Following the Hero Resistration Act of 1976, city officials have carefully monitored the number of superheroes in Paragon, at times regulating and even restricting their number, for fear of "devaluing" the thug market with too many heroes. Ever since the disillusion of the Do-Gooders Guild in the mid 1980's after a corruption scandal, supergroups were widely discouraged, and slowly were being phased out by grim "lone wolf" vigilantes, and platonic duos.
Still, heroes themselves flourished like never before, that is until the Rikti Invasion of 2002. After the invasion was thwarted, countless heroes perished, and nearly all the major super groups, Freedom Phalanx, the Midnight Squad and the Dawn Patrol, were crippled or devastated.
With most of the established veteran heroes gone, Paragon has depended on a new breed of inexperienced heroes to fill the void. Obviously, the 2003 statistics on the number of Paragon heroes took a staggering drop after the deaths of hundreds, if not thousands, during the Rikti attacks. But more disturbing is that this year�s numbers are even lower.
City officials attribute the disturbing decline of do-gooders to several possible explanations. Some Paragon heroes have moved on to other places to help fight crime elsewhere, while a number of crime fighters have left the trade entirely or retired because of the horrors of the invasion. One deputy recruiter in MAGI also suggests that some heroes are actually vanishing without explanation, perhaps being imprisoned for some twisted purposes, or even turning to super villainy themselves.
Meanwhile, the new registered super groups are springing up, as Back Street Brawler puts it: �like daisies on a grave�. While few question the motives and intentions of these neophyte groups, such as the Freedom Squad and the United Federation of Heroics, many are pessimistic that such amateur groups can really make a dent in the ever-growing tide of crime that plagues every corner of Paragon City.
-article written by staff reporter, Gary Grinswythe, and appeared in the Paragon City Bargain Coupon Clipper on April 2, 2004.
