8FOLD/ACRA: Jolt City # 22, NOTES

[Tom Russell]

   EIGHTFOLD PROUDLY PRESENTS
////////////// TOM RUSSELL'S
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// ////  //  //  ///   //    ///    ///   //     \//# 22
//////  //////  ///// //    ////// ///   //      //NOTES

Part 1.

[1] The joke's on Bethany, of course, because she's just about the
only one who doesn't know Blue Boxer's secret identity. Okay, so
that's an exaggeration, but the list includes Martin Rock, Roy Riddle,
Dani Handler, Pam Bierce, Fay Tarif, Trinity Tran, Becky Glass, the
Department of Homeland Security, and the terrorist group FEVER. To
paraphrase the immortal words of Andrew Perron, He Is Really Bad At
This.

[2] Rosenberg is the Four-Colour Liaison for the Chicagoland area,
last seen in JOLT CITY # 20.

[3] The Fitzwalter Rule, enforced in Chicago and some other locales,
only tolerates four-colour vigilantism from those who have actual
super-powers. Powerless heroes are outlawed, and heroes with powerful
alien tech, like Bethany's Singularity Gauntlet, generally have said
tech confiscated and given to "more appropriate" candidates.

[4] Dani was helping the Chicagoland FCL in JOLT CITY # 20, and was
the one who assigned Bethany to Portage Park, which first brought her
to national attention.

[5] Referring, of course, to the disastrous attack of the "Little
League of Doom" in JOLT CITY # 19.

[6] See issues 8-11 for the Vibra-Jacket crime sprees and the
Apelantian invasion.

[7] Kate is Kate Morgan, the second Dr. Metronome, who Bethany met in
JOURNEY INTO # 19, which took place in September 2008. Marva is one of
Bethany's friends, mentioned in every one of her appearances, but
never seen. Marva serves two purposes: first, I am able to emphasis
Bethany's shyness/introversion without making her a lonely, friendless
sad-sack. Second, it lends the series some verisimilitude by
acknowledging the existence of people outside the confines of the
actual story/plot.

[8] "The short man", of course, is Pocket Vito, the six-inch tall
mafioso presumed killed in JOLT CITY # 10. Readers discovered that he
survived in JOLT CITY # 20, and in JOLT CITY # 21, that he is the
"silent partner" in a "triumvirate" formed by himself, industrialist
J. Donald Proctor, and mayoral hopeful Carlos Canton. Martin is
attempting to prove that Vito is still alive so as to effect the early
release from prison of (presumably) reformed villain, Gallery. To do
so, he has decided to manipulate the various gangs into a mob war,
using the rivalry between Vise-Head and Fishface as the fulcrum.

[9] This is Italian for "boss of all bosses". This "title" has little
cachet within the actual real-world mafia, and apparently hasn't been
used outside of sensationalist media portrayals since the formation of
The Commission in 1931. Its usage here is representative of the fact
that organized crime syndicates might operate by slightly different
rules in a world that's as frequently batshit insane as the Eightfold
Universe.

[10] Johnny Banana is a gorilla mobster and refugee from the parallel
Ape-Earth, first (and last) seen in JOURNEY INTO # 4. We haven't met
the Seventh Circle Gang yet. Jack O'Lantern was introduced in JOLT
CITY # 21; Martin intuited his involvement with Vito's organization
when O'Lantern's buttonman Fix silenced Vito's gabby underling,
Frankie Salad.

[11] Frankie Salad was murdered by Fix in JOLT CITY # 21, not to
protect Fishface but, as mentioned, to keep Vito's existence a secret.

[12] I was a little hesitant about using an Italian Mafia term-- and
one that's probably no longer in wider use by the actual Mafia-- when
it's an Irish mobster speaking. But since he's speaking to an Italian,
and since the term has gotten such wide recognition in the mainstream,
I figured it'd be okay for Jack to invoke the mattresses.

[13] To be technical, a bundle of shingles is one-third of a square,
and a square is a roofer's measurement equal to one hundred square
feet. So, three bundles equals a hundred square feet, and a single
bundle actually works out to be thirty-three and a third.

[14] For most but not all states, grass season for FHA and FNMA
properties begins in April and ends in October. FHLMC grass season
begins in March and ends in September. Jolt City, being somewhere in
the Midwest and reasonably close to Chicago, would certainly have
these "normal" seasons.

[15] Wendy's Gourmet Mushroom Swissburger was a limited offer sandwich
available in America during the autumn of 2008 through early 2009.
And, I'm not going to lie: I LOVED THAT SANDWICH. It was pretty much
the best fast food burger I had ever had. At that time, I was eating
at Wendy's once or twice a week for lunch-- it was close to work-- and
I had it every time until it was discontinued.

The same thing sort of happened in 2010 with the Bacon & Blue. I say
"sort of" in that my local Wendy's actually discontinued the burger
early, I guess because I was the only person there who liked it. One
time when I ordered it, the girl at the register screwed up her face
and said, "Why would you order that? It's disgusting!" There was
another Wendy's, but much farther away and with terrible customer
service, that actually kept the burger on about a year after it was
discontinued nationwide.

[16] Rebecca Glass is the agent in the Department of Homeland Security
that's been working the FEVER case.

[17] Back in JOLT CITY # 9.

[18] Alix Corneau, the French heroine Snow Belle. A victim of the
FEVER implants, she died in our last issue.

[19] The IIS was the Iceland Intelligence Service. The VSSE is the
Belgium State Security Service.

Part 2.

[1] The Patriot Act, for my non-American readers, was a piece of
legislation passed in the wake of the September 2001 terrorist
attacks, widely criticized for the far-reaching and arguably
unconstitutional powers it gave the Government in dealing with
terrorism. Section 215 of the act gave the government the ability to
seize library records, and was especially criticized by the ACLU and
other civil liberties groups.

[2] As recounted in JOLT CITY # 11.

[3] In the GREEN KNIGHT ANNUAL.

[4] People complain a lot about alternate timelines being confusing,
but they're really not; anyone who has seen IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE can
get a grasp on them. So I decided I should make them *actually*
confusing. You're welcome.

Note that an "alternate timeline" is different from an "alternate
universe"; each alternate universe has multiple alternate
timelines/pasts, with a fixed present distinct from all other
alternate universe.

Like the man said, it helps if you don't actually think about it.

[5] Ronove, as we'll discover, is a member of the Seventh Circle Gang.
He is named after the twenty-seventh of the seventy-two goetic demons
listed in the Lesser Key of Solomon:

"The 27th spirit is called Ronove, he appeareth in y forme of a
Monster, he teacheth y art of Rhetorick very well, and giveth good
servants knowledge of Tongues, favouer of friends & foes; he is a
Marquiz & a great Earle, and there obeieth him 19 Legions of
spirits[.]"

Ronove (the gangster) is obviously different in many particulars. I
had considered using Furfur, a goetic demon that "never speaket Truth,
except he be compelled or brought up within a Triangle". He certainly
better fits the trickster role than Ronove. But Furfur, besides having
a silly name, has angel wings and antlers, and for some reason I can't
not see antlers as inherently ridiculous.

The Lesser Key doesn't describe Ronove much, but the famed 1863
edition of the Infernal Dictionary illustrated by Le Breton depicts
him with a shortened torso, a staff, and horns; for some reason that
physical image resonated with my psychological conception of my
demon-looking gangster, and he didn't have antlers, so I went with
Ronove.

[6] A reference, of course, to Dante's INFERNO.

[7] Hellfire looms large for both Pastrone and O'Lantern, which might
seem a little odd at first. But both men are defined by the three
things they have in common: physical deformity, criminal activities,
and their ethnic identities. Irish and Italians are both predominantly
Catholic, and worrying about going to Hell is a predominantly Catholic
pastime.

[8] Samson Snapp was the gang lord from JOLT CITY # 1-11. Note that
Proctor begins to call him by his first name before correcting
himself...

Part 3.

[1] In one of many erratic Hail Mary passes made by McCain, he
announced on September 24, 2008 that he would be "suspending" his
campaign in order to end partisan bickering in the financial crisis.
His efforts did little to end that bickering, and his campaign
"resumed" on September 26.

[2] As revealed in JOLT CITY # 20, the Secret Internet is one of the
three Internets in the Eightfold Universe; each of the three are
completely separate and disconnected from each other, making the
Secret Internet, in theory, impossible to hack. The Gorgon found a way
around this by tricking the Architect to construct a back-door into
the Secret Internet from the normal Internet, so that it could get its
digital hands on the Black Note, a sonic frequency that caused the
human head to explode.

Regarding the leaking of the government's index of superhero secret
identities, this will happen in 2013, thanks to Eightfold's version of
Edward Snowden, as revealed in NONFICTION # 2. Whether or not this
includes Derek's identity remains to be seen.

[3] Vernors Ginger Ale (yes, it is Vernors, not Vernor's or Vernor) is
the oldest commercial ginger ale in the United States. It originated
in Detroit after the Civil War, and is available in some thirty-three
states, mostly in the Midwest, and in Canada. Michigan itself still
accounts for some eighty percent of its sales, but it is also popular
in Illinois, Ohio, and Florida. It has a rather unusual, some would
say "acquired", taste, and served warm or hot it is a popular remedy
in the Midwest for stomach aches and digestive problems.

[4] The Dyzen'thari appear courtesy of Andrew Perron. They first and
last appeared in MIGHTY MEDLEY # 1.

[5] In JOLT CITY # 11. This wasn't actually the last time Martin (in
his civilian identity) and Dr. Fay met, but they're people and are
allowed to forget things.

[6] I know you're not going to believe this, but this was an actual
pre-established part of Martin's character history, as seen in JOLT
CITY # 12.