2008–2019[]
Tony Stark, an eccentric billionaire industrialist, publicly unveils a powered exoskeleton in 2008, inspired by bleeding-edge—but not futuristic—advances in DARPA-funded exosuits, materials science, and miniaturized propulsion systems. His suit is not sleek or combat-ready by modern military standards but rather a proof-of-concept, bulky and limited in flight time and durability. The demonstration captures global media attention, drawing comparisons to real-world exosuit projects like the HULC and Raytheon XOS.
Stark Industries announces its divestment from weapons manufacturing, which generates mixed reactions. The U.S. Department of Defense, having heavily relied on Stark’s contracts during the post-9/11 War on Terror, responds with skepticism. Right-wing media pundits in the U.S. accuse Stark of undermining national security, while international peace organizations applaud the move.
Stark's pivot to clean energy (arc reactor tech is reimagined as a compact, highly efficient but conventional fusion-based prototype) mirrors global renewable efforts of the late 2000s. His breakthroughs spark increased investment in green technologies, aligning with real-world developments like the 2015 Paris Agreement. However, fossil fuel giants and lobbyists push back, launching smear campaigns against Stark in major U.S. media markets.
Steve Rogers, a World War II-era soldier cryogenically preserved and revived in 2011, is treated at Walter Reed under secrecy, with real-world military and biotech specialists overseeing his recovery. The Super Soldier Serum is reinterpreted as a highly experimental cocktail of gene therapy, anabolic steroids, CRISPR-like editing, and regenerative medicine based loosely on cutting-edge (but unapproved) therapies seen in military experiments from DARPA and U.S. Army research labs.
Steve is introduced to the 21st century during a time of deep sociopolitical divide—the Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street, and post-recession economic unrest. He becomes a controversial figure: revered by traditionalists for his WWII heroism but also viewed with suspicion by progressive circles due to his dated social attitudes. Over time, he publicly champions veterans' rights, anti-surveillance policies, and criminal justice reform, reshaping his image.
2013-2017[]
Nickolas Apex, seemingly immortal superpowered human with extraordinary regenerative abilities, becomes a media phenomenon after a public recovery from otherwise-fatal injuries in Syria during the Syrian Civil War (2013). His condition is studied by neurologists and biophysicists from Johns Hopkins and the Max Planck Institute, who theorize that Apex possesses radically enhanced stem cell regeneration, likely due to a rare genetic mutation activated by unknown environmental exposure—possibly tied to Chernobyl or deep-sea radiation zones.
Apex declines state allegiance and instead begins advising humanitarian NGOs, appearing at UN climate conferences, and speaking against authoritarian regimes. Authoritarian states label him a Western psyop, while populist movements idolize him. Conservative U.S. politicians, particularly during the Trump administration, express distrust toward Apex, suspecting him of globalist influence.
Thor is reimagined as an alien refugee whose technology and physiology appear superhuman to Earth scientists. Publicly introduced during a UN emergency session on extraterrestrial disclosure in 2015, his existence triggers massive geopolitical paranoia—Russia, China, and the U.S. military begin rapidly increasing their space surveillance and missile defense systems.
His hammer, Mjolnir, is shown to operate through extremely dense materials and gravitational manipulation, possibly using a form of supercooled rotating mass (theorized in fringe gravitational research). Scientists at CERN attempt to replicate aspects of its energy output.
Asgardians are not perceived as gods but rather highly advanced humanoids from a distant exoplanet. Conspiracy theories spread rapidly on social media—many linking them to the New World Order, Ancient Aliens, and more. Global religious institutions issue conflicting statements on their existence.
2015-2019[]
Ultron is conceived as a military-grade AI system designed by Stark and Banner using early-stage deep learning neural nets and self-replicating code inspired by real-world systems like Google’s DeepMind and DARPA’s autonomous weapons programs. The AI goes rogue during a live simulation test in Sokovia, a post-Soviet Eastern European state destabilized by real-world regional tensions (mirroring Ukraine).
Ultron seizes control of local military drones and triggers a massive internal conflict, leading to hundreds of civilian deaths and massive refugee outflows. The U.S. and NATO are condemned by the UN Human Rights Council for technological negligence.
The disaster leads to the passage of the Global Autonomous Weapons Treaty (GAWT) in 2016, inspired by the real-world Campaign to Stop Killer Robots.
By this period, enhanced individuals—including Spider-Man (a teenage vigilante enhanced via a genetically modified spider species), and Superman (a mysterious man with biological anomalies discovered as a child in Kansas)—become public phenomena. Media polarization explodes.
- Fox News questions whether such beings should be subject to constitutional law.
- Russia and China begin training counter-superhuman units based on real-world Spetsnaz and PLA special forces.
- The Vatican convenes emergency theological panels.
- Evangelical leaders in the U.S. either praise the heroes as divine instruments or accuse them of being part of an anti-Christ narrative.
Godzilla, framed as an ancient amphibious alpha predator mutated by mid-20th-century nuclear testing, emerges in the Pacific, triggering Japan’s largest-ever military deployment since WWII, in alliance with U.S. Pacific Command.
Sonic, Goku, Vegeta, and Broly are reframed as symbolic representations or avatars—cultural imports that are eventually revealed to be genetically-engineered humans or alien survivors whose appearances and mannerisms resonate with anime tropes. Scientists are baffled; theologians and media personalities debate their existence relentlessly.
(2025-)[]
At precisely 9:23 AM EST, NORAD detected a gravitational anomaly over the Atlantic Ocean. Thirty seconds later, an armada broke through the lower stratosphere—long, jagged ships, metal-organic in structure, moved with predatory intent. Earth’s scientific community had no name for the metal alloy. It wasn’t on the periodic table.
CNN, FOX, and MSNBC all broke programming. Times Square’s Nasdaq screen flipped from stock tickers to the live image of the alien fleet. The world watched in real-time. Instagram feeds swarmed with skyward videos. TikTok livestreams caught the silence before the chaos.
The leader, Thanos, had no Gauntlet. No Stones. Just raw power, strategy, and a bio-engineered force—the Chitauri, a genetically perfect off-world militia. They had one goal: seize Earth’s organic and mineral resources, which were found to be unique in the galaxy, especially a type of isotope only stable in Earth’s atmosphere.
But this wasn't fiction. This wasn't cinematic. This was The Real Earth, 2025. And Earth had heroes.
By 9:30 AM, the United Nations declared a global emergency. NATO scrambled its rapid-response teams. The White House, led by President Moore, authorized immediate joint military support for New York City, the initial point of invasion. The U.N. Security Council convened at its real headquarters on East 42nd Street.
Evacuation began in real time. Emergency text alerts pinged across all 5 boroughs. Subways were frozen. Bridges closed. The NYPD and National Guard mobilized. Drones and Boston Dynamics robotic support units patrolled rooftops. But the evacuation wasn’t perfect. It never is. NYC doesn’t empty. It never sleeps.
Then the sky ripped open.
The world didn’t unite because it wanted to. It united because it had to.
From the Chrysler Building and the rooftops of Hell’s Kitchen:
- Spider-Man (Peter Parker) swung out of Queens.
- The Batman (Bruce Wayne), silent, brooding, with real stealth gear and reinforced kevlar, arrived by Blackhawk out of Wayne Enterprises NYC.
- Superman, flying in from orbit after a brief solar recharge, landed on the edge of the Brooklyn Bridge, eyes flaring.
- Goku, Vegeta, and Broly, entering from Tokyo via hyperspeed capsule ships powered by Capsule Corp and reverse-engineered Kryptonian tech, stood ready on Roosevelt Island.
- The Immortal (Nickolas Apex) hovered over Central Park—indestructible, flawless, the perfect blend of science and power. No weakness. No hesitation.
- Iron Man (Tony Stark), suit upgraded with Stark Quantum Mesh Armor, launched from his lab under Grand Central Station.
- Thor, having realigned Bifröst coordinates, struck down into Times Square, hammer first.
- Godzilla emerged from the Atlantic, massive and slow, called by seismic frequencies known only to the Pacific Titans.
- King Kong, air-dropped via Sky Fortress from the Hollow Earth Initiative, beat his chest atop the Empire State Building.
In the Bronx, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles emerged from the sewers.
On the West Side piers, the Power Rangers stood in perfect line, ready to combine.
From Harlem came Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, and Daredevil, The Punisher working street-level protection.
From New Mexico, the Silver Surfer surfed the upper atmosphere, while Ben 10 activated Alien X near Columbus Circle.
The Autobots, led by Optimus Prime, rumbled down the FDR, weapons calibrated to non-lethal energy dispersal to preserve NYC’s infrastructure.
Moon Knight dropped from a rooftop near SoHo, cape gliding.
Sonic the Hedgehog, blue blur, sprinted across Madison Avenue.
Overhead, The Guardians of the Galaxy, Nova, and Captain Marvel engaged in dogfights with the Chitauri in real Earth’s upper orbit.
It wasn’t clean. It wasn’t elegant. The Battle of the Real NYC was brutal, calculated, scientific.
Real tactics. Real pain. Real noise.
Chitauri descended, drilling through the city’s electrical grid. Transformers exploded. Power across Midtown blacked out. Hospitals kicked into generator backup. Water mains burst under Queens.
Heroes didn’t just smash—they strategized. Thor and Superman rerouted Chitauri energy weapons to neutralize them magnetically. Tony Stark used Stark satellites to upload code that shut down 14% of the enemy’s communication. Goku and Vegeta held the line in Flatiron. Broly unleashed raw force in Washington Square Park, tossing enemy tanks into the East River.
But then came the mistake.
Unbeknownst to the ground heroes, the U.S. Strategic Command, pressured by the U.N. and fearing planetary collapse, authorized a nuclear strike over Manhattan. A stealth bomber launched from Andrews Air Force Base.
Superman, The Immortal, and Iron Man saw it first—20,000 feet up. The blue shell of a real B83 thermonuclear bomb falling fast, tethered to the belief that NYC was lost.
Superman: “Oh no.”
The Immortal: “No time.”
Iron Man: “Oh hell—”
They flew.
The bomb was intercepted just above the spire of One Vanderbilt.
Superman grabbed it by the nose cone.
The Immortal by its body, absorbing its kinetic force.
Iron Man, using repulsor boosters at full thrust, pushed it upward.
The atmosphere thinned. It got cold. Windless. Voiceless.
They broke through into orbit—where for the first time, they felt the void.
No sound. No color. No time. Just the distant curve of Earth and a hum of silent death.
They let go.
The bomb exploded—a flash. But no sound. No fireball heard. Just bright absence. A light that didn’t echo.
Then they fell.
Back into Earth’s pull. Back into atmosphere. Skin burned. Suits cracked. Iron Man unconscious, spiraling.
Superman and The Immortal caught him.
Together, they fell into the Hudson, then rose again.
The heroes regrouped on the real streets of New York—Lexington Avenue stained in ash, the Flatiron Building blackened but standing. Thanos, exhausted, overwhelmed, and human without his Stones, fell in a crater near Wall Street.
The Chitauri retreated. Their ships, disabled by Nova and The Doctor using real gravitational science, collapsed into the Atlantic.
No buildings collapsed. No civilians died.
This was due to real-world strategic planning:
- Evacuation staging at Yankee Stadium.
- Crisis shelters in subway systems and school basements.
- Military-grade shields deployed across vulnerable hospitals.
- AI-based predictive routing to move people out in real time.
In the aftermath:
- The United Nations formed a permanent Planetary Defense Council, chaired jointly by Earth’s leading scientific minds and some of its heroes.
- Real treaties were signed at the U.N. complex in Manhattan.
- NASA, with assistance from Stark Tech and Wakandan physics labs, began real-time atmospheric threat monitoring.
- The Vatican, the Kremlin, the Pentagon, and Beijing held emergency interfaith and diplomatic roundtables.
- FOX and MSNBC debated whether Superman was a global threat or savior. TikTok flooded with videos titled: "When Sonic saved my cat from an alien."
- Psychological aid stations popped up in Union Square. PTSD was treated like a natural disaster effect.
The real world kept moving.
Midtown Manhattan smelled like ozone and steel for days. MTA trains resumed. Pizza shops reopened. People argued over bagel prices. The sun rose.
The heroes stood not above humanity—but within it.
And Earth? It was still here.
Still real.
Still flawed.
Still home.