assault

Warning, this is a news item, so it contains irrelevant material. The first third is relevant to this topic. "There's a giant, blind cockroach, and it doesn't run away like normal cockroaches. There's a gigantic blind cave spider." Beneath the plains of the Nullarbor lies an underground world formed over millions of years

For the campaigning stuff, I'd have a good look at the original Strike Force. Probably Champions II as well.

With some serious rewriting.

Discovery of pottery rewrites Aboriginal history

How about a True Name type system?

As always, what special effect do you want?

With Superboy, you could go back to the 1945 version, where leaping over a barn or outrunning a deer were amazing feats. He was weaker than the 1938 version of his adult self. Even the world's greatest superhero has to begin somewhere... The Smallville TV version is a more modern (and powerful) take. I thought about the Marvel family, but omitted them to keep things short. Still, Captain Marvel, Captain Marvel Jnr and Mary Marvel are all potential teen heroes. I skipped the Legion, because they are such radical outliers. Still, there were enough stories where individual members came back in time and did things, that they could be used as a source. In the first appearance of Ultra Boy, he only had (used?) his vision powers. His full power set wasn't mentioned until his second(?) appearance. The result was Cyclops with X-ray and telescopic vision. (And a flight gizmo, because the Legion.) Perfectly fine.

Some of the derivative characters that we think of as sidekicks appeared more often in solo stories than teamed up with their supposed mentor. Kid Flash is a good example. Supergirl is another. The biggest of the independent, although derivative, teen heroes was, of course, Superboy.

A lot of the problem is that the party of business as usual (Democrats) doesn't have answers for the problems business as usual caused. Even the re-emergence of a business as usual Republican party wouldn't help. They were part of the problem too. Something has to change - but the response to Bernie Sanders showed the obstacles to that. Even if they wanted to, Biden and Co. are incapable of the kind of reforms that could undercut the lunatic right. There is no way to genuinely make America great again. With options to the left precluded, only rightist options are available. --- Please ignore the following. I'm just being mad. The best way to restore the viability of capitalism as a whole would be to have a Really Big War. Nuclear war is still bad though. A war with China might work, but is risky. A war between Russia and the EU (with the US somehow staying out of it!) might be preferable. (Who cares if some Poles and Germans get nuked!) Then the US can swoop in to rebuild the European economies, with their competitors eliminated. So, yeah, the US needs to withdraw from NATO. This is sufficiently idiotic that it would take a Trump to do it. That's how to Make America Great Again. It's OK, I'm taking my pills now...

Is it coincidental that Aaron Allston wrote GAZ1 - The Grand Duchy of Karameikos Gazetteer? Just curious. 😉

Exactly these characters.

Have you got Golden Age Champions? I think there's at least one in there. The British guy in the Expatriates supervillain group maybe? My copy is in a pile somewhere at the moment, so I can't check.

According to ancient Greek pottery, speedos weren't a thing. Shield and helmet. That's what you need.

After some Googling: bronze chain mail did exist, and was both probably the earliest form and definitely used later. It was a derivative of scale armour. Obviously iron/steel is a preferable material, but it isn't always available, especially when you need a lot of armour in a hurry. Its weaknesses can be compensated for to a considerable degree by mixing it with scale, plates and so on, in places where protection is more important than flexibility. Any armour is better than no armour.

Yes you can. It was done. However, chain mail seems to have been an Iron Age innovation.