Timeline

The following is a timeline of the history of the Strange Matter Earth. Events not specifically listed are extrapolated to have happened in the same way as actual history.

1861

 * Karl Ruprecht Vachss born in Zurich, Switzerland. Family soon relocates to Prussia, in service to Otto von Bismarck’s board of military advisors.

1891

 * Karl Ruprecht Vachss, age 30, volunteers for a program in Prussia to create a super-human soldier. After some weeks of surgery, bonding lycanthropy and vampirism together within one subject is mostly successful. Vachss is nicknamed ‘der Wulf’ by Wilhelm II and knighted. During knighting, Vachss changes his surname to Wulff.

1906

 * Richard and Magdalena Perkins are crushed when a truck delivering loads of sugar overturns onto a curb.
 * Joseph Perkins is orphaned and left to fend for himself on the streets of New York.


 * While in Prague delivering a lecture on military law, Karl Wulff meets and has a coffee with Franz Kafka, then a student. The two go on to exchange letters until Kafka’s unfortunate death in 1924.

1910

 * Wallace Bannon is born. His parents are Royce &amp; Miriam Bannon. Working as an assistant to a technician in the city of Chicago while his wife works as a maid, life isn’t easy on the Bannons.

1911

 * Andrew Gray is born to Thomas and Sarah Gray, both parents working as teachers in Washington D.C.

1912

 * Brock Jackson is born to Stone “The Wall” Jackson and Mary Jackson. Stone is a locally known pugilist who instills into Brock his own unique set of morals at an early age.
 * Maharaj Kumari Eleonora della Torre is born in the City of Pearls, in the Princely state of Hyderabad, India. Her mother is a widow named Benigna della Torre, who is employed as a governess for the Nizam’s family. Eleonora’s childhood is uneventful and chilly.

1914

 * The events of World War I. Wulff serves Prussia.
 * A 14 year old Joseph Perkins makes a name for himself in the vagrant fighting arenas.

1916

 * Brock meets Wallace Bannon for the first time at age 4 and the two become fast friends.


 * Somewhere in France, Wulff is gassed repeatedly in a Prussian trench. He disappears for a time, while an enormous wolf in suspenders and shredded trousers is seen stalking the nearby forests. A month later he re-emerges, though his face will never be the same.

1917

 * Joseph Perkins, age 17 lies about his age to enlist in the war. His bravado and skill in battle quickly shoot him up through the ranks of the military. It is rumored he punched an artillery shell out of the air and back at the enemy lines during this time.

1918

 * ‘Fightin’ Joe’ Perkins’ first plane, ‘The Kaiser-Kracker’ is shot down over Europe. Joe proceeds on a rampage that reportedly leads him to a standoff with Kaiser Wilhelm II, who it is rumoured he socked in the face.
 * Shortly after the war, Karl Wulff offers to stand trial for war crimes, stating “We have redefined warfare to a degree for which none of us was prepared. I have done things to other men I can never forget.” He is quietly dismissed from court.
 * Peter Bahar is born.

1920

 * Benigna della Torre leaves the employ of the Nizam with a small fortune, moving to the expansive manse of her deceased husband in England along with her daughter Eleonora. Eleonora begins going by the name “Elle” as her name is difficult to pronounce for the other children at the boarding school.

1924

 * Karl Wulff is one of very few attendees to the funeral of Franz Kafka.

1925

 * Joseph Perkins is briefly married to a French woman named Sophie Roux. They have two children, Jean and Madeline both of whom take their mother’s name. The marriage quickly dissolves and Joe only visits sporadically as the years and circumstances see fit.

1928

 * Wallace Bannon is accepted into the Tuskegee Institute, where he gains minor national fame for his excellence in the Sciences and particularly his expertise in the area of electromagnetism, a curiousity given the gradual, declining public opinion of Nikolai Tesla, one of the leaders in the field.

1929

 * The Weimar Republic begins to have serious problems in leadership. Wulff emigrates to England, swearing to serve George V. While his knighthood under Prussia is not recognized, he has an awesome mustache during this time.

1930

 * Stone Jackson dies of tuberculosis. Brock, age 18, follows in his father’s footsteps and becomes an underground boxer to earn a living for himself and his widowed mother, despite her protests.
 * Eleonora “Elle” della Torre is educated at Oxford, earning doctorates in both Archaeology and Mathematics at the precocious age of 18.

1931

 * Andrew Gray joins the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia, noted for his hand to hand fighting skills.


 * The first Event occurs.

1933

 * Eleonora “Elle” della Torre unearths the Apeirogonal Antiprism while on a dig in Japanese-occupied Taiwan, and begins to study the mysterious object.

1935

 * Andrew Gray receives a commendation after singlehandedly thwarting the acts of an occultist group kidnapping children in the Metro DC area. Various mystical artifacts are taking into police custody after the bust.
 * Eleonora “Elle” della Torre disappears from her lab along with all of her research. Despite offers of large rewards by her family, no ransom was ever made.
 * Wallace Bannon, a minor figure in the scientific community, suddenly ceases publishing and participating in the community. He moves to Detroit, Michigan and begins working for General Motors. He frequently spends time at their R&amp;D facilities in Warren, Michigan. The exact nature of his work for the company at this time is unknown.
 * Toward the end of the year, Adolf Hitler reveals to the world the existence of Firehawk, the superpowered hero serves as a propaganda tool for several years before the outbreak of war in Europe.

1936

 * After some success, Brock (now known as “The Rock” in the ring) suffers a concussion that leaves him recovering for a week. He is never quite the same. His first wife, Edna, forbids him from ever entering the ring again.
 * Elle della Torre and her research used to further occult rituals by the Nazi party, though she escaped after being the sole survivor at a research facility in Baden. The experiment to which she is exposed forever alters her, giving her strange powers. She flees back to her family home in London.

1938

 * Brock, seeking adventure, drops everything and travels to Africa to wrestle a lion. Edna divorces him.
 * Andrew Gray is formally asked to leave the MPDC, after being seen using an occult tome to practice magic. Less than a year later he starts up Brimstone Investigations, a paranormal detective agency.


 * Elle della Torre begins work as a cryptographer, and lives a reclusive lifestyle where none but her mute servant from Taiwan, called simply Ya, are allowed to come into direct contact with her. Her work is without peer, and she becomes known as an expert in her field.
 * Kojiro Kurashima is born.
 * Wallace Bannon suddenly leaves the employ of General Motors. He remains unemployed, moving to New York City.

1939

 * Brock wrestles a lion to unknown result. On the trip home, he meets his second wife, a British woman named Alice Crookston, and the two are married three months later.
 * Maximo Cappelletti is born.

1940

 * On a trip back to England, Alice Jackson’s ship is caught in a storm and lost at sea. It is presumed there are no survivors.

1941

 * Brock, age 29, enlists in the U.S. Marine Corps to join the fight in Europe.


 * Wulff seen in France.
 * After abandoning his less than lucrative business as a detective, Andrew Gray, aged 30 enlists in the U.S Army.
 * Doctor Elle della Torre works with MI-1 (Directorate of Military Intelligence) efforts during the war as a cryptographer and occult history advisor. She has her manservant deliver all documents by hand rather than break from her reclusive lifestyle.

1942

 * Joe Perkins ambushes Brock at a seedy bar in an undisclosed town in Middle America. The two fight for nearly ten days straight, nearly destroying the town in the battle. At sunrise on the eleventh day, the two decide they shall be chums.
 * Andrew Gray is linked to a garrison of Germans in France spontaneously turning into various domestic house pets. He proceeds to hand out the assortment of puppies and kittens to local children. It doesn’t take long after for the U.S command to become aware of his talent.
 * Hitler authorizes the use of Firehawk, who previously kept within Germany, in military operations against the Allies.

1943

 * Liberty Torch appears in Washington, DC and addresses the U.S. Congress. He pledges to destroy Firehawk and secure a victory for the Allied Forces.
 * Brock earns a reputation as a tough son of a bitch and is promoted to Staff Sergeant in just 2 years in the Marine Corps.


 * Nikolai Tesla dies in a Hotel Suite in New York, ostracized by the scientific community for his bizarre claims on possible applications for his research. Wallace, a long time fan of the Serbian pioneer is able to secure notes on some of Tesla’s technology. He is able to invent a design he straightforwardly names “The Shock Cannon” and suddenly disappears, along with the design. This breakthrough and his connection to Brock Jackson allow him entrance into Operation Mongoose.


 * Joe Perkins parachutes by himself into Austria on a mission to assassinate Joseph Goebbels. He is thwarted by Goebbels’ bodyguard: Steinmauer, a maniac twisted through medical experiments.
 * Liberty Torch and Firehawk fight for the first time in the skies off the coast of Malaysia. The meet several more times throughout the year over the Pacific and European theatres of operations with mixed results. The combined collateral damage of their battles costs both the Axis and Allied forces millions of dollars in equipment and thousands of lives.


 * Fightin’ Joe speaks to his son, Jean, for the last time. Urging him to join his battle to end Nazi rule in Europe. His son refuses, having taken up the peaceful vocation of master painter.
 * Andrew Gray encounters the Thule Society during an undercover mission into Munich. He halts their attempt to open a gateway to Ultima Thule, killing the cultists in the process. It is later revealed that this was merely one arm of the Society and that many more existed.


 * During a raid on a Thule Society hideout in France, Brock encounters Amaury Descoteaux, or Troubadour, as he calls himself, a French vampire and high ranking member of the Society. After a long battle, Troubadour escapes and vows revenge on Brock and the team for disrupting his plans.
 * A special multinational task force is formed by the Allies of those with extraordinary abilities. Their mission, called “Operation Mongoose,” is to disrupt the growing threat posed by the Nazis' attempts to train or produce extranormal operatives. Jackson earns a spot due to his seemingly mythical tenacity. Others on the team include Andrew Gray, Wallace Bannon, Joseph “Fightin’ Joe” Perkins, and Karl Ruprecht Wulff. Fightin’ Joe is appointed as the commander of the task force, and they are offered a great deal of autonomy to accomplish their mission.
 * Byron Stalworth is born in London, England.

1944

 * Both Firehawk and Liberty Torch are publicly renounced by their governments after a battle in North Africa that creates a 40 mile wide crater on the Moroccan coast. The pair continue to clash across the world in a series of escalating battles that ultimately culminates in their mutual destruction in low Earth orbit.
 * Joseph Perkins’ plane, L’il Maddy, is shot down in the skies over France. His last words reportedly are “Tell my family I love them. And please kill Hitler for me.” Brock investigates the crash sight with a small Marine recon team only to discover the wreck was too mangled to recover a body. He delivers the news of Joseph's death to Perkins’ estranged wife and children in France. He then goes on a rampage and kills many Nazis. Afterward, he assumes command of the task force.


 * Later that year the mysterious ‘Fighting Flechette’ takes the skies seeking to avenge his death. At the time it is assumed to be Perkins’ son Jean on a quest for vengeance.


 * Wulff engages the last survivor of the program that created him, Otto Hundmetzger, in personal combat in the Black Forest. Otto transforms into an enormous werewolf during the course of the duel, and receives a bayonet in the throat for his troubles. Thus, Karl Ruprecht Vachss is the last of the Prussian supermen.


 * Doctor Elle della Torre’s work is integral in decoding clues relating to a mission for Operation Mongoose, which earns her a position as a consultant for the team. Her reports are delivered in person to Brock, and the team (aside from Brock) remains unaware of her despite her involvement. By this time she is able to travel through shadows from place to place, though that seems her only power.
 * Sonny Poole is born in Birmingham, Alabama.

1945

 * The war ends with the detonations of “Little Boy” and “Fat Man” over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Kojiro Kurashima is at Hiroshima firsthand to witness the blast.
 * The Frontliners task force is officially disbanded by the Allies, but Jackson has other plans. He insists the surviving members continue their crusade against evil and injustice, renaming them the Frontliners. Later that year Bannon’s experiments with conductivity and electromagnetism lead to the development of a prototype suit of armor for Jackson. “Doc Ion” is born. Bannon uses the same technology to create gadgets for himself and adopts the name “Dynamo.” Gray, following his comrades examples, takes the name Mystico, donning the cape and tights.


 * Brock meets his future third wife, Doctor Penelope Shuyler, who initially spurns his advances. He is persistent, however, and he eventually grows on her. Of course his manly chin dimple helps matters significantly. Ladies love the dimple. Her expertise in the medical and biology fields impress Brock so much that he invites her to join the Frontliners. She accepts and takes a job as the team’s doctor, assisting with wounds and illnesses but rarely accompanying any of them into the field.

1946

 * Brock and Penelope are married early in the year. It is the most memorable of the Jackson weddings.


 * After a fairly successful year and some publicity, the Frontliners gain momentum. Jackson is flooded with requests to join the team, which he initially refuses. He is convinced to at least consider potential candidates, and eventually develops the Jackson Heroic Aptitude Battery (JHAB.) The JHAB is an incredibly dangerous (and often fatal) test using Jackson’s standards for what he believes heroes should be capable of. Out of the 294 applicants, only a handful are chosen, one of whom happens to be the daughter of Joe Perkins. A short film is distributed of Wulff completing the course with both of his arms secured to his waist. “See, it’s not so hard!”
 * Doctor Elle della Torre studies the film reel of Wulff completing the course and is able to directly mimic his movements by memory when she completes the JHAB. Brock is initially wary of her motives and especially of her abilities, but is convinced by Penelope to give her a chance anyway. She chooses the name Fantasma and joins the team officially. Doctor Penelope and Fantasma become fast friends.


 * Mystico engages a villain known as “Black Mage” in a magic duel, lasting many hours. The two exchange spells, until Mystico kicks Black Mage in the groin repeatedly, winning the duel once and for all. Brock congratulates Mystico on his victory after years of ridicule for his profession. It is the only time he will concede a compliment to the man.

1947

 * Penelope is captured by Troubadour. Despite a speedy response by the team using Fantasma’s shadowstep ability to travel, Penelope is turned into a ravenous bloodsucking creature of the night. The ensuing brawl ends in the death of Troubadour and the burning of his lair. Penelope is assumed to have perished in the blaze. Brock falls into a depression from which he never fully recovers.


 * Following Penelope’s death, Fantasma begins to study medicine in honor of her friend’s memory.


 * The infamous events in Roswell, New Mexico, involving the crash of an alleged alien spacecraft. The Frontliners attempt to investigate the truth of the event, but are met with heavy resistance from the government.

1948

 * Brock remarries to a woman named Jenny Buchanan.


 * The Frontliners enjoy publicity and moderate success (as well as criticism) as crimefighters among the general populace. It is the height of their popularity.

1949

 * Kenji Hayato and Oscar Ortez are born.

1950

 * Jean Roux continues to lament his lack of success and his obscurity as a painter.

1951

 * The popularity of the Frontliners begins to wane as the need for protection from extraordinary threats tapers off.
 * Jean Roux leaves France for the USA, changing his name to ‘John Perkins&apos;. Later that year his first son, John Perkins Jr. is born.

1953

 * The Frontliners officially disband to little fanfare. The era of costumed adventurers comes to an end and is viewed in retrospect as a brief fad.
 * Wulff is asked to serve with MI-6. He complies.


 * Brock divorces Jenny. He does not remarry and falls into obscurity.

1954

 * John Perkins attempts to launch a costumed career as &apos;The Fighting American&apos;. His attempts at crimefighting are met with hostility from authorities. He is eventually arrested and tried for obstruction of Justice. Althrough acquitted of the charges, his marriage falls apart and he loses touch with his son. He remarries later that same year to a woman named Linda Summers.
 * Patricia Ortez is born.
 * Several ex-members of the Frontliners make an appeal to the Senate for the United States to form a department specializing in the investigation of extranormal affairs. The proposal is almost unanimously turned down in a vote.
 * Numerous government support staff from the DoD, DoJ, FBI, CIA and Armed Forces previously associated with the Frontliners resign simultaneously. When pressed for details as to their resignations, one FBI agent remarks "We're not trying to make a statement, we just don't believe in the direction this administration is taking us anymore."

1955

 * Arnold Perkins is born to Linda and John Sr.

1957

 * Sophie Perkins, Robert Émil Foucault and April May June are born.

1964

 * A compound believed to be Wallace Bannon’s former workshop is destroyed in a fire. Investigation into the fires is inconclusive and quickly abandoned. All of his inventions that had not been released to the public were believed to be destroyed in the tragic accident.

1973

 * The second Event occurs.

1974

 * The science hero organization, SMASH, is founded in San Francisco. Their goal is to explore the great unknowns of science and share their knowledge with the world.