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Thirty Minutes Over Broadway is the first story in the Wild Cards anthology. Written by Howard Waldrop, the story tells how the Wild Card virus was released over Manhattan.

Appearing in "Thirty Minutes Over Broadway!"[]

Featured characters[]

  • Jetboy/Robert Tomlin
  • Dr. Tachyon

Antagonists[]

  • Dr. Tod
    • Filmore
    • Fred
    • Edward "Smooth Eddy" Shiloh
    • Thorkeld

Other characters[]

  • Lincoln Traynor
  • Scoop Swanson
  • Professor Silverberg
  • Belinda
  • Lowboy
  • Francis O'Hooey

Real-life figures[]

  • Henry H. Arnold
  • Christopher Robin
  • Beatrix Potter/William Heelis
  • Albert Einstein
  • Harry S. Truman
  • Thomas E. Dewey

Works referenced[]

  • The House at Pooh Corner (book)
  • The Tale of the Fierce Bad Rabbit (book)
  • It Ain't the Meat, It's the Motion (song)
  • Jetboy Comics (fictional comic)
  • The Grasshopper Lies Heavy (book, reference to The Man in the High Castle)
  • Growing Flowers by Candlelight in Hotel Rooms (book, unpublished in real life)
  • The Jet-Propelled Boy (unpublished fictional book)
  • Films watched by Jetboy
    • That Nazty Nuisance
    • Jive Junction
    • Murder, He Says
    • Lost Weekend
    • A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
    • The Thin Man Goes Home
    • Bring on the Girls
    • It's in the Bag!
    • Incendiary Blonde
    • The Story of G.I. Joe
    • Isle of the Dead
    • Open City
    • The Postman Always Rings Twice
  • The Jolson Story (film)
  • Godot is My Co-pilot (book, fictional)

Locations[]

  • Earth
    • United States of America
      • New Jersey
        • Pine Barrens
        • Shantak
          • Bonham's Flying Service
      • New York
        • Manhattan
      • Washington, D.C.
        • White House

Plot[]

The plot tells the story of Robert Tomlin, aka Jetboy as he returns to the US in 1946 after spending more than a year marooned on a desert island. Although still a young man, Jetboy feels that the world has passed him by and is searching for something to do in the wake of the end of World War II.

The story also tells the parallel tale of Dr. Tod , once Jetboy's arch nemesis. Tod had been horribly wounded in a confrontation with Jetboy during the war and has just returned to the United States himself. Determined to retire from the criminal life, Tod is sucked back in when two of his associates discover the container holding the Wild Card virus. Realizing the virus's potential, Tod develops a scheme to extort 20 million dollars out of the US government by threatening to release the virus over New York City.

When Tod and his crew appear above New York in an airship carrying the virus, Jetboy is recruited as part of a jet fighter team sent after the criminal mastermind. The dirigible is flying so high that only Jetboy's experimental jet can reach it. On the verge of stalling, Jetboy crashes his plane into the dirigible and confronts Tod. As the two men fight to the death, the bomb containing the virus explodes, killing both of them and raining its mutagenic contents down on Manhattan.

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