Issue Plot Building 1888
Contents
Kang the Conqueror 1888
The Time Traveller
The Time Traveller (Alexander Hartdegen) Having demonstrated to friends using a miniature model that time is a fourth dimension, and that a suitable apparatus can move back and forth in this fourth dimension, he completes the building of a larger machine capable of carrying himself. He then immediately sets off on a journey into the future. While travelling through time, his machine allows him to observe the changes of the outside world in fast motion. He observes the sun and moon traversing the sky and the changes to the buildings and landscape around him as he travels through
His journey takes him to the year 802,701 A.D., where he finds an apparently peaceful, pastoral, communist,[1] future filled with happy, simple humans who call themselves the Eloi.
The wealthy, leisure classes appear to have devolved into the ineffectual, not very bright Eloi he has already seen; but the downtrodden working classes have evolved into the bestial Morlocks, cannibal hominids resembling human spiders, who toil underground maintaining the machinery that keep the Eloi — their flocks — docile and plentiful. He then travels into the far future, roughly 30 million years from his own time.
There he sees the last few living things on a dying Earth, the rotation of which has ceased with the site of London viewing a baleful, red sun stuck at the setting position. In his trip forward, he had seen the red sun flare up brightly twice, as if Mercury and then Venus had fallen into it. Menacing reddish crab-like creatures slowly wander the blood-red beaches, and the world is covered in "intensely green vegetation." He continues to make short jumps through time, seeing the red giant of a sun grow redder and dimmer. Finally, the world begins to go dark as snowflakes begin to fall, and all silence falls upon Earth. In the very end of the Earth, all life has ceased, other than the lichens that still grow on rocks, and a kraken-like creature, roughly the size of a soccer ball, that slowly moves onto shore.
the Time Traveller blunders into a highly advanced future society where time travel is illegal. The time machine is confiscated and the Traveller is arrested, but he eventually escapes after one of the future men attempts to steal the time machine.
An extract from the 11th chapter of the serial published in New Review (May, 1895) was censored from the book, as it was thought too disturbing. This portion of the story was published elsewhere as The Grey Man.
The censored text begins with the Traveller waking up in his Time Machine after escaping the Morlocks. He finds himself in the distant future of an Earth that is unrecognizable, seeing rabbit-like hopping herbivores near him. He stuns or kills one with a rock, and upon closer examination realizes they are probably the descendants of the Eloi. A gigantic, centipede-like arthropod approaches and the traveller advances ahead in time a day to flee, finding the creature to have apparently eaten the tiny humanoid. This dark ending of humanity was thought too shocking to be published.
the Time Traveller finally settling down with Weena in the 33rd century. Soon after his arrival in the future the first time he rescues Weena, a female Eloi he finds drowning in a river. Much to his surprise she is grateful to him and insists on following him.
Kang
time traveling despot from far in the future, the 21st century. Using arcane technologies from the future he has an edge over the Victorian Era, and is determined to shape the upcoming 20th century in his image. As Kang's real name is Nathaniel Richards, and has gone by other aliases, you might want to come up with your own alias.
the time-travelling Kang the Conqueror....is actually the Time Traveller H.G Wells wrote about, gone mad with power and trying to prevent the terrible future he visited.
- "The master of time! The one who rules the mystic realm of limbo, where things never change!"
Immortus
Immortus then pulls out a series of historical challenges for the Avengers. Giant-Man fights the biblical Goliath (and beats him by shrinking himself down and sling-shotting him!), Iron Man defeats Merlin, and Thor fights Hercules. Cap is captured by Immortus and whisked off to the Tower of London. Immortus promises Cap that he can have Rick Jones if he fights his way through the guards.
research on ancient Egypt, notices some hieroglyphs which appear to show some ancient Egyptians curing blindness with a radioactive potion. Curious about the existence of radioactivity in ancient times. (note: surgical means!)
Ancient Egypt uncovers a Chopper!!
the babe En Sabah Nur has grown to a strong young warrior. He still feared and despised by all but Baal, who has become like a father to him. Now that Nur has reached manhood, Baal takes him to the secret temple of Rama-Tut.
The Pharaoh's grand vizier, Logos, has brought him word that Nur has reached adulthood. Rama refers to Nur as a "child of destiny" who "will become the most powerful being on the planet", and finds it unacceptable that the young prodigy's future be molded by Baal. He orders his warlord, Ozymandias, to lead all the armies of Egypt into the desert to find the boy.
While a bloody clash ensues above, Baal and Nur penetrate the heart of Rama's secret temple and discover a mysterious high-tech globe.
When they found it, it was doll size, but it has since grown to human dimensions. Although it appears to be some form of robot, it is warm to the touch. When one of the scientists gives it a good knock on the chest, it comes to life and strikes him. The cop starts blasting away with his pistol, but the only effect it has on the robot is that it starts growing to the extent that it can crash through the wall and pick up a nearby house.
He doesn't seem to be interested in mindless destruction though, and keeps calling for his master asking why he has forsaken him and what task he can do for him.
The Police get their butts saved by Kang who turns up and shrinks the robot back down to doll size. He explains that the robot was planted on earth in preparation for a long-term plan but that the museum expedition had set him off prematurely. The police try to bring in Kang and he starts to threaten them. "Keep your distance!! To me you are like anthropoid cave men." The stimuloid was supposed to be a hidden weapon, left tiny and inert in the past so he could activate it when his enemies least expected. Kang resets the Growing Man to doll size once more and retreats to his time machine. The Growing Man is one of Kang's most potent weapons turning up again in Avengers 69 and 268 and more recently Thunderbolts 5.
Qin's Army, Terracotta
The Terracotta Army, sometimes referred to as "Qin's Armies", Terracotta Warriors and Horses is a collection of 8,099 larger than life Chinese terra cotta figures of warriors and horses located near the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor. The figures vary in height according to their rank; the tallest being the Generals. The heights range is 6ft - 6ft 5in, or more than a full foot taller than the average soldier of the period. The figures were discovered near Xi'an, Shaanxi province, China.
Construction of this mausoleum began in 246 BC and is believed to have taken 700,000 workers and craftsmen 38 years to complete. buried alongside great amounts of treasure and objects of craftsmanship, as well as a scale replica of the universe complete with gemmed ceilings representing the cosmos, and flowing mercury representing the great earthly bodies of water. Pearls were also placed on the ceilings in the tomb to represent the stars, planets, etc.
The tomb of Qin Shi Huangdi is near an earthen pyramid 76 meters tall and nearly 350 square meters.
the Mandarin
the Mandarin (Zhang Tong) explores the forbidden "Valley of Spirits," where no one has dared set foot for centuries. There he finds the skeleton and starship of Axonn-Karr, an intelligent dragon-like alien from the planet Maklu-4, who had come to Earth centuries ago and died. Over the following years, the Mandarin studies Makluan science until he masters it. He also learns how to use the ten rings he found within the starship which were apparently its propulsion source, among other things. The Mandarin then subjugates the villages around the Valley, and, through his advanced science, rapidly becomes a power that not even the Chinese Army could successfully challenge. He then embarks on a long series of attempts to achieve world domination. The Mandarin later schemes to turn the Great Vibranium Mound of Wakanda into Type II Vibranium which destroys the molecular cohesion of metals. He also tries to destroy China's entire rice crop in an attempt to provoke war.
NATIVE AMERICANS
WHERE
The "Four-Corners" region of the United States: Where Marshal will always consider home. The Four Corners is the intersection of the four U.S. states of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona and the high desert plateau region surrounding that point in the southwestern United States. This is the only point in the United States where four states touch. Three of the four state corners are on the Navajo Indian Reservation.
Sarcee
The Sarcee is a First Nation in Canada. Their territory is adjacent to the southwest city limits of Calgary, Alberta. The Sarsi or Sarcee, words which are believed to have been derived from a Blackfoot word meaning boldness and hardiness.
Shaman
(Dr. Michael Twoyoungmen) Twoyoungmen studied Sarcee magic, eventually becoming strong enough in his belief to draw mystical items from his enchanted medicine bag at will. He adopted the title and garb of Shaman. Several years later, Shaman assisted in the birth of Snowbird, the product of a mystical union between a human and the goddess Nelvanna. Shaman cast spells to bind Snowbird to the Earthly realm. a vision of Ranaq the Devourer, one of the Great Beasts.
Moonhunter, Zachary
Former pilot, Avengers Crew. An occult investigator who specialized in hunting werewolves, Moonhunter was enslaved by the Druid and freed by Captain America. At roughly the same time, pilot John Jameson resigned from the Avengers staff and Moonhunter applied successfully to replace him, serving primarily as personal pilot to Captain America. Moonhunter assisted Captain America and several other Avengers associates in a variety of missions, but apparently resigned from the team's service when Captain America was believed to be dying. His current whereabouts and activities are unrevealed.
Apache
The Apachean tribes were historically very powerful, constantly at enmity with the Spaniards and Mexicans for centuries. The first Apache raids on Sonora appear to have taken place during the late 17th century. The U.S. Army, in their various confrontations, found them to be fierce warriors and skillful strategists.
Apache - Camp Verde, Yavapai County, Arizona, United States. It is in the Verde River valley. To the south lie the Bradshaw Mountains. Camp Verde is surrounded by Prescott National Forest. The head of the Verde River begins below the dam that catches water from the Big Chino Wash and Williamson Valley Wash combining to create Sullivan Lake in Yavapai County, Arizona.
Thunderbird
(John Proudstar) possesses the ability to become a variety of North American animals (and seems to lack the strength, speed, and durability of the comic version), much resembling Alpha Flight's Snowbird in that respect. Warpath (James Proudstar),
Michael Redstone
the strength of the Earth.
Puma
Thomas Fireheart, and he is of Native American descent. The tribe he belongs to (never named, but located in Hartsdale, Arizona) has had an ancient prophecy of the coming of a powerful being who might destroy the world for generations. Long ago, they began making preparations for this coming doom. They used mystic ceremonies and selective breeding to create a perfect warrior. Thomas Fireheart is the latest in this line of men. mastering his ability to turn into a powerful humanoid mountain lion werecat. it was revealed that both groups were actually being manipulated by the shape-changing Space Phantom.
Warlock
America has produced a number of home grown prophets. In the wilds of Utah, few are stranger than the man known as Adam Warlock. What his original name is, is anyone's guess, but the declared Messiah has such outlandish claims as having been born fully grown and possessed of a body of what the 'Unsullen Man' looked like. It's easy to see why the uneducated frontiersmen would believe it for Adam is a pretty sight with his golden skin and hair. While I wasn't able to see much of his faith healings or ability to cast out demons, I did get to hear some of his bizarre predictions for the future. In the words of the bizarre man "An ancient evil rests beneath our waves! Sleeping horrors untold in strange eons with the power to strip our planet clean of all life! An evil as ancient as dread Cthon or the horrid Shug-Niggarauth! Only the gemstone of power can banish it!" He even set a specific date for three months in the future. Somehow, I think that he's going to look very foolish when the world doesn't end.
Marshal America's America
young Steven's tribal name. The Subject would not give us it's true pronunciation, but said only that it translated into english as "Star Bearer."
Until he was ordered to suppress an uprising in the Oregon territories. What exactly occurred is unclear, Subject refuses to discuss the matter, or even communicate in any way when asked about it. The little facts we have, indicate that his unit was killed to the last man, only the Subject survived. The native population they had been sent to deal with had also vanished completely, only a burned out husk of an encampment remained. Subject resigned in disgrace.
- Sharon Carter -Aide to Nick Fury(?). Cap's had trouble focusing since the train back in issue #1.... ((Durn it))
- "Cloudless Moon" -Cap's maternal grandfather. He passed on while Steve was still a young child, but he occasionally appears in dreams or if Steve really needs a hand, in a waking vision.
- Reginald "Buckshot" McClurg. -Every good Marshall needs a Deputy. Think of him as Bucky, with a shotgun. Note: Buckshot is still back in America, tracking down Tombstone, actually...
- Agent Smith -US Army Intelligence. 1880's equivalent of a CIA man. No sense of humor. Deadpan. You get the picture. He was Cap's source of intel and contact with the Government.
- Tesla, Nikola: One possible creator, though he may not trust Argo as it is a known associate of Hank Pym.
- Edison, Thomas: American inventor and pioneer in phonograph and sound technology. Argonaut may seek him out in order to attain a "voice."
VILLAINS
Confederate Skull
(aka Johnny Red, real name John Smith) - Confederate Colonel who was cashiered for needless brutality towards the end of the Civil War. Has a vast network of terrorists to draw upon called "The Army of the New Confederacy". The Skull is obsessed with the destruction of the United States and the rebirth of this New Confederacy (we call call them the NeoCons for short! ^_~). Of course, he views the Confederate economic model as nearly perfect, if too lenient. He believes the status of slave should not just apply to the black man, but to all who don't share his vision. Note: Based on the SECOND Red Skull: Johann Schmidt.
Baron Karl Amadeus Mordo
Originally a Transylvanian nobleman (born in Varf Mandra), Mordo became a student of the Tibetan sorcerer known as the Ancient One. arl Mordo was the son of Nikolai Mordo, a Transylvanian nobleman (or boyar) who was made “Baron” when his lands fell under the control of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Bitter over the Empire’s defeat after the war, its generals and politicians, and the encroachments of modern technology, Nikolai sought to restore Transylvania to its past glories via black magic. Dr. Estrange is no longer a member of the Masons for he has indeed uncovered a secret sect within, lead by Lord Mordo. Estrange trusted him, his medical teachings & certain 'advanced surgical procedure' which Estrange took part in. Steven discovered that he wasn't helping people but making slaves for Mordo's sinister cult, which Estrange only knows that they worship some being called "Dormammu". Fury maybe the one who helped him learn the truth about Mordo.
NEWS
C.A.T.U.
(Church against the unnatural) a fringe Catholic sect that views the concept of A.I. as an abomination. Should they ever discover Argo's sentient nature, they would surely seek it's destruction.
