Personal Headcanons

Formation of American Heroes

When the world was rushed into an era of chaos during the First Quirk Wars, America was one of the nations that handled it the best due to already having centuries of experience with civilians having access to weapons. After a decade of local police forces, the military, and other civilians getting the nation back under control, the USA was able to stabilize itself years before most others. Due to laws such as the 2ns Amendment, civilian arrest, and self-defense, the USA never had to outlaw or even define vigilantism in its laws. Nowadays, civilians are allowed free quirk use on private property such as businesses and homes with restricted regulation being up to the local government. Heroes are only needed for the villains and criminals that pose a danger and prove themselves too strong for the average civilian to protect themselves. Unfortunately, with relaxed quirk laws, the USA is the perfect breeding ground for overpowered individuals, crime syndicates, and foreign organizations to thrive. This forces even the weakest USA's estimated 26000 heroes(1/1000000 of the population) to be as strong as the top 500 Japanese Heroes. To stop heroes from becoming capitalistic endorsements, hero agencies can only bring in up to 20% of their profit per year from sources outside the heroic industry and cannot bring in more than $1000000 max through advertisement, merchandise, and endorsement deals. The rest of their income comes from their ranking, which gives a baseline income to every position, and duties as a hero, which is extra pay for the quality and quantity of every case they solve.

Ranking of American Heroes

To stop heroes from changing the industry from that of civic duty into one of celebrities, the USA has different ranking criteria. Heroes are given a point score based on public popularity, arrest cases, collateral damage, and non-combative services(community service, diplomacy, public relations, etc). This score puts them into a vague bracket that is more carefully organized through more specific filters to get the final ranking.

Because the USA is the 3rd largest nation by size and broken into many different political and historical regions, the hero system breaks heroes into 6 different regions; Western/Alaska/Hawaii, Southeastern, Midwest, Northern, Southern, and Military. Each region gets ranking systems separate from the other regions to allow heroes to focus less on popularity and more on their duties. The five geographical regions are all employed by Hero Association Agencies set up in those regions and answer to the local governments if not directed by the federal government and the Federal Hero Association. Military heroes are employed by the US military and answer to the local military that they are assigned to. Unlike the regional heroes whose primary duties are to civilians, military heroes are soldiers above all else and have the primary duty to help their military bases.

While each region gets separate ranking systems, one hero gets to be the representative of the nation by being the Number 1 American Hero. One of the six regional number 1 heroes is elected by popular vote to be their national number 1 hero for a 5-year term. That hero is then pulled out of their regional ranking system, with everyone in that ranking system moving up one placement to fill the new gap. That hero is then titled the Number 1 American Hero. While they can still participate in the normal duties of their hero system, they answer directly to the Secretary of Heroic Affairs, a member of the presidential cabinet. For example, when Stars and Stripes, the number 1 military hero was elected as the Number 1 American Hero, the number 2 hero Green Baret was promoted to the number 1 military hero, and so on. Now Stars and Stripes answers to Secretary Timothy Agpar of the Department of Heroic Affairs.

American Heroes

Western/Alaskan/Hawaiian Heroes

1. Redwood
2. Pele
3. Bigfoot
4. Rocky(Has a terrakinesis quirk and a rival/love interest relationship with the southeastern heroine Red Canyon)
5. Kodiac

Southeastern

1. Rodeo(Martin Tsunotori, father of Pony Tsunotori)
2. Dust Devil
3. Chupacabra
4. Red Canyon(Has a terrakinesis quirk and a rival/love interest relationship with the western hero Rocky)
5. Cow Lady

Midwest

1. Honest Abe(Has a truth confession quirk and mainly fights with an axe. While he gets most of his numbers from investigations, he is a strong and charismatic limelight hero)
2. Big Al
3. Ford
4. Dairy King
5. Bessie

Northern

1. Lady Liberty
2. Adam Bomb
3. Captain Celebrity
4. Wolverine(Not Logan, but a man with a mutant wolverine quirk up in Maine)
5. Salem Witch

Southern

1. Florida Man
2. Bayou Betty
3. The Colonel(Has a rooster mutation)
4. Cottontail(Has a rabbit mutation and can control cotton) 
5. Furnace

Military

1. Green Baret
2. Blackhawk
3. Stonewall
4. Union
5. Steve(His real name is Robert, he was just the class clown of his hero course and got stuck with it after a bad joke. He has hydrokinesis.)

Number 1

1. Stars and Stripes