In the early fifties, Earth-952 diverged from the usual datum of alternate Earths sharply. Its transformation began when relationships between the United States and Soviet Union deteriorated to the point where a Third World War began. In May 1952, Yugoslavia's Marshal Tito was assassinated and the Soviet Union invaded it to restore 'order'. Despite hostility from US President Truman, Stalin  maintained the Soviet and Warsaw Pact occupation. At that point, the United States and Soviet Union declared war on one another. West Germany, Scandinavia and the Middle East were all soon under attack. Japan and South Korea were wholly evacuated. The USSR then wholly invaded Alaska, and began a series of nuclear attacks on London, Paris, Rome, Athens and Istanbul. In 1953, it was the turn of Washington, New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Norfolk endured the same devastating fate. A reciprocal nuclear attack hit Moscow and then NATO troops destroyed the Soviet nuclear arsenal in Siberia.  Thereafter, Warsaw Pact country uprisings began and then Laurenty Beria assassinated Stalin himself in 1954. He proved unable to keep the former Soviet Union from disintegrating. St. Petersburg became the post-communist Russian Republic capital. 

But there was something else. This Earth had a loose network of the world's greatest superheroes- Superman, Batman and Robin, Green Arrow and Speedy, Aquaman and Wonder Woman. How did they fare?

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METROPOLIS:

As Clark Kent opened the door, Lois Lane managed a weak smile and wave from the bed. His heart ached as he saw her, her hair now almost gone, her skin blotched and wrinkled, dentures in her mouth, skeletal beneath her hospital gown. She should have been safe, she should have been back home in Metropolis, which was a smaller urban centre and not targeted by the Reds. Instead of which, she was reporting from New York when the Russian miles hit it. Fortunately, Superman had been able to rescue her in time, but not before Lois was exposed to a cumulatively lethal amount of radiation from the explosion. When Phineas Potter broke the news, that was it.  Clark Kent took Lois aside and disclosed his secret identity to her. Then, he asked her to marry him. It was not under the circumstances that either would have wished, but she finally had her dream come true- except that it wasn't a dream anymore, it was occurring against the backdrop of a nightmare.

STAR CITY:

Green Arrow wondered whether he could endure any more heartache. He looked down at Roy's grave and swallowed. No, this was all wrong. In time, Roy should have succeeded him and continued to protect this city in his turn after he retired. He swallowed and turned to face the city before him. Star City wasn't the target of a nuclear attack, but with the collapse of its major product markets, businesses failed and the destruction and failure  of transport routes caused food shortages. It was a recipe for the collapse of civil authority and even Star City's habitual protector and his companion were hard-pressed to keep calm and stability. And then, one tragic day, Speedy threw himself in the path of a grenade, looted from the arsenal of a rebellious US Army base.   As he buried him, Oliver Queen heard the sound of gunfire and smelt the cordite fumes of burning buildings as his city of birth teetered on the edge of anarchy.  And then, wearily and dulled with pain and emptiness inside, Green Arrow got back into his Arrowcar and drove away, into the gathering darkness.

GOTHAM:

Batman and Robin looked at one another, wondering if this situation would ever deteriorate into what it was before the war, when enough time had passed.  But unexpectedly, Gotham was at peace and his 'rogue's gallery' had suspended hostilities with him to work for the common good.  Bruce had expected that from the Catwoman- at least she seemed to have some moral compass and principles of her own, and Selina hadn't disappointed him.  But  Harvey Dent accepted the offer of surgical  intervention and the end of his Two-Face identity. His dissociative disorder ended,  Dent took up his new role as the City Mayor. Edward Nigma's cryptographical skills proved useful in breaking Red countermeasure codes and Soviet spy rings, while Oswald Cobblepot  moved into the entertainment industry to keep up public morale.  There was only one unregenerate figure- the Joker, perhaps predictably.   However,  he was in Arkham and now, bereft of virtually all of its other erstwhile inhabitants, security held him prisoner, unable to wreak havoc on the outside world.   But this time was not without heartache of its own for the Caped Crusader.  Bette Kane (Bat-Girl) had died when New York had succumbed to nuclear destruction and Robin and Batwoman both mourned her death. Kathy took it particularly hard, and lapsed into alcoholism.  For a while, Batman worried about Robin, but given the resilience of youth, his companion soon rallied.  As Bruce and Selina drew closer, Batman wondered if his lonely nocturnal sojourns were soon to be ended. And then, one night, he proposed and she accepted. It turned out she had known his other secret all along, but had deliberately kept quiet about it.  It was  a bleak time to start a life together, but their bond was strong and it would endure through the turmoil of the succeeding years.

ATLANTIS:

Sadly, not all of the world's formerly greatest heroes survived this darkest of eras. In the depths of the Marianas Trench, Atlantis lay, shattered and silent, its historic crystalline spires and towers broken and ruined.  The decaying corpses of its dead inhabitants hung in the stagnant water above it. Amongst them was someone who had been a familiar figure to seafarers for decades beforehand. Although his skin had discoloured and his facial features had become sunken and dessicated, his clothing torn and drifting in the stillness, the corpse would still have been recognisable to those who had known him as Aquaman, Arthur Curry, King of the Seven Seas.  It was unknown who was responsible for the megaton nuclear device that had wiped out the civilisation of millennia, but regardless, the effect was the same.  It was dead now and its fate would remain undiscovered for centuries, if ever.

THEMISCYRA:

Queen Hippolyta worried about her daughter Diana. She had never really understood her Wonder Woman's  relationship with Steven Trevor, but enough memory remained about her own love for Theseus in the bygone Golden Age of humanity not to recognise the depth and propriety of Diana's grief for Steven, slain when Washington DC was subjected to nuclear immolation in her turn.  Brave, brave Steven had showed the fortitude and determination worthy of his love's own Amazon sisterhood and took a fighter jet aloft to prevent the communist offensive against his nation's capital. But valour and resolve cannot always compensate for malice and deadly intent, and so Washington DC perished.  Diana took her invisible plane aloft in order to protect the remaining cities of the East Coast. But the Soviet airforce had too many aircraft aloft and she was incapable of halting the carnage.  Thereafter, dazed and grieving, her daughter had abandoned Man's World, fleeing back to her intact, matriarchal paradise island. Hippolyta knew of the turmoil and anarchy of much of the outside world, but she also knew that while her daughter could make a difference to all that, she needed to heal her broken heart and dessicated soul, first. All she could do, for now, was to be there for her child.  

EPILOGUE:

Lost in their own complexities, their own personal tragedies and their own situations within a shattered America, would a league for justice and hope ever form on this Earth? Only time would tell.

THE END [3.50 PM, APRIL 17, 2024]