These families
intermarried in the following generations, reinforcing the gene mutated by the
radiation of the meteor, eventually producing what Farmer calls a
“nova of genetic splendor, this outburst of great detectives, scientists,
and explorers of exotic worlds, this last efflorescence of true
heroes in an otherwise degenerate age.”
The heroic contributors
and inheritors of this gene are members of the Wold Newton Family, including:
Solomon Kane; Captain
Blood; The Scarlet Pimpernel; Harry Flashman; Sherlock Holmes; Captain Nemo;
Phileas Fogg; The Time Traveler; Tarzan and his son Korak; A.J.
Raffles; Professor Challenger; Richard Hannay; Bulldog Drummond;Sir
Denis Nayland Smith; G-8; The Shadow; Sam Spade; Doc Savage,
his cousin Pat Savage, and one of his five assistants, Monk
Mayfair; The Spider; Nero Wolfe; Mr. Moto; The Avenger; Philip
Marlowe; James Bond; Lew Archer; and Travis McGee
And the villainous ones:
Fu Manchu, Professor
Moriarty, Carl Peterson, and Ernst Stavro Blofeld.