A YJA Moment - War of the Ring

Before recorded history on Earth, when the isle of Atlantis was still known by its ancient name of Númenor, the minions of darkness sought to destroy all goodness and light.  Sauron, the demonic lieutenant of Morgoth the First Fallen, had gathered up his armies of Orcs, Trolls, and the Conquered Kingdoms to make war on the Free Peoples of Middle-Earth.

Centuries prior, in what was then known as The Second Age, Sauron had discovered the Anti-Life Equation and forged a great ring to harness its power.  During the War of the Last Alliance, he was defeated by the combined might of the Light Elves and the remains of the Numenorians who escaped their sinking isle.  Corrupted by The One Ring, Sauron could no longer take corporeal form and was forced to bide his time until he could once again be a threat.

Through The Third Age, the One Ring would find itself passed through many hands but few knew its full power and danger. When it was discovered by a Hobbit, a diminutive species of near-human which lived in isolated communities, it came under the notice of the Nephilim Wizard Gandalf. He notified the rest of the White Council, who convened a summit to deal with the emergency.  In the end, a fellowship of Hobbits, Humans, Elves, and Dwarves were sent to destroy the Ring where it was forged, in the fires of Mount Doom.

The journey would start small but the stakes increased at every juncture.  Sauron had managed to emerge as a great lidless eye and commanded both the Orcs of Mordor, but armies of subjugated humans and the forces loyal to the rogue Wizard Saruman. As the forces of the Dark Lord hunted the Ring-Bearer, the Council was rekindling old friendships and alliances.

In a great battle at the base of Mount Doom, the Armies of Humanity did battle with the forces of Sauron.  The celestial beings called Asgardians, Eternals, and Olympians revealed themselves in order to aide the Army of Light, while Parademons and Darkseid himself arrived on the battlefield field in order to ensure victory for his forces.  

Yet it was all a ruse in order to keep the forces of Shadow from noticing the Ring-Bearer sneaking into Mount Doom and destroying The One Ring.  With the artifact destroyed, the link to the Anti-Life Equation was severed.  Sauron has utterly torn apart and the hold he had on his forces was permanently broken.  No longer sensing the Anti-Life equation and injured from attacks from Zeus and Ares, the Armies of Darkness left Middle-Earth.

In the aftermath of the War of the Ring, the Elves would leave Middle-Earth for their home on Alfheim, while the Dwarves would barricade themselves inside their subterranean kingdoms.  The Human Kingdoms were shattered and it would be many years before the tribes of people living along the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates would found the first civilization of The Fourth Age, ancient Sumer.

A YJA Moment - The Last Great Time War

Though it is listed as but one of the many fronts in the Shadow War, few conflicts have had such a widespread impact on reality as what became known as the Last Great Time War, or simply The Time War.  Though many smaller factions and species would be caught up in its wake, the war itself was centered on two time-traveling empires, the Darleks and the Time Lords.

At some point in history, a race of near-humans from the planet Gallifrey found the Time Stone, which they named the Eye of Harmony.  Using the power of the Eye, they created T.A.R.D.I.S. time which allowed them to travel in the time stream.   To prevent their enemies from attacking them, they moved their entire world out of the space-time continuum into the null zone at the end of history which was known as Vanishing Point.  

Being close to the Eye also changed their physiology, granting them a measure of immortality through what they called Regeneration - After a few centuries of life they would completely rejuvenate themselves and become a new person entirely.  While they shared memories of their past life, their apparent age, appearance, and even gender would change.  This new ability would give each Time Lord millennium of knowledge and experience.

The Time Lords set up the Celestial Intervention Agency as their agents in the universe.  The Agency devoted itself to deal with anomalies or existential threats to existence.  They also worked to prevent other species from getting the ability to breach the time barrier.  Chief amongst these were the Darlek Empire, the most dangerous alien race Gallifrey had ever encountered.

Born on the planet Skaro, the scientist known as Davros made a race of cyborg war machines to end the war on their planet but ended up destroying all life that wasn't their own.  Over the years they expanded their empire across known space, only pausing when significant upgrades required a civil war to weed out the inferior models.  They almost achieved temporal awareness several times if not for the swift action by The Agency.

However, one did not account for The Master.  The rogue Time Lord gave the Darleks the technology they need as part of the pact with the forces of Apokalips.  The Celestial Intervention Agency tried to stop the Darlek Empire but it wasn't able to withstand the might of a time-travel-capable armada.  Only their extreme experience with time travel allowed the Time Lords from being completely overrun.

Raging from the Big Bang to the End of Time, the Time War became the most expansive and costly front in the Shadow War.  A thousand alternate timelines were created as each side attempted to eliminate various factions in the conflict, only to be countered by their opponent. The strain on the time-space continuum was momentous and the Agency feared time itself would unravel but were powerless to stop the War.

In the end, it would take another rogue Time-Lord known as The Doctor to end the Time War once and for all.  Breaking into the Forbidden Vaults on Gallifrey, he stole the weapon known as The Moment and issued an ultimatum for both sides to stop hostilities.  When they refused, he activated the weapon, which erased both Gallifrey and the Darlek War Fleet from existence.

Save for a few TIme Lords and a handful of Darleks, all combatants in the Last Great Time War were destroyed.  The Eye of Harmony seemed immune to its effects but disappeared into the time stream before it could be claimed by The Doctor or any of the survivors.  Without the Time Lords monitoring time, the universe gave birth to dozens of chrononauts - Cable, the original Captain Marvel, Chronos, The Flash, Kang the Conqueror, Per Degaton, Rip Hunter, and the Time Trapper to name but a few.

A YJA Moment - The Shadow War

Many millennia ago, Known Space was torn about by a terrible conflict that cost the lives of trillions of sentient beings. It is a pivotal event in history, changing the destinies of Empires across Known Space.  It is known by many names throughout history - The Great Darkness; The Shadow War; The Time War; The War of the Ring; and the Last Great Conflict. Strangely enough, few know the full story of those times.  Perhaps only in the Book of Oa, the ancient records of the Green Lanterns does there still remain a full record of the conflict.

Darkseid of Apokolips initiated an immense gathering of forces to descend upon the civilizations of Known Space.  Each of these groups had different goals in the conflict and most knew nothing about the New God's ultimate aims.  Few understood that Darkseid sought the Anti-Life Equation and was using the conflict as a pretense to scout out its location.  The Equation synergized with violence and oppression, and this great war was the best chance to discover where Anti-Life was hidden. 

The Army of Darkness was immense.  It included some of the most powerful forces that the universe had seen up to that point. -  Dark Elves, the Drahk, Ego the Living Planet, the Darleks, Deviants, the Predator tribes, the hordes of Sauron, the Shadows of Z'ha'dum, the Sith Order, the original Technomages, the Skrulls, the Rakatan of the Infinite Empire and their Warworld, and the dreaded Xenomorphs of the Engineers.  All were led by the forces of Apokolips and the Darkseid Elite.

Opposing them in the Army of Light were a rag-tech collection of disparate forces: the Asgardians, the Atlanteans, the convergence of First Ones, the Dwarven Clans,  the Light Elves, the Eternals, the Green Lantern Corps, the Jedi Order, the Old Imperium, the combined space fleets of the unaligned Core Worlds, the ancient Kree Empire, the Minbari Triune, the Olympians, the Time Lords of Gallifrey, the Vorlons, and the White Council.

The War raged on multiple fronts across the then-Known Space, but one of the main battlegrounds lay on a seemingly insignificant planet known as Midgard, Middle-Earth, or simply Earth. In particular, Sauron was seeking a magical item known as The One Ring which the Dark Lord had forged to tap into the Anti-Life Equation, which it knew existed on Middle-Earth.

Even with the last-minute appearance of Darkseid and his Parademons, the White Council and its powerful allies were able to destroy the One Ring, exorcise Sauron back the Infernal Planes, and scattered his forces.  This massive defeat for the Armies of Darkness was but a taste of future events. For where the Army of Light was unified in protecting the universe, their opponents were not.

Because the various species brought together for the invasion had joined for a myriad of reasons, fractures started to appear in their ranks.  Old rivalries flared and disputes emerged between the factions in the Army of Darkness.  The Army of Light was able to capitalize on the dissent and scored significant victories.  This only intensified the animosity forming the ranks of Darkseid's forces, , eventually leading to outright civil war.

The final battle took place in the Orion system, which is known to humanity as Ross 614.  There the last of the Apokolips Armada, the Shadow Vessel Fleet, and Dark Elven Arks were obliterated, officially ending the hostilities.

Though the cost was high, the survivors believed that this would be the last time the Universe would see such warfare.  But the ancient bonds between darkness are being rekindled.  Darkseid moves to remind ancient forces of the oaths that they swore and the commitments they have made.  A new Army of Darkness is forming, and once again Known Space will know fear and death.  

A YJA Moment - The Sinister Six

Though super-villain teams are not a new thing, very few of them have a lasting legacy.  Perhaps second only to The Light, the group of Spider-Man-hating adversaries known as the Sinister Six have time and time again persisted, re-formed, and re-invented themselves.

The group had a simple beginning.  After suffering a number of defeats himself, Doctor Octopus gathered together a group of villains who had all suffered defeats at the hands of Spider-Man. He recruited Electro, Kraven the Hunter, Mysterio, Sandman, and The Vulture.  Seeking to succeed as a group where they failed on their own, they attacked Spider-Man en masse.  They would have succeeded if their own petty need to be the one to kill the wall-crawler didn't cause the group to dissolve into inter-team conflict.

Though initially unsuccessful, the pattern of the Sinister Six (as it was known amongst the super-villain community) had been set.  Over the next few years, Peter Parker saw a number of super-villain team-ups occur under the auspices of the Sinister Six.  Most of these were created by Doctor Octopus or one of the original members of the team.

Most of the iconic Sinister Six remained members of the team, though some were unavailable due to incarceration or death.  When there were gaps, the leader would invite a temporary replacement.  Some of the notable recruits were The Beetle, Captain Boomerang, Chameleon, The Green Goblin, The Hobgoblin, Jack O'Lantern, Lizard, Morbius the Living Vampire, The Rhino, Scorpion, Shocker, The Trapser, and Venom.

In a current departure, the diabolical Black Spider has emerged to craft his own brand-new Sinister Six which he calls his Superior Six. His hand-picked choices are virtual unknowns to the Spider-Family: Constrictor, Hydromancer, The Prowler, Superior Octopus, and Toxin.

The original Sinister Six have clashed with the Superior Six on several locations, stemming from the fact that the "Superior Octopus" was a failed clone of Otto Octavius, the man known as Doctor Octopus.

A YJA Moment - Symbiotes

An alien organism of unknown origin the beings that are known on Earth as Symbiotes have had an increasing influence on the metahuman community and by extension the rest of society.  In its native state, the Symbiote is semi-intelligent and exists in a viscous state that can move under its own power.

It requires a host in order to fully unlock its full potential.  Those who are infected gain super-strength, durability, and the ability to extrude and shape the symbiote in various ways.  They are also capable of adapting to the host, identifying and permanently mimicking certain of their abilities, and even enhancing others.

The most famous one is the symbiote which bonded to Peter Parker, the hero known as Spider-Man.  When Parker realized that the symbiote was manipulating his emotions and feeding on his metabolism, he cast it off.  Having copied his powers the symbiote would end up choosing Parker's rival Eddie Brock, becoming the sometimes-villain, sometimes-antihero Venom.

The Venom symbiote would end up infecting crazed serial killer Cletus Kasady after thwarting a prison escape.  The symbiotic fragment, which had somehow mutated by Kasady's latent metahuman physiology, became the vicious mass-murdering entity known as Carnage.

Yet this is not the first time Earth has come into contact with the symbiotes.  Ever since Apollo 17 returned contaminated rocks from a lunar valley on the Moon, the United States government has been keenly aware of the presence of the symbiotes.  Weapons Plus has devoted thousands of man-hours attempting to harness its abilities.

The Covert Action Team known as Wetworks was the first major test subject, exposing a variety of normal and latent metahumans to symbiotes in order to see their reactions to the infection. Unfortunately, during at least one mission, symbiotes fragments were released and became independent.

These fragments would infect artist Reno Bryce turning him into the metamorph known as Warblade.  Another would unsuccessfully attempt to bond with a vampire, altering it significantly before it eventually merged with Amanda Reed to become Taboo.