THE WILD LANDS	ATLAS
Created by Karl Kesel and Tom Grummett

COUNTRY INFORMATION

Official Name: The Wild Lands
Location: an island in the Pacific Ocean
Capital City: Roam
Ruler: King Tuftan
Former Rulers: Great Caeser
Founder: U.S. Government
First Appearance: Superboy Vol. 3 #50 (April 1998): "The Last Boy on Earth, Part I: Survival of the Fittest!"
Creators: Karl Kesel and Tom Grummett

OVERVIEW

An island in the Pacific peopled by super-intelligent animals - the result of a 1940s U.S. government experiment.

HISTORY

Back in the 1940's, a secret government project underwent a study to crack the genetic code and was led by a Dr. Grant which is now known as "Project Moreau." Dr. Grant and his associates decided to perform genetic experiments on animals on an island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and the North American continent. The chemical compound used on the animals was called "cortexin," and evolved the animals and made them as intelligent as humans. As time slowly progressed, the animals riled against the human's experimentation on them, and thus came the period known as "the beast wars", an era of civil strife. Horrified, Dr. Grant and his researchers fled the island, explaining to the government in the interests of the animals he created and fathered, that the cortexin transformed into "cortoxin," and the island was abandoned. The government was so embarrassed from the scandal, they left the area unmarked on all maps, and most records of Project Moreau were destroyed.

Dr. Grant raised one of the animals who would go by the name Sacker. This was a snake creature who felt intense loyalty to Dr. Grant and also understood the danger of having the outside world know of the Wild Land's whereabouts. Sacker realized his venom was able to subdue any human into a virtually mindless zombie. He and Dr. Grant agreed that if any humans found the lands Sacker should give them his venom so the humans will not have the capacity to speak of the place, and could also be incapable of willpower. Sacker also realized taking away their will power would also make any human his slave.

As time progressed, the capital city of Roam and the rest of the lands were dominated by generations of Tiger Kings. The latest was King Ceaser and his only son, Prince Tuftan. The King's royal liege and somewhat "psychic friend," was a paranoid psychotic mess calling himself Ratsputin. Dr. Canus was a canine scientist bent on proving his theories that humans existed before the animals and dominated the lands as the animals do now. The next in line to the throne was the leader of the bat people, a female bat named Nosferata. Prince Tuftan had a personal band of merry men called "the Wild Men." Their names were Howler, Growler, and Gorr. Howler was a wolf who was a marksman with the bow and arrow, and a gentlewolf who could get almost any fair maiden. Growler was the bear and resident gourmet chef/philosopher, while Gorr the bull was the quiet pessimist of the group. Tuftan was courting with the Lady Tawna, another resident tiger, who had won his affections. On the outskirts of the city were the mercenary gorillas, thugs for hire led by a military strategist named Killa.

Everything changed when Superboy was flying back to Hawaii. In what seemed to be a flash of lightning, he was struck down into the Wild Lands unconscious, and unable to defend himself. As it turned out, it was actually a band of paramilitary gorillas testing out an old defense mechanism rebuilt by Dr. Canus. They fired upon anything flying over their land. Once they saw what they had captured, they took Superboy to Sacker's department store, where the Boy of Steel was bartered for weapons Sacker held in his possession.

Superboy was under the influence of Sacker's venom, which caused him brief amnesia. He no longer could remember who he was, how to use his powers, and even how to speak. Sacker forced Superboy to join with all the other captured humans and become his slave. One day however, Superboy made good his escape.

Tuftan and the Wild Men discovered a young boy appearing to break into an area where royal rations were preserved, and assumed he was trying to steal their wares. Even without powers, Superboy was able to fight them off better than any other human they had ever tried to hunt down before. Regardless of the Boy of Tomorrow's struggles, they still managed to beat him and drag him into Roam to show him to the King and make Superboy a pet for the Lady Tawna.

Being a clever character, Sacker easily tracked down the Wild Men and demanded they return Superboy to him. The King and Sacker agreed Tuftan could keep Superboy in exchange for Sacker taking some valuable artifacts from the past the King owned. Sacker warned the King to keep administering his venom serum to Superboy or he would grow very violent. Upon the capture of a human, the animals of the Wild Lands decided to hold a festive event in their city to commemorate the event. In the meantime, Superboy and the King stayed in the palace while the rest of the King's men joined the celebration (Tuftan forgot to give Superboy the serum so Superboy was slowly regaining his memory loss). It was then when Nosferata hired Killa of the Gorilla warriors to assassinate the King while he was left unguarded. Killa managed to club Ceaser down and was about to finish the job. Superboy struggled to free himself from his steel bonds to save the King and successfully broke free. He and Killa battled, and Killa was amazed to discover this boy was far more powerful than he. Realizing he had no chance of killing the King and the commotion he and Superboy had created had stirred attention, Killa made good his escape.

When help had arrived, the effects of Sacker's serum had already began to wear off. Superboy could speak again, but still couldn't remember who or what he was. All the animals could tell was from his great strength from his battle he was abnormally strong, and could only be their fabled "Mighty One." King Ceaser agreed that all the signs were there, and to prove if he was their Mighty One, Superboy had to undergo "The Test." The following day, Superboy was placed in three events at their citadel where practically every animal attended. The first part of Superboy's test was for him to run through a 'Fortress of Solitude,' and avoid getting shot at. Superboy proved to be invulnerable and was unharmed by the bullets. The second part was to place Superboy on a platform and have a statue drop a massive bolder on him and see if he could survive, 'the deadline of the Daily Planet.' Superboy instinctively grabbed the boulder and threw it in midair. The third part of the test was to survive, 'Doomsday,' a volcano which Superboy was catapulted towards. Doomsday was given its title due to the fact that it destroyed all life that came near it. It was then when Superboy remembered - The heat of the volcano was like when he previously battled Pele and Silversword in at a similar volcano in Hawaii and remembered who he was. Before he was engulfed in volcanic ash, Superboy flew back to the citadel and nabbed Ratsputin in midair demanding he tell him what was going on, since Ratsputin was the one who demanded Superboy take this test in the first place. Ratsputin later explained the fabled Mighty One from collected stories Ratsputin found was once known as 'Superman.' Ratsputin also explained he found these articles from Sacker. Superboy along with Tuftan, Nosferata, Dr. Canus and the Wild Men arrived at Sacker's store demanding he tell them what was going on. Once they forced the confession from Sacker, he also admitted all of his slaves were not mindless zombies as he made them out to be, but were as intelligent as the humans.

Later on, the humans, including Superboy, accompanied with the Wild Men, Dr. Canus, Prince Tuftan and the Lady Tawna, set out to find land other than their own. Using his tactile telekinesis, Superboy held their archaic ship through all the rough waters, until they hit dry land which was Hawaii (One of the humans on the ship was also a navigator). Little to their knowledge, Nosfereta was scheming to take over the King's throne back home. Her plan was to assassinate the King while sending an army of gorillas and bat people to attack Hawaii and demand Tuftan hand her his crown to end the attack. Playing off Ratsputin's paranoia, she convinced him that the King was no longer relying on Ratsputin's instincts and was listening more to Dr. Canus's beliefs, since he was the only animal who predicted intelligent humans ever existed in the first place and helped convince the king for them to voyage outside their lands. She also made it seem as though Ratsputin was losing his influence over the King. In a fit of rage, Ratsputin slew the King.

Meanwhile in Hawaii, the Gorilla warriors invaded and attacked Pearl Harbor. Since their strength and numbers were great, the naval unit posted in the area was getting slaughtered. At the same time Guardian and Dubbilex were in the area searching for Superboy, and also got caught in the crossfire. Superboy, the Wild Men, Guardian and Dubbilex fought valiantly against hordes of villains. Killa, feeling intense hatred for losing to the boy in their earlier fight, struggled to beat Superboy. In the mean time, Tuftan discovered Nosferata at the outskirts of the battle scene and knew full well what she was trying to do. It was then when she explained the King was dead and if he handed his throne to her she would end the fighting. Tuftan refused, and told her he would agree to marry her instead.

Superboy had managed to beat the pulp out of Killa when Tuftan and Nosfereta arrived. Upon their arrival, Nosferata demanded to keep Tuftan's most loyal guards the Wild Men, banned from the Wild Lands forever.

By the story's end, Dr. Canus discovered the lost articles of Dr. Grant at a bunker in the Wild Lands labelled, "Command D." He continues to search through the documents for Project Cadmus. The Wild Men feel greatly indebted to Superboy for his efforts, and are now searching the globe trying to find Tana Moon, Superboy's ex-girlfriend as a favour to the Kid. Nosferata and Tuftan are now married, but the marriage is a shaky one at best. Lady Tawna has been hired as Nosfereta's personal assistant, both in part to follow Nosferata's every orders to annoy Tawna, as well as to obey her beloved King to keep an eye out for Nosferata. Ratsputin remains imprisoned in a dungeon in Roam intent on chewing his way out. Nosferata blamed the previous attack at Pearl Harbor solely on Killa, and he and several members of his gorillas have been incarcerated by the U.S. Navy.