Grow-Arm-Hair Lad

I would go with the Mad Doctor for the dragon snake.  It would still be Pulp. I believe intelligent ape is a Pulp idea?

Both Pulp and comic-book, and that could work in the lost-world subgenre. Although apes don't have legs that long, so it would have to be either a different species, or mutated due to some outside agency.
 
In a Hero Universe alien-world setting, that could be an Ereni, who are described as tall humanoids covered in short fur, with an advanced star-faring society.

Hmm... I couldn't find that image on p. 113 of 5ER, so I can't say whether there's any context implied in the accompanying text. However, many of the images in that book appear to be random space fillers.
 
The several anachronistic elements make me suspect either a "lost worlds" romance, or a sci-fi "space opera." I'm inclined toward the latter because neither the gladiator nor the serpent-creature resemble known Terrestrial species. The specific scene is clearly depicting some sort of gladiatorial arena. The cleanest fit within the Hero Universe would be the arena on Malva, most technologically advanced planet in the Milky Way, whose jaded and decadent inhabitants stage blood-sport entertainments, drawing gladiators and utilizing creatures from across the galaxy.

I have always been mesmerized by the snapshots of (potentially) other campaigns that are scattered throughout rulebooks. Many is the time I have looked closely at an image from one of my Champions books and have been inspired by the implications of the image to craft an entire adventure.
 
Case in point: I was looking something up for my 5e pulp campaign and I came across this image:
 

 
From page 313 of Hero System 5e Revised. I mean: what the &%$ !
 
What is the context of this image? It's clearly an intelligent ape of some kind, running from a gladiator-type fight with a dragon-snake..? The gorilla dude is dropping his sword (a la Captain Kirk refusing to participate in the barbarism?). There are what looks like bullet holes in the wall of the gladiator pit--and our protagonist seems to be shedding his sunglasses as he bolts..? There is some kind of emblem below the "emperor" viewing lounge....
 
Many, many wonderful details. Does anyone know the context? Or, perhaps a better question, what type of adventure/campaign would you imagine this image depicts?
 
PS: I believe posting this image falls under Fair Use. And, I think we need to share more of stuff like this so people understand why Hero is the One True System. : P

I have always been mesmerized by the snapshots of (potentially) other campaigns that are scattered throughout rulebooks. Many is the time I have looked closely at an image from one of my Champions books and have been inspired by the implications of the image to craft an entire adventure.
 
Case in point: I was looking something up for my 5e pulp campaign and I came across this image:
 

 
From page 313 of Hero System 5e Revised. I mean: what the &%$ !
 
What is the context of this image? It's clearly an intelligent ape of some kind, running from a gladiator-type fight with a dragon-snake..? The gorilla dude is dropping his sword (a la Captain Kirk refusing to participate in the barbarism?). There are what looks like bullet holes in the wall of the gladiator pit--and our protagonist seems to be shedding his sunglasses as he bolts..? There is some kind of emblem below the "emperor" viewing lounge....
 
Many, many wonderful details. Does anyone know the context? Or, perhaps a better question, what type of adventure/campaign would you imagine this image depicts?
 
PS: I believe posting this image falls under Fair Use. And, I think we need to share more of stuff like this so people understand why Hero is the One True System. : P

There are a few in the Downloads section. You may want to search the boards as well. 

These may have appeared in ADQ.
 

Greetings everyone. I wanted to announce the official start of my work on Strike Force Organizations, a sequel to 2016's Aaron Allston’s Strike Force.
  The book will focus on three groups, the Blood, the Circle, and METE (all previous presented in Champions Organization products for early editions of Champions. My intent is to combine the content written for the PDFs with content Aaron wrote for his proposed (but never complete) Strike Force Universe series of books.
  I intend to update the content to HERO 6e, update the text to correct any errors and issues, and update any references to current game mechanics. I will not fill in any gaps -- I am not so arrogant as to assume what Aaron would have wanted, but I will acknowledge areas where content is lacking (if such a need arrives). I hope to find updated character sheets for many of the early NPCs, but will work with what I have.
  I also intend to present bases, vehicles, scenarios, and villains, just as they all appeared in the early releases.
  I will change names (for example, METE will be called Alien Research Laboratories) in accordance to Aaron's wishes and per his list of corrections for setting names.
  This product will be released as a collaborative work between Surbrook Press and High Rock Press.
Finally, the book will contain stats for Prowlers & Paragons UE and I hope to have a P&PUE add-on detailing all of the characters from Aaron Allston’s Strike Force.

PS: that last item has already been discussed with Jason. I am seeking to support two systems that I greatly enjoy and I hope to draw both fan-bases together to support this product.

PSS: I will endeavor to provide frequent updates. Please bug me via this thread if I forget.

This is exactly what I needed. You hit the nail on the head that the inspirations are contradictory.
 
I usually do pick two semi-contradictory elements and try to weave them together. This was the most extreme. But your brainstorming really got my neurons firing! Bringing in the gladiatorial angle is what I needed, plus all the other suggestions. Very cool, and this was exactly the help I was dreaming of. : )

Maybe the aliens are actually trying to free the Earth from the supers in charge?  They're not _quite_ heroes, but not necessarily villains either.  The PCs could establish a working relationship with them, fight them, or possibly even be aliens themselves.

If you're asking me, I was just throwing out some broad parameters to see if any of it resonated with GAHL. I wasn't being that specific, but that's certainly a logical direction to take it.

Hmm.  So what you are suggesting is that we see superhuman increasingly get involved in politics, possibly to the point the execute an effective coup where participation in executive politics and governance is based on personal power.
 
This process, which the PCs may be investigating, has, in the shadows, been supported and provoked and potentially subverted by the aliens.  Driving human societies to this, driving them to take-up offers to be made super. They then manoeuvre elections away from broad suffrage to gladiatorial contests, broadcast as part of the bread and circus element of authoritarian societies.
 
Is that it?

Okay. I think I see your difficulty, in that the inspirations you're looking at are kind of contradictory. On the one hand, Steelheart is about a very open tyranny by superhumans; but you also want elements of covert alien invasion. There are two potential ways to approach this campaign, either as single or two-stage. First stage would be the heroes discovering and battling the infiltration by the aliens. They may win some fights, but ultimately the aliens succeed in gaining control of key strategic assets, subjugate the Earth and declare themselves openly. If what you want is along the lines of Steelheart, you might want to set your campaign during this second stage.
 
Since you're mixing in Champions with your home brew, I'm going to base my suggestions on material drawn from Champions Beyond, the source book for the alien/cosmic side of the official Champions Universe. If you don't have that book and have no intention of getting it, feel free to ignore the rest of this post.
 
The Roin'esh are a race of alien shape-shifters written up in CB. In the book they're desirous of establishing an interstellar empire. They've also identified Earth, particularly its superhumans, as a potential obstacle to their plans. That's sufficient justification for a secret invasion of Earth. The majority of Roin'esh have basic shape-shifting, able to assume any humanoid form. But some are much more versatile and powerful, on the order of the Changelings/Founders of the Dominion from the Star Trek universe. There are examples of such Roin'esh in CB. So if desired you could have the one race be both the first-stage infiltrators, and the second-stage superpowered tyrants.
 
However, officially the Roin'esh are subjects of the Malvans, humanoids who are one of the oldest races, and the most technologically advanced race, in the galaxy. Once great imperialists, the Malvans have largely sunken into decadence, but some of them still retain ambitions of various kinds. It may be that the Malvans directed the Roin'esh to subvert Earth so Malva could more easily subjugate it. However, I think a more interesting variation would be for the Roin'esh to try to start building their empire out of their masters' sight, but the Malvans discover what they're doing and decide to bring their errant slaves to heel, in the most direct manner, by conquering Earth themselves. That would create potential encounters with Roin'esh who either serve the Malvans, or who oppose them and are willing to ally with humans to get the Malvans off their backs.
 
If your world already has superhumans, the Malvans might have wanted to seize Earth to draft our supers into their favorite entertainment, gladiatorial games. However, Malvan technology is so advanced, they're able to induce almost any super power in themselves or any other race. They often do this to create superhuman gladiators. So there's potential for Malvan-created human supers, as well as Malvan superhumans, who could be enemies or even allies of your campaign's heroes.
 
There's a great deal of information about Malvan history, culture, technology, and a number of fully-written NPCs, in Champions Beyond that you could adapt to your campaign. But if you wanted a Malvan analogue to Steelheart himself, I would recommend using the most powerful Malvan super, Firewing, as your template (most recently written up in Champions Villains Volume Three: Solo Villains).
 
Anyway, that's a much fire as I can get out of my neurons right now.   I hope some of that is of use to you. Feel free to use as much or as little as you like, or ignore it entirely. If it doesn't work for you at all, if you outline your concerns in more detail we could try again.

Sure, it sounds like a cool character.

We are in the Champions Universe.  Gotham City replaces Hudson City and is in Ocean County, just south of Toms River. 

The club has been starteed.

I was thinking that a good twist can be that the artifact in question is a Eed Herring of sorts. Yes the Nazis would like it but they really wanted to kidnap the good professor who discovered it. Naturally the Professor knows where Atlantis is! Or at least a colony.

I am not the guy shopping for suggestions, but I do like that one!  Nazis, right here on our turf, in our town, and they are doing somethinf awful, and succeeding!
 
 

How about chasing Nazis through town because they stole an ancient artifact? Of course this was during the grand opening display at the museum.

The parachute was invented in the late 18th century and was used to jump out of a hot air balloon not long after if I recall correctly. Totally pulp feel. The airplane stuff was cool by the way, you seem to have a good grasp on the subject. 

The PCs are riding on on the new ultra-modern underground train-  perhaps they are persons of note locally and were asked to attend a ceremony and inaugural run; perhaps one of them is filthy with lucre and has funded it; perhaps it is the fastest way to get to where they think they need to be; you decide.
 
As the elevated section of track plays out and the track slopes downward to make its decent under the city,  it seems to be picking up too much speed (roll to notice).
 
Sabotage is afoot, and the operator has been killed; as he slumped over the controls, he pushed the throttle a bit.  Within moments, the train is hurtling through the darkness of the tunnel, the gas lights passing by like fireflies blinking in the distance.
 
Inspection of the engineer's area reveals blood, a hand-carved stone that resembles a tiny charm or totem, a bizare symbol painted in red on the wall, and an ornate gold-handled dagger- too fancy for utility use- sticking from the engineer's back.
 
The train turtles through a cave, leans sickeningly and rolls off the track, metal screeching and rending as the train slides on its side next to the track before crashing into the wall of the new tunnel and then through it, where the engine and the first two cars dangle precariously into a natural cavern.  The only light seems to be a fire, but the blackness makes it impossible to tell how far away it is or how large.
 
Twenty feet beneath the dangling engine, brave explorers will find a cold body of water- aquifer?  Underground river?  Who can say?
 
In the distance, with a row of burning torches before it, even more courageous souls will find a temple of gold, lapis, and onyx.  It is almost Incan; almost Aztek; almost Myan.
 
Almost.
 
What's going on?  Is it an ancient cult?  A forgotten or unknown native civilization?  A Bass Pro shop?
 
That's up to you.
 
To be honest, this one isn't my favorite, but with the temperature on the sun-baked asphalt today, you can understand why a swim in an  underground river came to mind today, I think....
 
 
 

How about a trek to the Himalayas? To the mysterious temple and there are Yetis! 

...which somehow made my mind jump to a safari. Which I dislike but perhaps it could be a cryptozoological safari.....with tranquilizer darts...?

An airplane flies into view, then two others.  The second two are overtaking the first when it executes a perfect immelman and races for the lead pursuer head on, upside down, machine gun blazing as it rolls to right itself.  Bullets rip through the canvas of the plane and it droops out of control and begins an undirected drive toward the ground.  It's path will bring it to a spectacular crash within yards of the PCs, but before they notice that, they have time to see the third airplane veer toward the first and open fire, and sharp-eyed characters may see the pilo9f pull back on the stick even as machine gun fire  tears through his plane.  He is not hit, but a miraculous bullet has snapped the stick in half.  The first plane smashes into the third, the planes burst into a shower of flaming (and not flaming) parts.
 
As the smoke billows upward, the PCs see the pilot from the first craft falling to earth when a parachute billows out from his pack, flutters, and fails in a tangle of cords.  He falls to earth just moments before the first plane dives into the earth in front of the PCs.
 
I have no idea if that is pulp-appropriate, as I have no idea when the parachute was invented, but it seemed kind of right to me.