From the War to the 60s

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Following WWII, the number of superhumans increased worldwide at what some considered an alarming rate. This was due not only to the constant rise in the mutant population, but also to the emergence of magic-based superheroes and villains, as well as technology slowly reaching the level where it could replicate superpowers. This caused some concern, as it was felt that greater degrees of oversight would be needed to handle the influx of metahumans.

The 1950s saw the creation of metahuman-handling agencies through most of the industrialized world. Of particular note were the United Nations' Bureau of Super-powered Affairs, and the USA's Federal Metahuman Administration Board. Like most such agencies, the FMAB requires every super-powered individual to register (though they are more than willing to hide secret identities from the media), and offers a stipend to superheroes who need it.

During the 1960s, as the Cold War raged on, a few agents of the CIA and KGB met up to discuss a common concern: It was their shared opinion that the conflict between the Western and Eastern blocs was missing the truly important matter - the conflict between humans and superhumans. It was their belief that, left to their own devices, the metahumans would one day enslave humanity - and that as such, they had to be enslaved first. From that meeting, was born the organization Shadow - though this information would only be discovered many years later.

A vast international conspiracy, Shadow used its ideology of human vs metahuman conflict as an excuse for secret power-grabs and manipulations. Over the years, it became a powerful force, having deeply infiltrated every side of the Cold War. It is strongly suspected that they influenced many of China's policies at that time, resulting in conflicts between the Chinese government and its metahuman population (which resulted in the deaths of many, many Chinese metahumans).