THE WOLD
By Dennis E. Power
and Dr. Peter Coogan
*some entries will be
reduced when articles are written.
1881 Abednego Danner injects his pregnant wife with a serum he
had created to give his unborn child the relative strength of an insect.
1882 Abednego Danner delivered the child himself. Matilda Danner
has a difficult birth and she hemorrhages. Danner is forced to rush her to the
hospital where she lies in a coma. The baby had been born with a cord around
his neck and Danner knows that it may suffer from retardation as a result; it
is also undersized and seems no larger than any other baby. While his wife is
in a coma Danner goes a little insane. Knowing his wife will ever blame him for
their malformed child, Danner decides to put the baby for adoption. He travels
by train to
1884
Baby Hugo is adopted by society banker Preston Harvard .
When Preston Harvard and his wife die under mysterious circumstances young
Bingham Harvard inherits their fortune. Bingham is placed under the foster care
of Sterling Chester, Preston Harvard's best friend and executor of his will and
trustee of Bingham's inheritance. For the purposes of this timeline even though
Bingham Harvard's real name is Hugo Danner we will refer to him as Bingham
Harvard, (although he would eventually adopt the name of Hugo Danner)
1894 Abednego Danner and his wife witness a meteorite, which
lands outside their property. They investigate and find the shattered remnants
of a ship and a small baby who miraculously survived the crash. Matilda Danner
takes this a sign that god had replaced their lost child. The Danners promptly adopt the child and name him after their
first child, Hugo, whom Matilda believes to be dead.
1900-1903
Bingham Harvard attends
1904
At his foster father's insistence, Bingham Harvard studies finance and business
management at Harvard's school of business. His first love however is chemistry
and biology. In
1905
After graduating from Harvard business school Bingham Harvard takes a job in
his foster father's
1907
Thursday, June 13. One hundred thousand dollars is discovered missing from the
Sterling Chester's bank. Almost immediately Detective Rodney Rushton pegs Bingham Harvard as the thief and produces
"evidence" to back his claim. Sterling Chester is persuaded that
Bingham is the thief. When the police attempt to arrest him, Bingham Harvard's
great rage manifests, he escapes, snapping the arms of policemen as he does.
1907-1908
Events of Alias, the Night Wind where Bingham Harvard is a fugitive from
justice while trying to discover the real thief. Either his rage is too great
or he just has no inkling as to carry out a true investigation and he seems to
send most of his time running around the city at night, encountering cops and
breaking their limbs. The Chief of Police assigns Detective Kate Maxwell to the
case. She and Night Wind encounter one another. She becomes convinced of his
innocence and they fall in love. Unable to find justice they leave for
1908
Six months after the end of Alias, the Night Wind, the events of
The
Return of the Night Wind take place. Kate Maxwell returns to
investigate the charges and evidence against Bingham Harvard. He also returns
but has a lesser role. Rodney Rushton the police
detective is discovered to have been the actual embezzler working with several
bank employees. Sterling Chester had still been reluctant to believe Bingham
was innocent, despite Rushton having put the grift on him for 500 dollars a month.
1911 Arn Munro born to Anna Blake Munro, The Munros
have relocated to
1911
Events of The Night Wind's Promise.[1]
Bingham Harvard is now President of the Bank. Sterling Chester has most likely
retired. Bingham Harvard has Rodney Rushton released
to help investigate the defrauding of an old friend of Sterling Chester. The
con man assumed several identities but is revealed to be the former fiancée of
Kate Maxwell. Bingham Harvard has a reversal of attitude about Rodney Rushton, the man who whom he had once hated with such a
degree he had intended to kill him slowly and methodically. Rushton
had dogged Bingham as fugitive to hide his own guilt and ruined Bingham's good
name. Yet Bingham had him released on probation to solve a crime. This was
because he discovered that Sterling Chester was not as
1912
Hugo Danner has a short tryst with Iris Carraway.
Iris is a party girl and has had multiple sex partners in a short period of
time. She does not know who the father of her child is, so she latches onto the
richest boy she knows, Christopher Carson. Their son Fred is born later that
year.
1912
Hugo Danner becomes involved with Charlotte Linders
and they pretend to me man and wife while Hugo works as a carnival strongman
under the name Hogarth. Finding herself pregnant
1913
Valentine Mitchell abandons
August 1914- Hugo Danner joins the French Foreign Legion. Weeks later he discovers
he is bulletproof.
Spring 1915 Danner at Blaisencourt.
Summer 1915 Danner at Aix-au-Dixvaches.
Winter 1916 Danner has received many medals.
1917
Krypton explodes from a geological instability in its core. Before it explodes
three experimental capsules containing children are sent out in the hopes of
saving a remnant of Krypton's civilization. The first capsule is an early
working model, which had been stolen from Jor-El it
contains Kalel Zod, the son
of General Zod and destined ruler of the Earth. The
second capsule is the first prototype large enough to carry two people however
contains Kara Zor-El, the fifteen year old niece of Jor-El, the last capsule contains Kal-El.
Kal-El's capsule is the fastest and will arrive years
before the others.
1917 Events of The Lady of the Night Wind. Bingham
Harvard's appearance is minimal.
Late 1917-1918 Bingham Harvard, his best friend Tom Clancy and Kate Harvard all
travel to
June 1917--Americans arrive in France, Danner transferred to
American forces.
June 1918
Bingham Harvard's world is shattered. Tom Clancy is wounded and sent to field
hospital where Kate Harvard is one of the attending nurses. Bingham is visiting
the hospital when it is shelled. Kate and Tom are among those killed. All the rage that had been in The Night Wind
rises up in Bingham Harvard as hatred against the Germans. Whereas The Night
Wind had been restrained by social convention, in a war zone Bingham felt no
constraints. He calls himself Hugo Harvard rather than by Bingham since the
name Bingham brought to mind painful memories of Kate. Known as Captain Hugo
his feats of strength and bloodlust become blended with that of Hugo Danner's, It
is in
1919
After the war Bingham Harvard discovered that Germans had not shelled the field
hospital that had killed his wife and best friend. An American artillery
commander had mistakenly shelled it. However the propaganda of blaming it on
the Germans had been very effective. The commander who had mistakenly shelled
the field hospital was not reprimanded but had been decorated for mounting an
effective counter strike, which was entirely fictional. Harvard made a stink
about this. To shut him up the Army tried to discredit him by bringing up his
Night Wind period when he had been a wanted, super strong criminal. When he
persisted despite this smear campaign they began to drop hints that since he
had been present perhaps he had been responsible for the deaths at the field
hospital, perhaps he had snapped, gone insane and killed the people at the
hospital. The man who suggested this was the man who had ordered the artillery
barrage and was now working for G-2 disseminating propaganda and
disinformation. Bingham Harvard met with this man and argued with him. He
lashed out at the man and broke his neck. He felt no remorse at all as he hid
the body.
1919 Abednego Danner dies. Hugo Danner returns to Indian Creek
for the funeral. He runs into Anna Blake Munro. She has an eight-year-old boy
that bears a remarkable resemblance to Danner. She reveals to him that
1920
Sterling Chester died of a sudden heart attack. Opening
1920-21
Post War depression. Bingham Harvard loses much of his fortune in the postwar
depression, much of it through stock speculation and commodities futures. He
becomes aware that a consortium of blue-blooded Wall Street brokers had
manipulated his fortune away from him. They had found Harvard's impugning the
reputation of Sterling Chester to be contemptible. They also were repulsed by
Harvard’s foundling birth, which at the time was a taken as a certain sign of illegitimacy. This embitters Bingham Harvard even further.
These plutocrats would later turn against the mastermind behind the stock
manipulation scheme, William Carpenter, and bilk him of his fortune.
1921-23
Bingham Harvard uses information from his foster father's hidden papers to
establish connections with the underworld. He uses his small fortune to
bankroll criminal enterprises. With the proceeds from this he and two others
revive the recently Crime Club, which had been broken up by the criminal/vigilante
Gray Seal. Bingham also creates ties to the burgeoning criminal enterprises
bolstered by bootlegging, the Syndicate and the Mafia
1921
Hugo Danner plans to release criminals from the Phantom Zone and create a race
of supermen.[3] He
is stopped by the intervention of the Legion of the Superheroes who take him to
the 30th century. He spends decades in the future undergoing
psycho-therapy and enjoying the company
other gifted individuals. Danner
eventually returns to 1921, being told by the LSH that he had a destiny to
fulfill. Considering Hugo Danner a dead man he adopts the identity that the
Legion had told him he would assume in the future, Clark Kent. Henceforth we
will refer to him as Danner/Kent for reasons of clarity despite his adoption of
the name
1922
Towards the end of the year Jimmy Dale comes out of retirement to infiltrate
and bring down the Crime Club.
1923
Jimmy Dale succeeds in exposing Bingham Harvard as a criminal financier.
Bingham Harvard breaks Dale's back, paralyzing him. He also kills two police
officers. He uses his strength to flee police custody. He breaks into his bank
at night and breaks open the vault however the police had been waiting for such
a event and Harvard is forced to flee a fusillade of gunfire. He is wounded
several times and falls into the river. He survives and realizes that taking
overt chances like that will only get him killed. Harvard flees to
While working for various
1924
Bingham Harvard learned about the death of Matilda Danner and traveled to
Indian Creek. He discovered Professor Danner's journal and also Matilda
Danner's diary. This information allowed him to know that he had been abandoned
as an infant, that he had a super powered brother who had co-opted his real
name.
While in Indian Creek, he
meets Anna Blake's younger sister Susannah. He pretends to be Hugo Danner, who
he said had faked his own death because he was wanted by the law. Intrigued
Susannah begins a love affair with him. Harvard disappears. She marries her
college sweetheart an engineer named William Collier. She will bear twin sons
Henry and William. Bill Collier will take a job with Ford Werke
AG, a German subsidiary of the Ford Motor Company. The family moves to Germany.
1925 Events of John Campbell's "Who Goes
There?" Arctic research team uncovers frozen spaceship and thaw out an
alien being. The alien being was a Founder or a related species. The newly born
protoplasmic shapechanger nearly destroys the
facility before he is defeated by a weapon devised by MacReady.
Macready was Campbell's name for Clark Wildman Jr.
just as Vance Norris was Campbell's name for Nathaniel Roberts. Doc Savage
would keep frozen tissue samples of the burnt creature.
1929 The
daughter of Danner/Kent Leigh Linders uses super
strength and clairvoyance to thwart a murder in progress. She rescues Rodney
Prescott. Prescott later rescues her from the headmaster of the orphanage she
is in and they run away together. Prescott is studying physics and having a
hard time keeping in school due to money problems, although he is an heir to a
fortune. While his financial problems continue, Leigh attends college and
excels in sports. She supports or attempts to support them both by playing
sports, golf and tennis. However these male dominated sports do not take kindly
to female interlopers.
1929 Arnold Munro attends Washington University in St.
Louis, MO.
1930
Thinking that Speed Dash might be Danner in disguise, Harvard kills him.
Richard “Speed” [4]
Dash was a detective, but quite different from many of the pulp private eyes.
He was a “human fly,” in such good physical shape that he was capable of
scaling buildings with no equipment or help. He was in the best physical shape
imaginable, able to “crush a raw potato to liquid.” And he led a pure life,
never drinking, smoking, or even having impure thoughts about women
1930 In
Germany Susannah Blake Collier is bored with her husband who spends all his
time at the automotive plant. When her son's playmate disappears, the police
interview her. She catches the eye of Inspector Karl Lohmann
and the two begin an affair. Lohmann likes the fact
that Susannah has two sons, his wife had not been able to give him any.
Inspector Karl Lohmann becomes fleetingly famous when
he captures the child murderer that had been stalking the streets of Berlin.
This is enough to bring him to the attention of Adolf
Hitler.
1930
Harvard kills the mysterious crime figure known as the Black Star.[5]
This was a commissioned hit, an up and coming crime boss wanted the rival
criminal eliminated. That the Black Star was a costumed nut was gravy.
Harvard kills Miller Rand,
"the Electrical Man,"[6]
1930 Daxamite Halk Kar's
ship takes him to the nearest Kryptonian, Clark Kent. Halk
Kar is suffering from partial amnesia due his lead
poisoning so when Clark Kent exhibits many of the same powers as he, Halk Kar begins to believe that
he is Kent’s older brother. However Halk Kar becomes sicker from the lead content of the air and has
to go back into suspended animation. His ship is in a free orbit around Pluto.[7]
1931
Harvard works as a contract killer during the Castellammarese
War for control of the New York underworld.
When Joe Maranzano declares himself Boss of Bosses, Harvard supports
his claim. When Maranzano is cut down and a general
purge of Maranzano supporters begins, Harvard goes
into hiding. He contacts Benedict Stark, a rich patron for whom he had done
work previously. Stark has a contract for him that would take him out of the
country to Germany. He wants Harvard to kill his silent partner Hans Stark.
After carrying out the murder of Hans Stark, Harvard is brought to the
attention of the criminal element and also to the attention of a political
faction.
In Germany of 1931-32
street fights between the Nazis and their various opponents were legion. With
the police hard pressed to keep order, some of Germany's few costumed
vigilantes took up the slack,
which bothered the criminal element,
since the determined vigilantes were more effective than the police had been.
The police could at least be persuaded on occasion to look the other way.
Harvard made it known he would be available for jobs on a case-by-case basis. Schraenker the titular head of crime in Berlin gives
Harvard several contracts.
Over the next few months
Harvard kills the German vigilantes Jack Nelson of the Tric-Trac-Tric,
Harry Pitt.[8].)
Hans Stark, Frank Allan. [9]Tom
Hypnos[10]
(Loke Klingsor[11].
Several times Harvard had to escape from the police and used his strength and
powerful leaps to escape.
In late 1932 German newspapers
spoke of a so-called Ubermensch in
America, the police began to wonder if perhaps such a being was among them.
Also wondering about this was a certain former corporal of the German army who
had seen the exploits of the Amerikaner called
Captain Hugo first hand. Seeing the Ubermensch in
person had inspired him to find purpose in his life and he had joined the
nascent political party German Workers Party and through force of will had
transformed it into the National Socialist German Workers Party. He sent agents
to contact this man and see if he was indeed the famed Captain Danner or Tanner
or Banner.
Harvard
claimed to be Hugo Danner. Through several meeting with high level Nazi
officials Harvard became if not a dedicated Nazi then was persuaded of its
political and social philosophy which coincided with his belief that he was the
epitome of the superior man.
Harvard spent the rest of
the year killing the Nazis’ enemies. After Hitler rose to power he wished for
Hugo to create more people such as himself and form an unstoppable army. Caught
in his own lies, Harvard knew that the Nazi's
would kill him without compunction. Harvard stated that he had the formula in
1931
Bill Collier is killed when he is an innocent bystander caught in mob violence
between Nazis and Communist bullyboys. Inspector Karl Lohmann
immediately moves to have his illicit affair with Susannah Blake Collier into a
legal union and marries her. Her two sons are adopted by him and become
Heinrich and Wilhelm Lohmann.
1932
Leigh Linders enters the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics as
a member of the Brazilian team. using the name Lucinda Regente.
She meets Danner/Kent who discovers her uncontrolled powers. The Legion of
Super Heroes showed up to take into the future where she can be trained. She
returns a few hours after her departure, although to her three years have
traversed. She married Rodney Prescott and gives birth to Joseph Rodney
Prescott later this year.
In 1921 the Legion of
Superheroes had pulled Danner into the future. He spent several decades there
and returned with a device to alert the Legion if he needs them. Although this
device contains a time modification program to allow it to maintain a constant
relationship with the future, once the device is in the past it cannot quite do
so as the future shifts constantly. So it can only approximate time
synchronicity and may well miscommunicate.
Nothing
can be done about this.
The Legion receives
Danner's signal in 2971 . They do not know who it is from, but send their time
sphere anyway. They arrive and a man with a young woman recognizes them, says
their names, and requests that they take her to the future. Not knowing how the
man knows them, but aware of the vagaries of time travel, they pretend to know
who he is and decide to solve that problem in the future. Once they get to the
future, they discover that he is Superman. It seems that during the time they
were gone, the future changed and previously lost records suddenly had never
been lost. They found a copy of Gladiator, (a partial) copy of Al Schroeder’s Supermania, and random issues of the LSH. They study these
records and determine that Superman must have come to the future at some point,
especially given his reaction to them. Since he had come in his past, but in
their future, they studied the records and determined that the most likely
point was at the end of Gladiator. Their comic book resources had issues that
claimed Clark Kent came forward as a teenager and ones that claimed he hadn't
at all. Gladiator seemed the most reliable, and Leigh Linders
vouched for its authenticity. So in 2975 they decided to make the attempt to
bring Danner forward and showed up on the mountain top back in 1921.
1932 Danner/Kent begins his career as Superman in
August
1932 Joseph Prescott born to Leigh Linders
(Danner) and Rodney Prescott
1933
Bingham Harvard returns to the United States with forged documents that state
he is James Harper, a former Secret Service agent. He joins the New York police force. He also
adopts the secondary identity of Wolf Derek, hit man for hire. To appease the
Nazi's he also created the identity of
Wolf Deitrich, a bundist.
In order to explain his long absences Harvard convinces his superiors that he
is retired from the Secret Service but remains on detached duty and so he could
be called away at a moment's notice during a crisis
To infiltrate the ranks of
costumed vigilantes, Jim Harper creates the identity of the Guardian. As a
cover for this he actually fights crime. He attracts a fan club of Newsboys.
One of the Newboys is called Big Words, his real name
is Joe Danner. Harper marries and his wife gives birth to a daughter some few
months after the marriage. This girl,
Janie Marie, hangs out with the Newsboys and forms an attachment to Big Words,
Joe Prescott (Danner.)
1933
Inspector Karl Lohmann joins the Nazi party at first
to keep his job but eventually becomes an ardent National Socialist.
1934
Harvard kills Zero the Silent. [12]
1934 Harvard kills Dr. Coffin
1934
Harvard kills The Man in the Silver Mask. [13]
1934 Harvard kills Green Ghost (II) by Johnston McCulley
1934
Harvard kills Moon Man. [14]
1934
Harvard is recalled to Berlin to explain his progress on the superman formula.
He claims to be distilling the formula. Impatient, the Nazis take several blood
samples from Harvard, intending to distill their own version of the serum from
out of his blood. As a "reward" for his "diligence" in his
research, he is given two experimental drugs. The immediate effects make him
very sick and are accompanied agonizing pain. He later learns that everyone
else who had taken it had died. Hitler had believed that "Danner's"
superhuman body could withstand the ill effects, if not then he was not truly
the ubermensh. The effect of the drugs is to toughen
Harvard's skin and bones making his tissue dense, giving him near
invulnerability. His bones had been strengthened by chemically enhancing the
iron content in them, on an X-ray it would appear as though he had metallic
bones.
He was also told he would
not be leaving until he had given the Reich the formula. Using the facilities
that the Reich provided him Harvard used his knowledge of biochemistry to
isolate elements Danner's formula from his bloodstream. He also used Danner's
possibly bogus formula from the stolen lab book. He suspected that his body had
absorbed most of the ingredients during infancy. He warned the Nazi’s that this
formula probably would not work on a full grown human it had to be injected
into a pregnant woman and it would take years for it to develop. This did not
please Hitler and had Dr. Moreau begin working on a modification of the formula
that would create a super soldier. He
allowed Harvard to leave but before the formula was to be used on good Aryan
stock he wanted to test it on lesser breeds. Germany had colonies in parts of
the world where appropriate testing subjects could be found. Africa or South
America would be ideal. The idea of a superhuman black gave Hitler struck
Hitler as ludicrous. He waited with anticipation for the Olympics when German
athletes would prove just how superior they were to the mongrelized Americans.
Danner went to South America in a remote part of Brazil. German soldiers
accompanied him. He proved himself a god by his strength and near
invulnerability. He and the soldiers
traveled the forests gathering followers. They ruthlessly combined tribes by
killing all but a few men and leaving mostly women. Harvard injected all the
pregnant women with his version of the superman formula. He also used his godly
privilege to bed many of the comelier women.
Harvard and the soldiers then left, vowing to return when the crop would
be mature. The soldiers returned to Germany to report on Harvard's efforts and
Harvard returned to America.
He had to explain his
nearly year-long absence by claiming to have been on a Secret Service
assignment.
The report that Harvard filed with the New York City Police Department
was forwarded to the Secret Service. The story Harvard related was that he had
been in Mexico preventing an Aztec revival and take over of the Mexican government.
The Neo-Aztecs had learned to create a chemical formula that would cause a
human being to spontaneously combust turning them into walking bombs. Harvard
broke the Neo-Aztecs and destroyed the walking bomb formula.[15]
1935
Arnold Munro accepts a position at the University of Colorado-Boulder as an
associate professor of Geology and Engineering . He is married and his wife also accepts an
associate professorship at Boulder College.
1935
Karl Lohmann enrolls Heinrich and Wilhelm Lohmann into the Hitler Youth. Susannah Blake Lohmann protests this and makes noises about taking the
boys back to America. Susannah Blake Lohmann is
arrested by the Gestapo for alleged ties to Communist agitators. She is sent to
Dachau concentration camp for political prisoners and
never heard from again.
1936
Inspired by his mother’s tales about the future and other strange realms and
stories of Superbaby and Superboy, Joe Prescott tries
his hand at writing cartoon strips. They are quite accomplished for a four-year
old. Proud of his grandson's
accomplishments, Danner shows Prescott's work to young cartoonist Sheldon
Mayer. Mayer created the character of Scribbly the
boy cartoonist from Kent's story—Mayer would maintain, however, that he had
created the character based on his own experiences.
1936
Having heard tales of a Superman in Cleveland, Clark Kent a reporter for the
Chicago Daily Star dons a similar suit and begins his exploits as Superman,
although he is more powerful than the original, even to the point of having the
power of flight. Clark Kent is unaware
that Hugo Danner is also using the name Clark Kent.
1937
Arnold Munro's mother stumbles and falls into a ravine while out on a family
outing . Arnold unthinkingly jumps down
after her and then jumps out again with her in his arms. This incident makes
the local paper; his feat is attributed to an adrenal rush.
One of Arnold's recent graduates who had just become ordained as a priest sent
him a copy of Gladiator as a joke.
Munro reads it and is stunned by the mention of his mother's maiden name and
other persons she had mentioned. She breaks down and revealed that his father
was the late Hugo Danner.
1937
Fred Carson, inspired by the exploits of Superman begins his own career as a
mystery man. To distinguish himself from Superman he wears a red and yellow
suit. He also claims to have gained his powers from a magical ring given to him
by a lama in Tibet. (This would later influence Billy Batson when he began his
dreamland career as Captain Marvel).
1938
When word began filtering into Boulder about the so-called Superman, Arnold
Munro briefly wondered if this was one of Danner's other bastards. He regarded
the costumed Superman and all costumed vigilantes as ridiculous, grandstanding
show-offs.
1938
Clark Kent and Danner/Kent finally meet when they both battle against the
racketeer Wrecker Ross as depicted in Superman
80, Jan/Fed 1953, as "Superman's Lost Brother."
1938
Doc Savage begins to think about setting up a school to train talented
youngsters in order to prevent them from going bad. His battle with John Sunlight inspires this
idea as Doc sees Sunlight as a twisted mirror of himself who might have done
much good in the world had he been raised as Doc was. He is also struck by an idea he rejects but
some how can’t shake that Sunlight is his son.
1938
Fred Carson, Wonder Man perishes after he successfully repels a Sarmak attack
based in Grover Corners, New Jersey, This story is later turned into the Elseworlds comic, Superman:War of
Worlds
1938
Leigh Prescott begins traveling back and forth to the 30th Century
using the name Laurel Kent in the future. She is an instructor at the Legion of
Super Heroes Academy.
1939 Harvard is ordered by the Nazis to establish the
Guardian as a super patriotic symbol, this way he could eventually get close
enough to important military or political leaders to assassinate them. Rather
than jeopardize his Guardian identity, Harvard creates another identity that of
Hank Haywood, a biochemist injured in a serious
accident that had his life saved by the insertion of a steel skeleton. He calls
himself Steel. In 1939 he fought against saboteurs, sometimes staged incidents,
in a star-spangled outfit. Since Steel was based in Long Island and
Connecticut, Harvard was able to preserve his Jim Harper identity and claim
that he was on errands for the Secret Service.
1939 Marriage between Leigh Linders
Prescott and Rodney Prescott ends when he has an affair. Leigh begins using the
name Laurel Kent, demonstrating her closer relationship with her father Hugo
Danner, who was using the Kent name at this time.
The affair that Rodney Prescott had was with Dolores Winters the movie
star. He was not aware however Dolores Winters brain had been replaced by that
of the Ultrahumanite. The Ultrahumanite
forced Rodney Prescott to work for her. Prescott was held as a hostage to make
Superman commit crimes.
1939 Criminals
break into Monk Mayfair's Queens laboratory. They steal many items including
tissue samples of the Thing From Another
World. The crooked biologist attempts to re-grow the thing in a vast of
electrically charged fluid. The thing revives a bit when it is feed raw meat.
Gangster Eel O'Brian is shot committing a robbery. Feeling from the police he
stumbles into the laboratory and into the vat containing the creature.
Attracted by Eel's blood it begins to feed and melds with Eel's body. He tears
it off of him and leaves it on the floor of the warehouse, which he then flees.
The DNA exchange affected O'Brian, and he would become the mysteryman
known as Plastic Man. A small piece of the Thing was revived by Eel's blood
protein. It gained sustenance by ingesting a fly which shape it took on and
then a dog and finally it absorbed a person. It had been damaged by its death
and by the electrically charged fluid. The exchange of DNA in its weakened
state had somehow limited its abilities. At first it had no control over its
shape shifting abilities. Seeming at random it would touch and absorb the DNA
and RNA of people and duplicate them, also draining enough energy from the
person to often kill them. This “rogue” or “parasite” would believe it was the
person that it had duplicated and continue that person's life until it once
again without conscious effort stole an identity. After several such incarnations
something odd began to happen, the duplications were no longer perfect because
the previous memories had not been erased. As the memory fragments accumulated
a sort of persona emerged that often but not always carried over from identity
to identity. This persona seemed to have the ability to sometimes but not
always selectively absorb memories or abilities from people.
1940
Harvard kills Mr. Death Mister Death (I).[16]
1940
Harvard kills Cash Gorman the Wizard Wizard[17]
1940
Harper informs his wife and police superiors that he has to take another
extended leave of absence for the Secret Service. Actually he had been summoned
by the Nazi hierarchy to travel to England. A Nazi defector was attempting to
get to Prime Minister Winston Churchill with vital information about the Nazi’s
planned offense against Britain. Harvard was to find this person and dispatch
them. The defector had unfortunately been part of the super soldier program and
so might be difficult for Harvard to kill. Another assassin had been dispatched
as his backup. The super soldier defector killed the so-called Black Assassin
and was making a bee line for the Prime Minister. Harvard, disguised as Steel,
tackled the Nazi defector and killed him. Although he knew it would be easy for
him to kill Winston Churchill, he also knew that doing so and getting out
England alive would be next to impossible. So he allowed Churchill to think
that he had saved his life. In gratitude for having saved his life, Churchill
offered Steel the chance to embark on a suicide mission. He wanted Steel to
parachute into Germany and kidnap Adolf Hitler.
Although Harvard tried to get out of it, Churchill was persistent. Steel agreed
and was parachuted out of plane over Nazi Germany. Knowing that Hitler would be
upset that he had not taken the opportunity to kill Churchill, Harvard told his
Nazi superiors that he was never allowed to become get close to Churchill.
Churchill had been afraid of him which is why he had been sent on this crazy
mission to get Hitler. Hitler kept many layers of contact between himself and
Harvard. He made certain that Harvard was returned to the United States at once
and told him not to use the Steel guise any longer. So that that the Allies would not be
suspicious about what had happened to Steel, the story was put out that he was
captured and placed in a concentration camp.
1940
Herman and Wilhelm Lohmann volunteer for the Nazi
Super Soldier project using Dr. Moreau's version of a super solider serum based
on the blood work of Bingham Harvard and stolen papers from the laboratory of
Dr. Reinstein. The serum works on both of these two
volunteers although it kills everyone else. Heinreich
is the more powerful of the two. As a reaction to the serum Heinreich
was made completely bald, making him appear years older than he actually was.
He was given the name Ubermensch. Wilhelm was less
strong than his brother and less durable. He was given the code name Master
Man. They helped out the German armed forces, although secretly. Hitler does
not want a lot of verdammt foreign Ubermensch in Germany.
Another volunteer also receives enhanced strength to a lesser degree
than Ubermensch. However the side effect was to blind
him and also cause his facial bones to become distorted. He wore a mask to
cover his deformity. The blindness would be a temporary but recurring state. He
would become known as Baron Blitzkrieg.
1940
Anne Warburton (Little Orphan Annie) marries Daniel Clampett, adventurer and
entrepreneur. Daniel Clampett is the scion of an Arkansas mountain folk whose
land was rich in Uranium. They sold their land and made certain their children
had more than six grade educations as opposed to their cousins in Bugtussle who seemed content to live in the hardscrabble
conditions of Ozark mountain life. Daniel was an archeologist and
anthropologist who also invented advances in sonar technology to use in his
work.
1941 Supersnipe, Marcoux's magnum
opus, debuted in the back pages of Shadow Comics vol. 2 #3 (March, 1942)
1941 Danner
and Lois Lane Kent buy a small farm in Connecticut in a town called Smallville
to use as a weekend retreat and a summer vacation home. It also gave Joe
Prescott Danner a place to practice his powers in seclusion and it also got him
away from the street kids he hung around most of the time. Pete Ross and Lana
Lang were both kids in this small Connecticut village. Pete Ross and Lana Lang
were friends of Joe Prescott Danner. Pete saw him doing Superboy stuff and Lana
had a crush on Joe.
1941
November Arnold Munro and his wife are
having a nature hike near the Colorado dam. He was writing a paper on how the
dam altered the geology of the area and decided to combine a research trip with
a bit of romance. He hears loud voices
speaking in German. They are talking about blowing up the dam. Arnold strains
his eyes to see what they are doing and suddenly realizes he can see quite well
in the dark and his vision has improved to the point where he can see them
quite clearly even at the distance of half a mile. They are already planting the
charges. He tells his wife to stay put
and races up the hill towards the dam. He runs faster than he had ever done
before and is not winded when he arrives in a few moments at the top of the
dam. He plows into the bunch of saboteurs. He is able to fend off their fists
and feet and knock their guns from their hands. He hears another car
approaching rapidly, a door opens, and a woman shouts. He turns to see his wife
running towards him. He also sees a woman throw a stick of dynamite straight at
him. The blast kills one of the saboteurs and Arnold Munro's wife. He is
knocked several feet away from the saboteurs. His clothes are tattered, he has
some trouble hearing and he feels like he has a sunburn all over his body.
Other than that he is unhurt, although he is filled with a burning rage. The
saboteurs have piled into a car and roared way. Furious Arnold runs after the
car, and catches up to it and jumps over it. Knowing that he did not have
enough mass to stop the car, he lay down flat rolled over and kicked up as the
car passed over him. The car flipped over and went careening down a ravine
where it exploded.
Arnold Munro reports the
incident to the authorities. He finds himself drafted and placed in Military
Intelligence where he is classified. Arnold would often be assigned to work
with the OSS's to Auxiliary Logistical and Special
Tactical Response Squadron. The ALSTR Squad. On occasion he would work along
side Batman and Robin, Namor, Wonder Woman, The Green
Arrow.
1942
To make a great propaganda coup and demoralize the American psyche, the Nazi's
dispatched a team of assassins to kill prominent costumed vigilantes. These
assassins are costumed to represent Nazi versions of existing American mystery
men, Ubermensch a Nazi version of Superman, Gudra the Valkyrie
a Nazi version of Wonder Woman, The Great Horned Owl and his son Field Mouse, Usil the Archer, and the See-Wulf,
who represented Nazi versions of Batman and Robin, The Green Archer and Namor the Sub-Mariner. Their primary objective was to kill
their doppelgangers, commit acts of terror and sabotage, and eliminate any
other costumed vigilantes. Ubermensch tried to kill Superman but picked Clark Kent.
Superman was stronger, faster and more durable than Ubermensch.
Needing to retreat he spotted a news vendor cowering in his newstand.
He picked up the elderly man intending to use him as a hostage. However,
he grabbed the old man too hard and fast and crushed his trachea. Useless to
him, Ubermensch grabbed a kid who was next to the old
man. When Superman insisted on pursuing despite the kid hostage, Ubermensch broke the kid's back and made a strategic
retreat. This story was later attributed
to Captain Marvel and Captain Nazi by Billy Batson. The young man with the
broken back was Freddy Freemen. Ubermensch would
shortly after this meet up with Arnold Munro who was more of an
even match for him. Yet Munro too would defeat him. Der Grosse Euler and his son would find that their prey
Batman was out of the country working on missions for the OSS. They instead
tried to kill Robin and Bat-Girl. Their attempt failed and tragically the son
of Der Grosse Euler fell to his death, having
misjudged distances as he tried to knock Bat-girl off a building.
Usil the Archer did encounter his counterpart and was
quickly defeated. Namor was also out of the country
so the See-Wulf contented himself with acts of
terrorism such as setting the ocean
liner Normandie on fire. The See-Wulf
was actually a member of the Daninsky family who had
been operated on by Dr. Moreau and been given the ability to breathe or water.
His lycanthropic state made him nearly invulnerable. Once his true state was
known it was easy to cut him down using silver bullets. Gudra
the Valkyrie did not have a flying horse as depicted
in the comics. She did dress like a Valkyrie and had
a spear with a fatal electrical charge. Rather than carrying out her primary
mission she attempted to strike a blow for the Reich by assassinating President
Roosevelt.
How she managed to elude the guards is still unknown. She climbed into
the Oval office window, overpowered the Secret service men and threw her
electrical spear at President Roosevelt. Roosevelt had been giving a mystery
man who called himself the Atom a special award for having thwarted a group of bundists from carrying out a bombing. The Atom was merely a
short man who had built himself into a muscular powerhouse through weight
training and possibly steroids. He took the spear intended for Roosevelt and
was electrocuted. The charge in her spear depleted, Gudra
bolted. She jumped from the window and ran extremely fast across the mall.
However even her enhanced muscles could not escape the bullets of the secret
service.
The preceding events,
although drastically different, were depicted in All Star Squadron Comics. She
was brought down in a hail of gunfire. Although severely wounded she lived, she
would recover and eventually attack her primary target, Wonder Woman. She would
be confused in the comics with Fausta.
1942
Rodney Prescott, a physicist, works on an early atomic pile project, the core
of which would become part of the Manhattan Project. Distracted by his marital
woes Rodney Prescott accidentally exposes himself to hard radiation. However,
the radiation does not kill Prescott but rather somehow reactivates the powers
he had once had for a transitory time. He also gives off a high level of
radiation that, however, does cause damage to anyone around him for any
time. He does learn, however, that the
use of his increased strength taxes him greatly, putting him on the verge of a
fatal collapse each time he used them. Learning of the “living cyclotron,” the
Ultra-Humanite kidnaps Prescott and tries to induce
him to work for him. When Prescott refuses, the Ultra-Humanite
has Prescott's son Joe kidnapped and held for hostage until Prescott would work
for him. The U-H kidnapping of young Joe Prescott however backfired, for this
made Laurel Kent and Danner come after the UH. Prescott uses the distraction of
Laurel and Danner breaking into the UH stronghold, a building in downtown
Chicago, to overpower his guards and grab his son.
He flees to the roof
of the building thinking he could use his enhanced strength to jump to the
safety of another building. Some of UH’s more devoted
thugs give chase and begin firing at Prescott and his son. Prescott uses his
body to shield his son from the bullets. The great pain of the bullets hitting
him makes Prescott lose his concentration, starting an atomic chain reaction.
This reaction had been coming for some time the chemical effects of extreme
adrenaline jump started it, although the UH’s
experiments on him, which attempted to achieve exactly the effect of turning
him into an atomic bomb, hurried things along.
It may have just been time for his body to break down, an unfortunate
coincidence given what was going on, although his stress levels probably played
into it. Most likely his body began to
have an atomic chain reaction because of the stress of saving his son and the
injuries.
Danner and Laurel Kent
arrived on the roof. Prescott threw Joe Prescott into Laurel's arms and jumped
off of the roof hoping to explode harmlessly in mid air. As he plummeted to his
death he winked out of existence. (He was taken to participate in the Crisis…
for a few seconds)
A few weeks later Laurel
Kent would travel into the future for the last time. She would never return.
(She died in the Crisis)
Hugo Danner would adopt
the boy, but because Joe felt that his mother had abandoned him, he used his
grandfather's original name Danner. To overcome his grief over the loss of his
parents, he became involved in comics and amassed a huge collection. Danner
used his influence with the comic industry to get free copies and even
introduced Joe to the writers and artists. He made a bit of a pest of himself
and the comic character Supersnipe was created based
on his imaginary tales.
1942 Jim Harper (Harvard) is drafted into the army.
1942 Oct Jim Harper takes part in the landing on
Guadalcanal.
1942
Harper is assigned to be support infantry for a mission carried out by the OSS
A L Special Tactical Response Squadron, which utilizes costumed vigilantes in
costume or out. In this particular group are The Clock, who had just come from
a successful mission in Casablanca, (JSA: The Liberty File), The Invisible
Hood, Miss America, Magno, Neon the Unknown, and the
Red Bee. Their mission is to harry the enemy’s main
base and with their various abilities.
As part of the
Japanese-German alliance, Hitler had sent Baron Blitzkrieg to Guadalcanal to do
the same thing for the Axis. (this is based on All Star Squadron 33) The Clock was a biochemist who had developed
a drug based on properties of Hugo Danner's blood. It temporarily gave him
great strength, stamina, and increased his muscular density, making him
slightly weaker than Harvard. However until he took his pill he was a normal
man. Harvard thought that Hitler might like to have the “Uhrmann[ACS1]”
as a present . In German, uhr means both clock and
hour. This usage explains why the Clock
was also called “Hourman” in American comics. Somehow he was first heard about from a
German report. Since Uhrmann sounds like Hourman, the name passed the language barrier. This was
designed to make Hilter less infuriated about
Harvard's failure to provide any super powered soldiers. Knowing that the Clock
would not take his pill until they were near their objective. Harvard waited
until the Clock was about to pop it and then rabbit punched him. Harvard then
killed the rest of the American strike force team.
Under a flag of truce,
Harper carried the Clock to the Japanese base in Guadalcanal. Once Baron Blitzkrieg established Harvard’s bonafides he sent him to Germany via submarine. Harvard
brought examples of Hourman's enhancement drug with
him however for some reason they were ineffective on anyone other than Uhrmann. Had Baron Blitzkrieg sent the Uhrmann
back with Harvard this would not have been a problem but the Baron had kept the
Uhrmann. Baron Blitzkrieg had decided to study him
first, perhaps learning information that would improve his standing with the
Fuhrer. His selfishness cost the Reich a great prize as Regular U.S. Infantry
troops attacked the Japanese Base. The Baron underwent one of his periodic
bouts of blindness and Hourman was able to swallow
one of his pills. Although the pill helped out, Hourman
had suffered a concussion, he had been starved and beaten and hung in chains,
he also suffered from Miraclo withdrawal. He was not
much help to the troops when they arrived and he was sent stateside. Baron
Blitzkrieg was captured and also sent to America.
Jim Harper is declared missing in action. Jim’s friend, police lieutenant Charles
Jackson, comforts his wife and they become romantically involved. Jackson marries Mrs. Harper once Jim Harper
is declared dead. Jackson finds a
Guardian costume in a closet and takes up the identity.
1942-43
Children
of Dawn Adolf Hitler realizes that the
United States entry into the war has meant that the Third Reich is doomed
unless the United States military machine can be delayed and its war production
slowed. To this end Hitler wants "Danner" (Harvard) to enact the
Children of the Dawn project years ahead of time. Danner is to inject the
children who had been born of the Indians in South America with modified versions
of the super soldier serum that he had been given. There are about ten surviving children,
Harvard suspects that most of them are actually his children and that most of
the children who were not his and had been injected with the Harvard's version
of Professor Danner's serum had died. Most of the surviving children had small
to large birth defects. Also as result of being Harvard's children and also
injected with the serum, they had experienced accelerated growth. Although they
were physically and emotionally nine years old, they stood as tall as
teenagers. Hitler wants these children
trained in sabotage and terrorism and let loose in America. He believed that the
Americans would be too sentimentally weak to kill a child,
even one as dangerous as these.
The OSS gets wind that the
Nazi’s have a secret project not too far from where the legendary Maple White
Land is located. They send Arnold Munro and British Intelligence officer
Georgina Challenger, a granddaughter of the original explorer of Maple White
Land.
"Danner"
(Harvard) receives orders to let loose his group of super children on city in
Chile to test the power of the children and also demonstrate to Chile it would
be in their best interest to ally with the Axis Powers. On the way to Chile, Harvard
and his group encounter Arn Munro. Arnold is slightly stronger than Harvard,
however, he believes that Harvard is Hugo Danner and this makes him less
effective about fighting back. Harvard captures the two, intending to have a
long session slowly killing Hugo Danner's son and believing that Georgina would
be good breeding material for his super children, knowing what he does about
the Challenger line which bred very strong, very intelligent men, the women
were intelligent as well but did not possess the near simian strength of the
men.
Harvard, his children and
the two captives make their way to their target city. They devastate the city
and place it under the rule of the Third Reich. One of the girl super children
has taken a liking to Arnold Munro and frees him. He escapes and gets off a
radio message to the United States Navy.
While Harvard and his
children wait for Nazi reinforcements, they also scour the area for their
captives. Harvard notices with some dismay that his children are becoming ill.
Almost every one of them develops a case of measles. This is one disease that
the Indians of the deep forests do not have any resistance too and one by one
they begin dying. Since the opposition to him has been reduced, Arnold Munro
comes out of hiding to capture Hugo Danner. A fight ensues. Harvard loses the
fight but breaks away from Arnold Munro he jumps into a chimney of a still
standing factory. An explosion follows and “Danner” is believed to have killed
himself.
The United States Navy
lands and takes Munro, Challenger,
and the dead bodies of the super children on board. The story is put out that
an earthquake had destroyed the town.
Harvard had been more hurt
by the explosion than he had bargained for. He had used stolen grenades to
simulate a boiler explosion but had stood too close to the wreckage. Weakened,
he knew he would be easy prey for the angry Chileans, so
he made his way to the submarine rendezvous point and was taken aboard the Nazi
submarine. When word that his mission had failed reached
The Soviets subject him to
brainwashing which is effective because he sees himself as having nowhere else
to go since he cannot return to
1944
Joe Prescott's powers begin to manifest as he hits puberty. He had sort of a
career as Superboy, this being Danner’s training of him. He would occasionally sneak out in costume
and do super deeds. Janie Marie Jackson
begins to manifest powers and sneaks out with him, posing as Tomboy. The whole thing in Superboy of Jonathan Kent
working with Superboy to use his powers wisely was in fact Danner working with
Joe Prescott to use his powers wisely.
This bond with his grandfather is why Joe later changed his name to
Danner, even though Danner was using the name
Marv-el seems to be derived from Canaanite derived
Mir-Baal or great warrior. Although, it is entirely possibly that Danner was playing
a joke on Joe. Joe's girlfriend Marie
would also travel to the future with him on occasion (she was the Lana Lang of
the Legion stories. Marie was the daughter of Jim Harper (Bingham Harvard and
Marjorie Kinnison) Marie had found an ancient crystal,
which formed a forcefield about her. The forcefield also had the ability to take any form Marie
desired. Something of an entomologist, Marie visualized insect forms. Although
never proven the crystal was believed to have been an early form of a Lens that
had been utilized by an elite guard in Atlantis.
The death of Laurel Kent
and Danner’s adoption of Joe leads him to begin to think about a school or
academy for gifted youngsters like his daughter and grandson. He feels that he failed
1944 Daniel Lionel Clampett born to Anne Warburton
Clampett and Daniel Clampett
1945 Joel Kent born to
1947 Doc Savage is put into the Phantom Zone.
1948 Danner begins using Doc Savage's Fortress of
Solitude
1948
Joseph Prescott Danner and Janie Marie
(Harper) Jackson are married. Despite their apparent chronological age, they
are a few years old due to having spent some time in the future.
1948
With Joe Prescott Danner having married, Lois Lane Danner's desire for a child
became stronger than ever. Lois had suffered Kryptonite poisoning earlier,
which caused some damage to her ovaries. Hugo Danner was a Thyophian
whose life spans were normally 1000 years. Since a planet of such a long-lived
race would have become over populated if both male and females remained always
fertile, nature had provided the Thyophians with a
form of natural birth control. The males were highly fertile for a three-year
period every thirty years, their sperm motility went very low. The female Thyophians like their earth human ancestors had about the
same number of eggs, an average of 360. Their period of fertility was 720 years
and they were fertile for a month every two years. This is why children were so
treasured on Thyoph.
1948 Stalnoivok (Harvard) is sent to Actually
however the being had not been killed. Part of its body detached when it was
decapitated and reformed anew. ) Harvard manages to pass himself as an American
who had been held captive by the Soviets from the end of the war, he uses the
name Wolf Derek. He returns to the United States and escapes from the holding
facility. He once again takes up his id