Two decades have passed since an android named Absolute murders the heroes responsible for helping the Allies win World War II: the Protectors of Earth. But as time passes, the world forgets its heroes, and their stories are washed down and told through comics marketed toward young adults. But in 1963, more are born.
Tim Roses, a senior in high school with anger issues, is given a chance to see himself as a hero by the Children of the Sun and become the Ultimate Man. But even with the support of his comic nerd friend Nate Gold and his father, does he have the power to forgive himself for his mother's death and see himself as a good person?
Cayson Sapp, a recently fired test pilot with a snarky attitude, is given the chance to show others that he can be a hero after a knight from the Middle Ages tells him that he is the next Merlin. Accepting the offer to protect the world almost instantly, he will prove to the people around him that he is worth something. But he must face the trauma of his past before doing so.
Lauren Kyles, the daughter of a supervillain, learns of her father's past after his death. But before she can process the horrible acts of her father, she is forced to redeem his moniker, the Fowl. But she refuses to do so after dedicating her life to looking after him. But that leads her to the front lines of a war between a secret government organization and her brother's company.
Donald Cooper, a man who has trained most of his life to help people, is finally given a chance to help fight crime in his city. Equipped with his bow and arrow, he joins a team filled with villains who follow the orders of a crooked sheriff.
After the team kills someone close to Donald, he turns his back on the city's police force, who once cared for him. Knowing he must stop them, he joins forces with another metahuman with dark morals to stop the sheriff before he finds Absolute.
And as these stories end, another forces them to stop an alien invasion to wipe out their kind from a demented king. But will these young heroes be able to follow in the footsteps of the ones who come before them?