"Metro Med" is a hospital serving the Tri-Metro, a metroplex created by the joining of three cities around an East Coast bay: Modern, bustling New Athens, affluent, colonial Libertyville and industrial, blue collar Bud City.
Situated on a central island reclaimed from swampland in the 1930s, Metro Med has been recently built in answer to the burgeoning number of superhumans in the Tri-Metro. Their unique requirements for treatment demanded special facilities. What's more, metahuman conflicts often generate casualty numbers comparable to a warzone, swamping unprepared hospitals. Finally, the hospital has to treat and secure injured supercriminals, protect its patients and ensure the secrecy of their medical data, all of which entails a plethora of security measures.
Metro Med benefits from its inventive facilities which can handle giants, stalactite men, time travelers, aliens, Nazis and vampires. If giant time traveling subterranean Nazi vampires from outer space are brought in tomorrow, Metro Med is ready to treat their injuries before shipping them off to prison. Superheroes walk or fly in suffering from burns, infections, cracked radiation shields, magical maladies, extraterrestrial parasites, reductions in size, zombification, cartoonization, or halves of their bodies trapped in another dimension, and the doctors will already be pulling up the appropriate medical references.
Metro Med is even more noteworthy due to its staff, led by Operations Administrator Dr. Chester "Chet" Clancy (pictured at center) and Security Administrator Jules Howitzer. Chet Clancy is trusted by all of the Tri-Metro's leading superheroes to guard their medical information with his life. WHY is a big secret...a secret you'll discover in the first story, "Hard Shells and Fruity Centers".
Jules Howitzer uses his years of experience as a cop, soldier, sailor and patron of every bar on Earth to bring a bit of frankness to these dealings with the strange and extraordinary. Jules monitors all Tri-Metro activity so that Metro Med is prepared for the fallout from the latest superspat.
In this picture, the patient is Warpiece. Warpiece is really Lt. Buck Will of the "Happy Campers", the nickname for the American military's Covert Metahuman Protection and Reconnaissance Services (C.M.P.R.S.). Led by Sgt. Patton, the latest reincarnation of Gen. George S. Patton, the "Happy Campers" are a strike team comprised of individuals both superhuman and otherwise enhanced.
Lt. Buck Will was an army officer who volunteered for an experiment involving captured alien technology. To save a dying alien symbiote, Buck Will offered to join with it. The symbiote enhances his human body and allows him to interact with a suit of organic armor. There are safety procedures on file at Metro Med for dealing with the armor...procedures which Doctor Tyson Lee has clearly ignored in our picture.
While an ongoing "Metro Med" series will in time introduce you to dozens of heroes and criminals, this story centers on Warpiece. Still, you'll also meet some members of the young superteam "The Teen Terrors", the hot trendy stars of "The Primos" (both current and in 1989), a major member of the iconic leading team "The Champions of Liberty," and a talking monkey with electrical powers.
As if hundreds of background characters (many of whom would be interesting enough to have their own series if they weren't wearing open-backed gowns) weren't enough, you'll also get to know the staff and see the sights of the Tri-Metro. You'll see the magnificent Schwartz Tower, the landmarks that get put in giant charm bracelets, the museums which are robbed at charity costume balls, the sports arenas where magical leprechauns force superheroes to play against each other...so many sights that you'll begin to think you live and work in the Tri-Metro.
