Oh believe me, I’m very aware that this type of thing is unrealistic, it’s just a fun idea I think could be a little amusement.
Anyways, here’s my own (unfinished) idea for a sort of overarching story; mainly thinking of a video game sense (as usual I didn’t really bother with realism, as one particular icon that can’t be used is present here):
The story itself would revolve heavily around the 2005 concept of Terra Cruentus, a civilization that literally thrived on fresh human blood. In this storyline, there were 7 gods (OC characters) commanding 6 realms of Terra, one of them being a Mother Gaea type who rules the whole world, and their powers were linked to 7 (technically 6) relics: a “Blood Vessel”, a broken Chime, the Gorewood Skulls, the Terra Blade, a Goblet, and the symbol of Terra Cruentus itself. When the civilization fell, the gods went to sleep and the relics were swept away to various places. Some of the monsters were also swept away.
Somehow these relics came to Earth somehow in different locations. The slumbering gods of Terra Cruentus were slowly planning to get their relics back and regain their powers. However this is where the Icons come in. Not willing to be subjected to a civilization that rules them, Jack the Clown recruits 5 fearsome characters; The Caretaker, The Director, The Storyteller, Bloody Mary, and The Usher; as part of his villain group and they work together to take advantage of the chaos, kill the gods, gain the powers of Cruentus and rule the world. However, unbeknownst to anybody, Bloody Mary secretly plans to betray the Icons, either by waiting for the right time to backstab them or just simply letting them be picked off one by one by the hero of the picture, so that she can steal the power for herself and kill the gods then take over Terra Cruentus as its new and eternal Terra Queen.
And as for the presentation of the overarching story, this plot would be featured in several movies or levels where each Icon does their own schtick, control a bunch of monsters from 05’s event, and are picked off by the heroes one by one until the final or penultimate stage where they reach Jack himself, and then Mary does something (assuming she’s not extra dead or imprisoned at this point). Maybe an encounter with the gods later, IDK. And as for the TV option, was thinking of something as a “Monster of the Week” show harkening back to shows like Buffy with the Icons serving as the “Arc Villains” of the first two seasons popping in periodically between episodes here and there.