
automatically conservative. Y.O.N.D.E.R. maintains an excellent record 
throughout the 70s, and their popularity rivals The Network's in the US.

1979: Demand for net.heroes seems to be low. Many pro-active independent 
net.heroes keep the need down. The Network is still going strong, but 
most founding members (except for a few immortals) are dead or retired.

1980: Net.city renamed Net.ropolis.

1985: The Network finally disbands, on the same meeting that Kid 
Enthusiastic had gone to planning to apply to join the team. (The 
attentive reader will spot that this takes Crisis on Infinite Earths as 
the landmark for the end of the bronze age.)

1989: With the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the cold war, very 
few still care for Y.O.N.D.E.R. The team is dissolved, with much of its 
infrastructure repurposed into P.A.N.I.C.

1992: Net.humans, mostly ones that choose not to use their powers as 
heroes or villains, begin dying mysteriously around the world, but most 
noticeably in Net.ropolis. A disparate group of net.heroes and maybe one 
or two until-then-villains join together to investigate, and decide to 
remain a group, as the Saviors of the Net.

2002: The Killfile.

2002: Net.ropolis becomes Netropolis.

2007: End of the Killfile.

2007: Formation of the LNH.