Re: WWYCD: The Coverup -- Covering Up The Cover Up
Sir Johnstone would listen to what the sidekick had to say, while stoking the log fire, then tell the sidekick that he, being a man with many skills has researched the events and found conclusive evidence that it definitely was the villain's fault. He would have mentioned it sooner but there was no sense in muckraking. Then he tells the sidekick to go and relax, now he knows the truth. The next panel shows what's on the logfire.
The fire is burning the last of the plans that (Sidekick's hero) made to stop
(Uber-Bad-Guy) by causing exactly the amount of destruction that happened.
Sir Johnstone was first mentioned in a series of pulp stories written by an American anglophile in the 1920s. The tales were all about the adventures of a vaguely described American millionaire, Sam Daniels. He inherited it all from his father and was generally bad at everything, but he nonetheless tried to be an adventurer. When his attempts at Doc Savage style heroics failed, he would be invariably captured, and have to be rescued by his ever loyal English butler, Johnstone. Johnstone's name was actually the authors first name and surname jammed together. Johnstone was an incredibly skilled man but only ever showed it to the reader and possibly a bad guy or two, otherwise preferring to let Daniels take the credit.
The series was a success in America, and had a small following in Britain too. Not long after the second world war broke out, Mr Stone began writing tales of how Johnstone joined the RAF and fought many air battles, also being shot down and escaping the German POW camps, etc. These proved to be less popular than the prior tales, though one story in particular, in which Johnstone is knighted by the Queen (and we learn that his first name is Arthur) sells more copies than any previous Johnstone tale.
Shortly after the war ended, Mr Stone wrote a 'final' tale in which Sir Johnstone celebrates the end of the war by retiring from the army and going back to Sam Daniels, who has married and has kids now, and getting his old job back. Though he doesn't suspect that Mr Daniels will be taking him on any more adventures, thankfully.
Mr Stone passed away, outlived by his wife and five children, dying in his sleep of natural causes. He is payed tribute to by a large and diverse fandom.
Mr Stone's eldest son Jake allows a sequel to made to the Johnstone tales, in movie form. It depicts the kidnapping of Sam Daniels youngest daughter, Ellen Daniels, and Sir Johnstone's attempt to rescue her while foiling a plot to use her as a sacrifice in a demon summoning ritual to end the world. Sir Johnstone is played by a forty year old actor despite the fact that he should be around sixty at least.
Later sequels also use this same actor, Luke Georgia. They make no reference to the fact that he is far too young to have fought in world war two. A prequel is made that claims that when Sir Johnstone has yet to be employed by Sam Daniels, he was an explorer who was given eternal youth by a mystical artifact, deep in the African jungle.
Enticed by the scent of money, a large corporation attempt to buy the rights to Sir Johnstone, but despite a larger offer, a far smaller company are given the rights instead. 'Ink' an independent comics company, famed for doing faithful interpretations of open license characters like Sherlock Holmes.
They include him in their multigenre universe and have him regularly cameo rather than having his own title. This gave the impression that the character knew everybody, which the writers played with at times, having him put into scenes that he had nothing to do with, just in the background. It was eventually decided that he couldn't do superhero work himself because he had an obligation to the Daniels family as butler, but that he kept in touch with many people to make sure that the right people know and do the right things at the right time. He is rumoured (by fans) to be the incarnation of the Ink universe.
