What was the best era?
Perhaps everyone had their own answer.
Stark believed the best era was the present. Humanity was about to venture into the sea of stars, and he would achieve even more than his father had.
Steve believed the best era was the previous one. It had belonged to him—a pure yet turbulent and magnificent age.
Nick Fury believed the best era was always the next one. Unknown enemies meant more funding.
But what if a qualifier were added to that question? For human civilization, what was the best era?
It was the era when rivals stood opposed across the ocean, when competition was at its fiercest.
During the era known as the Cold War, the two superpowers competed on every front. All of humanity's genius was unleashed then. When two suns shone together, a thousand stars rose into the sky.
In that era, one was a red giant striving for the lofty ideal of liberating all humanity, while the other was a beacon of the world that refused to lag behind, its gaze fixed upon the sea of stars.
The tiny sparks struck in that silent age still lit the fire of technology to this day.
But the fall of the red giant did not mean the other side had won. It could be said that both of them had lost, and human civilization had lost as well.
That once-brilliant lighthouse no longer had a night sky that needed its light or ships that needed its guidance home. Its pipes began to age, and dust covered its bulbs.
No night watchman would come to wipe down that gradually dimming lighthouse anymore, because there was no need.
They would not rescue ships wrecked on distant reefs, and no one could blame them anymore. Storms raging thousands of