Heroes

Heroes are the direct counterpart of the Villains, being people using their individualities to serve the law and protect the civilians. Unlike the villains, they are much uniform at least in terms of organization, mostly due to being (at least theoretically) a part of generally understood law enforcement. Which makes a government employees.
There are some differences between Hero Systems of various countries, especially between the major power blocs. For example in the APD the heroes are allowed a more or less free reign - there are private schools training them, there is rather expansive showbusiness element to the existence of heroes as a whole. There is governmental oversight, and the police can and will investigate potentially fishy behaviour among them, but other than that they are free to operate on their own.
Union of Progress and Freedom and Iron Pact are offering their heroes much less freedom, with especially the latter treating them as a government employees to be redeployed at will. Both alliances also tend to have them brought up in training academies belonging directly to the government.

Career

Qualifications

The basic necessity to become a hero is possession of an individuality. Once someone awakens one, he or she has to go proper training course in either a private or a public hero training facility. There they learn the legal basics of their new professions while expanding upon their combat (and not just combat) skills while also learning more about their own individuality. Once they graduate, they are legally allowed to use their individuality to battle villains or participate in rescue operations.

Career Progression

There are two main categories of the heroes, Sidekicks and Superheroes. They lack the equivalent of villain henchmen, due to 'using' local police units, army garrisons and rescue services as de facto 'henchmen', just without negative connotations.
Aside from most well organized and financed villain groups (or the poorest of countries), you can escape the heroic 'henchmen' to walk through the villainous ones in a more or less bumpy manner due to better training, equipment and discipline.

Sidekicks

Sidekicks are heroic equivalent of the villain lieutenants. They aren't powerful enough to operate independently - they might lack combat individualities while being capable as support characters, or have abilities that make them more useful for rescue operations than combat. Or, they might simply dislike popularity and prefer to focus on more backstage activities.
They tend to do most of the footwork of their respective agencies, while tending to have much less 'unique' aesthetics than proper superheroes. The term 'sidekick' might appear slightly diminutive, but it's considered a common knowledge than agency's true value depends in equal part on their superhero(es) and their sidekicks. As a result, it's considered a simple profession name nowadays.
Most agencies - especially those following a single superhero - tend to have one of them seen as the first among equals. Such First Sidekicks tend to play the role of the agency's second-in-command, overseeing the operations of sidekicks for the superhero in question.

Superheroes

Superheroes are the active heads of the hero agencies that are supposed to act as their public faces AND main villain deterrent. While sidekicks are focused on the day-to-day work, their superhero is supposed to combat larger threats in order to ensure that he or she are known for their strength, making local villains think twice when the idea of directly attacking the agency in question is involved - or attacking and actually killing or crippling any of their sidekicks.
Their publicity is a tool. Merchandise is a weapon. Public interviews are their shields. Their existence means that the local supervillain can't simply walk into the local police precinct and slaughter everyone inside - because they will inevitably find their match once the superhero arrives. The more famous they are, the most dangerous they appear to potential local crime lords, serial killers and terrorists.
In short, to become a superhero is to live life of public recognition - but also have a target painted on your back.
It is customary to mark a single superhero from a particular state/voivodship/prefecture/oblast etc. etc. as its Top Hero, acting as a regional deterrent against the most dangerous supervillains.

Top Heroes

United States

Washington D.C - Invincible
New York - Mindscape
Utah - Captain Patriotic
Texas - Quickdraw
Michigan - Thunderbolt
Arizona - Firestorm
Mississippi - Titan
Illinois - Gatekeeper
Oregon - Smile
Kansas - Valiant

Former Top Heroes

United States

Florida - Just Cause
Minnesota - Virtue