Operation Eagle
Historically speaking, the "Super-Patriot" project of the late thirties achieved a significant rate of success. Code-named Operation Eagle, contemporary records estimated that over 70 percent of military test subjects were endowed with enhanced physiques and superhuman endurance.
Variants of the original formula were simultaneously developed by the private sector, ostensibly to provide the home front with a virtually indestructible National Guard in the event that the Axis powers attempted to invade American soil.
These variant formulas were administered to civilian volunteers; mainly police officers, state troopers and similar law enforcement officials. Although the programs were classified top secret, it is known that at least seven hundred experiments were performed across the United States between 1938 and 1941.
The result was a proliferation of 'Chemical Warriors' entering the war effort as special operatives. Others remained behind to protect the home front from spies and saboteurs, frequently dubbed 'Mystery Men' by the local press. Judging by the propaganda of the period, Operation Eagle was an unqualified success, at least in the eyes of the American public.
The Supreme Sanction[edit]
Unfortunately, it was soon discovered that the variant formulas had unexpected - and sometimes tragic - side effects. Test subjects often experienced increasing levels of paranoia, lapsing into extreme violence and insanity within four to five years. This wasn't a major issue during the war, as their rage could be directed towards the enemy, and most of the super-patriots worked solo missions behind enemy lines.
However, this mental instability caused serious problems after the war, as most of the super-soldiers could not be safely reintegrated into the civilian population. The less powerful ones were institutionalized in secure facilities, where they usually died within a few months, but the more dangerous renegades had to be hunted down and euthanized to protect the public. The affair was covered up in the interests of 'national security,' and all knowledge of Operation Eagle was buried in classified documentation by 1951.
It was during this time that costumed vigilantes seemed to vanish from the headlines, as all of them had been marked for termination - even those who had no connection with the Super-Patriot Program. The government was taking no risks - unauthorized versions of the serum had been synthesized, and anyone wearing a costume could be a potential 'loose cannon'. Many former heroes disappeared during The Sanction, betrayed by the country they'd fought to protect only a few years before.
Only a handful of super-patriots managed to survive; a small number of vigilantes who had gone underground in the late 40s. Unlike their dangerously unstable comrades, this group had suffered no psychological damage, retaining both their powers and their sanity. Being highly intelligent and superhumanly powerful, they managed evade their trackers during The Sanction, adopting new identities and blending into the general population (as they'd been trained to do during the war).
However, with the advent of the Cold War, the last of the Super-Patriots find themselves on the run once more. The Soviets had started producing their own 'Chemical Warriors', and they wanted to analyze the source of the variant formula.
The survivors were now forced to defend themselves against a vicious two-pronged attack: the US Government wanted them dead and the Soviets want them alive ... and only time could tell who would survive The Supreme Sanction.