Who lives where on Earth S in the present (circa 1988 or so)

[dans]

Who lives where on Earth S in our current continuity?

I want to put a story somewhere there is a well-known medical school but doesn't have a local hero. It should probably be on the East Coast. But it made me curious about where our heroes are located in the present.

Mary is going to college at UCLA, I believe. Billy and Freddy still live in Fawcett City, which I believe is a borough of New York City, or a neighborhood? Do the Barrs still live in Fawcett? Minute Man lives in the Southwest somewhere. I put Dan Dare and Carol Clews in San Diego. Tom Atomic lives in Chicago. 

Radar lives in New York. The Lt. Marvels are scattered around the country, although I think Cool Marv lives in New York? The Lt. Marys are also scattered around the country. The returning Devil's Dagger lives somewhere in the Midwest.

6 year old Atom Blake: Grimm Island
Shiva and Kali: Grimm Island
Lance Casey: South Seas
Master Man: Inside Mt. Everest

Here are some I don't know, and I think there are a few recorded heroes I missed...

Spy Smasher (Virginia, I think?)


Coyote: American southwest

Creeper: 

Jade Dragon

The new Dagger

Mr. Scarlet and Pinky

Ibis and Taia

Golden Arrow

Kid Eternity

[johnreiter902]

Creeper, I think also lives in LA, though I'm not sure
Jade Dragon is in China
Dagger lives in New York
I think so do Ibis, Taia
Mr. Scarlet and Pinkey I think live in New York, though i remember a Fawcett-era story which set them in Gotham City, which would be SO cool.
Golden Arrow, somewhere in the southwest I think
Kid Eternity doesn't really live anywhere. When not appearing on Earth, he floats around in limbo

This is what I know off the top of my head

[lawrenceliberty]

You are right about Spy Smasher living in VA. I also thought Mr. Scarlet lived in "a" Gotham City.

[dans]

I wonder if Gotham City and Fawcett City are both boroughs of New York on Earth S?

[lawrenceliberty]

Why not? I don't think that would hurt anything continuity-wise.

[dans]

Another question - was Sue Kent's father Sergeant Kent caught in the Suspendium Trap? If he wasn't, he is probably physically in his late 60s, if he remained on Earth S and aged normally, he is probably in his late 80s. He was a sergeant in the early 40s; he should have been around the rank of Colonel or maybe even Chief of Police by the time of the Suspendium trap?

If we determine he was trapped, I doubt that he would have stepped instantly back into his role as Chief of Police, and he might actually have been not pleased at the way police practices changed between 1952 and 1972. I'm thinking that if indeed he was trapped, he might have become a politician when he realized he couldn't get back into police work - running on a platform that was based on reversing what he saw as negative changes in society from the early 50s to the early 70s. He might have received a lot of votes from seniors who wanted back 'the good ol' days' so maybe he was actually elected to public office in the mid-70s and may still hold office in the Earth S present (1988). 

If he wasn't trapped, he is almost certainly retired. Probably after being Chief of Police and maybe even Mayor of Fawcett City.

What do you guys think? Has anyone used him in a post Suspendium story? If so I will use that as the basis for whatever part he plays in my current story.

Thanks!

[DocQuantum]

Why would a police lieutenant (he was promoted in 1943) necessarily rise through the ranks so rapidly? He was still a police lieutenant as of the last Bulletman stories, was he not? Like most rank and file cops, he didn't seem particularly political to me, though I'm sure he would seek promotions with the pay grades that come with them. I know we like to show signs of the passage of time, but I don't think this is the way for this character at least. My opinion only; your mileage may vary.

If he lived through the 20 years the Bullets were in Suspendium, I would just make him a retired cop with a lot of opinions about the terrible way things are run these days, one who starts a lot of sentences with: "Why, back in my day..."

If he was in Suspendium himself, I see no reason he wouldn't rejoin the police force. It seems that all the people in Suspendium had little trouble returning to their old jobs. Remember that this is Earth-S, where life seems a lot less complicated than the real world. He would probably be on the verge of retirement by now, perhaps promoted to a police captain.

[DocQuantum]

Jan 19, 2024 20:01:07 GMT DocQuantum said:

It seems that all the people in Suspendium had little trouble returning to their old jobs.

And this is something that I don't think has been explored much, if at all. What happens to property when the owners are missing for 20 years (such as Billy's and Freddy's respective landlords)? What happens to big media companies when the president and some of the staff are missing for 20 years (Sterling Morris, et al)?

I know Brian Butler (Mister Scarlet) found himself a rich man after those 20 years, thanks to some investments made by people taking care of his interests, since he was a broke lawyer in the 1940s. But what about the others?

Would each of the characters have to have their own explanations, or was there a powerful benefactor who put properties and such in the care of a trust for all the Suspendium trap victims, knowing they would someday return (possibly thanks to Shazam himself)? There's a kernel of a story there.

[redsycorax]

Could Ibis' Ibistick have modified peoples memories so as to protect those caught in the suspendium trap, and enable them to retain their identities and residential and corporate property? Or could Shazam have done so? Although there are serious ethical questions around memory modification that would arise in this context- think about both the Marvel Squadron Supreme and post-Crisis Justice League as a demonstration of what I mean. If Shazam hadn't been bound by the suspendium trap, he might have made it possible to make it seem to Billy and Freddy's respective landlords that their tenants were still paying rent and living in their apartments. As for Billy and Freddy not ageing, perhaps there's a useful pseudomedical explanation- Billy may be said to have progeria, which affects physiological ageing and is actually middle-aged, even if he looks younger.

[dans]

I strongly object to the 'magical alteration of memories' approach. I think it is immoral and evil.

There would be a certain amount of celebrity involved in being a returnee from the Suspendium trap which some of the returnees might have cashed in on. And a lot of them would have skills that might have faded in the general populace, and first hand memories and experiences that might have been captured incorrectly in history, so they might have been sought out to share their knowledge and memories.

We know that Shazam himself was not captured in Suspendium and made one effort, at least, to cover for the missing Captain Marvel. I wonder if there is some plausible way that someone associated with the Marvels but not caught in the trap might have somehow set up a corporation to somehow 'cover' for all the missing people? Master Man certainly had the resources to do that, though it seems a bit out of character for him. But maybe Shazam used the Historama to determine that the group would return sometime in the future, and he somehow empowered an agent to smooth the re-entry of those who were trapped into 1972 society? It really is an interesting idea for a story...

Regarding Lieutenant Kent, I don't think 10 years is a rushed transition for him from to go from being promoted to Lieutenant in 1943 to being a Captain or even a Colonel in 1952. And it he wasn't trapped, that kind of an event could have built a fire under him to find a way to make the world a better place where such things would never happen again. Or, it could have done the opposite and totally destroyed his interest in life and he might have dropped out...

But, say... suppose Lieutenant Kent was NOT trapped, and HE was the one Shazam approached to prepare for the return of those who were? Perhaps Shazam gave him great wisdom, and he somehow figured out a way to gather all the assets of all those who were trapped, and he started a successful investment company - and when they returned, he gave each of them a share? Perhaps some training on how to fit in, and maybe some financial assistance that allowed them to step back into their old lives almost seamlessly.

Possibly a very interesting story.

[DocQuantum]

Jan 19, 2024 23:55:07 GMT dans said:

Regarding Lieutenant Kent, I don't think 10 years is a rushed transition for him from to go from being promoted to Lieutenant in 1943 to being a Captain or even a Colonel in 1952.

Not 10 years. He was still a Lieutenant as of the last original Bulletman story in 1949, so it's 4 years at most until the Suspendium trap in 1953.

I also don't like magical interference causing the world to forget the case of the people in the Suspendium trap. Pretty sure it was established since Shazam! #1 that the people trapped in Suspendium is publicly known, especially by the locals. I wasn't suggesting anything like that at all. What I was suggesting is that Shazam might have nudged a human agent to establish trusts or caretakers or something so that everyone trapped would have lives to return to upon their return. Shazam doesn't need to be involved at all, though. Perhaps it someone we know such as Radar the International Policeman who was behind it. Or it could be a character nobody's ever seen before. Anyway, this idea could serve as the basis of one of those "Untold Tales" of Earth-S's past, a sort of Secret Files episode.

[redsycorax]

Perhaps, unlike Earth-One, the Squadron of Justice's secret identities are known to the Earth-S US President and higher echelon public officials and the CIA has tied up some loose ends? And Dan, I definitely agree with you about the morality of involuntary memory modification.

I see no-one's commented on my suggestion about a cover story for Billy's eternal youth, explaining that he only 'looks' like an adolescent because he's 'actually' suffering from a progeria-related condition that means he'll always 'look' like a teenager, no matter what his 'actual' age is. WHIZ could do a story about Billy's 'medical condition' and Marvel Family-aligned medical practitioners could 'play along' with the ruse. It's a white lie, given that progeria-related conditions do actually exist and that useful, actual medical research could be funded due to Billy's claimed 'medical condition.'

[dans]

No, not you. And red did mention the questionable ethics involved. But I just wanted to reaffirm my opposition to that idea.

However, you did say this: "Why would a police lieutenant (he was promoted in 1943)..." So if he was promoted in 1943 by the time of the last Bulletman story in 1949 he would have been a lieutenant for 5 or 6 years, and seems like after 5 years in the job it would be time for a promotion.

I am probably not going to write any stories about him; I do want to put him in my current story, since in the original Black Spider story, the Spider kidnapped him and tried to kill him, and he is back for revenge. I don't need to know everything about him, but if it makes a bit of a difference if he remained on Earth through the Suspendium Interregnum and is now in his mid-to-late 80s, or if he slept for 20 years and is now in his mid-to-late 60s. Basically, is he retired, and if he is, has he moved to someplace else for his retirement? I was thinking of having him living in Key West, but maybe he wouldn't have gone that far. And if he is just retired, or still active, he probably still lives in Fawcett City.

[DocQuantum]

Sorry, Dan. Sometimes I'm opinionated about things without any real reason to be. I would be a hypocrite if I said don't have a character promoted to a higher office. I made Dan Richards (Manhunter) of Quality Comics the President of the USA on Earth-X, after all, and he was canonically a "rookie cop" for 9 years. Feel free to take the character wherever you think should go best.

[dans]

NP - just exploring ideas. I think I'm gonna just ignore Lt. Kent's current occupation. I mostly wanted to put him someplace where Sunbeam could get there before the bad guys did, but instead, maybe he was kidnapped before Sue and Jim.

I did have an idea about the 'caretaker' for the folks trapped in Suspendium. I have noted that Martin (Shiva) Martine's profession in the late 60s/early 70s is "independent financial auditor". Suppose that for the first couple years after everyone got caught in Suspendium, Shazam appointed a caretaker for the estates of all the missing people, and while Martin was still in high school and college, he worked as an intern for the caretaker, and then when he set up his own business, he became the sole caretaker? It was his job to continue to invest the assets left by all the missing folks and make sure they could come back to something familiar?