The Golden Age of Mutants & Masterminds

The Golden Age of comics, and the modern superhero comic book, began in the late 1930s with the publication of the first comic books featuring heroes in colorful costumes fighting crime. These "super heroes" (as they quickly became known) were a great hit with comics' mostly young audience, and publishers quickly began turning out new titles, new stories, and new heroes to meet the demand. The first comic book stories were simplistic by modern standards, but also featured heroes with a surprisingly aggressive vigilante attitude. Golden Age heroes who willingly killed their foes, for example, might surprise fans familiar with the more "polished" heroes of the Silver Age.

During World War II, many comics told stories of heroes off to fight the Axis. Looking for things to do while deployed in the European and Pacific Theatres, many soldiers took up reading comic books, and the demand skyrocketed. Comics brought to post-war Japan by U.S. soldiers sparked the Japanese manga and anime industries. The Golden Age was the beginning of it all, the appearance of a new medium and new kind of mythology, the super-hero, or the so-called "mystery man." (The first super-woman appeared in 1941, with DC Comics' creation of Wonder Woman.)

Pulp Heroes

Some of the ancestors of the Golden Age comics were the pulp magazines of the 1920s and '30s, particularly pulp adventure stories featuring heroes with more-than-human abilities. Pulp heroes had many of the trappings of superheroes: unusual powers, code-names, masks, secret hideouts, and a bizarre rogues gallery of enemies. They helped inspire early comic book writers (many of whom also wrote for the pulps).

Mystery Men

The heroes of the Golden Age are often known as "mystery men" because they were originally shadowy vigilantes rather than the brightly clad heroes that appeared later. Certainly, the first costumed heroes to appear in public were mysterious; no one knew who they were, where they came from, or what they could do. Some believed stories about their super-human powers were just exaggerations; in some cases, they were right! Many Golden Age heroes used gadgetry and outright trickery to convince people they had strange powers. Generally, in the pre-war years of the Golden Age, heroes are mysterious and not entirely trusted by the authorities, who don't yet know what to make of them. By the start of World War II, the mystery men had begun to more closely resemble modern superheroes.

Golden Age heroes fall into certain broad categories. GMs may want to guide players to choose these types of heroes and use them as archetypes for Golden Age NPCs.

Avengers are crime-fighters at heart, two-fisted foes of injustice. They're often motivated by a desire for vengeance because of the loss of a loved one or some other wrong done to them. Others are bored playboys who find purpose in their costumed identities. However, they choose the high road and try to bring criminals to justice. Avengers typically operate at night, and rely on their fists and their athletic skills—sometimes along with a small array of gadgets—to get the job done.

Adventurers are explorers, scientists, and scholars by nature. They usually gain their powers from an encounter with unusual forces in some distant, exotic land. Adventurers tend to be intelligent and knowledgeable, although some are a little more shady and skilled in acquiring "antiquities" primarily by stealth. Adventurers are well traveled. Their abilities range from athletics and some skill in combat supplemented by their knowledge and experience, to unusual abilities or devices they've picked up in their travels.

Patriots are firm believers in their nation. Usually, they're average ordinary folk gifted with extraordinary abilities by fortunate circumstance (whether by accident or design). Patriots tend to be either extremely humble or more than a little loud-mouthed when it comes to their country being the best in the world. Either way, their dedication can't be questioned; they love their country and there's nothing they wouldn't do for it. Patriots tend to go in for costumes showing their patriotism (based on their homeland's flag, for example).

Gimmicks have a particular unique device, trick, or even origin that makes them what they are. Most gimmicks tend to be fairly ordinary apart from the one thing that gives them their powers. For example, a gimmick might be a blue-collar workman who found a magic lamp, or an ordinary kid able to transform into a powerful adult hero. Gimmicks tend to have a strong theme and stick with it, like the heroine who can see in the dark, with gadgets for blacking out an area so she has the advantage.

Godlike heroes possess tremendous power, usually magical or cosmic in nature. They may operate under certain restrictions that keep them from exercising their power freely, otherwise they tend to overshadow their mortal allies. Often godlike heroes have greater concerns than mere mortals. They may deal with equally godlike foes while their fellow heroes tackle the more mundane problems. Generally, godlike heroes are best kept as NPCs in a Golden Age game, unless all of the heroes are equally powerful (and face equally cosmic challenges). They're often treated as plot devices.

World War II

The central and defining event of the Golden Age of comics is the Second World War. Even before America's entry into the war, comic book heroes were fighting fascists and fifth columnists. Following the declaration of war, their prime adversaries were Nazi and Japanese super-soldiers (as well as the aforementioned fifth-columnists and saboteurs).

The presence of super-powered champions on both the Axis and Allied sides of the war usually accounts for the fact that the war follows much the same course as in our world. The usual assumption is Allied and Axis super-soldiers counter each other, so the war follows pretty close to the same course. You can always change this assumption in your own world, creating an alternate history or coming up with some other reason why superheroes don't change the course of the war.

The span from the beginning to the end of World War II (usually starting around the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor and the U.S. entry into the war) is an excellent period for a Golden Age Mutants & Masterminds campaign.

The Super-Gap

In the real world, superhero comics went into a decline after World War II, with things like monster, horror, and pirate comics becoming more popular. Many comic book universes choose to explain the general lack of superhero adventures in the 1950s as a reaction to the "Red Scare." For example, superheroes and masked vigilantes are often persecuted during the 1950s, accused of being communist sympathizers. This leads many of them to retire or go into hiding, or to go outside the law altogether.

You can come up with your own explanations for a "gap" in superhuman activity during this time. Perhaps an invasion of shape-shifting aliens leads to mistrust of superheroes, or even results in the deaths of many heroes and villains before the aliens are themselves defeated. Golden Age heroes may choose to retire and fade into obscurity over time. The cosmic tides allowing super-powers to exist may wax and wane in a twenty-year cycle, peaking in 1940, dropping off by 1950, only to peak again in 1960, and so forth. Generally, the mid- to late-1950s are regarded as the end of the Golden Age and the start of something new.

Next: We finish up this series with a look at one of the many different origins for super-powers covered in the world-building chapter of Mutants & Masterminds.