Superman does exist, but there are differences to the character to backstory and powers. For one, this version of Superman is somewhat overpowered compared to our world: imagine Kal-El from our world with Bruce Wayne’s level of strategic genius.
In this world, Superman as a popular character went through somewhat of a slump that lasted until the 1970s. The revival of the character’s popularity ironically occurred when the new writer for the character was able to secure rights to the Hyperman character from the US Bureau of Reconciliation and Reunion (which held the copyright for Hyperman following the character being banned by the US military authorities in 1944). Hyperman was reinvented as Superman’s (very Southern) arch nemesis, at a time when American Nihilism was approaching its cultural apogee.
As for other notable US superhero characters, the closest analogue to Wonder Woman in this world was actually inspired by Sylvia Enos taking revenge against Roger Kimball. Imagine a character with Wonder Woman’s super strength, Salina Kyle’s morality, and a Sweeney Todd-level obsession with revenge. This is how you get Scarlet Shrike.
There is also an equivalent to Captain America, down to the fictional character being an Irish-American from a New York working class background, but whose frail physical constitution is reversed by a super-soldier serum. However, imagine a version of Captain America in which the serum is not only not lost, but is applied to other “worthy” soldiers, and where Captain America never vanished, but went on to command the entire US military. That’s how you wind up with General Union, the unstoppable War Machine.
There never was an equivalent to our world’s Batman. There is a popular superhero who’s also also a lone, urban vigilante, but he’s closer to our world’s Rorschach (though without that character’s psychosis). Whatever else Bloodstain is, he is most certainly not a millionaire philanthropist by day.
The comics industry as a whole had a different history as a whole compared to our world. There was never an equivalent to OTL’s 1950s moral scare, which meant there was no real equivalent to the Comics Code Authority. This meant, for example, that there was a greater latitude for writers to include social themes in storylines, including the origins of many villains.
As of 2020, there are more superhero movies analogous to our world’s Joker, Brightburn, Hancock, and Chronicle instead of the MCU.
