Cover shows various First Age heroes and villains flying or running towards the reader, same basic look as the Second Age Sourcebook. ____________________________________________________________________________ .|, COHERENT An ASHistory Series --+------------------------------------------------------------------------- '|` SUPER STORIES First Heroic Age Sourcebook copyright 2010 by Dave Van Domelen ____________________________________________________________________________ Latest Update: 2/2/10 (ADA, Thomas L. Morrow added) In the same vein as the Second Heroic Age Sourcebook, this document started as a private reference and slowly got banged into shape for public consumption. Like that file, this is divided into General Topics (groups, places, concepts, etc), Characters and Timeline. It should be noted that the tack taken in telling stories of the First Age has varied. The Beacon miniseries shifted style each issue, trying to convey more of a pulp feel and later a golden age feel. On the other hand, tales from Coherent Super Stories set in this Age are meant to evoke the 1970s revisionism seen in Marvel's Invaders title, and later seen in the 1970s and 1980s with DC's All-Star Squadron. GENERAL TOPICS List: The First Heroic Age, Aliens, Anchor, Bakajin, Division 13, Edison Project, Freedom Alliance, Knights of the Thule, Mad Science, Manhattan Project, MTO, Mysteryman, OSS, Paranormal/ Supernormal, Pentagon, Second Squad, Teams, Tesla Index, Ubermenschen, Zeroth Heroic Age The First Heroic Age: 1938-1947, the first era of significant superhuman activity in modern times. The Second Heroic Age ran from 1967 to 1976, the third from 1986-1998, and the Fourth started in 2022. The science hero Beacon had been active in the 1920s and early 1930s, first going "costumed" in 1928, but it wasn't until Minuteman and the Second Squad came onto the scene in 1938 that the Age was considered to be underway. Most of the "Mysterymen" of the First Age either lacked powers or had only minor enhancements, and most of the more effective ones relied on special devices. It was not known during this age what the common link between superhumans was, and many superhumans claimed origins later revealed to be delusional or outright fabrications. For instance, the Nazi Zukunftmench claimed to have come from the future, when he actually made use of supertech created by either him or one of the other "mad scientists" in Nazi employ. This age was marked by a wild sense of possibility, when you could pass off any crazy story as your origin and have half a chance of being believed, since a lot of the crazy stuff was true. Prior to the outbreak of actual war, the activities of Mysterymen tended for focus on crimebusting and fighting saboteurs, but during the war a sort of secondary "theater of operations" seemed to open up to accomodate the battles of Allied and Axis heroes. It should be noted that the First Heroic Age was never referred to as such until after the Second Heroic Age was well underway. It was sometimes called just "the Heroic Age" during the years 1947-1968. The remaining entries are in alphabetical order. Aliens: While some supernormals claimed to have been empowered by extraterrestrials, there was no actual contact with other worlds during this Age. In 1947, a Scytharian trade ship was discovered in Libya by those who were in the process of founding Khadam, but they had no idea at the time who had once owned the ship. Anchor: This term was unknown to any but the mysterious Conclave and a select few others during this age (Division 13 was aware of it). With very few people really aware of the nature of superhuman abilities, there was no real reason to think that there was a consistent way to counter them. A few exorcists and other holy persons with Anchor abilties used their talent against demonic possession and evil magic, however. Due to the general level of "normalcy" following the spiritualism of the Victorian Age (as evidenced by the ease with which Houdini, a non-Anchor, debunked mediums), Anchors were not born in large quantities and were therefore fairly uncommon during the First Age. Even families with historically strong Anchor tendencies birthed normals in this time. Bakajin: See Ubermenschen. These were Japanese superhumans created using German research, late in the war. Bakajin was not their official title, but rather a derogatory nickname given them by Allied Mysterymen. It means, roughly, "idiot people". Not that Bakajin were generally mentally defective (although some were), rather that the process tended to be fatal within a month of completion, making one a fool to want to undergo it. Bogatyr: A Soviet Mysteryman, after the term for medieval Russian heroes. It is thought that Stalinist purges in the 1930s were a major reason the Bogatyr were never significant in numbers or individual power. Lysenko's efforts to create Bogatyr were spectacularly unsuccessful, even when using stolen Ubermensch program data. Division 13: An arm of the Office of Strategic Services tasked with investigating the supernatural. Beacon became a member in late 1939, and Johnny Angel joined on an intermittent basis in 1940. Led by the mage John Doe, and occasionally assisted by the enigmatic Wanderer, they preferred to remain behind the scenes (something that Johnny Angel wasn't so good at). Officially, Division 13 does not exist, because officially, the paranormal does not exist. Edison Project: A sort of weird sister to the Manhattan Project, this group was initially tasked with figuring out how to make Nikola Tesla's "death ray" work, but when they stumbled on his notes about the Magene they were attached to Division 13. They made little progress with either their original task or the Magene during the war, but when the OSS was dissolved at the end of the war, most of Division 13's personnel were transferred to the Edison Project, which became an autonomous bureau. Freedom Alliance: The only major supernormal team to be organized in the United States. Membership tended to shift some, but the core members were Lady Lawful I, Centurion, the Gauntlet, Minuteman and Johnny Angel. Lack of strong leadership and the fact that they were largely a publicity exercise kept the team from ever being very effective outside of a few engagements, and the heroes mainly operated solo or with other groups, such as the Second Squad or Division 13. Knights of the Thule: Nazi occultists, one of several branches of the SS that was concerned with amassing mystical power. They went rogue in 1940 while courting the goddess Nyx, and the organization's survivors were heavily purged in the wake of this event. Afterwards, they were more of an information gathering and treasure hunting group, lacking the raw mystic power or political independence to partake in direct action. Mad Science: A primary expression of the magene in the First Heroic Age was through scientific achievement that was at best irreproducible and at worst outright insane. Many frustrated geniuses swore revenge on the fools that laughed at them when it turned out that no one could replicate their results. Due to the fragile sanity of many practitioners, there was something of a stigma attached to those practicing science beyond the borders, and many with the talent for mad science hid it, or tried to pass their more outlandish results off as alien technology or even magical artifacts. Many Mysterymen owed their powers or equipment to the fruits of mad science. Manhattan Project: This progressed much as it did in the real world. The contributions of "mad science" averaged out to zero, since for every genius who advanced the work, there was a paranormal whose inventions wouldn't work properly for others. By 1942, most of the paranormal types had been moved to the Edison Project, as it was starting to become apparent that mad science and regular science might not always be compatible. MTO: "Mysterymen Theater of Operations", an informal term that referred to how the battles between Allied and Axis superhumans tended to take place in their own sphere, rarely impacting or impacted by regular army or navy actions. The higher mobility of many Mysterymen meant that many MTO engagements took place deep into the home territory of one of the sides, usually Allied. Just as the air war was largely a sideshow in WWI with some tactical and strategic benefit, the MTO was splashy and got attention while only having minor effects on the outcome of WWII. ETO and PTO refer to the European and Pacific Theaters of Operation, respectively. Mysteryman: Anyone who put on a costume to fight crime or the Axis. Later came to be applied to Axis superhumans as well, and was a general term used to refer to superhumans, even though some Mysterymen lacked powers. However, given the lack of knowledge on what constituted the boundary between powered and normal, a number of otherwise normal Mysterymen were able to convince people they had some sort of knack or power. OSS: The Office of Strategic Services, an umbrella organization that brought together the somewhat scattered U.S. intelligence assets such as the Army's Signals Intelligence Service and the Navy's OP-20-G. It also revived assets lost when the State Department's MI-8 was disbanded in 1929. In the real world, the OSS was formed in 1942 in response to comments made to Roosevelt by Canadian spymaster William Stephenson. However, in the ASH Universe, the various paranormal threats that arose in the 1930s accelerated the creation of the organization. Most importantly, the growing power of the Knights of the Thule convinced John Doe and others that a centralized group was needed to coordinate response to threats that were too small-scale for the military to deal with but too powerful for the police. In 1939, Roosevelt signed orders forming the OSS, and secret orders forming Division 13 of the OSS. Paranormal/Supernormal: Terms not really in use during this age. "Mysteryman" was used instead. Pentagon: The home of the War Department was built for mystical reasons as much as practical ones. The shape was intended to be the focus for powerful anti-scrying spells, to keep the Knights of the Thule from magically spying on war planning. Division 13 played a large role in its construction, and moved its headquarters to a secret bunker under the center of the Pentagon in late 1942, a few months ahead of the official completion (January 15, 1943). Second Squad, the: A group of enhanced humans who aided Minuteman and sometimes undertook missions of their own. Supposedly the subjects of a refined version of the Minuteman process, less powerful but also with a lower mortality rate. In truth, the process was inevitably fatal when applied to anyone over the age of three months, and members of the Second Squad rarely lived more than two years after induction. However, their missions were of such a risky nature, especially after America entered the war, that they tended to die in action instead of from the genetic tampering. Members of the Second Squad concealed their identities in large part to let their successors pass themselves off as the same men. Prior to the end of the war, official news sources only reported the deaths of five members, all due to enemy action. In truth, over twenty Squadders died before the program was retired in 1945. Teams: There weren't a lot of teams, in part because the density of Mysterymen was rarely high enough in any one area to warrant it. The Freedom Alliance was created mostly as a propaganda tool and to face the occasional serious supernormal threat. The Second Squad was Minuteman's support team, more akin to sidekicks than a regular superhero team, and Division 13 was as covert as it could manage to be. Axis teams tended to be short-lived, and also more an exercise in propaganda than an actual strategic asset. Tesla Index: This scale was not invented until after the end of the First Heroic Age. Ubermenschen: Overmen, supermen, what have you. Various products of Nazi super-science as they attempted to create superhumans. These soldiers tended to be even shorter-lived than members of the Second Squad, and their powers varied erratically...even within an individual, who might be very powerful on one day and little better than a well-trained normal the next. This research was later transferred to the Japanese, although it didn't work as well on non-Aryans. The so-called Bakajin were even more unstable and shorter lived than their German cousins. "Zeroeth Heroic Age": Not coined until during the Second Heroic Age, this unofficial term refers to the very limited activity seen between 1900 and 1938, largely behind-the-scenes struggles of a mystical nature. It is known that the Wanderer and Doctor Huang Sheng were both active during this time, as was Beacon. Sometimes also called the "Pulp Age" after the popular media of the day. It has also sometimes been stretched to include the occultism of the earlier Victorian years and postbellum America. CHARACTERS These will be presented alphabetically by codename where there is one, or by last name when there isn't a codename. When the post-First-Age activities of the character are known, they'll be lumped into the final paragraph of the background. Following the list of more detailed entries will be shorter entries for characters who haven't been developed as much yet, or who are more accurately part of a different Heroic Age. http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/ASH/gallery/firstage.html has art for some of these characters. Full entries: Beacon, Centurion, The Gauntlet, Johnny Angel, Minuteman (Public), Minuteman (True), Nyx, Z-Man. Short entries: ADA, Silvio Archangeli, Boss Cravat, John Doe, Dragon Samurai, General Eight Ox, Extortion Racquet, Horatio the Hexbreaker, Doctor Cosmo Kirby, Lady Lawful I, Malscripto, Dr. Thomas L. Morrow, Jack Ripley, Doctor Huang Sheng, Colin Surrey, the Wanderer, White Hat. Beacon AKA: Harry Parker Role: Detective, Science Adventurer, Superhero Born: 1899 Died: Unrevealed, but after 1946. Appearance: Slender build, legs partially withered. Brown hair and eyes, graying by 1940. During the 1930s wore a suit of red, white and blue armor with external coils that granted him limited mobility. Armed with various light-based weaponry, such as the Magnalux and the Light Lance. Powers: Super-scientist, later light-based powers. Background: A soldier in World War I, Harry was crippled and lost the use of his legs. Turning to academia after the war, he found a talent for experimental optical physics and developed a number of inventions later recognized to be similar to later lasers. Trouble seemed to follow him, though, and he became a consulting detective in the 1920s, a sort of scientific Sherlock Holmes, clashing with various criminals and cultists. Notable foes included the serial killer Midnight and several groups of Nyx cultists. In the 1930s, he refined his devices into a suit of armor that gave him the ability to walk, albeit jerkily, and a more portable laser weapon he called his Light Lance. As the first "costumed hero", his activities largely predated the official onset of the First Heroic Age in 1938. During the early pre-war days he worked with Division 13 to hunt down Nyx cultists and other occult threats, finally discovering that what he had thought was advanced science on his part was more akin to magic. The realization caused a crisis of faith, and his exoskeletal armor ceased to work properly for him, so he turned to laboratory work. He developed most of the gear worn by The Gauntlet, patterned in part after his own Beacon armor. After the post-war dissolution of Division 13, he joined the Edison Project along with many of his coworkers. Centurion AKA: Rico Calvano, Bert Calvano, Tony Russo, Tony Calvano, Joey Calvano, Sal Russo Role: Superhero Born: Variable, between 1917 and 1923 Died: 1941 (three times), 1944, 1945 Appearance: Curly black hair, brown eyes, swarthy complexion. Height varies between 5'10" and 6'1". Wears armor based on that of a Roman Centurion, but with steel plates under the linen armor of the chest. Powers: None Background: On the eve of WWII, the Calvano brothers of Little Italy in Manhattan wanted to serve their country, but they had a little problem. Namely, cousins fairly high up in the Mussolini government, which brought them under suspicion even among the Italian-American community. Rico, the eldest, was inspired by the exploits of Minuteman and the Second Squad to become a Mysteryman himself, crafting a suitably Italian (but non-Fascist) costumed identity from a Halloween costume and some boiler plates. His career was splashy and rather short, as he was shot in the head by a criminal in late 1940. His brother Bert picked up the sword, improved the armor and charged into action, creating and fostering the myth that the Centurion was immortal and could recover from even fatal injuries. He lasted about five months before meeting his end in a car wreck on the way to a crime scene. Bert was quickly replaced by his cousin Tony Russo, who was tragically underprepared and died on his first outing. Tony Calvano, who learned from his cousin's mistakes, spent several months honing his skills before doing anything more dangerous than publicity appearances, and managed to last longer than any of the Centurions. However, in joining the Freedom Alliance, he was vaulted into the world of the superhuman, and even his training and experience was insufficient, leading to his death in 1944 at the hands of one of the Bakajin. Joey Calvano replaced him for several months before retiring to marry his childhood sweetheart. Sal Russo was the last Centurion, dying in the Pacific Theater on a mission with the Freedom Alliance. Joey came out of retirement a few times for bond rallies and the like before the war ended, but never went into actual danger again. In 1954, Joey wrote "The Heroic Century" about his time as the Centurion and as a biography of his brothers and cousins. One of Tony's old enemies came looking for vengeance in the wake of this revelation, but was stopped by Lady Lawful I. The Third Age hero Centurion (AKA the original Strafe) had no ties to the Calvanos or Russos, but may have been subconsciously influenced by them when his supernatural powers erupted in 1990. The Gauntlet AKA: Kevin Bakker Role: Superhero Born: 1927 Died: Unrevealed Appearance: 5'11" and bulky, like a linebacker, with brown hair and blue eyes. Typically wore green and brown armor and a gold-colored device strapped to his right forearm. A modified "soup pot" helmet, mask and goggles conceal his face. Powers: Electrical generation, Gauntlet weapon Background: Kevin was a big boy, fast-growing and a little awkward. He tended to get teased in school because he looked like a much older child who had been held back, despite being slightly smarter than normal for his age, although the teasing slacked off when he started playing football. When Pearl Harbor was attacked, he tried to sign up for the Army despite being only 14 years old, and since he looked like an adult he got past the initial screening. However, when his parents came looking for him, the truth came out, and he was gently told to come back in a few years. Before he could start to get over this, Kevin was contacted by John Doe of Division 13, who suspected the young man might be a superhuman. Testing showed that in addition to his unnaturally quick maturation and impressive strength, he could generate powerful electric currents within his body. Unfortunately, he couldn't really release them in any practical way. Looking to replace Beacon as a field agent, Doe had Harry Parker design a modified Light Lance that drew power directly from Kevin's body via a surgically implanted socket. With this "Gauntlet" and a modified set of Beacon's old armor, Kevin became The Gauntlet, supposedly given his technology by an alien race devoted to fighting oppression and promoting civilization throughout the universe. This was partly for propaganda reasons, but also in order to deflect attention from the possibility that the power resided within Kevin himself. Thanks to his nearly superhuman strength, Kevin was able to carry a heavier weight of armor than Beacon had, which saved his life on several occasions. The Gauntlet itself underwent modifications over the years, gaining additional offensive and defensive capabilities. It initially had a Light Lance, an electrical stunner and a magnetic field generator, and kept those capabilities throughout the war. Later additions included strobes, grappling lines, pneumatic air-blasters and even a flamethrower. By the end of the war, Kevin was only 19 but looked like he was approaching middle age. He retired from active duty and worked with Project Edison to try to understand his powers and halt his rapid aging, but it has not been revealed if they were successful. Johnny Angel AKA: John Travers, Hellbound Role: Superhero Born: 1920 Died: 1939 (supposedly), 1945 (banished), 1998 (finally) Appearance: 5'6", slender, with blond hair and blue eyes, a general "kid next door" look. Wore a pale blue aviator's jacket with gray pants and a blue domino mask. Powers: Enhanced agility, teleportation (later replaced by flame control) Background: In 1939, John Travers was a pilot in the U.S. Army Air Corps who was considering mustering out and joining a foreign air force just to see some action when a mechanical problem with his fighter led to a fatal crash. However, Johnny found himself alive and in a diner some unknown distance away. When he tried to get back to his plane, he found he had suddenly translocated there, and decided he must have died. Passing out from the stress, he dreamed that the waitress from the diner (named Angel) had given him a mission to earn his wings as an angel-in-training. Calling himself Johnny Angel, John set out working to earn those wings. He soon came to the attention of Division 13, who hired him as an occasional agent, although he pointed out that he already had a job and a boss. Still, he figured the guy upstairs worked in mysterious ways, and probably intended Division 13 to help point him at stuff that needed doing. Not to mention, since he wasn't a full angel yet, he still needed to eat and sleep, so having a little money in his pocket couldn't hurt. Of course, John was really a supernormal teleporter who had instinctively teleported to safety during the crash, but it would be years before he truly believed that. Tragically, shortly after that acceptance, he was banished to a hellscape dimension by a sorceror while helping the time- traveling ASH of 1990 prevent a demonic apocalypse. His already damaged faith was strongly tested by 45 years of torment and combat against the native demons before he was freed by ASH. With powers gained during his exile, he became the flame-wielding Hellbound. He left ASH in 1992, and presumably vanished in 1998 with all other paranormals. Note: in ASH #50 reference is made to "Johnny Angel's ring of teleportation". This artifact never belonged to Johnny Angel, but was misattributed to him by a later owner. Minuteman (Public) AKA: Charles Grey Role: Actor Born: 1917 Died: Not established Appearance: Light brown hair, blue eyes, movie star good looks. Wears an olive green bodysuit with black gloves and boots, and black helmet. Powers: Minor physical enhancement. Background: In 1936, a strange green meteor fell in Alaska, where it was recovered by government scientists who noticed that gases emanating from it had caused mutations in the local wildlife. Refining the chemicals, they created a formula that could give a man nearly superhuman physical abilities...or kill him. Several men volunteered to serve their country, and one survived to become the Minuteman! A weakened version of the chemicals was then used to create his helpers, the Second Squad. This, of course, is all a lie. The true origin of the Minuteman can be found below. When Dr. Huang Sheng offered his son Chieng as a superhuman agent in the fight against Japan in 1938, it was clear that there were many reasons Chieng's identity could not be revealed. After crafting the Minuteman identity, the U.S. government found a convincing actor to play the role in public appearances, and subjected him to a much-weakened version of the process that created the Second Squad. Charles Grey was that actor, classically trained and a decent acrobat to boot, skills that were further honed so that he could put on a good show at rallies. And he was an almost exact match for the dimensions Chieng presented while in his padded uniform and elevator boots. Minuteman (True) AKA: Chieng (Jiang) Sheng Role: Superhero Born: 1921 Died: 1998 (sort of) Appearance: Slender and muscular Chinese man, wearing a padded olive green uniform with black boots, gloves and all-concealing helmet to make him appear two inches taller and more "beefy". The costume never comes off in public. Powers: "Perfected" human, longevity Background: See Second Age Sourcebook for general details. Unknown to the public, and even to Chieng's later allies in the Second Age, he was the true man in the Minuteman costume during World War II and the leadup to it. Still obedient to his father at this time, he played the part of patriotic American hero to better fight the Japanese, and was mostly active on the Pacific Rim. Due to the fact that Doctor Sheng's genetic perfection formula could not be made to work non-fatally on adults, it was impossible to give those abilities to someone "acceptable" and Chieng was placed in a fully concealing costume to be the lead Mysteryman of the government. He was assisted by the Second Squad, adults subjected to later versions of the genetic processes that had created him, at the cost of vastly shortened lifespans. Charles Gray played his public face. It is likely that his time as Minuteman helped plant the seeds of rebellion that bloomed at the dawn of the Second Heroic Age. There is no evidence that Chieng ever resented being asked to hide his true face, even in later years. When the truth came out in the mid-1980s, he modestly withdrew from the public eye until the furor died down. With the isolation of DNA in the 1950s, Doctor Sheng was finally able to devise a less fatal version of the process, but did not match his successes with Chieng until the 1980s. Nyx AKA: Nox (Roman), Dark Lady (unconfirmed) Role: Goddess of Darkness Born: Unknown Died: Unknown Appearance: Whatever she desires, usually a feminine shadow. Powers: Fullblood Mage, with vast powers over time and space. Her specific portfolio is darkness. She rarely acts directly, due to the need to focus most of her attention on the ongoing wars of the gods, acting through avatars and worshippers. Background: Born of Chaos, wife and sister of Erebus (Darkness) and mother of Momus (blame), Ponos (toil), Moros (fate), Thanatos (death), Hypnos (sleep), the Oneiroi (tribe of dreams), the Fates, Eris (strife) and many others, a mostly unpleasant brood. While not the most prominent of the Greek pantheon, even Zeus fears her wrath, suggesting her powers are greater than would be suggested by the mere accumulation of worshippers. In the early part of the 20th Century, Nyx started courting worshippers and cults in various parts of the world, empowering worshippers such as the killer known as Midnight, the Blue Mound cult in Wisconsin, and the Knight of the Thule known as Ritternacht (Night Knight). She was repeatedly opposed by Beacon. In China in 1935, Jack Ripley encountered followers of a "Dark Lady" who shares characteristics with Nyx. However, it is unknown whether Nyx was dabbling in Chinese affairs or if there was an unrelated demon of darkness active in China. Z-Man AKA: Zukunftmensch, Hermann Richter Role: Nazi "Superhero" Born: 1946 (claimed), 1916 (true) Died: Unrevealed Appearance: Blond haired, blue-eyed Aryan specimen, 6'0" tall and well- muscled. Tended to dress in a mix of anachronistic fashions, such as bell-bottom jeans, disco shirts and tie-dyed headbands. Powers: Super-inventor Background: In 1939, a strange thing happened. A number of Panzer units vanished during the invasion of Poland, only to return just as mysteriously a few days later. They claimed to have visited the future, one in which Germany lost the war but seemed to be doing fairly well for itself in the peace, despite decades of troubles. While they had no hard proof of any of this, mesmerists were able to extract a number of interesting details, and the few "mad scientists" Hitler could trust were tasked with attempting to replicate the technology the tank crews had seen. Hermann Richter was far from the most talented of that group, but he had a flash of inspiration. Much of the information gleaned from the "lost Panzers" was useless trivia, but it could be used to fabricate a convincing case that one had traveled back in time. Suggesting this to his superiors, he was assigned the job of crafting such an identity, and hence "Futureman" was born. As Zukunftmench, or Z-Man, Hermann used the trappings of the future to bolster his claims to be from a future in which the Reich won the war. His actual technology was contemporary mad science, but he peppered his descriptions with future-jargon and claimed to have brought the devices with him or built them from plans he brought. He didn't always do so in a sensible way, though, talking about things like "transistor-powered strength". He designed some of his own gear, but it was mostly built by more capable (but less photogenic) colleagues. The following characters are, as yet, not important enough to merit full entries, or they have entries in the Second Age Sourcebook and need only a few notes here to add a detail or two. Or they simply haven't been nailed down yet. :) ADA (Advanced Difference-Engine Autosophont): The first true machine consciousness created by modern humanity, ADA was built by Charles Babbage (real historical figure) shortly after the death of his longtime collaborator Ada Lovelace, with funding from Thomas L. Morrow. ADA's impact on her own era is unknown. Archangeli, Silvio: A member of the Army's Signals Intelligence Service and founding agent of Division 13. Unlike his infamous grandson Pino and great-grandson Lorenzo, Silvio was either not an Anchor at all, or such a minor one that it never became apparent. Worked with John Doe during the mid to late 1930s, and was attached to the Minuteman project. Boss Cravat: British national who set himself up as a faux aristocratic gang leader in New York City in the mid 1930s, affecting Victorian-style dress. Fought Beacon a few times before finally being put away for good by Minuteman in 1938. Doe, John: A mage whose talents mainly extended to the realm of scrying, he was a natural spy and rose quickly through America's disorganized intelligence services during the 1930s. When the Office of Strategic Services was formed in 1939 (in large part due to his behind the scenes efforts), he was named head of its "Division 13", concerned with mystic threats. Doe joined the Edison Project when Division 13 was dissolved after World War II, his fate after that is unknown. A master of disguise, it's an ironic quirk of fate that John Doe is his real name, since everyone assumed it was an alias. Dragon Samurai: A man born too late, he would have been far more comfortable during Shogunate Japan instead of the Meiji era of his birth. Versed in secret ki-manipulation techniques, he could wield a katana better than any man alive, and was even rumored to be able to deflect bullets with his blade. In the 1930s, despite being well into middle age, he became an agent of the Imperial Japanese Army, mostly for propaganda purposes, but also useful on covert missions in enemy territory, where a swift blade was more subtle than a gun. He clashed with the Freedom Alliance on several occasions, later backed by "Bakajin". Prior to the end of the war he escaped an assassination attempt sent by his own superiors, who feared he might try to take control amid the rising chaos, and fled to Southeast Asia. Crafting a new identity for himself there, he would later pass his secrets on to Chuck Morse, the "Weapons Master" of the Second Heroic Age. Eight Ox, General: A warlord in southwestern China, near the border with Bhutan, in the 1930s. Due to the isolation of his territory, he was largely left alone by the Nationalists, Communists and Japanese in 1935, although this situation eventually would have to change. He may or may not be the same person as Premier Niu in 2026. Extortion Racquet: A gimmick criminal and occasional foe of Centurion's, he used tennis-themed devices and plans. A bored socialite who'd stolen from friends a few times during the Depression, he found he liked the thrill of it, and got deeper and deeper into crime for psychological reasons, not out of need. When Mysterymen started popping up, he decided he needed a costume as well, and became the Extortion Racquet. Horatio the Hexbreaker: Active in the late 1920s, it has not been revealed whether he was an Anchor or a mage specializing in counterspells. Either way, he was knowledgeable about magic and the workings of the gods. He was able to resist Colin Surrey's "curse" and remember the man. Kirby, Doctor Cosmo: A so-called "mad scientist" who created the Enhancement Belt used by Lady Lawful. While creating his second belt, he was driven insane and became a mad scientist in fact as well as in name. Lady Lawful I: See the Second Age Sourcebook. She was 18 when she got the Enhancement Belt in 1941, and quickly became one of the more visible Mysterymen. She was also the only female Mysteryman of note, although there were a few others who came and went without leaving much of an impression, such as Red Widow. Malscripto: Frustrated playwright who came into possession of a pot of magical ink that let him rewrite reality. Clashed repeatedly with Lady Lawful I. He didn't always have access to a supply of his magical ink, instead relying on hired goons and "gimmick crimes," so his power level varied drastically through his career. The Second Age villain "The Hack" inherited the formula for Malscripto's ink, and in turn passed it on (willingly or not) to the Third Age villainess "Scriptalicious". Morrow, Dr. Thomas L.: "The Shadow Earl of Galloway", he displaced Adam Worth as Doyle's inspiration for Professor Moriarty in the ASH Universe. A "Zeroeth Age" villain, he funded the later works of Charles Babbage for his own nefarious purposes. Red Widow: Laverne Bishop, active for a few months in 1944 in the Miami area. She had no powers, relying on rope tricks and a pistol, plus the distraction value of her somewhat skimpy costume. Gave up on it when she had one brush with death too many, but had one last case in 1946. While she never used a whip, a few mistaken newspaper articles (and perhaps some wishful thinking) caused the weapon to become associated with her. Ripley, Jack: AKA Jack of All Trades, (fictional) younger brother of the famous Robert LeRoy Ripley of "Believe It Or Not" fame. After an experience in India in 1925, he gained the ability to copy the skills of anyone with whom he made skin to skin contact, along with any memories specifically tied to those skills. He could not copy personal memories, but he could make inferences about a person based on what they'd learned in pursuit of the borrowed skills. Once his older brother became too famous to travel covertly, Jack took over many of the more fantastic expeditions in search of the odd and unusual, including a fair share of "or not" stories. He likely worked with John Doe during WWII, assuming he didn't die before the war. Sheng, Doctor Huang: See the Second Age Sourcebook. He lent his scientific expertise and the services of his son to the United States to aid in the fight against the Japanese, who Huang detested. Primarily acted deep behind the scenes in this era. Surrey, Colin: Also known as The Forgotten Man. A former police officer in Hawaii who was seemingly cursed by vengeful gods to be forgotten by the world until such time as he redeemed himself. He later discovered that the curse was his own doing, untrained mystic powers combined with his own guilt to cast a worldwide spell of forgetfulness. He may be the same man as John Doe, having overcome his guilt and started to learn to use his powers properly. If that is the case, then "John Doe" really is an alias, despite claims to the contrary. The Wanderer: See the Second Age Sourcebook. Worked with Division 13 on occasion, but was not officially or even unofficially on their payroll. White Hat: Dirk Landon, along with the ghost of his murdered uncle Abe Landon. A hero of the "Zeroeth Age" active from 1895-1910, after which he changed tactics and made movies that fictionalized his struggle against his uncle's murderer. The movies succeeded in ruining the killer where the law had failed to bring justice, but eventually Abe's thirst for vengeance proved too great (see CSS #12 for details). Most people think he's fictional, only film buffs and historians know the truth behind the movies. TIMELINE - Prior to 1938 - Harry Parker has a career as a consulting detective in the 1920s, followed by a costumed adventuring career as Beacon in the 1930s. He frequently clashes with cultists of the darkness goddess Nyx. Jack Ripley travels the world in search of the weird and wonderful, often encountering things too outlandish for publication in "Believe It Or Not". John Doe works for both the Army and Navy signals intelligence branches as well as the Secret Service, all under different identities, and manipulates events to ensure the early creation of the OSS. - 1938 - The First Heroic Age is considered to start with the introduction of Minuteman. The Sino-Japanese War is well underway, but the mood of Europe is still guarded, with Hitler taking territory without overt fighting. July 4: Minuteman and the Second Squad are introduced to the public. August 3: Minuteman and the Second Squad fight Boss Cravat in their first public case. Via careful media management, it is made to look like a more impressive struggle than it really was. Almost simultaneously with the actual events, the Minuteman comic hits stands, including a highly fictionalized account of the conflict as its lead story (October cover date). - 1939 - World War II starts. The Office of Strategic Services is formed. The Knights of the Thule are approached by the goddess Nyx, and start to drift away from their loyalties to Germany. September 1: Germany invades Poland, "officially" starting WWII. A number of Panzer units fall through a crack in time to 2026, returning a few days later. October 13: John Travers goes down on a training flight and is listed as MIA, as no body is found. Johnny Angel starts his activities on the West Coast. - 1940 - The war heats up, with the Axis powers making large strides. Some Axis Mysterymen appear, but mainly seem to be propaganda tools. April 12: Centurion first spotted in action. September 13: Ritternacht is created in Macedonia and defeated. The Knights of the Thule are heavily purged in the aftermath of this. October 2: Z-Man's first appearance in the skies over London. - 1941 - The United States enters the war at year's end. Mysterymen appear in growing numbers during this year, and while most are simply talented normals a few have genuine powers. April 1: Centurion dies of a gunshot to the face. April 9: Centurion returns to action. In reality, it's not the original man, but the replacement pretends to be the original, fostering the myth of Centurion's immortality. May 2: June Hartworth obtains the Enhancement Belt, which will turn her into Lady Lawful. May 3: Lady Lawful first introduced to the public. November 21: The second Centurion dies in a car accident, but the public does not know that he was Centurion. December 6: The third Centurion vanishes on his first mission, presumed dead. The news is buried by events of the next day. December 7: Japan bombs Pearl Harbor. December 8: The United States enters WWII. - 1942 - The Centurion spends most of his time the first several months of this year training, making public appearances at war bond rallies and the like, but not actually fighting crime or saboteurs. The war starts to show signs ot turning around. May 10: The Gauntlet makes his first public appearance, apparently arriving from space and landing in the middle of a Brooklyn Dodgers game. May 14: The Centurion stops Agent K from blowing up the Manhattan dockyards. September 28: Division 13 moves into their new headquarters under the still incomplete Pentagon. - 1943 - The Freedom Alliance is formed. Lady Lawful, Centurion, The Gauntlet, Johnny Angel and Minuteman are charter members. The Italian front is opened, and Japanese expansion in the Pacific is reversed. January 15: The Pentagon is dedicated. With War Department operations moved there, planning is significantly shielded against mystic scrying, denying the Axis a major intelligence asset. - 1944 - The war is going against the Axis in all theaters and on all fronts, but desperation breeds invention. Japan starts to use the fearsome Bakajin, and Nazi Ubermenschen acquire greater powers but greater insanity. March 13: The fourth Centurion dies in the Pacific Theater, fighting Dragon Samurai and a squad of Bakajin. June 6: The D-Day invasion at Normandy. July-September: The Red Widow is active in Miami, Florida. She's more notable for her costume than her accomplishments. - 1945 - Germany and Japan seem determined to go down fighting, and mad science gives both powers the potential to wreak horrible vengeance as they fall. For every superweapon the public hears about, there's ten that are nipped in the bud by the actions of the Freedom Alliance and other Mysterymen. January 1: The fourth Centurion retires, quietly passing the sword on to another. March 21: The Freedom Alliance and the time-traveling Academy of Super-Heroes (from 1990) prevent a major demonic invasion centered on Chicago. Out of spite, the thwarted sorcerer behind the attempt banishes Johnny Angel to a hellish realm, where he remains trapped for 45 years. April 2: The Centurion is killed during action in the Home Islands of Japan, preventing the Japanese from developing a nuclear weapon. The fourth Centurion agrees to put the costume back on for publicity purposes, but refuses to go back into action, as he has married and has a son on the way. April 23: The Freedom Alliance has their final combat mission. Their roster and the details of this mission have yet to be revealed. May 7/8: VE Day. The war in Europe is over. August 14/15: VJ Day. The war in Asia is over. September 2: The official surrender terms are signed by the Japanese on board the USS Missouri. Minuteman and the remaining members of the Second Squad are on hand. September 3: Chieng Sheng is recalled to China by his father, leaving behind the costume. Charles Grey continues to appear in public, with one or another of the Second Squadders wearing the costume for serious missions. October 1: The Freedom Alliance is disbanded. - 1946 - With the war over, Division 13 is dissolved and integrated into Project Edison. Centurion publicly retires. The Gauntlet ceases making public appearances but does not officially retire. Minuteman shifts his activities to fighting Communist agents, but the program is largely shut down. No further volunteers are subjected to the lethal enhancement process. - 1947 - The last surviving member of the Second Squad dies of the effects of his enhancement. Minuteman officially retires, ending the Second Heroic Age. By this point, the only Mysteryman still active is Lady Lawful, although the Gauntlet does some behind the scenes work with the Edison Project. Lady Lawful "inherits" a number of surviving mad scientists and other villains from retired or dead Mysterymen, enough to keep her active until the Second Age. ============================================================================= Author's Notes: A bit sparser on the timeline than the Second Age Sourcebook, but I'm releasing this after only a single Mega-Sized issue, so that's going to happen. :) I was inspired to get into this in part by Eric Burns's "Home Front" stories, posted to his Banter Latte site, although the forces have been building for a while now. There's a definite move in comics to look back to the Golden Age...December's supposed to see two separate "mining the obscure Golden Age publishers for material" series, one from Marvel and one from Dynamite Entertainment, for instance. [Later note: one of these, Project Superpowers, is still going strong but I've given up on reading it. The other, The Twelve, is in limbo, neither finished nor cancelled, as of late 2009.] One of these days, I should get around to doing something like this for the Fourth Age. When I have a spare year to spend doing nothing else on ASH.... [Later note: Well, ash.wikidot.com is "something like this" for the Fourth Age, albeit without a timeline.] ============================================================================ For all the back issues, plus additional background information, art, and more, go to http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/ASH ! To discuss this issue or any others, either just hit "followup" to this post, or check out our Yahoo discussion group, which can be found at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ash_stories/ ! There's also a LiveJournal interest group for ASH, check it out at http://www.livejournal.com/interests.bml?int=academy+of+super-heroes ============================================================================