Milan is better than Napoli!

Esattamente!

On to the 1970s!

Early 1971
Ace Hiram Worchester, with the power to manipulate gravity, decides to don a mask and fight crime. A gossip columnist guesses the secret identity of “Fatman” after a very short time, and Hiram decides to retire from crimefighting; he goes into the restaurant business instead. (3: Chapter 9)

March, 1971
In Las Vegas, Joe Belenky is now a janitor and – more significantly – a “cleaner” for Warren Skalko. One night not long before Passover, a showgirl he’s befriended named Susie calls him for help because she killed her boyfriend, Skinny T. He helps her dispose of the remains. A week or two later, Skalko learns what happened. He drives Joe and Susie out to the desert so he can dispose of them both personally, but they manage to get the drop on him, and in the end it is Skalko who is killed. Joe and Susie drive back safely to Vegas, but they ultimately go their separate ways, with her moving to New York and him to California. (16: Spector) (According to 29: Cassutt, Skalko died in November, 1971, but that is contradicted by the Spector story summarized here, the main action of which is explicitly set in March.)

Spring, 1971
Charges against Tom Marion “Lizard King” Douglas stemming from the People’s Park confrontation are dropped at the recommendation of Dr. Tachyon, who has been called in by SCARE to help investigate the incident. (1: Milan “Transfigurations”)

Only “just” after the charges against Tom Marion Douglas were dropped, a party is held at Aces High, the chic restaurant on the 86th floor of the Empire State Building. The restaurant is newly founded by Hiram Worchester, who had previously fought crime under the moniker “Fatman,” a name he doesn’t like. (1: Martin “Chic”)

Among the aces and significant people to attend the Aces High party are: Tom Douglas; Fortunato; Dr. Tachyon; Croyd Crenson; Cyclone; and ace Broadway actress Aurora. Also in attendance are some aces that are not publicly known, such as Mayor Gregg Hartmann and actor Josh Davidson. (1: Martin “Chic”) (The truth about Hartmann is first revealed in 1: Leigh and about Davidson in 6: Chapter Six)

Amongst the other celebrities who attend the Aces High Party are: Jason Robards, Mike Nichols, Woody Allen, Aaron Copland, Lillian Hellman, Steven Sondheim, Leonard Bernstein, Barbara Walters; and Tom Wolfe, who writes about the event for New York magazine. (1: Martin “Chic”)

Amongst the unnamed aces at the Aces High party are: a dapper little man dressed all in green, who grows a small oak tree in the middle of the restaurant; and a woman able to instantly transform her clothing into different outfits, including a suit of gleaming black armor. (1: Martin “Chic”)

Shortly after the Aces High party, Tom Marion Douglas takes Tachyon’s experimental trump cure, and is one of the lucky thirty percent on whom the cure works. (1: Milan “Transfigurations”) (Douglas still has his ace powers during the events of 1: “Chic” so his taking of the trump cure must occur after the Aces High party.)

June, 1971
“Wild Card Chic,” an article about the Aces High party, is published in the June issue of New York Magazine. (1: Martin “Chic”)

Fall, 1971
Roughly six months after being cured of the wild card, Tom Marion Douglas dies of pneumonia in a seedy hotel in Paris. (1: Milan “Transfigurations”)

In Chicago, hired killer Raul “Button Man” Esposito realizes that the Chicago mobs are wiping out anyone in the game who’s turned a wild card. Since Raul himself is a joker – with mushrooms regularly growing on his body – he decides it’s time to get out of Chicago. He heads to New York City, where jokers are more common. He’ll eventually get work with the Gambiones, the ruling crime family in New York City. (WEB: Priest “Tree”) (Raul working for the Gambiones from 21: Priest Seven)

Dec. 5, 1971
Gisele Bacourt, the daughter of Tachyon and Danelle, marries fellow French communist Francois Andrieux in a civil ceremony. (4: Snodgrass)

June, 1972
Xavier Desmond’s daughter marries her second husband. (4: Martin 11/30/86)

In the subway tunnels of New York City, gangster “Lucky Lummy” is killed by a living subway car that used to be C.C. Ryder before the musician/activist was raped, triggering her wild card. Don Carlo Gambione, head of the NYC mafia, believes that the death of Lummy is an attack upon him, possibly by subterranean joker gangs. He decides to send his men underground to “clean out” the tunnels. Meanwhile, Rosa Maria Gambione – the daughter of Don Carlo, and also Lummy’s former betrothed – heads into the tunnels after a brief glimpse of the living subway car has convinced her that it must be her friend and former roommate, C.C. Ryder. Other links in the chain of coincidence include: Bagabond, an 18-year-old wild card who can telepathically link with animals and who lives on the streets of NYC masquerading as an old woman; and Jack Robicheaux, an ace sewer worker who sometimes transforms into a large alligator. In his alligator-form, his mind is able to link with Bagabond’s, which draws the latter down underground as well. When Jack meets Bagabond and her two cats (one calico, one black), they get along very well. (1: Bryant/Harper) (Bagabond claims to be 26 years old in this story, but later references will contradict that claim, making her probably closer to eighteen. M&M confirms the latter age as well.)

Don Carlo Gambione himself comes down into the tunnels to survey the joker slaughter that his men have perpetrated. While Bagabond observes, one of Gambione’s men brings Rosa Maria before the Don, having found her wandering the tunnels. The C.C. Ryder subway car then arrives to the rescue, using her living graffiti to communicate via projected imagery that she is the one who killed Lucky Lummy. One of the gangsters attempts to fire a rocket-launcher at C.C. in retaliation, but he is knocked over by one of Bagabond’s cats. The missile goes wild, hitting the ceiling of the tunnel and causing a flood. Rosemary, Bagabond and the cats board C.C., while Jack – in his alligator form – arrives on the scene just in time to kill Don Carlo Gambione. (1: Bryant/Harper)

In the wake of their collective adventure: C.C. is hospitalized; Bagabond and the cats move into Jack’s underground home with him; and Rosa Maria Gambione legally changes her name to “Rosemary Muldoon.” (1: Bryant/Harper)

Fall, 1972 (approximate)
Tom Tudbury reconnects with his senior year high school crush, Barbara Casko, and the two begin dating. (2: Martin “Chill”)

October, 1972
Tom Tudbury and Barbara Casko are at Ebbets Field when Tom Seaver pitches the Dodgers to victory over the Oakland A’s in the seventh and deciding game of the World Series. (2: Martin “Chill”)

Tuesday, Nov. 7, 1972
Richard Nixon defeats George McGovern in the United States Presidential election. (Real-world event mentioned in 2: Martin “Chill”)

Late November, 1972
Barbara Casko tells Tom Tudbury that she was infected by the wild card when she was two years old, but it left no permanent physical transformation in her. That night, Tom and Barbara have dinner at Aces High. (2: Martin “Chill”)

December, 1972 (approximate)
Turtle learns from Tachyon that if he and fellow wild card Barbara Casko have children, those offspring will be guaranteed wild card carriers, with the attendant terrible odds – i.e., a 9 out of 10 chance of dying, a one out of ten chance of becoming a joker, and only a one in 100 chance of becoming an ace. Devastated, Tom has a vasectomy, and breaks up with Barbara. (2: Martin “Chill”)

This is making a bunch of stuff make a lot more sense for me - thank you.

There is more sense-making to come!

May 15, 1973
Artist Evan Crozier, lawyer John Sheak, and social worker Patty Roberts – a triad of New Yorkers in a three-way romantic relationship – wake up having been fused by the wild card virus into one single entity. They are now a super-strong joker in constant pain, who will eventually be christened “the Oddity.” (8: Leigh) (Last names given in 21: Leigh One)

October, 1973
One night, a drunken Winston Churchill – still the Prime Minister, and now ninety-nine years old but not infirm thanks to his wild card infection (itself an open secret) – concocts a plan for ending both his career and his life with spectacle. Churchill calls upon Peter Faulkner, a captain in the Household Cavalry and also an ace with electricity-manipulation powers. A plan is hatched to have Faulkner assassinate Churchill, but only after Faulkner has joined the Labor Union. This way, Churchill himself will become a martyr, and the Union strikers will be brought down, having been properly framed for the assassination. (27: Cornell)

Various intelligence agencies, including “the Box” (MI5) and the Silver Helix (MI7), “end up blundering into each other trying to both obey and not obey” this “entirely undemocratic instruction.” A low-level Box operative and non-wild card, Charlie Soper, investigates the situation on his own initiative. He finds himself in just the right place at the right time, and ends up killing Faulkner in self-defense. He also destroys Faulkner’s Union membership papers. Later, Charlie goes to Churchill’s office and – after revealing that he knows the truth of what happened – he blackmails Churchill into finally retiring his position as Prime Minister. (27: Cornell)

Late 1973
After a year of not seeing each other, Tom Tudbury and Barbara Casko reconnect, albeit only as friends. (2: Martin “Chill”)

January, 1974
Mark Meadows publishes Genetics, about the science of the wild card virus. (1: Appendix 1)

Early 1974
“A few months” after Charlie Soper’s confrontation with Winston Churchill, Churchill announces his retirement. (27: Cornell)

March, 1974
Kimberly Anne Cordayne joins the Syrian Liberation Army. (12: Chapter 6)

Summer, 1974
During a day in Jokertown that he’ll write about for the Aug. 23 issue of Rolling Stone, journalist Hunter S. Thompson meets a joker incarnation of Croyd Crenson and a militant jokers’ rights advocate who’s called “Gimli.” Thompson also attends a speech being given by Xavier Desmond, during which Desmond is jeered. Thompson is struck by the difference between the Joker Anti-Defamation League (JADL), which is the fairly peaceful and seemingly passé group founded by Desmond, and Gimli’s group, the more extreme “Jokers for a Just Society” (JJS). (1: Martin “Loathing”)

July, 1974
After four months in the Syrian Liberation Army, Kimberly Anne Cordayne is fortunate to be visiting the dentist when the SLA hideout in Watts is raided. With nowhere to go, Kimberly eventually shows up at the door to Mark Meadows’ apartment. He invites her to live with him. (12: Chapter 6)

Aug. 8, 1974
Nixon announces that he is resigning the presidency. Mark Meadows and Kimberly Anne Cordayne celebrate the news by getting drunk and making love. (12: Chapter 6)

????, 1974
Earl Sanderson dies in Paris. (4: Snodgrass) (This contradicts an earlier reference in 1: Williams, to Earl still being alive in 1975. M&M however confirms the death of Black Eagle in 1974 as canonical, discounting the reference in 1: Williams to Lena Goldoni dying in 1975 and leaving her money to Earl.)

????
Jack “Golden Boy” Braun – known in many circles as “the Judas ace” after he betrayed the other members of the Four Aces back in the ‘Fifties – goes out for dinner at Aces High, the restaurant run by Hiram Worchester. Worchester serves him a plate ringed with dimes, i.e. “thirty pieces of silver.” (1: Williams) (This event is referenced several times in the saga, but I don’t believe a date, or even a year, is ever given for it.)

Mar. 21, 1975
At the dawn of the vernal equinox, Mark Meadows and Kimberly Anne Cordayne are married in Golden Gate State Park. (12: Chapter 6)

May 7, 1975
Blaise Jeannot Andrieux – the son of French Communists Gisele and Francois Andrieux, and the grandson of Dr. Tachyon – is born. (4: Snodgrass)

Summer, 1975
Joker seminary student Robert St. Cabrini is drafted into the priesthood somewhat ahead of schedule to come to the aid of Father Coughan. Coughan is the head of St. Andrews, a Catholic church in NYC’s Jokertown. Dubbed “Father Squid” by the parishioners due to his squidlike joker manifestations, Robert soon realizes that Coughan on his own is not terribly well equipped to shepherd the Jokertown flock. (21: Miller One) (The flashbacks in 21: Miller are explicitly labeled “1978” as is the entirety of the text of Volume 21 when flashing back to or referencing this era, but other chronological clues in other books suggest a placement dated further back, specifically to before 1976. For now I’ve placed them in 1975.)

Fall, 1975
Father Squid decides to hold a Christmas pageant at St. Andrew’s. He browbeats the “poet laureate of Jokertown,” Dorian Wilde, into writing and directing it, and he also canvasses the community for volunteers to play the various roles in the pageant. Somewhere around this time, Robert also starts up a community center in an abandoned liquor store down the street from the Church. Thanks to the efforts of the community in publicizing the upcoming event, the pageant starts to stir up interest even outside of Jokertown, partly because NYC is still in the “wild card chic” era that Tom Wolfe wrote about in 1971. (21: Miller One) (Wolfe writing about “wild card chic” from 1: Martin “Chic”) (13: Milan suggests that the Jokertown Riots, detailed in 1: Leigh, put an end to “wild card chic” in America in 1976, which is partly why I’d suggest that 1978 doesn’t entirely work as a placement for these events.)

Dec. 2, 1975
After a night of rehearsing the Christmas pageant, Father Squid and Dorian Wilde get dessert at the Rathole, a mom-and-pop all-night diner beyond the main drag of the Bowery, a couple of blocks down Grand Street. Just after they’ve been served, a young punk in a Marilyn Monroe mask bursts in. The punk, Peter Nance, starts threatening his joker ex-girlfriend, waitress Lizzie “Glowworm” Wallace. (21: Miller Two) (Last name “Wallace” and nickname “Glowworm” from 21: Priest Three) (Date is conjecture, but has to be either December 1 or December 2, based on temporal references in 21: Miller Two and 21: Priest Twelve)

Father Squid, who is secretly romantically involved with Lizzie Wallace, comes to her defense. He delivers a quick and efficient beating to Peter, who then scrambles out of the Rathole, swearing revenge. Dorian Wilde is impressed, and Squid reveals to Wilde that he fought in Vietnam as part of the United States’ so-called “Joker Brigade.” (21: Miller Two) (Peter Nance will be referred to later in the chronology by the ace name “Warlock.” It’s not clear whether he has already adopted that name at this point in the 1970s.)

Dec. 3, 1975
The Jokertown church community center is visited by Monsignor Romulus Contarini of the Vatican’s Office of Theological Purity. Contarini is shown the sketchbook of joker artist Gary Giamatto, and is horrified by rough sketches for a mural depicting a wild-card-themed adaptation of traditional Catholic iconography. He’s further disgusted when he witnesses Dorian Wilde make his final casting decision for the baby Jesus in the church pageant: a two-headed joker infant whose separate heads have been named Rick and Mick by their mother, Mimi Dockstoedder. Contarini begins to rage at Father Squid, and so Squid lifts Contarini bodily and tosses him off the premises. Still furious, Contarini gets into his car, a large, black Mercedes, and speeds away. (21: Miller Three) (Contarini’s first name, “Romulus,” established in Book 17.)

Driving in a state of severe anger, Romulus Contarini accidentally kills a joker named Ramona Holt with his car. Joker Lucas “Nimrod” Tate – in love with Ramona – is a witness to the crime, though he is unable to identify the driver of the vehicle before it speeds away. Later, in a panic, Romulus Contarini abandons the Mercedes and catches the next flight back to Rome. Meanwhile, utterly unaware of Contarini’s hit-and-run, Father Squid goes to the apartment of Lizzie Wallace directly after his confrontation with the monsignor. Lizzie informs Robert that she is pregnant with their child. They decide that – despite the terrible odds against a child born of two wild cards – they will keep the baby. (21: Miller Three, 21: Priest Three, and 21: Priest Eighteen.)

Dec. 4, 1975
In the early morning hours of Dec. 4, Contarini’s Mercedes is reported stolen by the archdiocese. Corrupt cop Ralph Pleasant is the investigating officer, and though he knows Contarini has killed someone in a hit-and-run, he will eventually sweep the entire affair under the carpet, signing off on the fabrication that the vehicle was stolen before Ramona Holt was killed. As for the abandoned Mercedes, it is eventually taken by joker Donald Richard Reynolds, aka “the Drip,” who either found the car himself, or stole it from the person that did. (21: Priest Twelve and 21: Priest Eighteen)

Dec. 16, 1975
Lucas “Nimrod” Tate spots the Mercedes that killed Ramona Holt, parked outside the Rathole. Tate is high on drugs, armed with a gun, and disguised by an owl mask that had been crafted for him by Ramona before she died. He charges into the restaurant, demanding to know who owns the car. The fry cook, Maddox Horatio Crowder, aka “Hash,” fires at Nimrod with a sawed-off shotgun. Tate panics and fires back, and doesn’t stop shooting until he’s killed nearly everyone in the restaurant: Hash; Lizzie Wallace; the Drip; Stella Nichols, who works at a Jokertown strip joint called Freakers; and Joel Arnold, a janitor at “Fort Freak,” the Jokertown police station. The only survivor of the massacre is Croyd Crenson, who had ony recently awoken. His ace power this time is a “chameleon” ability, which allowed him to escape detection by Tate, and to flee the scene entirely unscathed. Croyd calls in an anonymous tip to the cops, frantic and blubbering, and misidentifying the killer’s mask as a hawk rather than an owl. Before the police arrive on the scene, Bernard “Deedle” Augustus comes to the Rathole for a drug deal he had scheduled with Hash. Seeing an opportunity, Deedle steals Hash’s entire stash of drugs and money, and various wallets too. Deedle also steals the Drip’s stolen Mercedes, and drives away. (21: Priest Three, 21: Priest Eleven, 21: Priest Eighteen, and 21: Miller Five)

After a night working late at St. Andrews, Father Squid heads toward the Rathole. Upon arrival, he is horrified to learn that, earlier that evening, the restaurant was the site of a massacre, wherein everyone inside was killed, including Lizzie. One of the cops on the scene, whom Father Squid meets for the first time, is a nat named Leo Storgman. (21: Miller One)

Mid- to Late December, 1975
Father Squid is wracked with guilt, believing himself to blame for Lizzie’s murder by Peter Nance, in retaliation for the night that Squid gave Peter an embarrassing beating. Later, police detective Ralph Pleasant comes to the community center to ask Father Squid some questions. Squid is surprised that the questions are not about the Rathole murders, but instead about his conversation with Monsignor Contarini. (21: Miller Four)

Pleasant starts to leave after having asked all of his questions about Contarini (mentioning in passing that it’s something to do with a stolen car); Father Squid stops him, wanting to know if Pleasant has any questions about the Rathole. Pleasant assures Squid that the Rathole case is closed; they have caught the guilty joker, Bernard “Deedle” Augustus, who was there to steal drugs from the fry cook, Hash. Squid is shocked, having been so certain that Peter Nance was the killer. (21: Miller Four)

On the day of the Christmas pageant, Deedle shows up at the backdoor of the storefront community center. Having escaped from police custody, he now demands that Father Squid grant him sanctuary. Squid agrees, and tells Deedle to go to St. Andrew’s and wait for him. Squid promises Deedle that he’ll come to him at the church, once the pageant has ended. (21: Miller Four)

Instead of keeping his promise, Father Squid phones up Ralph Pleasant and tells the detective that he knows Deedle’s current whereabouts. Rather than arrest Deedle again, Pleasant contacts the Oddity. He tells the Oddity where they can find Deedle; that the evidence condemning Deedle as the Rathole killer is solid and incontrovertible; and that they can give the guilty joker the punishment he deserves for his crime. The Oddity finds Deedle at St. Andrews, and beats him to death. It is the first murder that the Oddity has ever committed, though it won’t be the last. (21: Miller Five, 21: Priest Five, 21: Leigh Two and 21: Leigh Three)

As a result of the confrontation between Contarini and Father Squid on Dec. 3rd, Contarini has Squid excommunicated from the Catholic Church, and the St. Andrew’s parish is closed. Eventually Squid founds the Church of Jesus Christ, Joker, which he believes is better suited to the needs of his Jokertown parishioners. (21: Miller Three)

Apr. 17, 1976
Two young girls in Cornwall claim that they saw a Cowanden, an “owlman,” near a church. The figure is said to have pointed ears, glowing red eyes, and claws like pincers. While this may have been a joker-ace, it’s possible that the Cowanden is a creature that came through from an alternate reality via the dimensional nexus located on the island of Keun. (33: Leigh “Redux”) (Exact date taken from the real-life “owlman” incident.)

Intriguing stuff about Father Squid. I recall the pageant and the stuff with The oddity sop I must've read those stories - I've forgotten which ones I've actually read at thsi stage, but I recall that stuff.

It might just have been me talking about that stuff earlier in this thread.

That's also possible.

I'm sure I've read a fair bit about the Joker church stuff and the oddity, though.

July 14, 1976
In the midst of the 1976 Democratic National Convention, Senator Gregg Hartmann comes to Aces High to meet with Tom Miller, aka “Gimli,” the leader of the Jokers for a Just Society. Before sitting down for the meeting, Gregg confers briefly with Hiram Worchester, the restaurant’s founder and proprietor, and with Dr. Tachyon. Gregg tells Tachyon that his people have confirmed that there is a KGB plant employed at Tach’s Blythe van Renssaeler Clinic in Jokertown. Tachyon demands something be done about it; Gregg suggests circumspection. (1: Leigh)

Gregg Hartmann shakes hands with Gimli, which allows Puppetman to establish a connection to Gimli’s mind, and to turn the joker dwarf into another of his many puppets. Hartmann also shakes the hand of Sondra Falin, another member of the JJS. Seeing her as a frail, weak woman, he doesn’t bother to take her as a puppet. Hartmann is unaware that Sondra is also “Succubus,” a prostitute that Hartmann has been sleeping with for six months now. Since Hartmann has also never taken as a puppet the woman he knows as Succubus, his powers have no way of detecting that Sondra and Succubus are the same person. (1: Leigh)

July 15, 1976
Gregg Hartmann’s “Joker Rights” plank fails at the Democratic National Convention. That night, he has a rendezvous in a hotel room with Succubus. Just as he doesn’t know that she is secretly spying on him for the JJS, she has no idea that he is a secret ace. (1: Leigh)

July 16, 1976
Gimli organizes a huge amount of jokers in Roosevelt Park for a protest march, in response to the “Joker Rights” plank being voted down. During the march, there is an altercation with police that leads to violence and rioting. (1: Leigh)

Meanwhile, Neil “Black Shadow” Langford, an ace unofficially employed by Gregg Hartmann via SCARE (and also one of Puppetman’s puppets) apprehends the KGB spy in Tachyon’s clinic. Manipulated by Puppetman – who takes great pleasure in the emotions associated with violence and atrocity – Langford ties the operative to a streetlamp, with a document pinned to his chest that details his Russian allegiances. The agent is eventually killed and mutilated by jokers. (1: Leigh) (Puppetman revealed as the reason for Black Shadow’s violence and rage toward the KGB spy and other criminals in 9: Williams One)

July 18, 1976
Gimli has once again gathered a crowd at Roosevelt Park for another march. Gregg Hartmann arrives that morning and asks Gimli not to march, but instead to hold his demonstration at the Park. Influenced by Puppetman, Gimli agrees. The rest of the day transpires peacefully. Gimli and Sondra both give speeches, which are – thanks to Hartmann’s arrangements – televised. Dr. Tachyon also appears at the demonstration and he, too, delivers a speech. (1: Leigh)

In the evening, however, lines of police converge on the scene with the goal of driving all the jokers back into Jokertown. Violence erupts in the streets. As the bloodshed and destruction escalate throughout the evening, the National Guard is called in, and SCARE asks government-employed aces to intervene as well. One ace, Howler, uses his superhumanly amplified voice in an attempt to persuade people to go back to their homes. Black Shadow intervenes on behalf of the jokers, attacking National Guardsmen instead of assisting them. Though not employed by SCARE, the Turtle flies above the city streets, using his telekinesis to break up fights, taking care to harm neither jokers nor officers. (1: Leigh)

During the chaos, Gregg Hartmann’s lust is enflamed thanks to Puppetman’s connections to his many joker puppets, which allow him to psychically drink in their pain. He goes to Sondra’s hotel and makes violent love to Succubus, at which point she realizes that all this time, it’s been Hartmann manipulating her and the other jokers; not the other way around. (1: Leigh)

After the events of the last couple of days, Black Shadow is now wanted for murder. Neil Langford – whose ace not only makes him extranormally strong, fast and durable, but also allows him to absorb different types of energy, and to stick to walls and ceilings – will continue to operate as a vigilante. He will eventually retire the “Black Shadow” alias in favor of a rotating cast of other alternate identities – a modus operandi facilitated by the diversity of his power set. (9: Williams One)

July 19, 1976
In the morning following all of the destruction, a large mob of jokers, led by Gimli and including Sondra, are gathered in Jokertown, facing off in a stalemate against a line of police and National Guardsmen. Hartmann arrives, planning to use his ace talent to make Gimli back down in front of the TV cameras, a feat he believes will be impressive enough to win him the 1976 Democratic presidential nomination. The plan goes awry when Sondra finds herself unable to contain her “Succubus” ability, which ignites desire in men and transforms her physically into the object of their desire. When her power is unlocked in a crowd, it drives the men around her insane with lust, and wracks her body with unending physical transformations. Hartmann catches sight of this spectacle, and he goes mad with rage. Guardsmen and jokers alike attempt to rape her, and Hartmann wades in to fight them off, cursing them angrily. He’s too late to save Sondra; she dies with the face of Andrea Whitman, the girl whose scorn first awakened Puppetman in Gregg back when he was only eleven years old. (1: Leigh)

Gregg is pulled away by his bodyguards, even as he continues to rant angrily. Later, he tells reporters that he had simply been too appalled by the violence done upon Succubus, and so he lost his head. (1: Leigh)

July 20, 1976
Jimmy Carter is elected as the Democratic presidential nominee, while Hartmann plans for the future. (1: Leigh)

Late July, 1976
Reporter Sara Morgenstern – the sister of Andrea Whitman and perhaps the only person at this point to suspect the truth about Gregg Hartmann – writes about the Jokertown Riots for the Washington Post. Her work will be nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. (2: Milan)

Fall, 1976 (approximate)
“The Wildest Show on Earth” – a traveling circus that was founded months earlier by Zara the Ringmistress, and which showcases various ace and joker performers – camps outside of Bowling Green, Kentucky, in preparation for a four-night performance run. (13: Bond) (Year is explicit in the text, while the season is conjecture; the narrative is explicitly set not long after the Jokertown Riots in July.)

On Wednesday, the “Wildest Show on Earth” tent is visited by a pair of operatives working for the Card Sharks. The two women identify themselves only by the aliases “Miss Frost” and “Miss Ash.” Claiming they are on the run from Miss Ash’s abusive husband, they entreat Zara to let them join the circus. Frost – having researched the Ringmistress’ background – knows that Zara joined the circus decades earlier for similar reasons, and hopes that the story will make her and Ash appear sympathetic. The gambit works; athough Zara senses something off about the situation, she nonetheless agrees to take both women on as roustabouts. One of Zara’s ace performers, Whitey – with the ability to transform into hundreds of white rats – questions her decision, but she replies that her judgment is not to be second-guessed. (13: Bond) (Frost and Ash being affiliated with the Card Sharks is never confirmed, but that is the strong implication.)

That night, during the first of the four performances of “The Wildest Show on Earth” to be held outside of Bowling Green, two citizens are murdered in town with VX nerve gas. During the Thursday night show, another murder occurs in town, with the same modus operandi. Suspicion begins to fall upon the circus’ wild card performers, as per the Card Sharks’ agenda. (13: Bond)

On Friday, Miss Ash and Miss Frost leave the circus camp and go into town. When they come back, they tell Zara that they only wanted to get a hot meal. That night, during the third Bowling Green performance, Ringmistress Zara sees a man in the audience that looks like her abusive ex-husband, John Deaton, whom she hasn’t seen in 30 years. The man departs before the show comes to an end. Later that night, Zara tasks Whitey with using his mice to spy on Ash and Frost. (13: Bond)

On Saturday, before the final Bowling Green performance, Whitey discovers that the circus’ confetti cannons have been sabotaged, the confetti replaced with plastic bags filled with what he assumes are VX. With the help of the circus’ guest performer, Radha “Elephant Girl” O’Reilly, the bags are carefully removed and then gently flown out to the woods, where Zara’s people bury them deep underground. (13: Bond)

Later, Zara confronts Frost and Ash. Frost says that they had nothing to do with John Deaton having been in the audience the previous day. (13: Bond)

Frost and Ash do admit to having planted the VX, but they refuse to give up the identity of whoever supplied it, nor are they willing to explain their motives. Zara uses her right arm to kill both women with poison. Whitey’s rats devour the corpses so that there will be no evidence left behind after the circus leaves Bowling Green. (13: Bond)

Jan. 17, 1977
Hours before being executed for his crimes, ace murderer Gary Gilmore meets with a young nat preacher, Leo Barnett. Gilmore asks Barnett to help as many jokers as he can, and Barnett promises that he will do so. (5: Byron Cover) (Date taken from real-world history.)

Spring, 1977
Sprout Meadows, the daughter of Mark Meadows and Kimberly Anne Cordayne Meadows, is born. She will be diagnosed with a developmental disorder in the following year. (12: Chapter 6)

June 5, 1977
Ace Broadway star Aurora is photographed on the arm of Raul Julia – nominated as Best Actor for his performance as Mack the Knife in The Threepenny Opera – at the 1977 Tony Awards. (16: Vaughn Four)

Early July, 1977
Outside the comedy club The Village Idiot near Jokertown, deuce comedienne Carlotta DeSoto is almost kidnapped by a pair of armed thugs. The comedy club’s manager, Bud Cortland (also a deuce), chases the thugs off with a gun. The next day, Carlotta meets a handsome, charming man, but realizes during their conversation that he is trying to ensnare her as well, in a more subtle way. She and Bud head to the newsstand of Jube the Walrus, who in turns points them both toward Croyd Crenson. They go to one of Croyd’s apartments, and Bud hires Croyd (currently in a gargoyle form, much like the one he transformed to during his sister’s wedding back in 1947) to be Carlotta’s bodyguard. (16: Simons)

July 13, 1977
Bud and Carlotta are having dinner at a steakhouse when a citywide blackout occurs. The two leave the restaurant, and take a walk through Central Park. Unfortunately, the giant ape kept at the Central Park Zoo has escaped, and kidnaps Carlotta so as to carry her to the top of the Empire State Building. Croyd fetches Bud and they fly to Aces High, where Bud meets Hiram Worchester and beautiful, winged celebrity ace Amare “Peregrine” Sweet. Peregrine takes flight, and she and Croyd attempt to distract the ape and rescue Carlotta. Their efforts are ineffectual, so Hiram uses his gravity manipulation powers to subdue the ape. It works, and Carlotta is rescued, but not before Croyd is wounded by the creature. Bud and Carlotta go back to Carlotta’s apartment, where Bud spends the night on the couch. (16: Simons) (Peregrine’s real name from 23: Chapter 1)

July 14, 1977
Bud and Carlotta are kidnapped at gunpoint and taken to the Long Island estate of Briton Earle, Carlotta’s rich ex-husband. With Croyd’s assistance, Bud and Carlotta escape. Later, Croyd helps them both establish new identities, and they leave New York City, not knowing exactly where they’ll settle down. (16: Simons)

October, 1978
Still trapped on the steamboat Natchez as a ghost made of steam ever since his seeming death in 1951, Wilbur Leathers – known as “Steam Willy” by crewmembers and passengers who have glimpsed him over the years – is aboard the Natchez one day in October of 1978 when an eleven-year-old passenger named Lizbeth Hamilton slips on a layer of ice and falls, breaking her neck. As with other deaths that have occurred on the Natchez, Wilbur finds that Lizbeth’s spirit does not appear, leaving “Steam Willy” as still the only “ghost” haunting the Natchez. (24: Leigh Two)

1979
Tom Wolfe’s The True Brothers is published, wherein both Margaret Durand and George G. Battle are mentioned as suspicious characters who might have been responsible for the X-11A disaster back in 1958. (13: Cassutt)

Studs Terkel’s Wild Times: An Oral History of the Postwar Years is published. The book features testimonies from subjects about Tachyon’s initial arrival on Earth in 1946. Amongst the subjects interviewed are: Herbert L. Cranston, the first human to speak to Dr. Tachyon after he landed; retired U.S. army colonel Edward Reid, who had been in charge of interrogating the alien; and Professor Lyle Crawford Kent, who first coined the word “tachyon” to describe a faster-than-light particle, and was thus partially responsible for giving the Takisian prince his new, post-Takis identity. (1: Prologue)

July, 1979
In Charleston, South Carolina, Theodorus Witherspoon’s wild card expresses, and he transforms into a giant, snail-like joker. He is thirteen years old, shortly to turn fourteen. (29: Rowe One)

This is so much fun to read. Thank you!

Thanks, glad you're still liking it!

We're almost through the 1970s. The "Bronze Age" of Wild Cards is nearing its end ...

August, 1979
Eleven-year-old joker-ace Mathilde Marechal is taken by her father – joker Malachi Schwartz, grey-skinned and hunchbacked – to visit her best friend Theodorus, who was struck by the wild card virus the previous month. Embarrassed by his mutation, he sends her away. A few days later, she receives a note from him, apologizing for his rudeness. In the note, Theodorus also notes that Dr. Tachyon will be coming to his home to examine him, and that he hopes Mathilde can also be there, so she can meet Tachyon as well. (29: Rowe One)

October, 1979
Fortunato is accosted by some punks at the Cloisters. He fights them off, killing one of them and retrieving a second red penny, just like the one he took off of a serial murderer ten years earlier. He takes the coin to Hiram Worchester at Aces High, who then directs him to an occult history expert named Eileen Carter. Fortunato and Eileen both investigate the penny’s origins, eventually tying it back to Count Alessandro di Cagliostro. Eileen’s investigations lead her to a modern day descendant of Cagliostro – Marc Balsam. She wins Marc’s confidence, and eventually is invited by him to join the Egyptian Freemasons, the cult founded by Cagliostro in the late 18th century. (2: Shiner)

Fortunato and Eileen make love, and he foregoes the tantric rite so that his power goes into her rather than himself. While he lies powerless, his mind rides with Eileen’s. She goes to a church in Jokertown to be initiated into the Masons. Once she’s inside, Fortunato lets his consciousness enter Marc Balsam. He sees in Balsam’s mind’s eye a vision of the secret that the Masons have passed down: a visitor from the sky bestowing mysterious knowledge unto Cagliostro. Before Fortunato can learn more, Eileen’s treachery is discovered. An ace member of the cult, the Astronomer, wipes Eileen’s mind and leaves her in an alley. Later, Fortunato makes his way to the alley and uses his power to stop her heart, putting her out of her misery. He finds a prostitute and pays her for a lovemaking session that powers him up a bit, enough to allow him to find a gas main in the Jokertown church and remotely trigger a massive explosion. The explosion kills Balsam and several others – although one Mason who survives is an undercover Neil Langford, the ace who used to go by the name “Black Shadow.” Langford has joined the cult presumably with the intention of foiling their sinister aims, but after living through the blast, he assumes that the Masons have been destroyed, and doesn’t become any further involved with them. Fortunato too believes that his actions have ended the threat of the Freemasons, but in fact he’s been manipulated by the Astronomer. In killing Balsam and his followers, Fortunato has paved the way for the Astronomer to take over the cult, surrounded only by those members who are loyal to him instead – including wild cards Kim Toy, Red, Kafka and Revenant. (2: Shiner) (Revelations about the Astronomer and the wild card Masons from 2: Williams “Sixth Generation Two”) (Involvement of Neil Langford, aka “Black Shadow,” revealed in 9: Williams One)

Fall, 1979
After many legal battles, Dr. Tachyon finally wins custody of his ship, Baby, back from the U.S. Government. Upon retrieving it from the government installation wherein it was being held, Tach flies the ship directly to Charleston, South Carolina in order to examine Theodorus Witherspoon. Tachyon takes Theodorus and Mathilde for a ride around the Earth in Baby. (29: Rowe One)

Aboard the Russian space station Almaz, joker cosmonaut Yuri “Flat Man” Serkov is accidentally exposed to lethal doses of radiation. Instead of killing him, the exposure triggers an ace mutation, transforming Yuri from his “flat” joker form into a being of pure energy. After some experimentation, Serkov realizes he can transform at will from his physical joker form to his pure-energy state. (29: Perrin “Flat” and “Chance”)

December, 1979
The Russian ace code-named “Molniya” (i.e., “lightning”), who possesses electricity-manipulation powers, is part of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and the leader of the charge into the Bala Hissar fortress in Kabul on Christmas Day. (4: Milan)

Apr. 16, 1980
Ace J. Robert Belew, aka “the Mechanic,” has a meeting in the White House with President Jimmy Carter, George G. Battle, and National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski. Belew agrees to lead an ace task force into Iran to rescue American hostages. (13: Milan)

I sent a message to GRRM's literary agent about possibly contributing to the next prose or comic Wild Cards (as I have a great story in mind). No word yet.

Noice!

Apr. 24-25, 1980
Belew and his team of aces arrive in Iran. The team comprises Joann “Lady Black” Jefferson and Billy “Kid Wolverine” Ray, two relatively recent SCARE recruits, along with private detective Jay “Popinjay” Ackroyd. Three other aces, Amy “Damsel” Mears, Paul “Dive Bomb” Chung and Harvey “the Librarian” Melmoth, are part of the team as well. Thanks to sabotage by Card Sharks including CIA operative O.K. Casaday, the mission fails. Damsel, Divebomb and the Librarian are all killed. Jay’s ability to teleport is used to get Ray and Jefferson out of danger, and before Ray is sent away, Belew suggests to Billy that he change his code-name from “Kid Wolverine” to “Carnifex.” (13: Milan)

Jay is a projecting teleport, unable to use his power to transport himself; Belew refuses to let Jay teleport him away, which would leave Jay alone in Iran. Instead, Belew and Jay are able to hijack a plane, and Belew exercises his ace ability to fuse with machinery, taking control of the aircraft. He flies himself and Jay safely out of the country. The entire adventure gives J. Robert Belew his first inkling that an anti-wild cards conspiracy exists. (13: Milan)

Late April, 1980
Jimmy Carter publicly takes full responsibility for the failed ace mission to Iran. (1: Martin “Retrospective” and 13: Milan)

Spring or Summer, 1980
Six months after Almaz was flooded with radiation, the space station is boarded by two wild card cosmonauts: Major Constantin “Lead Man” Radianskyev, who is made out of lead and thus impervious to all forms of radiation; and Major Anya “Many Toes” Vetsenyenk, whose wild card lets her turn potentially cancerous cells into extra body parts. After the pair have been aboard for several weeks, Yuri Serkov makes his presence known to Anya, a former lover. They resume their romantic relationship. (29: Perrin “Chance”)

Jan. 1, 1981
A letter is published in newspaper The Jokertown Cry that calls out nats – i.e., people not infected by the wild card virus – as being “obsolete.” (1: Martin “Retrospective”)

1981
Sometime in 1981, Ballantine Press publishes Think Like an Ace! (1: Martin “Retrospective”)

Sometime in 1981, Mark Meadows and Kimberly Anne Cordayne Meadows get divorced. During a heated custody battle over their daughter, Kimberly Anne has a breakdown. Mark is awarded sole custody of Sprout, and he moves from Berkeley, California to New York City. With money borrowed from his father, he starts a business: The Cosmic Pumpkin head shop and deli, on Fitz-James O’Brien Street in Greenwich Village. Mark’s father establishes a trust fund to discreetly supply money to the Cosmic Pumpkin, so that Mark and Sprout are able to get by. (12: Chapter 6)

In the years following his divorce, Mark once again starts experimenting with chemicals in order to “find the Radical.” He fails to do so, but he does manifest other superhuman personae over the years. All of these other personalities – which Mark will come to think of as his “friends” – will have their own unique powers, weaknesses, codenames, “secret identities,” and colorful costumes, like characters out of superhero comic books. (2: Snodgrass, 2: Milan, and 2: Cadigan)

Mid-May, 1981
Cash Mitchell has been touring the country with the Quicksilver plane, giving lectures about the clandestine flight to the Moon back in 1968. One day in mid-May, he gets into a fight with Bertram Neal, who accuses Cash of perpetuating a hoax about a trip to the Moon that never occurred. There is a physical altercation, after which Cash and his partner, Ridley Hough, head off toward a new city. Sometime not long after, Cash is hired by Malachi Schwartz to stay at the home of Alice and Henry Witherspoon for three weeks and give private lectures about the 1968 Quicksilver flight to their joker son, Theodorus. Cash agrees, and he and Ridley fly Quicksilver to the Witherspoon Estate, aka “Dayton Place.” Cash meets Theodorus, and the two get along very well. Meanwhile, it’s reported that Bertram Neal is in a coma, and so warrants have been sworn out for the arrests of Cash and Ridley. (29: Cassutt)

A week or two into Cash’s stay at Dayton Place, Bertram Neal awakens and puts out a call for a contest, with a large cash prize to be given to the first party to fly a rocket to the Moon by June 30, 1981. The Witherspoons are able to exert some money and influence to bring together the trio who flew there last time, and so Cash Mitchell finds himself reunited with Mike Sampson (now a general) and Eva-Lynne Roderick Mitchell, Cash’s ex-wife. Eva-Lynne has had her card turn, and she is slowly mutating into a joker form. She wants to win the cash prize for her two sons from a previous marriage, Amos and Orson. In fact, secretly, the Witherspoons are fronting the prize money, as a way to get the funds to Eva-Lynne without having it seem like charity. (29: Cassutt)