It’s hard to believe that it has been twenty years that the gates opened up and the City of Heroes were open for heroes young and old.

The City of Heroes opened on April 27th, 2004. At the time it was the first superhero-themed MMORPG that allowed users to create their own hero and go on adventures to save the city from villains. Users were given an ever-expanding list of costume items to personalize their characters, eventually given the means to change outfits, and even make more customizations with aura effects and power shadings.

As the years progressed, “The City” evolved and expanded to include the “City of Villains”, giving players the means to create villains that would go on their own infamous adventures and build their notoriety. Then they went further and created “Going Rogue”, where an alternate universe was opened up and the heroes they once knew were evil versions and a middle ground was created that allowed players to swap between hero and villain sides, or to be something in between.

Where once it was solely a subscription game, eventually a unified City of Heroes became free-to-play with the means to pay for extra features, following a trend set by similar games such as Champions Online and DC Universe Online.

Sadly, despite a publicized plea to stay open, parent company NC Soft made the decision to cancel the City of Heroes, with the final shutdown happening in 2012.

But “The City” itself did not die. It carried on with private servers operating in secret, funded by the users themselves. Not only did they keep the game going, they even managed to expand on the game on the own, finishing details on zones such as Kalisti Wharf that were still in the development stages at the time of the official shutdown.

Finally, NC Soft gave an official license to City of Heroes Homecoming on January 17th, allowing the diehard players of the game to return to Paragon City, the Rogue Isles, Praetoria, and all the other places in between, and to do so publicly.

The City of Heroes will always hold a special place for Battlerock Comics and David 2, as it was here that the idea of not-for-profit comics could be made using characters and settings from the MMO. One of the first unique characters was Colonel John Battlerock, also known as Battlerock X. But long time comic readers of our site would probably recognize characters such as Galatea Powers, Ryder Lightning, MidKnight X, and Captain Paragonna, all of whom were heroes in Paragon City, and, thanks to fellow residents of “The City” and NC Soft, are still there today.

So congratulations to the City of Heroes for twenty years of capes and adventures, and here’s to hoping this city will go on being free forever.