- This article is about a fictional subject in the Wild Cards universe that has a non-fiction inspiration. For an article on Wikipedia about the real world subject, see Wikipedia:New York City.
Place Info
| |
Class
|
City
|
Located In
|
New York State, USA
|
First Appearance
|
|
Associated Characters
|
Too many to list
|
New York City is one of the most populous city in the United States, and one of the greatest cities in the world. It's a global city, exerting a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion, and entertainment. New York City is also the place where the wild card virus was first released in 1946, and it has the largest number of aces and jokers in the world. The city boasts several locations that are important in wild card history, including Jetboy's Tomb, the Aces High restaurant, and the Famous Bowery Wild Card Dime Museum. It's also in New York City that the original Jokertown is located, the largest ghetto for the deformed victims of the alien virus in the whole world.
History[]
The history of New York City after 1946 is mostly the history of the wild card virus. The alien plague was released on the city on September 15, 1946, after an aerial battle in which war hero Jetboy sacrificed his life. Twenty thousand people died, a few thousand became jokers, and a handful turned into aces. The virus eventually spread to other cities and countries, but New York suffered the primary outbreak. The multitude of deformed jokers started to drift to the poorer areas of the city, where they weren't bothered so much by the prejudice of the normal people. The place formerly known as the Bowery gained a new name: Jokertown. The joker ghetto became a tourist attraction in the 1960s, with exotic cabarets appealing to the nats' curiosity.
In 1963, one of the greatest crimefighting aces of the 20th century made his debut on New York City: the Great and Powerful Turtle. Though he is actually a native of New Jersey, the mysterious Turtle became almost synonymous with New York. In the following years, many more would follow the Turtle's example. Dr. Tachyon, the alien prince of the race that created the virus, also made his home in New York City, treating the victims of the virus in his Jokertown Clinic, that opened in 1966. In 1971, the Aces High restaurant was founded, in the upper floors of the Empire State Building. It became the meeting point for the new generation of aces, and a symbol of the social movement that became so associated with New York City: the wild card chic. The aces were celebrities, and everyone wanted to be an ace.
The city suffered another major catastrophe in 1976 with the Great Jokertown Riot. Rising tensions among the joker population saw the JJS leading an estimated five-thousand activists in protest demonstrations. Jokers clashed with police over the course of several days and in some areas of the city the situation deteriorated into full-blown riot.
Wild card chic wouldn't last. In the mid-1980s, New York was the stage for several more displays of wild card violence that shocked the world. The Egyptian Masons, a secret society of aces and jokers engaging in sinister occult rituals clashed several times with the superheroes of the city. In September 15, 1986, forty years after the release of the virus, the leader of the Egyptian Masons, the insane Astronomer, engendered a bloodbath before being defeated by Fortunato. In 1987, a violent gang war raged between the Shadow Fist Society, a criminal organization with many wild carders, and the good old Mafia. A mutant strain of the wild card virus caused hundreds of new casualties in that same year.