RKMBs Forums .::Important::. Writer's Block Thunder City Gazette: "Whatever Happened to Metaman?"

There came a day when Metaman left. He had been the world's most beloved hero from the late 1930s until the early 1960s, but he needed to leave. When he first began his crusade against evil sometime in the early 1930s, he knew of no other metaheroes. But after his public debut in 1938, they suddenly began appearing everywhere. By the time he left the world in 1961, the planet had more than enough protectors. Metaman could finally rest from his labors, and he was free to explore outer space, other dimensions, even other times at his leisure.

This is how it happened.



"Whatcha writing there, Ben?" said Tim Ito, leaning over Ben Fowler's shoulder to read what had been written in Microsoft Word.

"God, Tim, you startled me," Ben replied, turning around. Tim was his best friend, but he had problems with personal space.

Tim said, "So what is it?" and took a sip of coffee.

"It's... just something I'm writing. It's nothing."

"What's... 'Metaman'?" Tim asked, squinting to read the screen again.

"Just a name, nothing more," said Ben. He hoped Tim would go back to his desk soon.

"Wait a minute," said Tim, a grin flashing over his face. "Are you writing fan fiction?"

"No! It's not fanfic."

"Then what is it?"

Ben sighed. Tim was going to get it out of him eventually. "It's just a story about the world's greatest metahero."

"Oh," Tim said. "I've never heard of him."

"Few have," Ben said, "but he was real."

"Was he one of those Vanguard guys?" Tim asked.

"No, he existed before them," Ben replied.

"Whatever happened to Vanguard, anyway?" Tim pondered briefly. "I haven't seen them in the news at all for a few years. Hmph. This Metaman wasn't in any of the Strikeforce teams, so was he a member of the MBL?"

"No."

"The New MBL?"

"No."

"The JLR?"

"No!"

"TOMB?"

"No..." said Ben hesitantly, "...and what's TOMB?"

"Based in Mandelovia a few years back, before the coup. Read about them on AlterNet.org," explained Tim, taking another sip of coffee before resuming. "Was he... hmm... I give up. I can't think of any other metahero teams."

"That's because most of them kept their existence a secret," said Ben. "The fact that the governments didn't want people talking about them either must've helped. No, Metaman pre-existed all those groups. He was one of the first metas."

"Ah, was he in the Royal Society of Rogues? Saw a documentary on the History Channel about them once."

"Well, no, they came before," Ben explained. "But they weren't really metaheroes, per se. There had been metahumans around, but until Metaman appeared, they weren't metaheroes. He was the original metahero, the one all others patterned themselves after. The word metahuman was based on his name, in fact."

"Uh, I don't think that's correct, Ben," said Tim, laughing somewhat condescendingly. "TriVex didn't discover the metagene until 1996. And they named it after the root word meta, which means change in Greek." He took another sip and added, "True story. Saw it on 60 Minutes last night."

Ben shook his head insistently. "No, that's only half the story. Yeah, it comes from that Greek word, but people with special powers were called metas long before 1996. Metas were around for years before the metagene itself was studied and isolated as the reason behind their abilities."

"If that's so, why haven't I heard of any of this?" asked Tim. "Why doesn't anyone else know about Metaman?"

Ben shrugged. "I don't know. I guess people just forgot."

"Everyone forgot except you?" Tim said, chuckling. "God, Ben, you're not developing paranoia, are you?"

"It's not that," said Ben. "I just... know some things. I'm not sure how or why. I just know, just like I know Metaman and Doc Quantum were best friends back in the 1940s and 1950s -- they were known as the Earth's Best Team."

"Doc Quantum? You're not talking about your hero, Dr. Henry Quantos, are you? The one who died a few years back?"

"No, Doc Quantum was his father," said Ben. "He was also named Dr. Henry Quantos, and his father was named Dr. Henry Quantos."

"Quite a lineage, if true," said Tim. "Forgive me if I doubt you, but I didn't think Dr. Quantos was a meta or a hero."

"He wasn't, not Dr. Henry Quantos III, anyway," said Ben. "Dr. Henry Quantos II was Doc Quantum, a Golden Age-era metahero who didn't have any powers but used his brilliant mind to fight crime. Dr. Henry Quantos the first was what you might call a 'mad scientist,' who was on the wrong side of the law."

"Well, I'll leave it up to you. You're the Quantos expert," Tim said, chuckling as he spotted three books written by the late Dr. Henry Quantos III on Ben's small desk bookshelf. "So tell me something else about this Metaman fellow. What made him so special?"

Ben brightened considerably. "Well, for starters, he was an Alpha Class metahuman."

Tim's eyebrows rose. "Really? I thought they were really rare."

"They are, but they do exist. Remember Ed Cicciotto, the Italian Olympic athlete? He was Alpha Class."

"No kidding," said Tim. "Hm. Go on."

"Anyway, because Metaman was Alpha Class, he wasn't limited to just one power. He was originally just super-strong and invulnerable, but throughout his career he just kept picking up new powers. By the time he left Earth, he was the most powerful metahuman on the planet. If he's still alive, and has gained further powers since he disappeared nearly fifty years ago, he might be one of the most powerful beings in the universe."

"Y'don't say." Tim chuckled. "Fanfic writer."

"It's not fanfic!" Ben insisted.

"Okay, okay, it's fanfic using an original character. Happy now?"

Ben was exasperated. "It's not--"

"We should get back to work," interrupted Tim. "The news doesn't stop just because we do."

Ben sighed and turned back to his computer as Tim went back to his desk. Already he had been assigned to copy edit a press release from a local charity. I'd rather be writing the news than just editing it all the time, thought Ben. The life of a newspaper copy editor could be quite boring at times.