Earth-1136

Homeworld of the Protectors. In 1938, The Clock was the first costumed vigilante to emerge in this reality, followed soon afterward by Night Mask, who was himself inspired by the Clock. Both were non-powered heroes who used firearms, wits, and martial arts (and sometimes alliance with other masked adventurers) to fight crime. In 1939, the Amazing-Man was the first super-powered hero, called a "supranormal", and other supranormals followed shortly thereafter: Gravestone at the New York World Fair, and then the Eternal Man and Iron Skull, along with a huge disembodied eye nicknamed The Eye. As the United States entered World War II, The Clock and Night Mask concluded that their skills were no longer needed, and enlisted to fight in World War II, forfeiting their costumed identities.^[1] Costumed heroine Miss Fury, on the other hand, remained active in the States during the war,^[2] while the battlefields saw a rocket pack-endowed adventurer Rocket Ranger, fighting the Nazis.^[3] Suprahumans were active after the war, mostly as independent adventures but in some cases working directly for the government like the war veteran Chalice - who volunteered for government crionization in 1959, and remained frozen until the 1990s.^[4]

During the following decades, the so-called supranormals remained a stable presence, while small in number; until in 1979 when a new proliferation began, starting when Man of War appeared during the Iran hostage crisis; followed by Mighty Man, the Witch, Airman and the Shark; but also including supranormals with more aggressive, less heroic stances, especially the Arrow and the Ferret; and more female supranormals like Aura and Arc - and, of course, a proliferation of evil supranormals that were confronted by them, frequently as vigilantes without any legal authority.^[1]

However on July 4, 1986, a battle between most known supranormals in the small hamlet of Brinkston, Virginia left the town a smoldering crater; the villains and hundred of locals disappeared mysteriously.^[1] Although not the heroes' fault,^[5] the world believed them to be responsible, and the government forced the heroes to retire.^[6] Under social pressure, they accepted self-exile, Man of War being the last to leave with a press conference where he expressed regret and vowed to return should the American people needed him again.^[1] For more than five years, no supranormal was publicly seen,^[6] although human costumed adventurers did appear, including Miss Fury^[7] (who was the granddaughter of the World War II-era heroine of the same name^[2]).

Around this time, Cuban prime minister Fidel Castro was assassinated by forces unknown. The United States sent Marines to ensure a favorable transition and, while the soldiers had considerable losses, they succeeded in ending the Communism in the country and turning it anew into a de facto colony of the United States, prone with gambling, drugs and vice.^[8]

In 1988, independent candidate Brian O'Brien (secretly the retired adventurer the Clock) was elected President of the United States. O'Brien recruited Philip Reinhart (secretly Night Mask) to head a secret program, Project: Golden Age, within the Pentagon budget, to track and watch retired supranormals, in case they'd be needed again. If they were needed, the White House (not the military) would form a sanctioned squadron. Reinhart manipulated several of the supranormals to move to the Washington, D.C. area so he could keep a closer watch on them.^[1]

In 1991^[9] or 1992,^[10] attacks by Mr. Monday and the Steel Army in Washington, D.C. prompted President Brian O'Brien to launch Project: Golden Age and bring the supranormal heroes back into active duty as The Protectors.^[6] Arrow was systematically rejected because he had used lethal force in his previous adventures, and was unwilling to change his ways.^[10] Still, Senator John Fraley, Chairman of the Domestic Affairs Committee,^[6] became a vocal political opponent of the suprahumans, lobbying to revoke the President's decision and instead favoring traditional, more controllable forces like the Covert Command Authority.^[11]

Based in the docked destroyer U.S.S. Jefferson, publicly led by Man of War and indirectly led by Philip Reinhart,^[6] the Protectors faced some tough hurdles at first including the death of Reinhart's son Richard. Regardless, the Protectors persevered and defeated Mr. Monday,^[12] although they were still unaware that the villain Great Question was secretly the power behind Monday and the Steel Army; the Eye, however, was monitoring the Question.^[10] During this time, several of the Protectors led their own solo adventures by their own initiative, especially Airman^[13] Ferret^[14] and Gravestone,^[15] with Man of War being sent on solitary missions by the government.^[16]

The Eternal Man found a dimensional doorway in the area of Brinkston, allowing the Protectors to go to a another dimension where they discovered the Brinkstoners alive, although enslaved by the supranormal villian Wisecrack; the Protectors managed to rescue only one Brinkstoner when they came back.^[10] After several more missions, including one where solo adventurer Widowmaker stole information from the Protectors' computers,^[17] the Protectors, especially Reinhart, suspected the Protectors had been compromised by an undercover agent.^[10] When the Cat Pack kidnapped the President's grandson, the President accepted Miss Fury's help, and even gave her the leadership of the Protectors. After the rescue, Fury rejected full membership in the team.^[10]

Extra-dimensional conqueror Extreme attacked Earth-1136 in an attempt to add it to his domains, also meddling with Earth-29245 (in 2055 AD) and Earth-88469. Extreme was defeated, but several dinosaur-like mercenaries from Earth-88469 were accidentally transported to Earth-1136, along with many mutants from Earth-29245 and six "mutated mutants" who were technically humans; and Earth-1136 Los Angeles was merged with a mutant city from Earth-29245, Sluggtown. The Protectors were rearranged, with some of the Earth-29245 "Ex-Mutants" joining their ranks, others leaving the team to keep a watch on the mutant-infested Los Angeles area, and a new leader being assigned.^[18] Criminal charges were filed against the heroes for their actions during Extreme's attack, but were eventually dismissed.^[19]

• Protectors
  • Airman (Drake Stevens)
  • Amazing Man (John Aman)
  • Arc (Brandee Douglas)
  • Aura (Morgan DuBay)
  • The Ferret (Cal Denton)
  • Gravestone
  • Man of War (Clay Carter)
  • Mighty Man (Scott Pearson)
  • Nightmask (Richard Reinhart)
  • Nightmask (Marcia Beckworth)
  • Witch (Andrea Nastrova)
  • Zardi the Eternal Man
• The Clock (Brian O'Brien)
• The Arrow (Rick Parker)

• The Earth-1136 reality is the Malibu Comics reality based on (or partly based on) characters from Golden Age Centaur Publications titles, and some from Ace Comics. ^[20]
  • It is also known as the Protectors Universe (after its flagship title) and the Genesis Universe (after a crossover that brought in Ex-Mutants (Vol 2) and Dinosaurs for Hire (Vol 2) into this universe).
• The first appareace of a Protector character was of The Clock in Funny Pages#6 (1936) by Centaur Publications, The background and adventures of The Clock (a playboy turned a vengeful vigilante) was keept intact . The name given to the character (Brian O'Brian ) in Feature Funnies vol.1 10 (published by Quality comics) and his base of operations on New York, were also kept, showing that the stories of The Clock in Quality comics were also considered. ^[21]

• Malibu Comics used several characters from early comic book publisher Centaur Publications (1938-1942), who had fallen into public domain by then, specifically Airman, Amazing Man, Arrow, The Clock, The Eye, the Eternal Man, Ferret, Iron Skull, Man of War, Mighty Man and the Witch (a Mighty Man villain). The Fantom of the Fair or Fantoman was renamed Gravestone, the Masked Marvel was renamed Night Mask, Blue Lady was renamed Midnight Blue, and the Shark was renamed Thresher (although there were a few mentions to a suprahuman named the Shark). The stories of the Centaur characters were sometimes adapted (such as Man of War's origin happening in the 1970s so that he was not an elderly in the 1990s) or expanded (such as Night Mask/Masked Marvel receiving a secret identity, Philip Reinhart, even if the original Golden Age stories had never given his real name). A previous encounter between Amazing Man and the First Question was retold in a flashback, with a footnote referencing it as the first Amazing Man's story in the Golden Age.(In reality it was the second story in Amazing man vol 1 6)
• The villain The Conqueror was adapted from Centaur vilain of the same name, enemy of Dean Denton, appearing Keen Detective Funnies vol.1 11. His name and background was changed, but his use of the red color was keeped. The villain Wisecrack was revamped from the Golden Age villain "Clown" from Ace Comics, who appeared first in Super Mystery Comics vol 1 5. The early plans for this villain was to keep the orginal name and use an appearence more closely to the original.^{[22] [23]}
• Although primarily made up of revamped Centaur Comics characters, Earth-1136 also counts other non-Centaur Comics characters as its inhabitants, such as Miss Fury,^[7][24][25] Rocket Ranger,^[26][27][28], a version of the indie vigilantes Cat & Mouse,^[29] and the Malibu Comics versions of Capcom's Street Fighter characters.^[30] Miss Fury was based on the Golden Age heroine (showing a granddaughter of the original heroine) and Rocket Ranger was licensed from the computer game, but they also came from Malibu's Adventure Comics line. Meanwhile , Cat and Mouse came from Aircel comics and the independendent publisher Silverline (their appearance in the Genesis universe is reduced to a cameo in a only issue and is in direct conflict with the continuity in the Silverline Universe)-^{[31][32][33][34]}
• Some people believe that the Genesis crossover merged the worlds of the Protectors, Ex-Mutants, and Dinosaurs For Hire into one world^[35][36]. While true in a way, in Dinosaurs For Hire #8 and 9, it's made very clear that the Dinosaurs' Earth was a different universe than the Protectors' (later designated as Earth-88469), and that after Genesis was over, the Dinosaurs still know they've traveled to a different universe with a different history from their own. In Protectors #13, it's mentioned that Sluggtown was transported from the Ex-Mutants' universe to the Protectors' when Los Angeles was destroyed during the battle with Extreme.
• The Genesis-era Dinosaurs for Hire issues sometimes showed or mentioned how different Earth-1136 is from Earth-88469 (and the real world), though sometimes contradicting itself for comedic reasons. These differences include:
  • Bill Clinton not being President (which, combined with the years given in Protectors, implied that Brian O'Brien was President during George Bush and Clinton's terms)^[37][1]
  • Mario Cuomo (who was governor of New York at the time these comics were published) was shown to be a fast food cashier on Earth-1136 instead^[37]
  • Ivana Trump is now mayor of New Jersey,^[38] even though Archie claimed there was no Ivana on Earth-1136 previously.^[37]

• People with powers in this universe are called "supranormals" ("supras' for short).^[7] Those supranormals who try to protect the innocent and fight crime are called "supra-heroes".^[39] Aliens are called "ultra-terrestrials".^[40]