|
Home
|
|
Encyclopedia A Through B |
| |
|
             |
| |
|
Adam Silicon |
|
On September 2, 1984, the
Lucent Technologies cybernetics lab announced
that they had succeeded in creating a functional humanoid robot.
Six weeks later, the android in question (who was called Project
Prometheus AMX-1 by the lab's scientists) sued to have his rights as
a sentient being recognized. Eventually, the case reached the United States
Supreme Court, which ruled in the android's favor.
After being declared a
free sentient being, the android, who had taken to calling himself Adam
Silicon (and was officially given that as a legal name by the US Supreme
Court), went to work for Lucent as an expert on cybernetics. It was later discovered
that Dr. Frank Murcheson, Adam's primary creator, was a metagene-inspired genius.
It is doubted that Adam will ever be replicated.
|
|
| |
|
Ahab |
|
In the slang that has
developed around superhuman culture, "Ahab" (sometimes
"Captain Ahab", but usually just "Ahab") is a derogatory
term referring to any supervillain who obsessively pursues
one particular hero above all others and beyond all
possible reason. The best known "Ahab" in the
Butlerverse was Simon "Simple Simon" Bieber, a villain who
obsessively fought Knightblade during the late 60s and
70s. Simple Simon continued his war against the hero even
after Knightblade publically retired. A week after
Knightblade's death from heart failure in 1982, police
found Simple Simon's body in a hotel room in Chicago. The
villain had hung himself, leaving a note that explained
that, with his having "escaped his wrathful vengeance",
the villain saw the world as no longer having a point. |
|
| |
|
AIDS Vaccine |
|
On March 20, 1989, a team of doctors at Crestwick Hospital in York, England perfected
an AIDS vaccine that not only killed the virus an infected individual,
but prevented uninfected individuals from ever being infected.
This vaccine was created with the assistance of Lord Doom, without whom
the cure would have been a very long time coming. In exchange for
his assistance, the United Nations recognized him as the legitimate
ruler of the island of Bermuda. |
|
| |
|
Alternate Timelines |
|
The existence of the supervillain called Moebius, as well as the presence of
certain other people, has proven to most theoretical physicists that alternate dimensional
worlds exist. These alternate dimensions are usually very similar to
"standard Earth", but have differences when it comes to their
historical record. A study done by the Oxford University, with the
assistance of a metahuman who called himself "Pockets" has revealed that
every time any decision is made in the world, the universe splits apart
so that ever possible outcome of the decision is made in at least one of
the universes.
This means that, theoretically, billions of universes are born every day.
Consider: A person wakes up in the morning and walks into his kitchen to have
breakfast. When he makes a decision about what to eat, the universe splits:
in one universe, he just has toast and coffee; in the next he has toast
and orange juice; in the next he has cold cereal; in the next he has
oatmeal; and so on to the extent of his possible choices for breakfast
(including a world in which he skips breakfast entirely).
After breakfast, he goes to get dressed for the day and the universe
again splits when he decides what to wear. What was discovered,
however, is that most of the time these "minor alternatives" tend to
remold seamlessly with their origin universe with no one ever the wiser.
It is only when the event is one of "landmark proportions" (to use the
phrase of Doctor Sylvia Dyner, head of research on the project) that the
universes stay separated and go on with their history.
Researchers discovered the existence of
"Earths" where the Confederates won the US Civil War, where the
Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 is remembered as a total failure, where the
Third Reich still rules over most of Europe, and where various public
figures were assassinated or (in some cases) not, as the case may be.
|
|
| |
|
Armstrong Base |
|
Built in Tycho Crater, Armstrong Base is a permanent lunar
colony. The Lunar Horizons Corporation administer the base
for the United Nations. Its stockholders own this
corporation: the colonists themselves. Most of the
colonists work as miners, chemical engineers, and
metallurgists, creating lightweight alloys. The base also
operates Darkside Radio Observatory, located on the far
side of the moon. |
|
| |
|
The Barsoom Project |
|
The Barsoom Project is a
century-long, UN-directed effort to begin the slow
terraforming of Mars into a planet on which humans can
exist without life support equipment. Begun in 1992, the
project is not expected to show tangible results (or even
serious effects) until at least 2033, and will not be
completed until 2090 if not later. |
|
| |
|
Baseline |
|
A slang term referring to any
normal, non-powered person. |
|
| |
|
Bendy Toy |
|
A slang term referring to any
Metahuman whose powers involve pliability (colloquially
known as "stretching"). |
|
| |
|
Blaster |
|
A slang term referring to any
superhero or supervillain whose powers and abilities
revolve around the controlled generation and expulsion of
energy. |
|
| |
|
The Bochner Law |
|
The Bochner Law was a law
passed by the Pennsylvania General Assembly in 1972. The
law provides that that criminal juvenile offenders who
possess superhuman powers who are arrested and charges
with felonies are to be automatically tried and sentenced
as if they are adults. On July 29, 1974, the Supreme Court
of the United States handed down its decision in
Pennsylvania vs. Tobias, confirming that the law did
not violate Constitutional protections against cruel and
unusual punishment. This ruling thus allows superhuman
juvenile offenders to be sent to "super-maximum security"
prisons upon conviction. |
|
| |
|
Bonded Telepaths |
|
Bonded telepaths are those mentalists who
have undergone extensive psychological and background checks and have
been rated as "trustworthy" by the United Nations Psionics
Organization. Bonded telepaths are used in courtrooms all over the
world, and are occasionally used to monitor diplomatic and business
proceedings to insure that all participants are being honest. |
|
| |
|
Books, Publishing, and the Metahuman Influence |
The publishing world has been
cautious about superhumans until recently, save for
biographies and a few ideological works. Only science
fiction seems to have dealt adequately with the super, and
with the public's appetite for anything having to do with
supers, science fiction was finally dragged out of the
"literary ghetto" it was shoved into 75 years ago. For 46
weeks in 1998 and 1999, the top five titles on the New
York Times Best-Seller's list were stories of superhumans.
The two other areas of publishing other than science
fiction to not act cautiously about superhumans are comic
books and the is the "true crime" genre. By the mid-1960s,
comic books had ceased to be totally fictional as
publishing companies scrambled to get the rights to the
super's names and stories. Currently, the "big three" —
Marvel, DC, and Dark Horse — share a billion dollar
industry that has made them financial giants. They now own
movie studios, newspapers and television stations, and
supers are lovingly covered by all.
True crime "exposes" based on real supervillain crimes
(and the intrepid heroes who stopped them) are extremely
popular. These are written in a gritty, police-report
style, with plenty of grainy photos of victims and
villains and crime scenes. Lurid covers and titles like
Debt of Blood, Fires of Evil, Deadly
Consequences and Countdown to Genocide keep
these paperbacks hopping off the shelves. |
|
| |
|
Brick |
|
A slang term referring to any
superhero or supervillain whose powers and abilities
revolve around superhuman strength and resilience,
especially if the metahuman in question is viewed as being
less intelligent than average. |
|
| |
|
The Bruise Baby |
|
The so-called Bruise Baby
(Jacob Aaron Levinson, January 2, 1977 to February 18,
1977) was born with an active metagene. Unfortunately, the
gene caused the baby to bruise, chafe, and even bleed at
the slightest pressure against its skin. Even the weight
of a hospital sheet was enough to cause bruising, and the
constant pressure of its own weight caused the baby to
suffer frighteningly horrible pressure sores from the day
he was born to the day he died. He never left the hospital
he was born in. He is one of the most frequently cited
example of a "Twist", that is, a metahuman whose powers
are detrimental to the person possessing them. |
|
| |
|
"Burning Desire" |
Burning Desire was
the title of a nude pictorial featured in the April 1991
issue of Playboy Magazine. The pictorial featured an
obviously superhuman woman identified only as "Heatwave"
in various stages of undress (not to mention various
stages of immolation... the article accompanying the
pictorial mentioned she could generate and control fire).
Identification of the woman's true identity was impossible
because she not only wore a mask in every picture, she
kept the hair on her head "aflame" to prevent
identification as well (though, as one waggish subscriber
put it in a letter to the magazine, "at least we can tell
she's a real redhead").
Two years later, a woman calling herself "Heatwave"
debuted as a costumed crimefighter in Memphis, Tennessee.
The crimefighter confirmed that she was the same "Heatwave"
as in the pictorial. She gladly signs copies of the
centerfold to anyone who presents it to her in a polite
manner. The centerfold picture from this pictorial remains
one of the most popular nude pinups in the world, and a
signed copy once sold for almost $200 on e-Bay. |
|
| |
|
|
| |
|