Tales of Justice Timeline

First appearance of the hero Mercury

The Shadow is reported to be seen on a regular basis in Chicago.

In Egypt, archeologists Lara and Kent Carter uncover an ancient tomb in the middle Nile region that contained wings and harness fashioned from an ancient meteoritic metal that responds to thought. Using these, they manage to defeat Dr Hans Gruben and his Nazi associates that came in search of the legendary wings as well. Reluctantly, the couple adopted the guise of Hawkman and Hawkgirl in dealing with Dr Gruben and later the notorious Shiwan Khan.

Anton Čtvrtník, the inheritor of the Moon Knight legacy, dies at Axis hands while defending the escape route of a Czech family.

The mantle of Moon Knight passes on to Radovan/Randall, who cannot claim it until after his 21st birthday.

Jean-Claude Gironde's balancing act comes crashing down. Because he has not been available to his riskier "world-renowned psychiatrist" role for more than one day per week, and because he is not getting enough downtime, enemy operatives from HYDRA almost succeed in assassinating Jean-Claude with an experimental ray gun. He lives, but is confined to a wheelchair while neurologists try to figure out what happened to his spine.

Jean-Claude Gironde moves back to Metropolis, Pennsylvania and oversees a wheelchair-friendly renovation of the family home.

David John Ironhorse is acquired by Infinity Inc and becomes Puma, a Hybrid Alpha Series Minion.

Jarissa Venters is acquired by Infinity Inc and becomes Feral, a Hybrid Alpha Series Minion.

Alice (Harper) Reynolds dies in an accident undersea, leaving her husband George Reynolds and children Steven (10) and Cindy (3).

Metahuman adventurers start to appear in Seattle, Washington, USA. Over the course of the year, they begin to coordinate their efforts against threats bigger than each one's chosen neighborhood. By the end of the year, the unnamed association consists of Knight Thrasher, Firestar, Dark Angel, Nightblade, and Catman.

An explosion was reported late yesterday evening at the home of US Men's Gymnastics hopeful Thomas Michaels. The identities of the three victims have not yet been released to the public. Police are on the lookout for a pizza delivery driver spotted on the security camera of the house across the street. If you know this person or this vehicle, please contact our tip line at. . . .

A former henchman given training and a power boost by unnamed supervillains, "Wally the Weatherman" embarked on his Campaign of Terror by trying to flood out the entire island of Manhattan for

• ransom!
• the hard-line green initiative!
• (various other, much more nonsensical reasons that got more irrational as the event continued)

Even at his later trial and while serving his sentence, Walter never did explain what his motivations were or how he found himself in the position of trying to drown a major metropolis in the first place.

The Freak Murders begin: Someone is killed, then the corpse dressed up in costume and makeup to look like one of the metahumans currently featured in the news. Law enforcement are stymied by how impossible it is for all of these serial killings to be the work of a single individual.

Checking his business interests in the shadows of New York City, the Penguin establishes a villainous tradition of capturing heroes and selling them to other villains.

On a simple trip to pick up groceries, ShadowStar in her civilian identity of Tina Grewal gets taken hostage by the Joker, who needs bait to draw in the current Robin. Joker was not the sort of villain to look around for witnesses; he has no idea that someone witnessed the crime, and is willing to pursue Tina's captors wherever they may go.

As is the mandate for secret organization SAFEGUARD, two implanted agents (under cover of running a metahuman Private Investigations agency) discover that certain key aldermen in Chicago have a corrupt deal with a hospital administrator and a pharmaceutical research company to run their own little criminal enterprise, using city infrastructure to conceal their work. Deadshot and Timber Wolf team up with local law enforcement to investigate and dismantle the entire network.

Feral has a minor supporting role near the conclusion of this event.

When "Special Projects" at the Gironde School needs a quiet intel pickup from a rainy corner of New York City, Jean-Claude Gironde assigns the task to the two adults in the building currently most on his nerves: Sleet and Blackjack. He then puts it out of his mind.

It should have been a quiet, six hour round trip assignment, including twenty minutes for the pickup and forty minutes for a casual meal.

Instead, a mercenary named Retro kidnaps them.

Harley Quinn and Knight Thrasher have a weekend-long date. Every New Yorker and no few citizens of nearby Gotham City have an opinion on this social event.

During an area biker convention, inventive drugrunners steal bikers' motorcycles and attach remote control devices, plan to smuggle drugs across the US/Canadian border on unmanned bikes.

Too bad for everyone in Eastern Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, and southeastern New York State those stolen motorcycles happen to belong to the Freakshow biker gang. If the heroes do not step in fast enough, Christmas Day riots will be only the beginning!

A villain named Drassad, from a virtual reality based Alternate Earth, breaks through to this reality via the computers in Wyldfire's training area beneath the Gironde School main building's basement. He uses a computer virus to take over most of the campus, collecting prisoners along the way to serve as raw materials.

Complication: Drassad's visual representation has always been identical to Jean-Pierre Gironde, late father of the team's employer, even before he gained access to the Wyldfire servers.

Claire McKinney a.k.a. Diamond X drafts Ace and Blackjack to retrieve a shipment to Alexei's Bar, stolen by the Friends of Humanity and hidden in small town in western Pennsylvania.

Militant ecologist villain strike force Pure Earth steals STAR Labs' latest prototype, the "Fusion Gun", with intent to lease to highest bidder. Iron Man; Blackjack, Nomad, and Fright; and Detective Matt Slater each have their own motivations for trying to find the weapon, and remove it from terrorist hands before anyone else gets killed.

"Vampires" attack prominent city leaders, drawing blood with needles and infecting by bite all companions. Jean-Claude Gironde declares open season on capture of the alleged vampires. Feral, Nomad, and Iron Man track the faux vampires back to Poison Ivy, who is cloning new "children" and (with the help of the Idiot King) creating money trees.

Jarissa Paxton runs an errand to New York City and gets mugged. She's okay, if rattled, but upset that she had to play the meek victim in her visibly pregnant state. She calls her friend Knight Thrasher for help, who brings in his own backup in the form of local mercenary Snake Eyes. The two men work together to catch the Bullseye Blaster, paintball team turned low-level mercenaries, who were hired to kill and rob anybody who picked up a certain FedEx International package. They in turn are anxious to cover up the fact that some five-months-pregnant short woman managed to run away faster than they could capture ... but, hey, they did get the package!

Each following their own trail of stolen items transported across the northeastern U.S., Dr. Doom and Wyldfire agents travel from a Metropolis warehouse to a corporate laboratory in Gotham City, then back to a villain lair in Metropolis where the combined villainy of explosive metahuman Plastique and body-controller Shimmer have chosen to become a single person named Muse.

And to grow themself, in true Rocky Horror fashion, a perfect boyfriend.

Who is going to look a lot like the young Hero of Metropolis known as Silverwing.

Due to a hijacking gone bad, Suicide Slum is cut off and put under martial law. The cops and the National Guard are trying to find the thieves, and/or the crate stolen from Lex Industries. Stuck in the middle are Jack Monroe (out shopping at the mall), Detective Matt Slater (on administrative leave), and The Shadow.

Friends of Jean-Claude Gironde's come to him for help.

Twin gangsters operating a pornography ring attract the attention of MPD Detective Matt Slater when one of their "stars" accidentally gets arrested on soliciting charges. They mutate Slater's new partner and frame several key police officers for crimes ranging from accepting bribes of drugs to murder.

(ties into Corporate Wars 3 in August)

Having heard some of Rafferty's claims to the Rollerboyz against herself, Feral recruits Kraven the Hunter to help infiltrate their hideout and extract Rafferty for questioning.

Dr. Doom puts in an appearance, and winds up adopting "Little George", while Kraven adopts "Big George". Both kids get new names.

Solomon Grundy makes an unexpected appearance in the oldest section of Metropolis' sewer system.

((Rafferty is working for Casanova von Frankenstein on the UniSols restart, all while gathering information for Infinity Inc.))

Several criminal organizations pool their resources to pull off a city-wide job on Black Friday. They steal all the babies under 18 months of age from the shopping malls of Metropolis, and arrange to auction them off in lots and ship them away into the adoption black market from a private air strip in NYC.

Terrorists claiming to be from Iraq take over a pleasure cruiseliner in the Gulf of Mexico. Their targets are the two political figures onboard. A security tape is secretly broadcast, however, showing that the supposed terrorists are in fact the Hammer Empire, plus Stirge and Puma. Puma is acting very strange.

Throughout the first half of 2002, the Gironde family mansion including grounds underwent its (hopefully final) major renovation to meet the future needs of the Gironde School.

Rather than allow this rather imperious lady to use her not inconsiderable political connections to stir up a lot of trouble for Blackjack and his former associates, Wyldfire has been assigned to step into the gap and pass themselves off as "Monsieur Paxton's team". Details are as follows....

Trenchcoat Brigade Adventures: LBJs

Agent Chameleon and Litmus meet up at Daniel's Donut Shack to sign the finalized report on the Silent Seven incident. Suddenly everyone's phones ring, including the Top Secret Super Spy phones that the Trenchcoat Brigade have! An accentless male voice says, "Hello, Metropolis. How many Marxists does it take to change a lightbulb?" and then the line goes dead.

It's never good when the Idiot King calls....

Knights Vigilant Adventures: Villain Blues

An adventure from the early days of the team, who weren't calling themselves Knights Vigilant yet.

Wyldfire Adventures: Strange Disappearances

Theft of exotic animals soars as "Noah's Ark" gangs target zoos.

— ((real world news article from The Independent, a U.K. news service:))

Meanwhile in Metropolis, the city will be hosting a "Creative Coffee Cart" contest this week, with all proceeds going to the Metropolis Zoo and the winning cart receiving two years' free operating license.

Wyldfire Adventures: To be the Fly

a.k.a.

The Three Investigators STILL NOT LEARNING.

Mega Crossover Series:
Will of the Earth