River City History: Gloria Travers

Not only a skilled investigator, Gloria was
equally as famous for breaking the social
conventions of the 20s and 30s. 

Raised by her stepfather Gene Travers, Gloria was always a tomboy. An adventurer at heart, she grew up across the country alongside her father, a railway engineer. As she grew, she often worked as an entertainer on passenger rails. Singing and dancing came naturally to her.

By the time she was a teenager, she was already gaining notoriety as the most beautiful woman on rails. She would enter the Miss America pageant in 1941 and easily take the win. But what was supposed to be her moment of glory was dashed by news of her mother’s death.

Gloria returned to River City for the first time in years to attend her mother’s funeral. (Her father declined to even witness his ex-lover’s burial.) Public attention and her inquisitive nature quickly drew her to the Regal Hand of Gold’s attention. The megalomaniacal crimelord already sought to expand his empire far past River City’s confines, only to find the sudden arrival of another thorn in his side.

Gloria quickly realized that even with the remnants of the Hoods, she didn’t have the resources left to bring down the Regal Hand. She instead started a clear attempt to expose the Regal Hand’s operations as often as possible. This quickly drew the attention of the FBI. With the assistance of an agent known simply as X, Gloria was able to destroy the Regal Hand’s smuggling operations, destroying the movement of heroin and opium into the city.

With his operations in shambles, the Regal Hand of Gold disappeared to Southeast Asia, never to return to River City. Gloria Travers would also move on. Recruited by X into the FBI, she would ultimately become the handler for the special operations team known as the Rangers of Freedom.

River City History: The Regal Hand of Gold

For the most part the Hoods would prove successful, but their masks would influence a greater evil as the Great Depression overtook the country.

He was known as the Regal Hand of Living Gold. A descendant of ancient Indian royalty, he traveled to River City in 1934. He claimed to be there to build his fortune in a new homeland. But his real goals proved far more sinister.

The Regal Hand ruled over a dangerous order known as the Ten Fingers. A group of deadly assassins, the Regal Hand used his minions to completely cement control of the city. Even Merry Mann’s Hoods proved no match for the super-genius criminal. They died by the dozens, often killed in ways that seemed all too natural.

Merry proved to the Regal Hand’s final victim, killed by the Regal Hand himself. With a knife left in her back, she was meant as a message to any that would come after her that the Regal Hand of Living Gold now ruled River City.

Fortunately for the city, all hope wasn’t lost. Merry had a daughter, hidden even from her. With the city in the hands of criminals, it would come to a young woman named Gloria to free the city from the Regal Hand’s tyranny.