Hyper-Über-Proto Gerosha

Hyper-Über-Proto Gerosha is one of many narrative universes that comprise the Gerosha multiverse in Dozerfleet Comics. It is said to be the primordial predecessor of all currently-understood Gerosha continuity, having pre-existed the term "Gerosha" itself. It also goes by such nicknames as the Initial Gray Champion Fanfic Standalone Universe, the Dozerfleet Hawthorne Fanfic Universe, and the Gray Champion Proto-Universe. It first existed in September of 2001, and was succeeded by Über-Proto Gerosha in October of 2002.

Heroes

 * John Domeck / Gray Champion
 * Red Champion
 * White Champion
 * Blue Champion
 * Hester Prynne
 * Miles Wealthington / Oraphim
 * Heeshwa Pwong (Hyper-Über-Proto Gerosha)
 * Marge "Mapacha del Fuego" Ramirez
 * Chastity (Hyper-Über-Proto Gerosha)

Villains

 * Simon Bentforth / Shrouded Entity
 * Eric Andro
 * Roger Chillingworth
 * Dereck Johnson / Verdabbin
 * Seductria

Supporting characters

 * Arthur Dimmesdale
 * Pearl Prynne
 * Mrs. Pwong
 * Kicked Deer

Notable works / premises

 * The Gray Champion Returns
 * The Gray Champion: Modern Legend
 * The Gray Champion 2: End of Decadence
 * Scarlet Letter Animated

Locations

 * North America
 * Michigan
 * Grand Rapids
 * Massachusetts
 * Boston
 * Nebraska
 * Iowa

Basic Gray Champion mythos
In September of 2001, American Literature Studies class at Holt Lutheran High School kicked into high gear. The then-current teacher, Traci Backus, wanted her class to become familiar with the works of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Therefore, The Scarlet Letter was made required reading for class. But before embarking on reading it, she whet the class' appetite for Hawthorne with his short story "The Gray Champion." The class enjoyed it so much, that one assignment resulting from it was that everyone in class should write a Hawthorne fanfic about the Gray Champion's return.

The Dozerfleet founder took it a step further than what was needed, drafting a unique look for the character that gave him the trademark black mask and yellow eye pieces. The original Dozerfleet Gray Champion, whose name was never identified, appeared in a short story where he came to the aid of a girl named Chastity who lived somewhere in the Great Plains. News about how great Sam Raimi's Spider-Man movie coming out in 2002 was going to be led to some strong interest in making a similar story reworked around the Gray Champion, especially when the Dozerfleet founder realized how iconic Gray's mask had become in such short time. A story was planned to have a character named John Domeck find himself travel through time and become a Gray Champion. This was to be achieved by way of the Marlquaan, to which he was bound. Verdabbin was to be the villain initially, a sort of nod to Ra's al Ghul and a symbol of the kind of Arab terrorism that was big news after 9/11. "Heeshwa Pwong" was introduced as a sort of sidekick to the new Gray, and became the template of what later became Hea Pang.

It was in late 2001 and early 2002 that The Gray Champion: Modern Legend had a very basic plot outline done. This was followed by a barely-thought-through premise for a sequel: The Gray Champion 2: End of Decadence. A succubus character was to be the villain in that story. This early work became the basis for The Gray Champion: Freedom's Apparition later on. In addition to that, it formed an early foundation for Mapacha, the Marlquaan as an essential component of Gerosha mythos, and Marlquaanites being formally defined.

There was to be a Champion Corps established as well; Red, White, and Blue Champions underneath the Gray one. Gray would meet Heeshwa in Grand Rapids in this version. That was later changed to meeting her in Boston. In Earth-G0, he arrives in Grand Rapids in 2002 and deals with the beginning of the War on Terror. Later renditions have him arrive in 2012 to Boston, where he must deal with the Crooked Rainbow and a corrupt law enforcement siding with Crooked Rainbow terrorists.

Reinterpreted Scarlet Letter mythos
Included in this universe were elements of The Scarlet Letter and its mythos, also reinterpreted. Most essentially, the Marlquaan, Marlquaanites, and Hester's locket were first defined. Hawthorne's "Black Man," while easily reinterpreted as a supervillain imposter pretending to be the Devil in a body-snatching theme, was not formally defined as the "Shrouded Entity" until 2013. He since became retconned to be a part of every Gerosha reality as one of the most powerful Marlquaanites ever - even giving Extirpon a run for his money. His archenemy, Oraphim, was defined around the same time as being an alias to two different Marlquaanites. The first of these was Miles Wealthington, a friend of John Domeck's who both helped John drive the Entity out of Boston and is also responsible for the Beamer's Ruby becoming known as Hester's Locket.

The Hester's Locket subplot added a degree of comic book flair to the mythos of Hester, who initially made the Scarlet Letter out of stitching in Hawthorne's book. This is explained away as Hawthorne censoring history to keep the Icy Finger off his back. In this way, writing of The Scarlet Letter is explained as Hawthorne engaging in an act of reveal-to-conceal.

Most importantly, the central characters themselves are reinterpreted. Chillingworth, rather than being shown how Hawthorne describes him, is being shown as a typical Ice Elemental supervillain bearing a megalomaniacal obsession with becoming more powerful. The creepy, short-shouldered curmudgeon of Hawthorne's tale is replaced with a broad-shouldered and imposing menace with a long beard. His traditional dark outfit is replaced with a bright cyan one. Especially standing out was his gloves, which he used for directing his ice beams. Hester herself was perhaps the most reinterpreted. She went from a Plain Jane freethinker to a sultry-looking woman with long, black hair in a prominent red dress. Her personality was embellished to be similar to that of Esmeralda from Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame, though she didn't dare dance in a provocative manner.

Format
Letter-size printer paper and lined sheets were used intermittently to hand-draw concept art for this universe. Art for the Scarlet Letter reinterpretation was especially stylized, so as to invoke a "Disney" aesthetic. Hester was drawn to look as much like a Disney princess as possible, while Chillingworth was drawn to look like a typical Disney villain. John Domeck's Gray Champion outfit was drawn to resemble a dressy superhero, like a more-serious version of Darkwing Duck with muted colors. The drawings got mixed reactions in class, from classmates who liked the new visual look to purists of the novel who thought the visuals should appear less sensationalized and commercialized in appearance.

Fate
With a few noted-above changes, most of the contents of this universe were later absorbed into the timelines for every succeeding Gerosha universe, with certain details retconned only as necessary to fit the new timeline.

This universe's mythos remains the least changed from one component of the Gerosha multiverse to the next. Its immediate successor was Über-Proto Gerosha (Earth-G1) in 2002, which focused how the Shrouded Entity's influence on a young Sarah Umpid led to the events in the Meshalutian Trilogy.