Inspired by the Dark Age of Comic Books, Aeon Flux, and the political and social upheavals of the early 1990s, the game attempts to inspire social and political debate among its players as well as provide entertainment through playing renegade superheroes.
The backstory for Underground borrowed heavily from Pat Mills' Marshal Law and Alan Moore's version of Marvelman, two of the earliest deconstructionist superhero comics of the 1980s.