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The Gang War of 1977
The Gang War that erupted in January 1977 involved most of Astro City's major crime lords.
Beginnings
Infighting between rival mobs has been an ongoing activity along with many encounters with super powered beings. The Scarpelli Mob and Forgione Mob had been shattered and splintered years earlier, leaving a power vacuum. A major player, The Ace, had recently died and in October of 1976, Jack-in-the-Box busted up several other organized crime leaders. By December 1976, things were in a violent tizzy, nerves were frayed, and the nervous gangster environment was really starting to heat up.
Mob Leaders Involved
Start of Warfare
The quest for territorial power was explosive. Bamboo's influences were mainly centered around Fujitani Bay, Braintrust in City Center, Tommy Gunn was managing what was the former Forgione territory, and Joey Platypus was "working" the area near the Sweatshop, which also served as his headquarters.
Most of the crime bosses also recruited their own "special forces". Bamboo employed ninjas and marital arists. Gunn turned to his Gunbirds, while The Deuce used The Shaders and Braintrust The Dominos. Joey Platypus seemed to be without a specialized group.
It was Gunn's crew hitting one of Platypus' casinos that triggered him to call his Pyramid controlled friends from Chicago. Pyramid already a discreet backer of Platypus' operations. His top lieutenant in Astro City, Deke MacManus, was also a Pyramid associate. To up their participation, they decided to send help in the form of Jitterjack the Divided Man, a superpowered killing machine.
By January 1977, the Gang War was in full swing, with all the various groups going after one another. The rise of the darker vigilantes in Astro City helped the fighting intensify.
The vigilante Hellhound had a feud against Braintrust, relentlessly attacking his mob network. The Jade Dragons were siblings on a mission to avenge their father's death, while "Energy" Brown and Black Velvet had their own vendetta for the men responsible for turning them into the super-powered beings they were.
Black Velvet, was a particularly nasty character, using her darkness powers to violently and painfully destroy the men responsible for her transformation. She even turned the Street Angel into a hardened vigilante.
When Jitterjack finally arrived, he proved his worth to Joey Platypus, decimating and killing whole squads of rival gangs and helping to intensify rival fighting between the others.
Final Battle
One fateful evening in late January, the final battle commenced with all of the gangs striking in tandem. Meanwhile, in Millwaukee, Black Velvet was pursuing Dr. Lewis Oscar Croft, the renowned criminal scientist who had a hand in her creation. He was also responsible for diabolically creating many other of the super powered vigilantes of the day. Her "employer" decided it was time for a preventive strike. During jitterjack's interfering intervention, it was revealed that it was MacManus who was her "employer" and the one responsible for her transformation. After battling Jitterjack and appearing to defeat him, she was unaware of his dual hearts and he delivered a fatal blow to her, though he himself was badly injured.
Black Velvet spilled her darkness power onto the Astro City populace creating even more problems for the heroes and vigilantes. The madness and darkness that Black Velvet housed took possession of the city. Even Hellhound transformed into a giant creature that the combined might of the heroes, could barely contain. The Silver Agent returned to help at this "Crisis Point". The Agent was able to relieve her pain and helped to mercifully end her life, which alleviated the city's madness.
The turmoil gave MacManus the incentive to reveal himself as the main player, igniting the Gang War and yet another with connections to the Pyramid. He killed Platypus and essentially had control over all of the organized crime syndicates in Astro City.
Aftermath
Platypus, Tommy Gunn and the Deuce were killed, Braintrust thought destroyed, and Bamboo left town. This left MacManus, who became known as The Deacon, in control of the city. He held onto this power for over three decades. His providing Pyramid and agent Aubrey Jason an entry point in Astro City underworld activities would create larger problems down the road...
Incorporating Dr. Croft's technologies, The Deacon, Damon Black, and Oswald "Massacre" Morton, become the next generation of gang leaders, ushering in an escalated form of mob rule using their own super-powered enforcers. Though Dr. Norton Ganss had been pioneered the technique a decade before, this new intensified form of deliberate and premediated generation of super-beings would serve the dual purpose of having an edge over other rival gangs, it also provided the means for properly challenging heroes toe-to-toe.
The rise of the mobster vigilantes already established and newly created, led to a continued period of distrust towards costumed heroes. People wondered, "how different they were than the actual criminals and killers?" Black Velvet had already tarnished the Street Angel and her powers turned Hellhound into an uncontrollable creature. It would take several years before he regained enough trust to return to public crimefighting.
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