Gold Generation

The first real, codified superheroic generation. There were definitely superhumans and supernatural events going on for eons before Halcyon City ever arose, but the Gold Generation was the first with publicly recorded superhumans acting in the role of superhero. Flying Freedom started it all, but she was far from the last of her generation. Legacy, Champion, the Haunt, Golden Girl, Bryce Brilliant, the Cast-Iron Man...they all came out of the woodwork in this era. None of them were spectacularly powerful, but each of them was great, strong-willed, and more than capable of fighting the good fight.
This generation pulled America out of the Depression, and in particular reinvigorated Halcyon City with new inventions and a new drive for progress. This generation sent supers into World War II, where they battled their counterparts on the other side of the lines. This generation created for itself the notion of the modern superhero, complete with colorful costume and colorful code name.
Sometimes they fought aliens or robots, but the villainous opponents of the Golden Generation were often just powerful criminals, unscrupulous corporate fatcats, or corrupt politicians. These heroes had a direct and real effect on the city’s mundane existence. The remaining heroes of the Golden Generation often lament that theirs was the last generation of heroes to really fight both the superhuman and the all-too-human threats.
The stakes were different for heroes in those days. Periodically there’d be a monster like the Gorgomoth, a gigantic minotaur creature that stomped down Halcyon’s streets, or an evil genius gone mad like Captain Coldheart. These threats posed real danger to the city, but they were rare. There were countless costumed criminals, stealing priceless artifacts and jewels or playing pranks on public officials, but they weren’t interested in hurting anyone. The city as a whole wasn’t under as much threat, let alone the rest of the world.
The culture of Halcyon City often presents the Golden Generation as a simpler era of superheroics—a time of obvious and easy conflicts—but there’s a stronger and stronger impulse to deconstruct that narrative. The Golden Generation had real battles to fight, real struggles. Women and minority heroes were often laughed at, degraded, insulted, and ignored—they had to fight for every single ounce of respect they could get. The entire city was filled with the prejudiced ideas of that era. While the conflict between Champion and the pugilistic Deadly Devil might have been simpler than those faced by later generations, Champion’s struggle as a homosexual man and public figure in the 1940s was far from simple.
For all the flaws of the generation and the people within it, the heroes of the Golden Generation are credited with starting everything, and you can find monuments to their victories and their sacrifices all over Halcyon City. Today, most of them are either gone, having passed away or given everything in their struggles, or they’re retired.
Most from this generation who are still active are either trying to reclaim their lost glory or success—the Scarlet Songbird wants nothing more than to be a relevant supercriminal again—or they’re the most powerful, most impressive, and most enduring members of this whole generation. Aquaria, Brass Brilliant, and the Lady Faust might be from an older era, but they survived into today for a reason, and they’re not to be trifled with.

The Legacy of the Gold Generation was an inspiring leader during world war II.