The Santa Cruz Cycle - Chapter 1. History

  (Originally published on the 6th of August, 2019)

(Continued from here) (Note: At this point, I have to make a decision. Do I do this as a linear narrative based on ‘in-world’ chronology, or in ‘real world’ chronology? Because I gradually built up the setting in a VERY non-linear structure way, gradually building up a skeleton and filling in gaps as needed. However, as a chronologically linear narrative reads more like a story and less like ‘Let me tell you about my rpg character’, that’s how I’m gonna do it, and hope it doesn’t get too clumsy) 

Part One: Before Santa Cruz... A Prelude of Sorts. 

   During the Elizabethan Period, an astronomer and occultist named Jacob Moon establishes contact with a race of advanced, psychically gifted aliens living in a hidden city on the moon, whom he mistakes for angels. He and his descendants would go on to found a centuries-spanning empire of crime. (For more on this, see an earlier note ‘When Tangents Attack - Those Malevolent Mondays’.) 
    During the Spanish Invasion of the Aztec Empire, a Spaniard whose name is lost to history but who is generally referred to as ‘El Profesor’ takes custody of a sacred artefact to hide it from his countrymen. This artefact is a mask which serves as the badge of office of a great hero of the Aztec Eagle Knight caste. This marks not only the beginning of the modern legacy of El Aguila Azul (1), but also the association of that legacy with secret cabals of scholars acting as the guardians of ancient lore, most notably the modern-day secret society known as The Ring of Solomon. (2) One notable early example of this legacy is the escaped slave turned masked privateer, Capitán Aguila. For several decades in the early to mid-1700’s, he and his crew prowled the Spanish Main battling injustice in all its forms, from bloodthirsty pirates to corrupt military and government officials. He was best-known, though, for his hatred of slave-traders and anyone who targeted the local native population. (3)

Interlude: The Ring of Solomon 

    Little is known of the early years of The Ring of Solomon. That they regard the mysterious ‘El Profesor’ as their forefather is certain, but beyond that, their origins remain unexplored. What is known is that they are a loosely-affiliated society of scientists, intellectuals, scholars and philosophers who have taken it upon themselves to study and to protect against the paranormal mysteries surrounding Santa Cruz, and to compare notes and insights on their various areas of study. The Ring’s organizational structure is extremely loose. While it would be unfair to label its members ‘mad’ scientists, most of them certainly dwell on the far side of ‘eccentric’ and as such, their interactions and politics tend towards the volatile. Most of their interactions are done via correspondence. The Ring is chiefly a non-interventionist, scholarly organization. They discuss, they compare notes, they watch, they examine, but rarely intervene directly (4). This has led to them usually operating with some form of ‘champion’, who engages threats directly, while Ring members offer advise and information. Most Ring members maintain residences on the outskirts of town (creating a literal ‘ring’ of sorts around the city proper) with extensive libraries and archival collections on their chosen field of study.

Part Two: Colonial Santa Cruz. 

    There is some indication that, prior to Spanish Colonization in the late 1700’s, local indigenous people had a degree of understanding of the strange forces in and around the area which would come to be known as Santa Cruz. There are references to areas which it is best to avoid, or places where unusual perceptions are possible, as well as ritual behaviour designed to appease hostile forces or encourage benign forces. Unfortunately, over the centuries, much of this knowledge has been lost and what remains is badly scattered and incomplete. During the early 1800’s, a masked swordsman known as El Aguila is active across California. Mainly battling corrupt local governors and bands of outlaws, he is known to have had several adventures in the town then known as Villa de Branciforte. In at least one of these, he encounters mysterious phenomena, and is advised by a scholarly priest at the nearby La Misión de la Exaltación de la Santa Cruz (5).
    The other major incident which occurred at this time was the series of events surrounding La Colonia de San Pedro. In the mid-1800’s, a small group of settlers headed Northeast for unknown reasons to found a separate colony, to be known as La Colonia de San Pedro. All proceeded as normal for many months until all contact with the colony was lost. When riders went to investigate, they found the colony abandoned, and all the colonists gone. Over successive years a great deal of mythology has sprung up about this area, referred to by some simply as ‘La Colonia’, most notably the creation of the local folk deity San Perdito. Much like the better-known Santa Muerte, San Perdito is not an official saint, but is popular in certain circles. Usually depicted as a robed figure whose face is shrouded in darkness, he is viewed as the patron of lost things, lost people, mysteries and mysterious phenomena (especially disappearances). The area is nestled in an extremely picturesque narrow valley, but recent geological surveys have shown the existence of a vast network of underground caves and rivers. This has re-ignited interest in the San Perdito legends, with adherents claiming that somewhere within the maze of twisting tunnels and caverns is the place where San Perdito takes everything and everyone which has been lost. It was not by accident that Professor Dundee built his Odditoreum in the vicinity of this area (more on that later!), nor that many members of the Ring of Solomon have made their homes in this region.

Interlude: Beyond the Borders... Heirs of the Eagle. 

    Beyond the borders of Santa Cruz, the legacy of El Aguila Azul continued, with a colourful bounty hunter referred to as The Lonely Eagle (El Aguila Solitaria) operating along the Mexican Border during the 1870s. He specialised, though not exclusively, in tracking down outlaws crossing into Mexico to evade the law. In the 1930s, there were also rumours of a masked vigilante operating mostly in Mexico City battling gangsters and corrupt officials, though few details are known (6).

Part Three: Circles Within Circles. 

    In the late 1880’s, a small cadre of local businessmen in association with a church group purchased 10 acres of land and built what is now called the Circles. The neighbourhood was laid out in a series of concentric, circular streets where church members were invited to build tents and summer cottages. At the hub of the streets, a large church building built in 1890 dominated the area. The building itself, known by locals as ‘The Circle Church’, was a massive structure with a 100-foot bell tower, 3,000-seat hall, and large perimeter doors. During the 1930’s, the Old Circle Church was destroyed in a fire and, several decades later, a new church, which remains to this day, was built on the location. Many rumours continue to circulate surrounding this event. During its existence, the Old Circle Church was a highly visible landmark, and was favoured by many of the city’s oldest and most reputable families, most of whom are extremely unwilling to be drawn on the issue. These rumours whisper of a second church, constructed in the basements, cellars, vaults and catacombs beneath the main building, whose congregation worshipped far less benign deities. They also suggest that the circular street layout had an arcane purpose, and that the whole project was designed as a vast summoning circle (7). Shortly before the fire which consumed the Old Church, a series of disappearances brought a number of investigators, including members of a top-secret branch of the FBI sometimes referred to as ‘The Unnameables’, but also including several freelance operatives, to the area. Rumours persist that a pitched battle between these investigators and unknown foes was the cause of the fire, and that several tunnels connecting subterranean chambers with the ocean were also dynamited. Unfortunately, nobody in a position to confirm or deny such rumours will talk on the subject (8).
    The current priest overseeing the New Circle Church, Father Josiah Jackson is a dedicated historian and archivist with a keen knowledge of local folklore. He secretly works for a covert branch of the church assigned to monitor potential supernatural threats, and has had a history battling the occult, as is attested by the fact that he’s missing his right leg below the knee. He occasionally acts as an ally of The Ring of Solomon, but feels that they spend “too much time studying evil, and not enough time fighting it” (9).

L: The Circle Neighbourhood today, R: The Original Church, c.1900

Part Four: The Merman of Monterey Bay. 

    One prominent element of Santa Cruz culture and society is the presence of cultural outsiders and the city has found itself a haven for artists, performers, bohemians and self-professed ‘weirdos’ of all stripes, collectively and informally referred to as ‘the freak scene’ (10). The inciting incident for this was the arrival in the late 1930’s of Professor Phineas Polliver’s Grand Emporium of Wonders. The Professor had been operating his travelling carnival for several decades, but had decided that he was too old for life on the road and, with many of his employees feeling the same way, decided that Santa Cruz would be a fine place to settle down. With this in mind, he planned to open a new Emporium of Wonders on the city’s famous Boardwalk, however, due to ‘public concerns’ over the new arrivals, the only site they could obtain for construction was the very end of the vast pier known then as ‘Municipal Wharf’ (11).

Municipal Wharf, Santa Cruz (c.1940's)

    Unfortunately, as the years rolled on, and with the shadow of war spreading across Europe, the United States’ West Coast was gripped with a fear of imminent invasion. Outsiders who had previously been met with suspicion were soon the subjects of outright hostility and the place the Professor and his colleagues hoped would be their haven, quickly became their prison.
    This came to a head in early 1942 and, while the events of the time in question are still sketchy, what is known is that there was a secret plot by Japanese spies to make a concerted attack on the US West Coast. The Spies had arranged to land by submarine at strategic locations, and signal incoming bombers, who would make devastating lightning strikes against major population areas (12). What they didn’t account for though was the heroic actions of Professor Polliver and his people. Polliver did indeed have a secret, but it wasn’t the one the people of Santa Cruz thought it was: he was an amphibian. Half-Lemurian, he had been raised in secret by his father, a Lighthouse Keeper from a fishing village North of Santa Cruz.     
    In his early carnival days, he was famous for his daring water-tank escapes, with nobody suspecting how he really achieved his amazing feats. He and his band of fabulous freaks managed to ambush spies coming ashore and make off with their secret plans, foiling their plot and saving the city, even as the people of Santa Cruz laid siege to his Wonder Emporium trying to drive him out. The siege of the Wonder Emporium was averted by a prominent Golden Age Superhero of the time who had been sent by the FBI to investigate Professor Polliver, but soon made sure the Japanese plans made it into the right hands.
    In recognition of his great daring in the face of such terrible adversity, the city council handed over ownership in perpetuity of the lot on which The Wonder Emporium stands to Professor Polliver and his heirs. A statue of The Professor stands at the entrance to the Wharf, which, while still officially The Municipal Wharf, is known by many of the people who live and work there as ‘The Professor Phineas Polliver Memorial Wharf’, though many locals refer to it as ‘The Fin’ (13). 

Interlude: Beyond the Borders... The Dawn of the Modern Age 

    As the latter half of the 20th Century approached, events were happening across the globe which would end up having a great impact on the people and the city of Santa Cruz. During WWII, one unit which earned a degree of notoriety was a small, but elite group of commandos operating out of the Pacific Theatre under the command of Sam ‘The Skipper’ Sullivan. Operating out of a high-tech PT Boat, they saw themselves as modern-day privateers and had a reputation for risk-taking and success against seemingly overwhelming odds (14). Frequently working with military intelligence, they were involved in some of the most dangerous and unusual missions of the war.
    It was during this time that Sullivan would encounter Dr.Miles Lawson, an engineering genius based out of Hawai’i who acted as a civilian consultant on many military projects. Following the war, Sullivan would continue working with the intelligence community, where he was especially valued for his ability to see potential in promising recruits.
    Towards the end of the 1940’s, a young man began training in lucha libre under the tutelage of masked luchador El Aguila Sagrada (15). In the next decade, this young man would debut as El Aguila Azul and would, over half a century, become renowned as one of the greatest wrestlers and crime-fighters Mexico had ever seen.
    As the Korean War heated up in the early 1950’s, a young naval frogman named Jake ‘Typhoon’ Tanner gained a name for himself both as an amateur boxing champion, and for a number of highly dangerous missions. Many of these involved sea-mines, and Tanner seemed to have something of a knack for knowing when danger was about to strike, and averting it.
    Sam Sullivan was also involved in the conflict in his capacity as an intelligence agent. In the early 1960’s, a young Interpol agent, chiefly based out of Hong Kong, would begin a remarkable career in espionage and counter-espionage, combining unmatched courage and spycraft with high-kicking martial arts ability. His name was Johnny Tao (16), and his career would take him to all the ends of the globe.

Part Five: Danger from Below - The Adventures of The Deep Six. 

    Following his experiences as a civilian scientific consultant during WWII, inventor Dr.Miles Lawson decided that he wanted to throw himself back into pure scientific research. He’d never been comfortable working on weapons of war, and dreamed of devoting himself to oceanographic research. Wishing to avoid attention from the military, Dr.Lawson’s operation was small, consisting of a humble laboratory in the Hawai’ian islands, a kitted-out exploratory boat and the assistance of his two children, Nancy, a nature photographer specialising in underwater photography, and teenage Charles (a.k.a. ‘Chip’). Their ‘secret weapon’ was Fluke, a rather unusual dolphin.     During the war, Dr.Lawson had been part of a project designed to train dolphins to perform complex activities. Despite some remarkable successes, at the war’s end, the project was ordered closed and most of the subjects were either released or destroyed. However, one particular animal was displaying truly exceptional results, and Dr.Lawson successfully smuggled him out of the project. Once free of the project, Fluke’s abilities revealed themselves as even more spectacular than initially anticipated, displaying near human-like levels of cognition and understanding.
    Elsewhere in Hawai’i, two other people were embarking on an operating of their own. Experienced Scuba-diver and oceanographer Ripley ‘Rip’ Ryan and his best friend, Naval Veteran, Jake Tanner were running a small salvage operation, searching for sunken treasure but mainly keeping afloat on recovered scrap and sunken military vessels. The two groups encountered one in 1959 another during what was intended to be a routine mission when they encountered a gang of criminals attempting to recover a lost super-weapon from a sunken U-Boat so it could be sold to the highest bidder. Joining forces, they were able to escape the clutches of the villains, and ensure the weapon’s destruction.
    Afterwards, they decided they could do more good as a single operation, pooling their resources and working together. They re-named themselves The Deep Six (17) and for the first few months, were based out of Dr.Lawson’s Hawaiian laboratory. Briefly relocating to the Florida Keys, they eventually settled in Santa Cruz, when it was revealed they had a secret benefactor who was willing to sponsor them.

The Deep Six (L-R): Ripley 'Rip' Ryan, Nancy Lawson, Jake 'Typhoon' Tanner, Charles 'Chip' Lawson and Fluke (Not pictured: Dr.Miles Lawson)

    In 1961, The Deep Six learned that many of their adventures had been overseen by a secret intelligence group called W.A.V.E. (The Worldwide Aquatic Vigilance Executive) (18), a group dedicated to exploring the ocean depths and defending civilisation from potential threats on or beneath the sea. WAVE equipped the team with a state of the art laboratory and exploratory vehicles, and for the better part of a decade, they battled mad scientists, foreign spies, weird menaces, alien invaders and giant monsters. One of their most persistent opponents was mad scientist Professor Proteus, the Ocean-Wizard (19), who was obsessed with uncovering the secrets of the world’s oceans and using that power to enslave the world. He had an uncanny knack for appearing to perish, often as a result of his own diabolical machinations, only to resurface months later with an even new and more sinister scheme.
    The sheer number of strange threats confirmed something both Dr.Lawson and WAVE scientists believed: That there was something strange about the oceans off the coast of Santa Cruz and that these phenomena were being drawn towards the city somehow. In 1963, ‘Rip’ Ryan and Nancy Lawson married, and in 1967, Nancy had her first child, a daughter named Keilani. In the following years, the team went on fewer and fewer adventures and expeditions, dedicating themselves more and more to pure scientific research and academic concerns. In doing so, they expanded from a small, six member crew to a larger independent research project. In the early 70’s, they purchased and refitted an abandoned offshore oil-rig to act as the base for this expanded operation, renaming it ‘Project: Poseidon’ (20). A scarce few years later, Dr.Lawson died and it was this which spelled the end for The Deep Six. 

Interlude: Beyond the Borders... The Eagle and the Superspy. 

    Throughout the 50’s. El Aguila Azul pursued a successful career in lucha libre, with him gaining considerable acclaim as an in-ring competitor, however as the 60’s rolled on, he had begun seeking out adventure beyond the ring, battling criminals and monsters across Mexico. Meanwhile, in Hong Kong, a young upstart Interpol Agent named Johnny Tao was developing a name for his courage, prowess and skill with the martial arts, dealing with an array of enemy spies and international criminals.

Unlikely Allies. Despite their considerable differences, El Aguila Azul, Mexican Masked Wrestler (L) and Johnny Tao, High-Kicking Kung-Fu Secret Agent (R) made a formidable team on a number of occasions.

    The two would meet in 1967, while pursuing Crime, International, an eclectic cartel of colourful master criminals who had established a worldwide smuggling ring (21), and again in 1968, as they joined forces to prevent the assassination of a young, Middle-Eastern ruler during a dangerous cross-country race (22).
    The two didn’t meet again for several years, during which time El Aguila Azul made a handful of movies. In these films, he played himself, and several were fictionalised re-tellings of actual adventures. During this time, he also had several adventures alongside a loosely-affiliated team of fellow luchadores, collectively called Los Misteriosos (23).
    It was several years later before they would meet again to battle an unholy alliance between escaped Nazi war criminals and Lemurian Snake-Priests. It was during this adventure, in the early 70’s, that Johnny Tao would meet and fall in love with beautiful oceanographer Meilani Kawai, whom he would go on to marry several years later (24).

To Be Continued...
* * * * * * * * * * 

(1) When I was creating him, I knew I wanted El Aguila Azul to be a legacy hero. Passing on the mask to an heir is a big part of the traditions of lucha libre, but also has ties to various pulp hero archetypes (Pirate, Western Hero, Pulp Vigilante, Masked Swordsman, etc...). Plus, I wanted El Aguila to be able to have a trophy area, like the Phantom’s Skull Cave, where he could display the various accoutrements of his heroic ancestors, or to give the GM a chance to do time-travel or historical adventures if they wanted.

(2) The Ring of Solomon was based around one of the most prominent cliches in Luchador films: that the luchador almost inevitably is called to action by, or ends up consulting a knowledgeable academic contact who is, without exception, a Professor (the Luchafilm rule is Professors - Good, Doctors - Bad, and it’s quite surprisingly strict!). While in the films, you never really see these Professors collaborate, it would make sense for them to form some sort of secret society.

The classic luchador-professor alliance is illustrated here, in a scene
from 'Santo vs Las Mujeres Vampiros' (1962)

You can of course, also see this dynamic in characters as far-ranging as Friar Tuck and Robin Hood, Fray Filipe and Zorro, Merlin and King Arthur, Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin and Mycroft and Sherlock Holmes.

(3) Capitán Aguila is based partially on DC Comics’ little known Captain Fear character, who was a Carib Indian turned Pirate Captain, and partially on my love of Rafael Sabatini’s Captain Blood stories.

(4) The main exception to this rule being Professor Oswald Diogenes Dundee (a.k.a. Professor Odd) and his Odditoreum. More on him later.

(5) El Aguila is, of course, my tribute to El Zorro, as well as a recurring riff in several El Santo films, which feature historical vignettes featuring swashbuckling ancestors who were Silver-masked Swordsmen instead of wrestlers and I think that’s super-cool.

(6) These two guys allow me to loop in the Western Pulp and Urban Crimefighting Vigilante Pulp genres, as well as do a riff on The Lone Ranger and The Green Hornet respectively. In addition, I wanted to hit on the various types of Latinx Heroic Archetypes, and El Aguila Solitaria allowed me to include both The Cisco Kid and masked wrestler El Solitario (whose gimmick was based on the Lone Ranger). (7) When I was starting to flesh out Santa Cruz as a setting, rather than background flavour, one of the first steps was to check out maps of the city. One of the first things I spotted was an area with streets arranged as a series of concentric circles. Of course, I had to know what was at the hub. When I saw that it was a church, and that the original had burned down in the 30’s, well, it just turned into a ‘Weird Tales’ story waiting to happen.

(8) One thing I do a lot is just drop the loose outline of a story hook, and leave it lie so that, when it finally gets turned into a full story, it can be fleshed out with appropriate details at the time. So I dropped in a team of loosely-sketched out monster-busting G-Men with even more loosely-sketched out allies, a Lovecraftian Cult and hints of lingering mysteries and plot-points and just left it alone.

(9) A lot of archetypal mentor figures in fiction tend to either be secular academics or wise religious figures, so I thought it’d be nice to have a spiritual counterpart to the more secular Ring of Solomon who, while their interests frequently align, may have fundamental philosophical differences in how they approach matters. Again, though, after creating Father Jackson, I left the rest the organization to be fleshed out as needed.

(10) When I was just beginning to flesh out the city as a background setting, I ended up pulling in a lot of disparate elements to The Boardwalk. Some of these were more reminiscent of similar attractions in Coney Island, or British Seaside Piers, so I knew I had to add a touch of divergent history. I also knew that a core element of the city as I was building it, was the ‘freak scene’ - freak shows, tattooists, burlesque dancers, performance artists, professional wrestlers, fortune tellers, circus performers, avant garde poets, etc... - So I needed a divergent historical point to justify this. Professor Phinneas served that purpose admirably.

(11) Placing Professor Phinneas’ Wonder Emporium at the end of the pier was very much a riff on the traditional British End-of-the-Pier shows. As well, I knew I wanted the Emporium and its people to be somewhat ostracized by the people, and separating them from the Boardwalk proper seemed symbolically appropriate, and it was also vaguely reminiscent of the illegal offshore casinos at the time. Writing this up, I was somewhat torn. Should I keep the Emporium on the Municipal Pier, which is not only still standing, but is also separate from the Boardwalk itself, or relocate it to the Pleasure Pier (1904-1962)? Still no 100% certain, but I had to make a call. Also, see (13), below.

(12) This is pretty much me riffing on several different historical panics which swept the West Coast at this time including the LA air-raid panic and the Zoot Suit Riots. Again, as with the events of the Old Circle Church Raid, I left most of the details unclear to be fleshed-out later.

(13) This was the main reason I ended up keeping the Wonder Emporium on the Municipal Wharf, as the angled end of the wharf does make it look something like a shark fin extending out into Monterey Bay. I am a sucker for cheap aesthetics.

(14) This is essentially a riff on Sergeant Fury, hero of the war series ‘Sgt.Fury and his Howling Commandos’ becoming Nick Fury, hero of the spy series ‘Nick Fury, Agent of Shield’. There are elements of ‘The Losers’, ‘Sergeant Savage and his Leatherneck Raiders’, ‘Sergeant Rock’ and ‘Combat Kelly’ among others, however the combination of wartime heroics and outré adventure draws its influence from series like ‘Weird War Tales’, ‘The War That Time Forgot’ and ‘The Blackhawks’.

L to R: Sgt.Fury and his Howling Commandos, Capt. Savage and his Leatherneck Raiders, Combat Kelly and his Deadly Dozen, Sgt.Rock of Easy Company, The Losers (led by Capt.Storm), and The Blackhawks (led by Blackhawk)

(15) El Aguila Sagrada is based on priest/luchador Fray Tormenta, and combines the role of monster-hunting priest with masked luchador. He is the brother of the 1930’s Mexican Pulp-style Vigilante, El Aguila Negro (The Black Eagle). The tale of two brothers, one, a man of violence, the other, a man of faith. When El Aguila Negro is killed, his brother takes over the masked identity, but uses it for his own purpose.

(16) More on the life and times of Johnny Tao, kung-fu superspy can be found here.

(17) The Deep Six are very obviously based on DC’s Sea Devils, but use the same structure as groups like The Challengers of the Unknown, The Fantastic Four, Rip Hunter Time Master, Cave Carson etc... there’s also quite a bit of the cast of ‘Jonny Quest’ in here as well. I have a lot of time for these teams of non-powered adventurers engaging frequently supernatural or science-fiction based threats (especially The Sea Devils).

I can't explain why, but I cannot resist The Sea Devils, more than any of
he other similar groups out there, they're my favourite.

(18) WAVE is based on any number of small, oddly specialised spy organisations which sprung up in the 60’s as the spy craze went into full swing. WASP, from Gerry Anderson’s ‘Stingray’ is an obvious influence, but they’re certainly not alone. The idea of ‘Skipper’ Sullivan sending the team on missions was largely influenced by Falcon 7, the vaguely defined boss of ‘Birdman’ in the 1960’s Hanna-Barbera series. (19) Largely influenced by frequent Challengers of the Unknown nemesis, Multi-Man, as well as the villains of Hanna-Barbera’s 1960’s action series (Space Ghost, Birdman, Herculoids, etc...). As an example of the sort of thing the Deep Six were dealing with at this time, click here.

(20) ‘Project: Poseidon’ originally appeared in the Champions supplement ‘Scourge from the Deep’. I’ve also mixed in a whole lot of elements from ‘Project: Pegasus’, the fictional alternative energy research project which appeared in many issues of Marvel Comics ‘Marvel Two-in-One’ during the late 70’s and early 80’s.

(21) I’ve always been a fan of cross-genre cinematic oddities, like the combination of James Bond with Blaxploitation in ‘Live and Let Die’, or Hammer Horror and Kung Fu action in the Hammer/Shaw Brothers co-production ‘Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires’. Lucha Libre films are definitely no exception, as they combine Mexican Wrestlers with Universal-style monsters (El Santo vs the Vampire Women) or James Bond-style spy action (Operacion 67), so I kind of liked the idea of a series of cinematic co-productions between a Hong Kong-based studio doing a James Bond knock-off and a Mexican Lucha series.

(22) This is pretty much my tribute to crazy all-in road race stories like ‘It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World’, ‘Wacky Races’ or (especially) ‘Speed Racer’ with Johnny in the Speed role and El Aguila Azul standing in for the mysterious Racer X.

(23) These are based on the films ‘Los Campeones Justicieros’ (Champions of Justice), ‘Vuelven de los Campeones Justicieros’ (Return of the Champions of Justice) and ‘El Triunpho de los Campeones Justicieros’ (Triumph of the Champions of Justice).

(24) This is a riff on ‘Santo vs Blue Demon in Atlantis’ and ‘Misterio en Las Bermudas’, which features Santo, Blue Demon and Mil Mascaras.