NOTES: Bilbara was an imprint of Worth Carnahan. It had only a few titles (Cyclone Comics and OK Comics) so to bulk out this world, the heroes of the Green Giant one shot are also added. But Earth-B still only has a scant few heroes ... which is a major feature of their actions!

Before the Golden Age

In Ancient Greece, Ullyses adventures and fights, cyclops and the immortal sorceress Clea (OK Comics 1, July 1940)

During the first Crusade, Sir Miles of Lorraine joins the army of Geoffrey of Bouillon to fight in the holy land. He becomes known as The Red Knight.

In the time of the third crusade, a European nobleman, styling himself Prince Phillip of Kyle, gains a reputation as a cruel and evil man, caring not a jot for anything save his white charger, Lightning. Deserting the crusades when he grew bored, Prince Phillip returned to mistreat his own bondsmen. One day he was out on a hunt and was gored and killed by a boar. His soul was refused rest, but he was offered a chance at redemption and sent back to do good as ... The Phantom Knight (OK Comics 1, July 1940)

Around the same time and place, an agent of the western monarchies known as Reynard the Fox, acted as a spy and procurer to track down mystic items being brought into the court of Saladin. One such was an ancient Egyptian amulet brought to Saladin by Omtet the Seer, which supposedly granted invincibility in battle to its wearer. Reynard intercepted Omtet and killed him, taking the amulet. Later he was almost killed during a battle but the amulet saved him. It's not known what happened to Reynold or the amulet after that. (First appeared Cyclone Comics 4, September 1940)

In the old west, Texas Ranger, Sunset Smith rode the ranges on his beloved horse, Buck, while down in Mexico, Don Ramon adopted the identity of "The Lash" (originally the Singing Lash) in order to fight for justice (OK Comics 1, July 1940)

Another hero of the range was Lucky Lane (Green Giant Comics 1, 1940)

20th century

Archimedes Quillian graduated and had earned his doctorate by a young age in the early 1920's. He was known in the scientific community as arrogant and a difficult man - never-the-less as the years passed and he became a professor before his 26th birthday, the authorities bent over backwards to accommodate his genius. In turn, Quillian learned how to appear superficially charming and hid his unsociable nature.

In the 1930's he began to work on his pet project - time travel.

THE GOLDEN AGE

In late 1939, ex college football star, Pal Peyton inherits a fortune and incorporates a company called Peyton Inc with two college buddies, "Brick" Eggers and "Shadow" Parks. They build and outfit a huge bomber and plan to promote peace and seek adventure in South America. (OK Comics 1, July 1940)

1940.

In January, Professor Quillian invented the "time viewer" but was extremely frustrated that it could only view the past. The following month he made another breakthrough - the viewer could now see 3 months into the future. Exactly 90 days, no more and no less. In a rage, Quillian almost destroyed his machine, but common sense prevailed. He vowed to keep working on it and his monumental ego would not allow him to reveal even the great progress he had made so far - the machine had to be completed to his original ambitions.

Quillian, cognizant that he was burning through his grants and private fortunes, set the machine on view and decided to look for any hints of the future that would allow him to manipulate the stock markets. What he found instead was of more value than he could have dreamed - he witnessed the advent of the age of the superhuman. *note - Quillian was at that time limited to viewing newspaper articles at a fixed point, and couldn't yet move his viewer.

In May the newspapers told of an amnesiac with the powers of a cyclone, who, thanks to a piece of paper in one pocket bearing the name "Tom" was dubbed "Tornado Tom". A week later scientist Guy Newton discovered the ability to harness the forces of electricity  within his body and became ... Volton, the human generator. (Cyclone Comics 1, June 1940).

Analyzing these events in detail, Quillian decided to discontinue further research and instead cashed in all his assets to purchase a scientific research center - then he contacted the government and promised that in three months he would bestow gifts of knowledge upon the nation.

The next day, Quillian read the report on his grand opening. His future self had given a patriotic speech vowing to use his "super-genius" to aid the USA against all enemies, foreign or domestic.

The papers had dubbed him "Professor Q."

The Q of March began to shape his persona by reading advance reports of crimes and aiding the police and federal agents in foiling them.

May/Summer 1940 (Events not witnessed by Archimedes Quillian)

Two twins, Tim and Tom Teller buy an old schooner and sail around having adventures (OK Comics 1, July 1940)

Sporting star, Kip Jaxon fights criminals who try to fix his baseball games. Later the same year he works as a lifeguard. (OK Comics 1, July 1940)

A young pre teen orphan boy called Rusty is given an experimental formula designed to turn the subject into a giant, but it fails to work in that way ... instead, the boy becomes super strong and able to make himself lighter to leap short distances. The scientist Professor Rednow comes to regret his cold treatment of the "subject" and vows to protect the boy he dubbed "Little Giant" from exploitation. (OK Comics 1, July 1940)

A marine nicknamed Sgt Leatherneck operates in Tibet, where he foils the plans of a Tartar warlord called Mogli-Khan (OK Comics 1, July 1940)

A young man called Roy Gates is given magical powers of hypnosis by a Nepalese monk. He adopts the identity of Mister Mist (OK Comics 2, October 1940)

Q schemes

While he waited for the day Tornado Tom arrived, Quillian kept on gazing into the future - in the summer he saw a man as tall as a skyscraper in a green costume, and reports from war torn Europe of another of great power (Green Giant Comics 1, undated 1940)

Circa early summer of 1940, Professor Q had established himself as a scientist-mystery man detective, and had determined that Tornado Tom was destined to fight a counterfeit/blackmail gang. He arranged to be on the spot to "assist" Tom, using weapons of his invention.

Feigning charm and a pleasant demeanor, Q ended the "team up" with a hand shake, a friendly smile and an offer that Tom could call on him ... "if he ever needed assistance.'

The Professor arranged a similar team up with Volton, to gain their trust. A third meeting, this time with both men, was designed to further the manipulations. Tom and Volton heard from their friend and ally, Professor Q, that ..."dark forces were converging to threaten the safety of the United States." Q suggested the trio remain in touch.

Having set up plans for the future, Professor Q kept up his mystery-hero persona and continued to use his machine to monitor the future. He discovered a report of hidden lands - there was Artica, the Kingdom of the Moon and the Domain of the Little People (He discovered that each society had been bleeding into Earth-B's reality from the Fourth Dimension - though the threat level was minescule compared to that faced by Earth-F) - Artica and the Kingdom of the Moon first appear in Cyclone Comics 1, June 1940

Around this time, Sgt Buzz Sawyer, a state trooper, the mercenary adventurer Ted Cameron and Lt Nick Nelson of the Navy are all occupied in various adventurous pursuits (Cyclone Comics 1, June 1940).

Professor Q noted that the "Little People" had built and sent a giant robot to invade Earth. He was amused to see that when it arrived, it was just six foot tall. He arranged to intercept "Robo" and re-programmed it to obey his commands. (Robo first appeared in Cyclone Comics 2, July 1940)

Fall/autumn of 1940

Anticipating the arrival of the Green Giant, Professor Q offered the homeless Tornado Tom a room at the Bilbara Institute and upgraded his look with a new name and costume - he was now ... The Tornado. Robo, too had been promoted as a crime-fighter. It was time for the next stage of Professor Q's plans. He invited Volton to join the others at the Institute, which he proposed be home and headquarters for a team.

They would be called ... The Cyclones!

As anticipated, the grouping made national news and shot to fame. Q gambled that a novice hero like the Green Giant would be keen to join their ranks, and this proved true.

Now a team of five, Professor Q contemplated other candidates for his ranks, but being unaware of Mister Mist and Rusty, the Little Giant, saw only two possibilities, one of which remained a rumour (A white jungle goddess with the ability to speak to and command animals). The second was the so called Master Mystic, who had been active in Europe and also around the world. Q estimated he was probably based in Tibet, and was a powerful force. The professor decided to leave him alone, as long as he didn't come to America.

Q also noted others who may be of use to him - there was the "super scientist" Dr Nerod, the pilot adventurer known as The Black Arrow and the statistical genius, inventor and scientific all rounder known as The Researcher (Green Giant Comics 1, 1940).

In December, Professor Q continued to glance into the future, assuming more super humans would rise (he was to be proved mostly wrong as Earth-B hit its peak for mystery-heroes in 1940) and was elated to see a man with the power of super speed. But his eagerness turned to worry when he discovered that this "Lightning2 was in fact native to a parallel earth!

1941

Professor Q had not only been pushing the Tornado to test the extent of his super speed (he had initially whirred through the air, but Q had encouraged him to test out his perpetual motion in a forward arc on the ground), but also discovered Volton could use his electrical powers to produce speed - though not as much as Tornado.

Professor Q's machine could now tune in on certain locales, and it was programmed to observe the "weak spot" (in the farmlands of Ohio) that Lash Lightning used to travel between earths. Q had now planted hundreds of hidden cameras around America, so his machine could constantly photograph events in those places three months ahead.

At some point Quillian had begun to stand in front of his machine holding up newspapers and messages - in this way he now had advance information from his future self and could change events if their outcomes were ill favoured.

In April 1941 he observed that Lightning had brought a whole team of super humans to Earth-B. The Cyclones were waiting to confront them and Q was thrilled to see that Master Mystic and Tira, the jungle girl were now members.

The confrontation erupted into a fight. Two of the team known as "The Aces" were killed (The Flag and Vulcan) but Volton also perished. Q saw that he had another ally, state trooper Buzz Sawyer, who aided by the professor's dog, Satan and Korroo, the black lion companion of Tira, questioned a captive called The Raven, who expired under torture.

The Q of April 1941 saw that in July he had learned the alternate world heroes called their earth, Earth-A, and his Earth-B. They knew of a third alternate named Earth-C. This confirmed the existence of a multiverse and opened up lots of possibilities.

He also learned that the Aces had sent half their team to Earth-B and the other to Earth-C. Their intentions were not malevolent - they were searching for the cure to a common ailment that was fatal on Earth-A.

Q expanded his plans to grow his resources and mulled the possibilities of earths with more super humans and technology than his own.

Using his advance knowledge he hired the son of an old acquaintance, the soldier of Fortune, Ted Cameron, to go to Africa and find Tira the jungle girl. He was certain Ted would succeed in bringing her back, as he had seen it.

He also expanded his support staff by using his government contacts to request certain individuals including state trooper, Sgt Buzz Sawyer, and the Black Arrow to act as his group's pilot.

The Black Arrow transported Professor Q and Robo to Tibet, where they tracked down - or rather allowed Master Mystic to find them. Q knew that Mystic would make a dangerous foe, so rather than attempt to manipulate him, the professor opted to take the mystic into his confidence and proposed an alliance. Mystic had been present in July, and this revelation intrigued him. He agreed to work with Quillian.

When July arrived, Professor Q kept his team in their HQ. The Aces came and left without any trouble.

The alliance between Q and Master Mystic paid dividends - both were dedicated to protecting their reality through control and order. Mystic was able to provide the professor with lots of information about the Fourth Dimension and the hidden races of Earth. They used the viewing machine to repel increasing attacks (around the same time Earth-F was also suffering from weak point breaches) and worked to open the weak spot to Earth-A.

Using a mix of science and magic, Q and Master Mystic boosted the Tornado's speed until he was able to slip between dimensions. Tornado was now able to vibrate invisibly and he secretly read the Aces files, confirming the existence of an Earth-D. Earth-D had a low number of super humans but the existence of the genius, Supermind and his son, SuperStar who possessed immense powers, made Professor Q abandon ideas of an attack. He did however find out that the heroes of Earth-D - or rather Professor Supermind (who kept the knowledge secret from his own ranks) had offered speculation about a "Hyper-Corps" rumoured to protect the multiverse, and known as The Hypernauts*.

*note - only the ultra secret hero known as The Raven had learned this, as part of an exchange of information. The knowledge was hidden within a coded journal of his.

Q speculated to Master Mystic that if they could capture a Hypernaut, it would open up the secrets of the multiverse to them.

But this was quickly forgotten by the horrors of a discovery viewed in October 1941 - Professor Q witnessed the attack on Pearl Harbor and the United State's entry into the war!

Professor Q resolved to send the Cyclones to prevent the attack, but a newspaper held up by his future self on December 8th said they were repelled by a mystic force!

Q planned that Master Mystic would arrive early to counter it - the December 9th paper showed that Mystic had been crippled.

Q kept changing strategy, and with each plan disaster struck, from the death of the entire team to individual deaths. The Q of December 17th informed his past self that supernatural beings from the Fourth Dimension were working with the Japanese and that the attack on Pearl Harbor seemed to be a solid time event.

The Professor kept his team away and concentrated on the multiverse. By now they were able to spy on other earths and had discovered Earth-E. In each reality Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7th.

But more shocks were to come - on October 12th, Q witnessed Japanese troops landing in California on January 12th 1942, an event that wasn't duplicated on the other earths! He was now able to see Earth'#s A through P and became infuriated that only Earth-B's America suffered this indignity!

1942

The Hyper-Corps of this local string of the multiverse had been reduced to one veteran and his rookie recruit, a young man called Don-Vin who had been raised in a reality bubble where he believed he was a superhero named Hyper the Phenomenal (First appearance of two - Hyper-Mystery Comics 1, May 1940). Near the start of 1942, The Hypernaut Prime had noticed that Professor Q's continual manipulation of the time stream was causing a tear in reality situated around Earth-B but with the potential to spread to other alternates in the multiverse.

The two Hypernauts jumped to Earth-B to seal the breaches and repair the damage. They achieved this successfully but were then ambushed by the Cyclones - Professor Q had seen them coming and had months to perfect a plan. The prime Hypernaut was killed and his suit with its dimension jumping capabilities was taken.

However, as the hypernauts were from outside the Earth-B continuum, the Cyclones only had one shot at capturing or killing both. Don-Vin escaped and evaded tracking by hiding in the folds of reality for several months.

This brought him a little time, as Q quickly discovered that the Hypernaut Prime suit could track other hypernauts if they reality shifted or returned to their hidden base (which Don or Hyper was determined not to do).

Q gave the captured suit to Ted Cameron, dubbing him "The Hyper-Dimensional Man" and set about decoding it's computer/net manual. Although this took many months, Q sent Ted on missions to spy and plunder on other words, and when he cracked it, he discovered the one thing he wanted the most ... Hyper wore a prototype nth gen Hypernaut suit, a one of its kind model that had all the functions and more of a regular Hyper-naut suit, but was also capable of ... time travel!

By this point, Hyper's life support systems which had kept him alive for almost six months, were on the verge of failure. He would either starve to death or needed to attempt a reality shift. Gambling on a random jump sequence with no known destination, to fool the trackers in Ted Cameron's suit, he activated a pulse shift. He had one last gambit - home in on local super humans and seek assistance.

Hyper splashed down in the Pacific Ocean of Earth-F, on June 9th 1942. The pocket battleship USS Dragon was in the vicinity, along with a contingent of the United States heroes, The Mystery Men of America. The mystic, Zanzibar sensed a disturbance and an arrival from out of Earth-F's space, leading other heroes to fear a new incursion from the Fourth Dimension.

Aquatic heroes Navy Jones and Princess Coral were sent to retrieve whoever or whatever had arrived on their world, and Hyper was brought back to the Dragon.

Using his suit's sensors to determine which reality he was in, Hyper prevailed upon the heroes to take him to their base and begin organizing a super human defense of their reality.

After Zanzibar reported that she sensed no danger from the newcomer, the contingent of Mystery Men teleported back to New York and a meeting was convened, with Mystery Men co leaders, Green Mask and the Eagle, as well as K-51, team liaison and Director of the Foreign Operations eXecutive  present.

Hyper told his story in full and told them they must now decide whether to reveal their newfound knowledge of the multiverse to their government or keep it secret.

Unfortunately The Cyclones had already tracked them - Yarko the Great sensed their entrance to Earth-F and an attack on Mystery Men Headquarters was underway.

Green Giant grew to several hundreds of feet tall and literally began punching the Manhattan Biltmore Hotel, where MMA HQ was located. Master Mystic launched a powerful mystical attack, and Q himself led an assault on the labs where the science villain, Dr Mortal was held on bail to assist the war effort (its presumed they scouted the location with Tornado using his super speed before the rest appeared in Earth-F space).

Few heroes were present, bar some in the barracks. The initial assault caused an explosion and killed almost a dozen soldiers, including Sgt O'Hara (a Fox backup strip character). The Tornado speed bowled Earth-F heroes out of the way as Q confronted Dr Mortal.

At that stage, the un-powered costumed hero, the Nightbird threw himself into the frey, only to have Ted Cameron discharge a blast of energy from his Hyper suit, literally disintegrating Nightbird's head.

Dr Mortal took threats to his person, cooly and offered a deal. He would offer a valuable secret in exchange for the Cyclones immediately withdrawing from his earth and not returning. As Q had gambled on a swift attack to take the Earth-F heroes off guard and that they numbered many more than his own team, and that Ted's dimensional device (which he still hadn't mastered) was time limited, he considered the deal.

Mortal took a note book full of formulas from a locked draw and handed it to him. Q was satisfied - here was another science he had not considered, but the possibilities were endless. Though not his field, he was genius enough to verify the theories and formulas ... it may take years of even decades, but it was worth it to hold the key to human cloning in his hands!

In the aftermath of the attack, the Mystery Men voted by a tiny margin to inform their government about the threat from alternate earths. Soldiers moved to secure the Hypernaut, who shook his head in disappointment and activated his time jump - the only option open to him as he was now stuck on Earth-F. Any attempt to jump realities would result in the Hyper-Dimensional Man instantly tracking him.

September 20th 1942 - Ted and the Professor met for drinks at the Stork Club. Though possessed of great power, and briefly considering using it for his own agenda, Ted ultimately decided that was too much hard work and his continued loyalty to Professor Q would bring him all the perks he desired. Ted respected the prof's brains and was content to go along for the ride.

At this point, Q had successfully concluded his rat cloning trials and was about to move on to bigger animals. He believed he could achieve human cloning within a year or so and eagerly speculated to Ted that they could transfer their minds to young bodies by about 1963 (he had not yet considered accelerated growth).

The war on Earth-B was going badly though, with the Japanese occupying most of the coast of California, including Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Q still wanted the second Hyper suit, but had determined Don-Vin was still on Earth-F and they would need to have local agents watching for his signal to reappear. As Ted's Hyper-Dimensional Man suit could take him undetected to Earth-F for short periods, Q proposed he ally with Earth-F science villains and criminals to set up a network to report on any extra-dimensional activity or the return of the Hypernaut. The professor also began to speculate about accelerated aging of clones.

1943

The Cyclones spent much of the year maintaining their image as America's heroes and fighting conventional and super human forces. Master Mystic was unable to step foot in occupied California due to the mystic energies of the Lance of Longinus, the mystic artifact that the Hitler's of most earths had found and used to enact a spell that could turn magic users into Nazis if they enter Axis territory.

Q also sent his allies on occasional missions to scout and plunder resources (super serums, mystic items, advanced tech) from other earths - and had already upgraded some of his powered and non powered followers.

In the fall of 1943, Ted reported findings from Earth-F. The revelation of the multiverse and the attack on their HQ, and death of Nightbird and others had rendered the Earth-F authorities paranoid. They were working on their own extra dimensional travel experiments.

Ted reported that Earth-F had clashed with another earth and that The Green Mask was believed killed ... though in fact he had been transported to another reality.

TO BE CONTINUED WHEN MORE INFORMATION IS REVEALED THROUGH THE INTER-DIMENSIONAL ARCHIVES!!!