It's Sunday, Sunday, Sunday, folks and that means it's time for your S.U.P.L.E.X. Sunday Lore Drop!  I know you're as excited as I am to hit that like and follow button for more S.U.P.L.E.X. Lore.  Today we're going to be talking about the history of some of the superhero organizations active in the world that are NOT S.U.P.L.E.X. and maybe give a little history of how we've interacted with them in the past.  From the ludicrous to the Orwellian, we'll go over all of 'em right here! 



Bronze Legion: The Bronze Legion was a sort of unaffiliated superhero group that formed in the 30s.  These guys were the pulpy mystery men of yesteryear and it shows in their organization, which was a gentleman's club in Pensacola, Florida.  They were (as most heroes were then) basically a social club just for superheroes and iron jawed detective types, and not a lot was actually known about them as they kept a tight lid on their operations.  But most of their work was solo work; they weren't really a team and didn't operate like one, they just all got shitfaced on bootleg rum in the same place.  Heroes of the Bronze Legion included Captain Partisan, Joe Crash and S.U.P.L.E.X.'s very own JudoCat, who was our close combat instructor many years later.  The Bronze Legion more or less collapsed in 1981 after a sex scandal involving the membership, and their old Pnesacola hideout is now a popular tourist spot. 



Iron Legion: Formed later in 1956 as an alternative to the Bronze Legion, this was sort of a league of gentleman robots.  They were, like the Bronze Legion before them, purely a social club for heroes that mostly operated solo, such as TankBot and Fool's Mate. Notably, however, in 1963 they started accepting women, minorities and other 'undesirables' that could not get into the Bronze Legion, and they also began planning missions together to counter the growing threat of the bolshevik Hellrazor cult in East Asia, so they developed some of the first team doctrine for superhero battles.  Their head position is called The Controller and their training manual served as a blueprint for my own when I developed S.U.P.L.E.X. years later-not because it was particularly good or relevant, but because it was the first.  The Iron Legion is still active today.  Famous Iron Legion heroes today include Wendighost, Dollarman and Fire Prince-a graduate of the S.U.P.L.E.X. Child Soldiers division and my son's fiancee. 



Steel Legion: A reactionary Cold War artifact, the Steel Legion was a logical outgrowth of the Iron Legion.  In this case, however, the Steel Legion was Federalized and operates under civilian command, as that was the doctrine of the 80's during the cold war for superheroes.  Membership is open to any hero and they pay your MCOB insurance, which is nice, but it does have a rigid command structure with ranks.  For basically most of my childhood the Steel Legion was THE superhero organization, and they were the first to really harness the power of merchandise for funding.  The Federal Government subsidized them up until 1999 when the membership formally split and they became an independent superhero team after a long court battle.  They also built their infamous Moonbase during that time, despite a lengthy court battle with the Federal Government, and the moon theme park is a rich kid tourist trap even today!  Famous steel legion heroes include Lord Sunshine, Dark Wulf and Atomic Lass!  By far the largest superhero organization.



Flag Force One: An attempt in the 90's by the Federal Government to create a permanent metahuman strike force that answers purely to SOCOM, Flag Force One is considered the premiere hero team of that or any time.  Well funded, supremely well trained and with strict membership requirements, Flag Force One is considered the Best of the Best and (despite my making fun of them all the time) it's hard to argue that isn't case.  They recruit exclusively from the US Military and some people whisper that they're in the business of making superheroes more than recruiting them.  Like the Steel Legion, they are subject to civilian leadership and have a huge support staff, including an entire air wing for worldwide deployment.  When world ending crap happens on American soil, these guys are the ones they send, and heaven help you if you're in the way.  Famous Flag Force One heroes include the Ultra Twins, Mike Hammer, Crossbearer and Amelia Hex.  One difficulty with these poor bastards is retirement-their service records are (mostly) public knowledge so they pretty much can't retire since their real names are public knowledge!  S.U.P.L.E.X. and Flag Force One have a troubled history; we worked together in that whole Santa Morena affair and on some other occasions, but obviously I don't trust the Federal Government even a little bit. 



Flag Force Zero: You could fit what we or anyone knows about Flag Force Zero in the small end of a thimble and rattle it around pretty good; this is the government's superpowered covert strike force made up of highly trained metahumans.  We actually met and worked with Flag Force Zero during the Afterlife Wars, and signed a pretty extensive NDA, but their reputation as skilled operators is well deserved even if they are pricks that don't give a fuck about collatoral damage.  So in a legally safe way, if you ever see that Flag Force One logo but it's on a flat dark earth tab and the guy you're seeing doesn't speak a word, run fast in the other direction if at all possible. 



Icewater, Inc: A private mercenary firm founded in the black and bloody days of the 90's, Icewater is a mercenary firm that hires both heroes and villains as long as they are ice themed or use ice powers.  An extensive arsenal, some mysterious funding, and pretty good training, these ice themed mercenaries fight for the highest bidder and sometimes accept metahuman law enforcement contracts for state or city governments.  These guys seem like mercenary bastards but they're pretty competent all things considered; they have a large support staff and since they're willing to work with villains, they have a pretty good talent pool.  Famous Icewater heroes (term used loosely) include The Snow Crone, Mr. Frosty and Glacier, who had a brief but successful career as a pro wrestler-he's a fun guy to party with.  What's interesting about them is there's no costuming-everybody wears the same thing-so fighting these guys is sometimes a guessing game on whether he's a normal human with an ice projector or a metahuman with ice powers.  We haven't had extensive dealings but weirdly, I respect these guys.



The River Frogs: It's no secret these guys are S.U.P.L.E.X's main rivals in CENTCOM; our three state contract includes the entire state of Kentucky except Louisville, because for some reason the city government of Louisville will trust a bunch of sewer dwelling, hockey playing mutant frog men instead of us.  It was a whole political thing at the time, but that doesn't really mean the team is bad or incompetent although sometimes they are.  For a bunch of barely trained hockey goons, they're good in a scrap and their teamwork is a cut above average, but the city doesn't really support them enough so every day I worry if this is gonna be the day when we find the charming mutant frogmen have been gunned down in the street like Bear Minimum.  Still, they do alright for themselves, and if they'd just accept our help and pass our course I think they'd be a top tier team-but the City of Louisville just will not budge on the issue, they really hate S.U.P.L.E.X. 



Anyway, that's the rundown on the heroes of the world that aren't us, just in case you were curious.  All opinions are those of Chris By-The-Throat, World's Luckiest Detective, and not of S.U.P.L.E.X. Corp.  See you next week kids!

S.U.P.L.E.X. Sunday Lore Drop - Heroic Organizations besides S.U.P.L.E.X. - What are the team dynamics outside your main group?