Ever since he ended the Channel 13 hostage crisis, people have be trying to guess who and what The Victor was.
At first, matching the cynicism of the time, people believed that he and the other masked vigilantes were part of a massive con, and that they could and would turn on them at any time. Only after he proved himself above the influence by literally pantsing known power broker Steven Manners, people began to believe his claim of wanting to help.
Next, people believed that only someone seeking redemption would choose to take on such thankless job. But no one could agree on the specifics. Some thought that he was a former mob enforcer who had been forced to kill someone close to him. A sibling, a parent, or maybe even a lover, the who didn't matter, just that it made him turn against his employer and make him spend the rest of his life washing away his sins. To support this origin they would point out that his blood red costume could be a self-reminder of his crimes.
Others thought that he had been a crook that survived a near death experince. Again, no one agreed on what almost killed him. Lightening, a car crash, a rivil gang member, possibly even a jilted lover; again the details weren' t important, only that it made him realize the evil of his ways and caused him to want to make up for it. In support of this origin, people called attention to The Victor's never-ending optimsim, saying only someone given a new lease on life could be that confidant that everything will turn out all right. But these theories were discarded as time passed and it became harder to see The Victor as any kind of wrongdoer, past or present.
After that, people thought that maybe he was a police officer, assistant DA, or some other juridical employee working outside the system to fix problems made impossible to solve through normal channels because of corruption and apathy. To back this origin up, its supporters would say the The Victor's familiarity with the law and how things are run point towards someone with training in the legal system. But this speculation of his origin, like the others, was rejected when people realized The Victor spends so much watching after the city that couldn't have a normal day job, no matter how flexible the hours.
That's when people finally found something that everyone agreed with, whoever The Victor was he had to be wealthy. The amount of time he spent crime fighting and equipment he used could only be done by someone with no need for a job but had the resources to meet his needs. This small triumph of everyone agreeing was broken when people went back to arguing about who and why The Victor was.
Why? That's what everyone kept coming back to. People agreed that he had and was still bettering the city, but why was he? The public turned to his personality to see if that could shed some light on the matter. His respect for but impassive attitude towards the swarms of his female fans and women in general led to the belief that he was a grieving widower. He showed no interest in women becaused he had lost his true love and didn't want to replace her even as he fights the world that had her away from. While people granted that this would explain his disinterest in women, most found it hard to see The Victor as anything but cheerful.
His cheerful attitude led to the next stab at his origin. Because he was always smiling, maybe he was enjoying this crusade of his and that was his motive in the first place. He was a bored billionaire who had taken on the task of protecting the city since the odd boardroom brawl held for him; it was just a lark for his own entertaiment. Though people agreed that he was always upbeat, he nevered treated his struggle as a game and didn't have time for those that did.
When looking at his personality just led to more things to argue about, the community decided to focus their attention on his technology. While The Victor never relied too much on his equipment, it was still was impressive. Particularly his steelk (steel like silk) armor and his gravi-rope, experts even agreed that his gear was ten years too advanced to be cutting edge. This revelation spawned the craziest theory of his origin yet, he had been sent from the future to either ensure his utopian civilization or prevent his dystopian one.
If this theory had been suggest when The Victor first appeared, everyone would have laughed it off, but after the third attack from the future and more super-science appearing everyday, it was getting harder to tell impossible from the possible. But when one thought about it, it answered a few questions. The money The Victor had without any apparent job was from the knowledge he had about this era. The Victor was optimistic because of either he knew everything would turn out all right or this time period was better than the one he was from and gave him hope. His apparent disinterest in the opposite sex could be because he has a girl waiting for him or maybe he was raised only for guarding/preventing the past and didn't know how to deal with women. This this theory wasn't discarded like the others, but it also opened the floodgates for the crazier ideas about his origin.
When the time traveler theory wasn't discredited, it became open season for any and all ideas about whom, why, or how The Victor was. Some started to think that he could be an army androids built by a brilliant but eccentric scientist; they said this would explain the gear and how he seemed to be everywhere at times. A few people agreed with the created part but said that The Victor was either rebuilt from the best that have died or grown in a lab from samples taken from the best and brightest out there. Both schools of thought pointed out The Victor's relationship to Light N. Blue as evidence. She was like a little sister to hims and he once stated that anyone who wanted to get to her had to go through him and the rest of The New York Patrol first. A surprising outburst from someone who was normally easy going, but not so amazing if he protecting a fellow artificial from harm. As crazy as those theories were, they only got crazier.
A small group went in a completely different direction and pointed out that The Victor seemed to face a lot of magical or magic inspired villains so he must be magical himself, a supernatural guardian protecting the world at large from paranormal menaces that have escaped their mystical prison. The craziest part of the theory was that he was just a kid who drank a potion whenever The Victor was needed. They claimed this explained his infinite optimism because he was too young to know the evils of the world. If this seems like the craziest theory, you only had to wait for The Victor's death for the wilder ones to come out.
The Victor died during the City Wars, taking bullets meant for someone else. His death effected everyone and everything, but one the things it didn't stop was the mad speculation about his identity. To make matters worse, rumor had it that his body had disappeared from the morgue. With his corpse supposedly gone, people first turned to a paranoid but somewhat logical conclusion. He had been a government operative whose mission had to inspire hope to the the masses and when he died they took away his body to conceal his identity. The conspiracy theorists based this off not only his training and technology but also the way the world before and after The Victor appeared. The public used to be very cynical and unwilling to believe that the world could change, but after The Victor showed up they became hopeful and some even saw a light at the end. Why the government would care about the people's attitude, varied between the theorists, some thought it was to make them spend money, others thought to stop civil unrest, and still others thought it was just for the betterment of the country. Of course there's no real way of knowing since everyone agreed that if the government tried to take credit for The Victor most people won't take them seriously saying they were just seeking recognition for the acts of a great man.
The final two theories about The Victor were the most extreme and most controversial. A small group of people believed that The Victor was either sent from above as an avenging angel or below as a vengeful demon. They alleged that only a divine force could have done all the things The Victor did. This small group also believed that when the time was right The Victor would again emerge and act as god's avenger/wrath.
Whatever The Victor's origin or motive, no one can deny the people he saved or the evil he had stopped and that the world is sadder without him. So whether he was a seeker of redemption or justice, a divine being or just a mere mortal, everyone, friend and foe, pay their respect on this day, May 1st, because he died as he lived, as a hero. And that will never be doubted.
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