Use the News
I always liked to tell the PCs what's on the news... Reports of "criminals" breaking into Star Labs, UFO reports, missing people, "Aliens", etc. They always ignore most of it, ay first, but might (say) go off to check out the break-in... Then they slowly realize that it is all layers of the same onion. There really ARE aliens, who have UFOs, and the SuperVillians (who aren't always villianous) needed some high-tech firepower to take'm on!
Of course, later on, the heroes find some Peter Parker type has been photographing THEM in action, and now THEY'RE on the tube! Then some J. Jonah Jameson type can get ahold of the story, if they go tearing the place apart, or innocents get hurt. Suddenly, the Mayor begins speaking out against "Vigilantiism"... at least until the evil "Sleazoid" aliens hatch their plot, or the PCs reveal it!
I borrowed the Insectisoidial "Sleazoid" aliens from the X-Men (flying, man-sized, twin poisonous stingers in the tail, intelligent, and used super-weapons). I also had a small team of Super-"Villians", some of whom weren't particularly villianous...
The "Bad Guys" were lead by the "Crimson Commando", a true patriot who had been doused with... something... back in Nam, and was (you guessed it!) bright red, but now truly a super-soldier (this was great because one of the PCs was also a Nam vet). Every time the PCs went to track him down, they always found him in the VA Hospital, in his wheelchair, and everyone assured them he'd been there, for YEARS. They never found out if he was a planted vet, or if the CC could "split" in two, or what... He wasn't really a bad guy, just angry about the nation's treatment of vets, and in it to "fix" things.
Then there was The Vizier, who could foresee, and who did Mind-Reading and Magic Acts. They figured out why their plans to nab the "baddies" kept falling through, after a while... He was a con (and a con-man), and would always do what he thought best for himself, including flying off, leaving heroes or allies in the lurch!
Orion, Swordsman of the Stars, was an alien, here to fight the Sleazoids. He wasn't really "bad", just out to kill every sleazoid on Earth, and then move on. Problem was, he'd be just as happy nuking the whole Earth to do it. He just didn't register Humans on his radar, at all.
Then there was the female character in partial power armour, whose father had been a scientist working for the bad guys, who had killed him, and turned her into a kind of cyborg... (I forget her name). Anyway, she wiped them out, whenever she could, and spent her time looking for more, which lead to her problems with the law. The Crimson Commando found and recruited her, and they worked together, hunting down the evil FIRE scientists (Free Investigatory Research Enterprise), and taking their high-tech goodies! Her only real motivations were finding and smashing FIRE bases, and hiding from the cops. She was "redeemable", if anyone ever tried. Besides the power armour, she also had one cyberhand that could detach and move by itself, and could be replaced by an energy-mace. She was the "baddies' Strongman", and could stun or damage with her electromace.
Then there was the mystery-man (?) that the PCs never even knew was about, because Agent Orange was a comrade of the Crimson Commando's, with no fixed shape. Like the X-Men's nemesis, Mystique, he/she (It?) could change shape, right down to retinal patterns, fingerprints, and DNA, to become ANYONE, but could also become invisible and insubstantial, at need. The PCs never even learned of the existance of Agent Orange, let alone anything about his/her/its motives.
So, while The Vizier and Agent Orange ran intelligence, Orion and the girl took out opposition, and the Crimson Commando hovered above in a Nam-era Hughy with a 50-cal machine gun and gave orders and backup from on high. The PCs quickly learned that they didn't have the tech to even keep in touch, let alone take out the bad guys... Even transportation to and from the conflicts was a problem, as most of them couldn't fly!
After some angry players, they realized that they, too, were going to have to get organized, get some radios and a helicopter, too, create a "secret base", and start acting like a team. And how would they do this?
They started off buying some radios, and going after the bad guys. After a success with some henchmen, they just plain stole their stuff, instead of leaving it for the police to clean up! An old cargo van quickly became "base", and they had better (non-civilian) radios ("Breaker, breaker!") After a few adventures, they had enough stuff to get around well enough, since one of the PCs flew a hughy in Nam, and several could drive.
Keep it simple, keep it real, start off slowly, and let it build from there. The team has to meet and organize, first. Maybe one good way to do something like that is to let "the Avengers" (or some other famous local group) have "Try-outs", and let them meet there... before all being rejected!
