During a recession in Hupperdook, a renowned xenotinkerer and an up-and-coming arcanosmith merge accounts to save their respective businesses. They work well together. Within a year, they elope. Within another, they conceive of a boy. As expected, the boy is a prodigy; from his loft overlooking the busy streets of Hupperdook he invents all kinds of silly gadgets and tests them on passersby.
 
One day, the xenotinkerer and the arcanosmith disappear. The boy wonders why. He pieces together a magnifying glass and a powered gauntlet, and he goes investigating. He finds nothing; that makes sense to him, for evil lies in the shadows. As he immerses himself in the back alleys and thieves' dens of Hupperdook, he becomes disillusioned. He sees the injustice of society for what it is. He wonders why nobody else can see it. He wonders why nobody is strong enough to stop it.
 
The boy realizes that only he can save everyone. He names himself Lord Justice. Armed with only his wits and his mechanized supergauntlet, he prowls the nights of Hupperdook in search of evil.