Son to a wealthy family that lost almost everything in the 1929 stock market crash, Sheldon Sampson was haunted by dreams of an island calling to him, whispering that it would help him save America. He, his brother and their college friends found that island in 1932, a bizarre structure with alien beings that, under unknown circumstances, blessed them with incredible powers. They returned to America as The Union, comprised of Skyfox, Lady Liberty, The Flare, Blue-Bolt, Brain-Wave, and Sheldon himself as their mighty leader, the Utopian. They would fight crime and evil for decades, defending the Earth against all manner of threats.