He doesn’t land; he always floats a few feet above me, looking down on me. Looking down on all humanity, for all I can see.

The first superhero and, for many, the symbol of America, Paradigm has flown the skies since the early 1940s. Created in the heart of an atomic explosion, his every cell is powered by strange radiation that renders him eternally young, resistant to almost every form of harm, and capable of amazing feats of strength.

He’s also the most hated enemy of Roosevelt Pythagoras, which puts him at the center of the conflict that unfolds as that supervillain is released from prison.

Birth in Fire

Steve Siegel enlisted in the military shortly after America officially joined World War II, determined to do his part to keep a tyrant like Adolf Hitler from ruling the world. He expected to wind up on the front lines in Europe, and was deeply dismayed when he was instead assigned to security in a remote scientific test site. That test site, however, was part of the Manhattan Project that would ultimately change the world.

The goal behind the Manhattan Project was to create a weapon capable of ending the war with a single detonation, but it panned out quite differently. During the fateful first test of the atomic bomb, Siegel uncovered a spy on the base and gave chase. The pair wound up on the testing grounds, where the spy drew a gun on Siegel and was promptly shot down. Urged on by Solomon Krenzler, the mind behind the bomb who had pursued the pair onto the field, Siegel tried to get back to the bunker before the bomb went off.

He failed.

Much to everyone’s surprise, the resulting explosion killed neither Siegel nor Krenzler. However, it transformed them both, creating the first modern day super-beings.

World War II and the Cold War

Once transformed, Steve Siegel ceased to exist officially. He donned a mask, hiding his civilian identity, and became the American Paradigm. Gifted with amazing powers, the American Paradigm single-handedly ended World War II. His attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki proved the power that America’s new super soldier possessed, ending the war with the same ruthless efficiency that the atomic bomb was supposed to deliver.

During the following decades, the American Paradigm strove to separate himself from military affairs, concentrating on being a role model and crime fighter. He made regular public appearances and patrolled the streets by night, having been deputized to make arrests on behalf of law enforcement. His public persona made him a target of many, and none took harder shots that Senator Joe McCarthy.

From the end of the war and into the 1950s, McCarthy pursued an anti-communist agenda that called into question the loyalties of virtually every public figure in the country. When the American Paradigm criticized the senator for spreading fear and doubt through the country, it sparked a rivalry that would dominated political discourse for years. McCarthy targeted the superhero, calling into question his identity and claiming that a man who wore a mask could not be trusted, even if he had the sanction of the American government.

In the end, McCarthy’s obsession with the American Paradigm proved his undoing. Despite the paranoia that McCarthy had created, the superhero who had single-handedly won World War II was untouchable in the court of public opinion. While the American Paradigm did state that he would appear before Congress and even remove his mask if subpoenaed, it never got that far. McCarthy lost his 1952 re-election by a landslide, with voter siding overwhelmingly with the American Paradigm.

The public battle did leave a lasting impression on the superhero, though. In his words, “America’s leadership can change, and sometimes that leads us away from the just path. Right and wrong, however, never change.” In 1953, he changed his code name to Paradigm and began to focus on broader world affairs, hoping to present himself as a citizen of the world.

On His Own

For decades, Paradigm served as a founding member of the League of Liberty, a superhero group that acted with the sanction of the United Nations. That came to an end when Roosevelt Pythagoras infected the League with mind-controlling nanobots. While the plot was foiled within a matter of days, the damage left took years to resolve. After the mind-controlled heroes acted as major criminal threats, the public lost faith in them. The League of Liberty was disbanded, and Paradigm went back to fighting crime on his own.

He did occasionally team up with other heroes, and succeeded in finally capturing Pythagoras with the aid of Captain Tomorrow and Miss Destiny. However, the rift in the superhero community has lasted even with Pythagoras jailed for half a decade. Paradigm has grown more withdrawn in public lately, and his feelings of isolation even among heroes who have grown up idolizing him seems to be growing.

Do Paradigm’s feelings foreshadow some new danger on the horizon? Or is the threat more personal? What happens when the man who put the superhero community on edge gets out of prison? Find out the answer to these and more by reading Meddling Heroes!