To add and elaborate for dear
@Aridian;
The Cowl, the riots, and the current situation: The Cowl is currently the most known criminal kingpin of Lost Haven. A hooded, shadowy figure who leads a criminal enterprise known as the Shroud Syndicate. He caused a series of riots within the city to serve as a distraction to smuggle in billions of dollars of weapons, cybertech, and occultist items and riches. Currently his plans and motives are unknown, but he seems to have the largest baring on the Streets, only challenged by a criminal leader known as 'The Cancer'. There are two points that are being played right now(the riots, and a few days after the riots), but there is still room to elaborate in either timepoint.
D-Day: The first large event that happened in Lost Haven that rallied the entire metahuman population. A portal to hell was opened in Sherman Squarel, releasing countless demons upon Lost Haven. Almost every metahuman available combat this horror, though they kept coming in a neverending horde. Eventually, the portal was sealed by the combined efforts of Icon, War-Pulse, Iron Knight, Archangel, Lyger, and a batman-esqe character by the name of Vigilante. This is one of the biggest moments in Lost Haven history and is more than likely well-known even to people who did not participate, also making the above names somewhat more well-known.
Icon: This guy is Lost Haven's flagship hero. This is Superman, this is Captain America, if you have any connection to TV or the internet, you know
exactly who this is. By now, someone has probably got a toy line, TV show, commercial endorsements, and PR stunts lined up for this symbol of heroism. If you live in this world, this guy is pretty much superhero jesus.
Ares: No, this is not a guy who took the name 'Ares' because he thought it would be a good moniker for his punk-rock band. This is
the GOD of WAR. I put 'god' and 'war' in caps because that's how much this guy rules over war. Slaughter, violence, bloodthirsy beserker rage, this is the guy who pretty much showed humans what those terms really mean. He has re-appeared in Lost Haven over a fuck-ton of centuries, and has already decided he should be running the show(As all Olympians should, they are the best, after all). He has since built a temple to his awesomeness, and actively recruited acolytes to his cause. This includes an
immensely powerful Spartan figure known as Polemos, a deadly and ruthless warrior that can go toe-to-toe with friggin' Icon. What is his cause? Well, he's the God of War, I think you can get it within a few guesses. No? Well, he's here to kill and conquer. How? Pft, Athena's the one with the plans, who needs plans when you got the power of freaking war? Seriously, though. He's got a plan, but the normal non-believer probably wouldn't know that off the bat.
War-Pulse: As
@Athinar was so keen to point out, War-Pulse is a rambunctious mercenary traipsing about Lost Haven. A physical force of nature, the kinetic one-man army has been spotted numerous times in Lost Haven doing exactly what he does best; fighting. He fought in D-Day fought a giant mech to a standstill, and recently he fought a bunch of metahumans who, as Athinar was again so keen to point out, apparently got wrecked by four novices and thrown into the ocean. In truth; War-Pulse has no defenses against mental assaults and is harboring a
ton of guilt for his long career of murder-sprees and rebellion-quashing for literally pools of money. So when Silver Sorceress made him see all the many people he killed, including a 17-year old vigilante from Colombia that he buried, he proceeded to lose his mind and almost nuke the battlefield, forcing the other metas to hurl him as far as they could into the ocean to avoid creating a national tragedy. However, getting off-topic, War-Pulse is now a publicly recognized figure(now being in the news a total count of three times) and to some metas, he may be working for someone bigger than himself. He is an extremely dangerous smartmouth and can probably be noticed by the common man as 'that crazy meta who keeps getting hit by things on TV'.
Equilibrium: In a very similar situation to War-Pulse, Equilbrium is a Vigilante operating within Lost Haven. If you wanna talk about bitchin' mechs, this is the bro to talk to. He is another newsworthy figure after he dropped a helicopter full of people onto War-Pulse's noggin. While a good person, his actions were reasonably in the moral grey are for the time being, causing STRIKE to apprehend the meta. That being said, it is reasonable to recognize the mech on sight, though you may not know the name.
Arachne: Awesome Drider-lady, also apparently has huge boobs, has been in public eye, participated in D-Day, but may not be instantly recognizable by commonfolk.
Lyger: Another better-known Vigilante. May not know by name on sight, but his actions have been seen on the news, recently he has been looking into the Shroud Syndicate's dirty dealings, so if your character has any info on the gang, they might be able to deliver it to Lyger.
Everyone else: While every character is pretty friggin cool, most metahumans have not been seen in the public eye or have not bothered to make any sort of public identity yet, though Icarus, Iron Knight, The Good Doctor, Racheli, Maverick, Archangel, Eva, Kalistar Nightmare, and a few others are just chompin' at the bit to show their stuff to the populace. A newcoming character would not know these characters by name or appearance, the only significant recurring heroes already mentioned above.
Umbraxis: You wanna talk about matter manipulators? Here's one of the most terrifying ones in the Create-A-Hero Universe, Athinar was totally right to call this thing 'a dick'. Umbraxis is a cosmic entity from the blackest reaches of space, existent as a old as time. It seems to be a formless sentient being comprised of dark matter and anti-matter particles. It converts anything it touches into dark matter at will, possibly as some form of sustenance. Appearing in Old Town, Maine, it has been slaughtering its way to Lost Haven, developing a real sadistic penchant for killing and slaughtering humans. To most, it bears no name, and has not technically gone public with its appearance or motives, but the string of murders is getting
really hard to ignore at this point. It killed a group of college kids, at least 14 families, an entire police station, and numerous others. Oh, and this is just its avatar form, the real thing is larger than the Earth and destroys planets. So, y'know, something to look forward to later.
I think that covers everything