The SECRET HISTORY of SUPERIOR CITY
Superior City has a long history that goes farther back, and is far more mysterious, than most are aware of...
HISTORY
Thousands of years ago a meteor fell to Earth, landing in what is now northern Oregon. The meteor, of unknown origin,
possessed strange radioactive properties that began to cause unusual mutations in the nearby animal life. In time the
area's tectonic activity buried the meteor but it's power continued to affect the animal life in the area (curiously it
has no effect on plant life).
By the time Native American tribes arrived in the area several significant mutations had already occurred. The main
mutation in the area that would become Superior City was a race of giant poisonous spiders. The spiders lived underground
and were worshipped by one of the Native tribes. That tribe would perform human sacrifices to the spiders, often
sacrificing prisoners taken by raiding other nearby tribes. Eventually the other tribes banded together and wiped out the
spider-worshippers, and drove the spiders further underground.
The spiders were relegated to Native legend until discovered in the 1880s by the villain Jason Law, who called himself
Jake Lawless the Spider-Rancher. Teaming with the evil
Black Baron, Jake Lawless commanded the spiders to capture and kill ranchers and
farmers near Fort Superior to allow the Baron to seize the land. The first Renegade
and some unusual allies thwarted this plan and the spiders'
underground warren was flooded. The spiders have not been seen since, though recent archaeological discoveries in
Superior City (in the area now called Spider Hill) have rekindled interest in the old legends.
By the time humanity had arrived the meteor was buried deep and its energies no longer had the drastic mutative effects
they once had. In the people that have settled in the region the effect of the radiation has only recently been seen in the
form of a greater percentage of children born on the area being metagene-positive. Though the results have been seen, it is
not common knowledge that the meteor is responsible. The radiation is generally not strong enough to cause development of
metahuman powers, which still require an additional stimulus to manifest.
The ADOAX
The other significant mutation in the area has generally remained hidden from the outside world. Mammals, reptiles, and
some amphibians that made their home near the meteor's landing site began to evolve at a rapid rate. With a few dozen
generations these animals had developed intelligence and tool-making capabilities. Some learned and traded from the Native
tribes, at least those tribes that respected the evolved animals. Several other tribes hunted the animal people, especially
the spider-worshippers. The animal-people helped the Natives defeat the spider-worshippers, but are generally referred to
as animal spirits in the legends and few suspect the truth.
After the defeat of the spider-worshippers and the arrival European settlers the Adoax, as the animal people called
themselves (from a Native term referring to animals taking human form), moved to a hidden valley far south of what would
become Superior City. They have remained isolated there, with scouts venturing out in secret to take in the state of the
world and forage for extra supplies. With the arrival of television and radio the current generation of the Adoax are
completely familiar with Western culture (albeit with a slightly skewed view thanks to TV).
Occasionally one of the Adoax leaves the Valley to see the rest of the world, and on rare occasions an Adoax is exiled
for committing a particularly bad crime. These exiles swear to keep the location of the Valley and the existence of the
others a secret. When encountered by people the Adoax are usually assumed to be mutated humans or escaped lab experiments.
The Adoax population consists mostly of rabbits, raccoons, squirrels, foxes, and mice. There are also a few wolves and
mountain lions, and a scattering of reptiles and amphibians (snakes, frogs, and a handful of alligators).
Renewed attention has driven the Adoax further into hidden seclusion, where they have been joined by the former hero
Digit who acts as their protector.
The CHIMERA PROJECT and SECTOR 10
The Jensik Medical Institute was founded in 1952 by millionaire businessman Oslo Jensik, who was dying of cancer.
Jensik knew it was too late for him, but wanted to leave a legacy behind, one which might find cures for others in the future.
Jensik, a hard-line businessman and outspoken opponent of government intervention, felt that only private enterprise could keep
the medical field prosperous and profitable (and therefore still in business); consequently his namesake institute was to
develop medical treatments and be very aggressive in their promotion and marketing. The Jensik Medical Institute corporate
offices eagerly adopted his business strategies, so much so that it branched out into a wide variety of interesting and illegal
areas.
Cell 13 is the Jensik Medical Institute's black ops division. Twenty years ago the Cell 13 group in Superior City began the
Chimera Project to develop a nerve gas to sell to Third World nations. The project was eventually deemed a failure but during
this time the waste chemicals were dumped into the river feeding the city's water supply. In the years since there were several
instances of cancer among people near the dumping areas. Cell 13 managed to frame other chemical companies for the incident and
they moved on to other projects. Unknown to Cell 13 there were also several instances of mutations, and an even greater
percentage of the generation born or conceived during that period would be metagene positive. Years later, after learning of the
mutagenic properties of the Chimera Project chemicals, Cell 13 began a new round of experiments, this time under the
umbrella of Project Chrysalis with the intent to deliberately induce mutations and the advent of metahuman abilities in
test subjects.
Meanwhile, in response to the appearance of Superman and other super-powered individuals, several municipal, state and
federal government officials sanctioned the secret and illegal Sector 10 in Superior City. The effort was spearheaded by
then-mayor Davis Overbrook, who wanted his city to have a hero of its own to compete with Metropolis, Coast City, Central City,
and others who had heroes of their own. The project's agenda was the creation of super-powered individuals whom the project
directors could control.
At the mayor's suggestion, Sector 10 examined the cancer instances that had resulted from Cell 13's dumping (the mayor had
been Assistant District Attorney at the time and knew the details well). The mayor had theorized that among all the cancer
victims there might be some viable mutations that Sector 10 could exploit. The research team also uncovered the long-buried
meteor and began figuring out how to harness its mutative abilities. Once they had a procedure ready, Sector 10 resumed its
search for a subject. The research quickly turned up several suitable candidates, including a young and highly decorated police
officer. The officer was selected as the first test subject. Experimental procedures were used to accelerate the instance of
cancer in the young man and at the same time control it so that the cell mutation was beneficial.
This first product of Sector 10's efforts was the hero Apex, now known as
Aegis. The second, a result of a more refined process, was a hero named Prodigal.
Prodigal, however, was insane and became the villain called Carnage.
The fallout from the Carnage fiasco destroyed the political careers of most of Sector 10's backers. However, since the existence
of Sector 10 remained a secret, it simply went underground. Hidden behind a maze of paperwork and black project funds Sector 10
continued its efforts into metahuman power research. Among the more diabolical efforts of Sector 10 at the time was the use of
human test subjects, mostly young, orphaned children. These children were experimented on to see if the scientists could induce
favorable mutations that would develop naturally as the children aged. The only test subjects for the process known at this point
in time are twin siblings Felicia and Johnny Bishop.
When anti-metahuman politician Ted Watkins was elected Mayor of Superior City, Sector 10's agenda changed. Within a few years
Carnage's brainwashing plan had erased the city's memories of the villain and of the heroic
Centurions (including Apex). Sector 10 still existed, but Mayor Watkins turned it
into an anti-metahuman research facility. When metahuman refugees began inhabiting the Dark
City beneath Superior, Watkins began plans to send in a tactical force to wipe out the population. He considered metahumans an
abomination and a threat to normal humans that had to be destroyed. Recruiting like-minded individuals from within the region's
police and military, Mayor Watkins began building Sector 10's paramilitary force, reinforcing the human forces with the robotic
DAEMON units.
Mayor Watkins' plan was dealt a blow when he lost the next election to moderate politician James Milton. Watkins vanished from
the public spotlight and took over Sector 10 full-time. Along with him came several high-ranking members of the police and military
who had openly supported some of Watkins' more radical anti-metahuman policies. Some of his allies, however, remained in their
positions of power in the city. Since he no longer had official power, and with the sudden surge in so-called super-heroes and
villains in the city, Watkins was forced to slow down his efforts. After a few years their efforts began to pay off, however a
pair of incidents forced Sector 10 to act earlier than planned.
Just as Sector 10 had located the Bishop twins a gang war in the city involving super-powered criminals led to one of Sector 10's
research facilities being discovered. This meant that both the super-hero community and the DEO
were now aware of the existence of, but not any precise details about, Sector 10. The events of the gang war also saw the capture of
one of the exiled Adoax, an Alligator-Man. When S.T.A.R. Labs scientists examined the Alligator-Man they realized he was not a
metahuman as originally suspected. Additionally the scientists were able to reverse engineer the mutative agent and recognized the
meteor's radioactive signature, having previously seen it while examining Aegis.
Sector 10 immediately obtained the Alligator-Man using false credentials and via torture learned of the existence of the Valley
and the Adoax. Enraged at what in his eyes was yet another abomination, Watkins ordered the Valley destroyed. Sector 10's paramilitary
units and DAEMON robots attacked the valley, killing or capturing most of the Adoax and setting a massive forest fire to cover the
operation. At the same time another Sector 10 squad kidnapped several of the metahuman children from the
Superior City Academy, while another had moved in on the Dark City.
These actions brought Sector 10 out into the open and drew the attention of the super hero teams of the
Enforcers of Justice and the New
Adventurers. The combined efforts of these hero teams were able to defeat Watkins and Sector 10, who were then taken into custody
by Knightwatch and the DEO.
