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| Image credit: Greg McFall (NOAA's National Ocean Service) |
The penultimate universe I’ll discuss for this series doesn’t have a name,
because there isn’t a strong enough defining characteristic. Yes, all
relevant stories are about a group of superheroes, who fight against a group
of supervillains, but there are many branes like that. The first of the
heroes came about in the early 1980s. Her work was relatively shortlived,
and her only responsibility was to go against regular criminals. Her
decision to become the first would fuel the heroes of tomorrow, and also the
villains, who were at first, pretending to be heroes. She basically became
an excuse for people to dress up in costumes, conceal their identities, and
operate outside of the law. People didn’t know what to think when Sea
Goddess showed up on the scene in her colorful frilly outfit, and started
fighting crime. They didn’t have the concept of a superhero. Comic books
were predominantly about angsty teens, and exceptional athletes. They had
heard of vigilantes, though, and they knew that what she was doing was
against the law. Still, she seemed to be trying to do some good, so law
enforcement just kind of stayed out of her way. They didn’t help her, but
they didn’t actively try to apprehend her. It became an unwritten rule that
if a cop happened across her that they look the other way, and act like it
didn’t happen. Sea Goddess’ real name was Shanti Gideon, and she didn’t have
some sad story about why she wanted to clean up the streets. She won a
somewhat modest amount of money in the lottery, which allowed her to quit
her boring job, and now she didn’t have anything better to do. Superheroing
passed the time, and gave her purpose, and most people seemed to appreciate
it. Obviously, not everyone.
Sea Goddess named herself for a species of underwater creatures called
nudibranchs. She took on characteristics of the animal, primarily by
wielding harsh chemicals. One of the chemicals put her victims to sleep,
while another just tasted bad, and overwhelmed them to the point where they
couldn’t fight anymore. She did have one lethal poison that she only used
once as a last resort, and it was her final mission before she disappeared.
No one knew what happened to her after that. Some believed that she was
murdered in retaliation for the mobster that she killed when she was backed
into a corner. Others thought that she was always part of some rival gang,
and was reassigned to somewhere else. Most people rightly assumed that she
retired, having regretted taking a life, and not being able to make up for
it. Instead, she dedicated herself to helping others in more traditional
ways, by donating to charity, and volunteering. Her identity was never at
risk, and she told no one the truth about who she had been. The police
reluctantly pursued the mobster’s killer, but came up with no leads, and
eventually just let it turn into a cold case. Even if they thought she
deserved to be locked up, no one wanted to be the cop who actually did it.
Her legacy lived on after this, but it would be decades before anyone truly
followed in her footsteps. A support group for people who had been
traumatized, and were now lost in the world, was designed with levels. You
level up, you learn more about the organization. The middle levels revealed
it to be a source of recruitment for superheroes, but the higher levels
revealed that it was actually a front for criminals. Upon realizing this,
real superheroes had to rise up, and do everything they could to stop them.
Once they did, however it wasn’t like their job was over. New threats came
along, and perhaps Sea Goddess would have to come out of hiding.
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