Monday, November 17, 2014

The Big Fight by Ricardo Serrano

This is a story is about giant gods wrestling in space. It is about the end and beginning of life, the universe, and everything. It is a love letter to the things I grew up with and that have shaped my interests as a writer. I used professional wrestling moves and images to build up the gods' fight. Other than that, it was just so much fun to write.

The Big Fight

By: Ricardo A. Serrano Denis


Page 1 (series of four horizontal shots—panels 2 and 3 are smaller than panel 1 and 2. We want space for panels 1 and 2)

Panel 1: We’re in an American desert setting, daytime. This is a panoramic view, a landscape of the desert and a single road in the middle of it (think Route 66 in the Mojave Desert). There are a few cars just parked in the middle of the road looking up into the clear, almost cloudless sky. They are looking at two giant celestial beings in a wrestling lock called a clinch (both having their arms over their shoulders), fighting with each other. These celestial beings are a blend of Galactus, Gaiman’s Celestials in The Eternals, and Kirby’s New Gods all rolled into one. And yet, they also look alive. They aren’t simple robots. Their faces are rigid but will be able to change expressions, if only slightly. They are enormous and they are in space. They are old gods and they have just started fighting. One of them has perfectly circular eyes and a cluster of smaller circles serving as a mouth. The other has triangular eyes and a rectangle with three vertical lines inside it for a mouth. We see people pointing up at the sky. There is an Old Man dressed in a white long-sleeved shirt, jeans, and a cowboy hat on standing next to his grandson, a Small Boy dressed in shorts and a striped shirt. They stand out amongst the other people on the road. They are close to their car.

Small Boy: What’s happening, Granpa?

Panel 2: Close-up of the Old Man looking up into the sky. He is awestruck, working on believing at what he’s looking at.

Panel 3: Medium shot of the two gods still in locked in, struggling. We only see them from the waist up. They are in space, so they are surrounded by stars (obvious, I know).

Old Man V.O.: I don’t know, son.

Panel 4: We pull back on the gods and take in space, the Earth and the Moon small in relation to them but not too small. Let’s say Earth is a bit smaller than the gods if taken from the waist up. Another point of reference: the wrestling gods’ hands are roughly about the size of China, respectively. As the gods continue to wrestle, we see small groups of Gods casually walking closer to the fight. There aren’t too many of them but enough for a crowd. They will be spectators. Their faces take after the geometrical shapes that characterize those of the wrestler gods. In the distance we see an older looking god (perhaps his age can be hinted at in the way he moves or stands, hunched—we will call him Old Man God) walking towards the fight with a Small Boy God walking next to him. Old Man God is grabbing Small Boy God’s hand (this is to establish their relationship, so they aren’t just casually walking next to each other—they will be always holding hands…always). They stand out. Old Man God has a square head with two sets of three horizontal lines for eyes. His mouth is composed of a single line with one circle on each corner of the mouth. The Small Boy God has two sets of three dots organized in triangular shape for eyes. His mouth resembles that of Ultron (the Marvel villain). In terms of the fight, the god with the triangle eyes looks like his breaking out of the lock.

Old Man V.O.: I don’t know.

Page 2

Panel 1: This is a back shot of the Old Man God and the Small Boy God getting closer to the fight. The other gods have made a sort of loose semi-circle around the wrestling gods. Old Man God and Small Boy God are opposite the semi-circle, looking from another angle. Triangle Eyes God is punching Circle Eyes God in the gut. Some of the spectator gods are cheering.

Small Boy God: So this is it, Grandfather?

Old Man God: Yes, boy. The Beginning of the End. And the End of the Beginning.

Panel 2: Close up of the Small Boy God looking confused, but not exaggeratedly so.

Small Boy God: Dad said it was just a fight.

Panel 3: Small panel of Triangle Eyes holding one of Circle Eyes’ arms by the wrist. Triangle Eyes is about to twist Circle Eyes’ arm. Circle Eyes is bent forward, his free arm grabbing his mid-section. Remember, he got gut-punched earlier.

Panel 4: This is a wide shot where we see the Old Man God and the Small Boy God looking in from their end as Triangle Eyes has Circle Eyes in an arm twist. The other gods are cheering the gods on for more violence.

Old Man God: To call it just a fight means to devalue the potential its violence has to transform the space it takes place in. I don’t expect you to understand just yet. It is a fight, just not solely that. You’re dad never understood that. I hope he didn’t pass that down.

Panel 5: Small panel of Circle Eyes hitting Triangle Eyes with an elbow to the face. The elbow swings upwards, as if he rose up with the elbow and reversed the arm twist.

Panel 6: Front shot of the Small Boy God and the Old Man God. We see them looking at the fight. Small Boy God is pointing at the wrestler gods. We can get a good look at them, in full detail, here.

Small Boy God: The planet is an obvious weapon, Grandfather. Why haven’t they used it yet?

Page 3 (This page will have five panels. They will see the two wrestler Gods in different wrestling locks, fighting. They are to be organized in the following manner: Panel 1 will be in the top-middle part of the page; Panel 2 will be in the middle-left part of the page; Panel 3 will be in the exact middle of the page; Panel 4 is in the middle-right part of the page; and Panel 5 will be in the lower-middle part of the page. The blank spaces will be for the text.)

Narration for page 3: Professionalism, boy. Finesse. There’s a timing to this, a pace. Violence demands such things; otherwise these fights end up being nothing but short affairs with very little meaning, much like I explained before. But they know we are not here for that. We want to see them endure. We want to see how much they can take. They must prove themselves to us. The planet will play its part. But not yet. Never forget, we come to these places for a reason. There is no such thing as coincidence in a fight. You’ll come to understand this as well. This is tradition, boy. Everything dies. Everything comes back. But tradition stays.

Panel 1: Now it is Circles Eyes time to shine. Circle Eyes now has Triangle Eyes in a headlock.

Panel 2: Circle Eyes punches Triangle Eyes on the head while still in the headlock.

Panel 3: Now Circle Eyes has Triangle Eyes locked in a Bear Hug.

Panel 4: Triangle Eyes hits Circle Eyes with both his forearms on the side of his head. That’s how you get out of a Bear Hug in wrestling.

Panel 5: Triangle Eyes is now standing again. He’s looking at Circle Eyes. He’s angry. Circle Eyes is grabbing his head in pain.

Page 4

Panel 1: Small panel of Triangle Eyes kicking Circle Eyes in the gut.

Small Boy God: I don’t like it when grownups think telling me something means I won’t be able to understand it until I grow up. Why can’t I understand it now?

Panel 2: Wide shot of Circle Eyes kneeling down and Triangle Eyes moving closer to Earth. He’s looking at the planet. We see the crowd and Small Boy and Old Man God as well. Everyone’s cheering more enthusiastically. They know the match is ending.

Old Man God: Because you can't. You grow, you understand. This is non-negotiable.

Small Boy God: Fine. Can you at least tell me one thing? Why this planet? Why do they fight so close to it?

Panel 3: Triangle Eyes is now grabbing the planet, almost like a ball. But it looks very violent. The Wrestler God’s grab creates a ripple effect in the Earth’s atmosphere.

Old Man God V.O.: Fair enough.

Panel 4: Triangle Eyes with the Earth raised above his head as if he’s going to swing it down hard. Circle Eyes is still kneeling but looking up at what’s coming. We can see the Old Man god and Small Boy God in the background.

Old Man God: It’s core.

Page 5

Panel 1: This is a wide shot and it is epic. The camera is pulled back behind Old Man God and Small Boy God. Circle Eyes, still kneeling, has his forearm raised trying to shield himself from Triangle Eyes smashing him with the planet. But the planet is already halfway through Circle Eyes forearm. The collision emits this very intense light coming out of the planet’s explosion. The light is so intense it looks like it will consume the rest of the universe. The crowd is now ecstatic, and they are also getting lost in the light. Since we’re behind Old Man God and Small Boy God we just see their silhouettes. They are still holding hands as the universe ends and begins again.

Old Man God: It makes a very big boom.

END

Two by Ricardo Serrano (New short comic story)


Batman: Zero Year- Secret City, Vol. 4. Snyder and Capullo.
So, this story might actually end up being the comic I want to develop in the end. The images found here, throughout the script, speak to the fact I very much wear my influences on my sleeve. I didn't want to shy away from the fact that the story is a conversation piece inspired by the Batman/Joker relationship or the Superman/Lex Luthor one. I wanted it to be just that. Also, I have seen the Age of Ultron trailer like a million times now and wanted to do a fast hard-hitting story that carried the punch and excitement of a superhero movie trailer. In order to do this I've decided to play with flashback panels. This gives me the opportunity to explore the characters' backgrounds and motivations without having to resort to intentional bits of exposition (which I generally find boring if I can see through the scene's intentions). The flashback panels are very much structured in trailer form, teasing the reader and hopefully inspiring in him or her a hunger for more. Now, I believe there is still a lot to be said within the superhero genre, and that the things that have already been said can be said differently. While I wanted to play with well worn character archetypes and flashbacks panels in order to explore a situation that may have been touched on before, I also wanted to have fun with the familiarity of it all and to try and say something new in the process.

Two

By: Ricardo A. Serrano Denis

Page 1 (three horizontal panels)

Panel 1: Close-up of Obadiah sitting down against the wall of his prison cell (which has a thick glass covering the front side of it, where the cell’s entrance is—the rest is cement). His head is down and his arms are resting on his knees. Obadiah is covered in scars. Very bad scars. We don’t see much of his face, but he’ll have a long scar running up from the left corner of his lips into his cheek. He’s bald, which means his head is also scarred. Again, his whole body is full of scars (arms, hands, face). This is a man that has seen his fair share of fights. And whatever he fought against beat him down hard. He’s in his mid-40s. He’s in a buttoned short-sleeved shirt and cargo pants—prison clothes. (Important: he’ll have a scar running vertically from his belly up into his chest, ending near his heart but not too close to it. This is to give the impression the wound was intentionally stopped before it could kill him. This scar is covered by his shirt. Obadiah would need to unbutton the shirt and pull it back so we can fully appreciate it. Also, he’ll have a badly healed scar on his right should. It runs horizontally, up into the base of his neck.)

Obadiah: Are you lost?

Panel 2: Front shot of Obadiah pointing a gun towards someone off-panel. He is holding a small girl with his free hand. We’re in a busy New York City street. He’s standing in front a burning school bus. Obadiah is wearing a white suit with a black cape and hood on. The suit sports a black tie as well. He’s smiling. He looks like he’s having fun.

Obadiah: Tell me, Sentinel, do I really need a monologue here?

Panel 3: We’re back to the prison cell. We pull back a bit to see Obadiah sitting on the floor with his thumb stuck out to his right, as if pointing towards an exit. We get a better look at him but the fact his sitting down keeps us from fully appreciating the extent of his scarring.

Obadiah: The exit’s that way.

Page 2

Panel 1: Obadiah is now looking up. Someone’s speaking to him. He’s paying attention and yet he looks serious, indifferent.

Sentinel (off-panel): You’re still here.

Panel 2: Obadiah looks a bit more playful now.

Obadiah: Thinking out loud, are we?

Sentinel (off-panel): No, Obadiah…

Panel 2: Now we look at Sentinal, from Obadiah’s point of view. This is not a close-up of him. In fact, there’s a bit of distance between them. He’s standing in front of the cell’s entrance. Sentinel is our superhero character. He has a black body-suit complete with cowl and mask. The mask covers everything except his mouth area. The cowl/mask is white, with two black oblong circles for eyes. He has a white utility belt as well, all white. There's a black grappling gun attached to his belt. The suit kind of looks like a spandex version of armor (with white lines running vertically over the abdomen area—if you come up with a better design, go for it). The point is to make the suit interesting, using white lines to stylize the costume. The black will still outweigh the white, though. He’s supposed to look imposing, worthy of the man he’s talking to…almost an equal.

Sentinel: …You were meant to hear that.

Panel 3: We’re in a boardwalk in Coney Island (NYC). We see the Wonder Wheel (Coney Island’s famous Ferris wheel) in the background with each one of its passenger cars on fire. We focus on Obadiah, in costume, on his hands and knees on the floor. He’s looking at the camera. He’s nose is broken and there is blood coming out of it, profusely. There’s blood on his white suit as well. We see people running in the background, as if something bad has happened. Obadiah is smiling through the blood.


Batman: Zero Year- Secret City. Snyder, Capullo.
Obadiah: I never got the chance to ride the Wonder Wheel. My dad wasn’t big on fun. Funny, I’m sure that if he knew the thing was rigged to blow, I’d be first in line to get on. What do you think? Daddy issues?

Panel 4: Close up of Sentinel’s eyes. He’s serious.

Sentinel: You are planning something. You’ve done it before. You’re just taking your time.

Panel 5: Front shot of Obadiah getting up.

Obadiah: If you’re worried about that, maybe you should’ve thought about a more permanent solution for me here.

Panel 6: Obadiah is now standing up and fixing his shirt.

Obadiah: Can’t say you didn’t have your chances. Emphasis on the plural.

Page 3

Panel 1: We’re in the rooftop of a building with a clear view of the city’s skyline. This is another front-shot of Obadiah (again in full costume) holding what looks like a detonator in his left hand, which is raised towards the camera. The detonator looks like a handgun’s grip handle. There’s a small red button where the trigger is supposed to be. There is a small battery with two wires sprouting out of it on top of the grip handle. Behind him we see a dark-haired woman being held by two henchmen also dressed in white suits, sans the cape. Instead, they wear black masks that cover their entire heads. The masks are eyeless and mouthless. The woman they are holding is covered in explosives (plastic explosives). It looks exaggerated (maybe a bit comical but not too much). Obadiah is, again, smiling. He’s enjoying this.

Obadiah: Maybe I overdid it with the explosives. Then again, we aren’t men of subtlety, are we?

Panel 2: Close-up of Obadiah’s hand pressing the button.

Obadiah: I hope you guys back there weren’t waiting for me to tell you to move away.

SFX: CLICK

Panel 3: Side-shot of Obadiah and Sentinel looking at each other. Remember, Sentinel is outside Obadiah’s cell. There’s still a distance between them.

Obadiah: On the other hand, one could confuse your fairly rational sense of paranoia with wishful thinking. I’ve been known to hit the proverbial nail on the head on such things. Did I hit right this time?

Panel 4: Shot of Sentinel turning to go away.

Sentinel: Hmm. I'll be waiting.

Page 4

Luthor. Azzarello, Bermejo.
Panel 1: We see Obadiah reaching out with his hand to Sentinel who is walking away. The gesture implies an attempt at stopping Sentinel from leaving, as if desperate.

Obadiah: Wait! That’s it?

Panel 2: Shot of Sentinel looking over his shoulder at Obadiah, who is now pressed against the glass of his cell.

Obadiah: You can’t just come in here and play the silent type! Not like this.

Panel 3: Front-shot of Obadiah, in costume, driving a scary-looking muscle car towards Sentinel. We can see a reflection of Sentinel rushing towards Obadiah in a motorcycle on the car’s windshield. Obadiah looks angry now, frustrated. (The motorcycle’s design is left entirely up to you).

Obadiah: It wasn’t supposed to happen like this!

Panel 4: Side-shot of Sentinel jumping out of his motorcycle and going straight into the windshield of Obadiah’s car. (This shot can have Sentinel going through the motions of jumping off the motorcycle and crashing into the windshield with a kick intended for Obadiah. Each motion can be a ghost image of Sentinel ending with him kicking in through the windshield. The final image, then, is of Sentinel half-way through the windshield, kicking Obadiah in the face. It has a 2D video game to it—a la David Ajá.)

Panel 5: A back-shot of Sentinel looking over his shoulder towards Obadiah. His eyes are central to the shot here. Sentinel always looks angry.

Sentinel: Perhaps I was wrong. I see nothing here but permanent.

Obadiah (Off-panel): No. Look closer.

Page 5
Age of Ultron trailer. Dir. Joss Whedon.
Panel 1: Front shot of Obadiah looking towards Sentinel. He’s unbuttoning his shirt.

Obadiah: What you’re looking at is retirement. Forced retirement. And there’s a reason for that.

Panel 2: We focus on Sentinel’s eyes. He’s looking at what Sentinel is revealing. Perhaps we can capture surprise in his eyes. Not too much, but just enough to set up the next set of panels.

Panel 3: Focus on Obadiah’s hands unbuttoning the last buttons of his shirt. We already see heavy scarring underneath. Bad scarring.

Obadiah: My body…

Panel 4: Obadiah stands shirtless, his arms stretched, inviting Sentinel to take a look. This is a front shot. His shirt is lying next to him on the floor (this is just for context). We want to have a very clear view of the scars. I’ll leave the scars and their design up to you, but there’s one that’s very important (in addition to the one on his right shoulder). I described it in the first panel of page 1. It runs from his belly all the way up to his chest, stopping just below the heart. It was a wound that could’ve been fatal but wasn’t. This plays into the story.

Obadiah: …your canvas.

Page 6

Panel 1: Obadiah is showing his right shoulder to Sentinel so he can see the badly healed wound on it. These scars are of past battles, so Obadiah’s revisiting is kind of playful.

Obadiah: Do you remember this one? Four years ago, Brooklyn Bridge. You shot me with your grappling gun. I’m guessing you forgot there was a hook attached to it. You dragged me back to you. You could’ve walked towards me, you know. It’s not like I was going anywhere.

Panel 2: Focus on his left cheek’s scar (the one that starts at the left corner of his lips). Obadiah looks like he’s enjoying the talk. This can be a front shot with Obadiah’s face turned sideways so Sentinel can better appreciate the scar, like a profile shot.

Sentinel: This one’s a favorite. Random skyscraper, 80th floor, six years ago. You threw me out that window, remember? The very thick one. My face got stuck in the broken glass. I was dangling from it for a good while, eighty stories up. You just had to save me. Isn’t that something? I take it you wrote that down as a happy accident. Whoops, right?

The Long Halloween. Jeph Loeb, Tim Sale.
Panel 3: Now we focus on Obadiah’s chest scar, the important one. This can be either a close up of the scar or we can pull back and take Obadiah from the waist up.

Sentinel: Now this one…

Panel 4: Side-shot of Sentinel pulling a knife up into Obadiah with both hands. They are on top of a moving truck in a New York City street. They are going fast which makes the background more a blur than anything else. Obadiah is in full costume. There is a lot of blood coming out of him. Sentinel looks angry as he moves the knife up into Obadiah. Really angry.

Obadiah: Please…

Panel 5: Close up of Obadiah face. He’s got his hood on. We’re still on top of the truck. He face projects a sad sense of excitement (he’s happy Sentinel finally looks like he’s about to change the rules, but he also looks melancholic, as if the game has reached its end).

Obadiah: …don’t hold back.

Panel 6: Now we transition back to the prison cell and into a close up of Obadiah’s face. He looks nostalgic and perhaps a bit disappointed. But there’s still a sense of play with him.

Obadiah: …I think you remember well.

Page 7

Panel 1: Side-shot of Sentinel looking at Obadiah. We just see Sentinel. No one else.

Sentinel: Hmm.

Panel 2: Same as last panel.

Sentinel: I just see self-inflicted wounds.

Panel 3: Shot of Obadiah looking at Sentinel with a very subtle smile on his face. His face scar makes a bit more sinister, so let’s keep it subtle.

Obadiah: Oh, I hope you can appreciate the irony in that.

Watchmen. Moore, Gibbons
Panel 4: Front shot of Obadiah as he bends over to pick up his shirt from the floor.

Obadiah: I mean…

SFX: CLICK

Panel 5: Front shot of Obadiah as he stands up straight again and looks in utter surprise towards the cell door.

Panel 6: A shot of Obadiah’s cell door open. Sentinel is long gone.

Page 8

Panel 1: We pull back and see Obadiah standing in the middle of his cell. He’s looking towards the open cell door. He's holding his shirt with one hand now. His arms are at his sides, though, denoting resignation.We can play with shading here, doing just enough to play on the idea his leaving the cell means indulging Sentinel. He doesn’t necessarily want to do it, but not doing it is beyond him, against his nature.

Panel 2: Side-shot of Obadiah pointing his gun towards Sentinel (who’s off-screen). We’re in the same moment as panel 2 from the first page (Obadiah in costume—white suit and black cape and hood—in front of a burning school bus). He’s still holding a small girl with his free hand. He’s grinning. He’s in character, so to speak.

Obadiah: Monologue. Do you need one?

Panel 3: Here just get a shot of Sentinel’s mouth sporting a very subtle smirk. It is as if he’s glad, happy.

Sentinel: No, Obadiah. No monologue required.

END

Sunday, November 16, 2014

Retrovision

Retrovision

By: Ricardo A. Serrano Denis


Summary: This is a Twilight Zone/Outer Limits meets Super Speed Superhero story. It is about Accelero, a hero endowed with the ability of super-speed. He is fighting one if his lesser villains, Devlos, a weak character with the ability to create distorted reflections of the people he fights against, a C-Lister that isn’t threatening enough to warrant more than one encounter to fully decommission. His suit is mostly white, simple, with red lenses spread about his upper body. He stands as a white canvas, to be filled with misleading imagery that confuses the opponent as to the real identity of the man he is facing. It’s a one-trick pony show, really. Metaphorically, he is a revolver loaded with a single bullet...until his power surprises both him and Accelero by provoking an end of the world-type scenario, brought about unintentionally.

In a fight with Accelero, Devlos produces a distorted reflection of our hero, a reflection Accelero meets head-on as he runs towards his enemy in high velocity. The reflection confuses Accelero into thinking a new villain has come to his city, one that dismisses the traditional introduction, monologue, and dives straight into the fight, fists first. What Accelero doesn’t know is that he is actually fighting his own reflection, the one Devlos created. Accelero is going so fast he’s basically just run into his own distorted reflection and started fighting with it, like a record skipping on the same beat only to start the same song all over again. In fact, Accelero reaches such high velocities that he’s producing his own light source, one that secures his other version’s presence.

As the fight rages on, Accelero speeds up. And as he speeds up, we see reality begins to deteriorate, to slowly begin to tear. Accelero’s fight is ripping at the fabric of reality by dragging reality’s color with him as he runs. He is slowly erasing parts of existence with every lap, with every punch he lands on a reflection that is truly himself. Devlos realizes what he’s done, the thing he has accidently provoked by underestimating the extent of a simple power well used. The whole thing is a lesson in untapped potential, in the destructiveness of inventiveness when met with a power that doesn’t respond to the traditional BOOMs and ZAPs that we expect from more threatening villains.

It is with reality shifting to a simply-drawn black and white image of itself that Devlos begins to understand that his latest attempt at crime might be his last, regardless of his simpler, less sinister intentions. Devlos must reconsider his identity, if only momentarily. He must come to terms with the possibility life has forced him into a position that caters to a degree of action unexpected of him: that of saving a superhero from himself, from ending it all in as definite a way as they come.

Script: Retrovision

Page 1 (Eight panels, paired in twos—2 up top, 2 in the upper middle, 2 in the lower middle, and 2 in the bottom)

Page 1, first draft. By Ramón Serrano.
Panel 1: This is a side-shot of our main character, Accelero, running at high speeds (leaving a trail of afterimages of him running behind him—this always accompany the character, trails of his actions). He’s running so fast the background is a blur. Accelero is also blurred, not fully focused (this is to account for the fact of his high speed). We’re in downtown, New Liberty City. The scene is set to around the biggest building in the city which stands in its center, Aurora Tower. It looks like something taken straight out of Metropolis. It stands in the middles of a large square, surrounded by smaller buildings. There’s a main road that comes up to it and runs around it (think of Times Square but with a single building in its center). It is has various HD screens running up the building, very much like the One Times Square Building in Times Square. It is very flashy and our hero is running around it in circles, fighting against something. Accelero is dressed in a full blue and red body suit (more blue than red), fully covered except for his eyes and lower face area. His suit has black lines running through it. They look like circuitry, making Accelero look like a stylized science experiment. He is a Flash-like character, super speed being his power. He is fighting a black and yellow version of himself (more black than yellow) that he’s confused with a new supervillain, a rising challenger who must be brought to justice. What will be revealed later on is that he is really fighting himself, a bad reflection of himself made by a supervillain with a lame superpower: that of projecting distorted reflections of the people he confronts (like a mirror that purposefully shows the other person’s potential for ugliness). The supervillain’s name is Dan Devlos and he has just broken a superhero.

Devlos VO: What would you like to see if you ever got to witness the end of the world?

Panel 2: Black panel.

Devlos VO: I’ve always preferred to imagine it as something opposed to the biblical. No horsemen. No fallen angels. The Apocalypse is a taste I was never interested in acquiring. It tries too hard.

Panel 3: Black panel.

Devlos VO: Science never did it for me either. I could never truly appreciate the totality of a comet’s destruction or the vindictive feel of an earthquake ripping everything apart from the inside. Too clichéd.

Panel 4: Same as panel 1 but with Accelero’s black version running in the opposite direction, as if in direction of the original Accelero. He is also out of focus, blurred (and he also leaves a trail of afterimages behind). This is the state both Acceleros will be in, blurred. The point is they are running so fast that we can’t ever really get a good glimpse of them. Think of Flash in Kingdom Come. We only get a good look of them should they ever come to a full stop. Only then.

Devlos VO: I guess I hoped for something more original.

Panel 5: Close-up of the original Accelero’s punch. It is blurred, not fully there. It is obviously directed at his reflection.

Devlos VO: Something that didn’t quite look like it had come out of a movie.

Panel 6: Black panel.

Devlos VO: I wanted to watch the world erase itself, doing away with its existence like a snake shedding its skin for the last time…

Panel 7: Black panel.

Devlos VO: …or a superhero tearing at the fabric of reality by mistake.

Panel 8: Close-up of Accelero’s (black version) punch. It is also blurred, an after image of a punch. The punch, in this case is directed towards the real Accelero, in the opposite direction.

Devlos VO: To watch reality break. To watch it all truly begin to disappear, well…

Page 2

Single-page shot: This is a big shot of the Accelero’s, both a blur (an after image of themselves), punching each other at the same time. We see the impact of the hit is so great that glass is breaking around them, the screens showing advertisements from the Aurora building are all shattering. We see trailing lines behind them, after images of where they were moments ago, fractions of a second ago.

Devlos VO: …that would be a sight to behold.

Page 3

Panel 1: We’re behind Devlos as he looks at the immensity of the speed streaks left in the wake of Accelero’s fight against himself. We see policemen pointing their guns at Devlos as he looks on, indifferent to their presence there. One of the policemen will talk to Devlos. He is tall but fat, a man past his prime yet still imposing. The speed trails take up a lot of the scenery in front of Devlos. Accelero is running so fast that trails almost resemble an unstable wall colored red, blue, black, and yellow (to account for the colors Accelero is shifting through). Devlos is dressed in a full white bodysuit that covers everything except his lower face area. There is no definition to the suit, just a black outline accounting for the character’s bodily dimensions. Devlos’ power is to produce distorted reflections of the people he goes up against. He confuses his enemies by projecting distorted reflections of themselves on his suit (this is why the suit is white and devoid of any kind of definition, just a white canvas reserved for distortions). The reflections come from a big red circular chest piece that he straps around his torso (double strapped). There is an additional red lens attached to each hand, right in their palms (dead center). The reflection, then, is projected over his body, like an additional thin layer of skin superimposed on him. He has black circular-rimmed goggles with red lenses on them as well, to balance the costume out and to account for his ability to produce full body projections. Devlos comes across as a weak character given his ability, a C-list villain. His power can be seen as very ineffective and not entirely threatening. But that is precisely the point. This non-threatening villain produced a distorted reflection of a superhero that confused him enough to think his own reflection was actually a new villain that needed to be stopped. In other words, Devlos’ ability proved to be enough to confuse Accelero into fighting against himself, producing a chain reaction of events that can result in our superhero tearing reality apart and thus erasing existence.

Devlos VO: I never expected to co-write the whole thing. I’m still hoping I can prevent being credited for that.

Fat Policeman: Hands up, asshole!

Panel 2: Front-shot of Devlos as he looks at what he’s done slack-jawed. He can’t believe he broke his nemesis and that he might actually have to save him to keep reality from falling apart.

Devlos VO: Then again, preventing that might mean I would have to save a man that very much deserves to remain in the state he’s in.

Panel 3: Shot of the police officer that spoke pistol-whipping Devlos across his face.

Devlos VO: Useless.

Devlos: No, please. You don’t---

Panel 4: Over the shoulder shot of the policeman pointing his gun at Devlos who is on the ground. The shot is from the policeman’s perspective, so we’re looking down at Devlos. Devlos has his hand raised (which means we see the red lens on the palm of his hand), as if to prevent the police officer from shooting him or hitting him again. He looks scared. Blood is coming out of his mouth and dripping onto the ground.

Devlos: Stop! Please…

Panel 5: Close-up on Devlos eyes. He’s pleading, negotiating. He’s about to inform the police officer they need him to fix Accelero, to un-break him.

Devlos: You need me.

Page 4 (we can flip this page sideways, so it reads horizontally)

Single page shot: This is a top-down shot of Accelero running in circles around the Aurora building, focusing more on the actual speed streaks produced by his running (which resembles a small tornado forming around the building). The point of this shot is to visually explain the dynamics of Acccelero’s fight against himself. As stated earlier, this part of the fight is taking place around the Aurora building. Accelero is running circles around it, changing into the other version of himself halfway. In terms of the fight’s logic, Accelero’s original version throws a punch that he then runs back to receive on the other end as his alternate version. The same goes the other way around, Evil Accelero throws a punch he runs back to receive as Good Accelero, changing versions halfway. It will be explained that Accelero is running so fast he is creating his own light source. This means that what Accelero is ultimately fighting is an illusion of himself, one that is created by the high levels of velocity he reaches by act of running. Of course, this illusion was instigated by Devlos, who created a distorted version of our hero whilst in a battle that should’ve ended quite differently. This will have reality-threatening consequences and will be explained later on.

Back to our scene. Given we have a big establishing shot of Accelero running circles around the aurora building (focusing more on the speed streaks), lets extract four small panels from Accelero’s run that slow the fight down so we can get a good look at what’s happening amidst the impossibly fast sequence of events. They will be organized in circular motion so as to account for the run's trajectory (to keep it somewhat symmetrical). Our first panel will show both versions of Accelero punching each other (both still much of a blur). Our second panel will show Good Accelero running back, in the opposite direction of the fight. Our third panel will show Good Accelero hallway turning into Evil Accelero (make this image stand out). And our last panel will show Evil Accelero running towards the panel where both versions are fighting.

Devlos VO: There’s a reason Greek gods only had one true, definitive power. It kept them in check, their limits well defined. Sure, Zeus could shape-shift into animals or other people, but lightning was his true power, the thing that defined both his strengths and his weaknesses. Dionysus could turn water into wine, a formidable kind of power if we take the aphrodisiac to be a symbol of influence and politics. But there is something else about the god of wine, a reversal. He was also the god of madness. You see, there is something oddly peculiar that comes with bearing that title: a commanding force over reality. I never expected Accelero to be one for the classics. Super speed was power enough. But it seems he has found, thanks to me, that he shares more of a resemblance with Dionysus than he does with the other gods. I mean what else is a superhero who is fighting against a reflection of himself if not mad?

Damnation Road by Ricardo Serrano

Death Proof. Dir. Quentin Tarantino.
This story is about a car chase that ends in a hit-and-run with reality-bending consequences. It deals with the trauma of an exorcism, A Dr. Manhattan-esque female superhero character, and a time travel of sorts. A couple of things converged here for me to come up with this story. I had recently watched Vanishing Point, was thinking about Bullitt, Death Proof and The Exorcist, and had just finished reading Morrison's Pax Americana. Having all of these things running around in my head made me want to come up with something new; something that played with different, yet seemingly incompatible, story elements. This is my attempt at that.


Note: This is still a work in progress.

Damnation Road

By: Ricardo A. Serrano Denis


Page 1 (every panel in this page is horizontal)

Panel 1: Close up of our main character, Russell, driving away in a brown Dodge Charger that has seen better days. We see cop cars behind him. They are chasing Russell down an undetermined American city in the 1970s (which looks like San Francisco if you want to channel Bullitt). The chase sees Russell and the cops racing past intersections in a frantic manner, cutting through traffic. Russell has both hands on the steering wheel.

Russell VO: When I was 7 years old my brother was said to be possessed.

The Exorcist. Dir. William Friedkin.
Panel 2: Front shot of the cop car. Through the windshield we see two cops with their hats and sunglasses on, playing to the 1970s cliché.

Russell VO: My dad got our church’s pastor to come in, bless the house, eat our food, see to Jake. He even got his own room, the pastor.

Panel 3: Top down view of the city. The streets are busy and Russell is driving down them, evading cars. The cops are doing the same. Russell is nearing an intersection. From the left side of that intersection we see another brown dodge Charger, identical to Russell’s also swerving so as to prevent collision. The second Charger’s left side (the driver’s side) is all bent, as if some force grabbed onto the driver’s door and ripped it out violently. Hence, there’s no door on the driver’s side. We can see the driver somewhat here. He looks just like Russell, a double. He’s even dressed in the same clothes as him. His face is bloodied (his nose is broken—this will be explained later on).

Russell VO: I was to stay with Jake. My bed was already there and no one thought it necessary to move it out of the room. Jake was tied down to his bed. I guess everyone thought I was safe enough.

Panel 4: Now we see the second brown Charger coming out of the intersection and nearly hitting Russell’s car. We can better appreciate the extent of the second Charger’s body damage here, but not fully. Inside this panel is a smaller panel of Russell turning the steering wheel violently.

Page 2

Panel 1: This shot sees Russell’s car still speeding down the road while the second Charger speeds against traffic, heading straight for the cop car. Inside this panel is a smaller of panel of the Russell looking through the rearview mirror in a state of both confusion and shock as to what just happened.

Russell VO: My brother didn’t survive the exorcism.

Panel 2: Small panel of an extreme close up of the cop in the driver’s seat in utter shock as he sees the second Charger coming straight for him.

Panel 3: Small panel of the cop’s foot slamming on the break.

Panel 4: This is a big crash scene. Given the cop slammed on the breaks, the cop car swerved to its side. The second brown Charger is hitting the cop car hard, stopping on the cop car’s driver’s side. The scene is a mess of flying glass and twisted metal. Now we can more fully appreciate the second Charger’s damage (from before the crash—see page 1, panel 3). The driver’s door is missing. Now we get a better look at the driver (not his face). He looks like Russell.

Russell VO: The pastor buried Jake himself. All I did was bring the shovel, as I was asked to.

Panel 5: We’re inside the cop car. The cop in the driver’s seat is knocked out. He has shards of glass stuck to his face. There’s blood coming from the wounds. The cop is knocked out. The other cop, the one on the passenger’s seat looks like he got the wind knocked out of him, but he’s conscious.

Russell VO: I always resort to this memory when explaining how I got to this, not being an upright citizen, running away from the authorities. There’s really not much one can turn to after a thing like that.

Second Charger’s Driver (off panel): Please…

Page 3

Single page shot: We’re still inside the cop car, but now we’re looking from the passenger’s side perspective into the driver’s side and into the car that crashed into it. We see a man that looks exactly like Russell half out of the car through the windshield area (which has no glass), extending his hand towards the cops inside the car as if asking for help. The second Russell is dressed exactly like the first Russell and is identical. His face is bloody and his left arm looks damaged (the one he’s extending). His wounds are all a result from the crash. We see the conscious cop looking towards the second Russell.

Russell VO: I guess I was damned from the start.

Second Russell: …help me.

Page 4

Panel 1: This is a shot of the first Charger taking a sharp left turn into another street. It all looks very chaotic. Other cars are swerving out of Russell’s way.

Panel 2: Close-up of Russell’s eyes. Now he looks alerted, as if he’s about to be in a crash of his own. He’s seeing something in front of him that doesn’t make sense.

Russell VO: I didn’t believe in it at the time, my brother’s possession. It was like I resisted thinking something like that could happen to him. Perhaps whatever was inside him knew I wasn’t convinced. I think that’s what made it worse.

Bullitt. Dir. Peter Yates.
Panel 3 (there’s a lot of description here, but it’s mostly for context): We’re looking towards the front of the car through the windshield. The camera is in the backseat. We see Russell leaning over, trying to get a closer look. In the distance (not too far) we can make out a very strange female figure in the middle of the road fighting a big alien monster. The monster is a combination of green, red, and purple. It has sharp fangs and four horizontal rugged gashes that serve as its eyes. There’s a red glow underneath the gashes which communicate they are, in fact, eyes. The female figure has long black hair, silver skin, and what looks like a black and blue suit on. It really is more like a bodysuit that covers everything except her face and her hair. Her hands and feet are black. They are covered by the bodysuit as well and they fade into the blue of the suit to give the impression she has both boots and gloves on. Both her eyes are black but their pupils are silvery. She’s tall yet thin. Her body does not look alien. She has a human body that says superhero (something like a female version of Dr. Manhattan). We’ll keep referring to her as the Female Superhero from now on. In fact, she looks like a very powerful superhero. She has her arms raised as if she’s about to force blast the alien monster. There are cars littered about, presumably from the fight. There’s a fair amount of destruction around them. It’s a classic superhero vs. big alien fight scene.

Russell VO: He would stand on his bed as if held up by something, moving like a puppet. He would do this for hours, his mouth hanging open while his body twisted in impossible ways.

Panel 4: Now we focus on the Female Superhero. She’s still in the middle of the street fighting the monster. The monster has thrown a punch and she seems to have stopped it with some kind of telekinetic force. The monster looks in pain.

Russell VO: And yet, I remember looking for strings thinking it was the pastor behind it all.

Page 5

Panel 1: This is a small panel of Russell slamming on the breaks, putting his whole body into it. He’s moving the steering wheel to his right (which means the car will shift towards the driver’s side).

Panel 2: Side-shot of the Female Superhero, looking calm, breaking the monster’s bones with telekinetic force. She’s giving the fight her full attention. This means she doesn’t see the Charger skidding towards her, driver’s side first (which we can see in the background). We can see the smoke coming out of the tires as they try to break so as not to hit her. The car is quite close now.

Russell VO: But then one day his bones started to break, all at once. No amount of strings could’ve done that. No amount of strength. I knew that whatever it was killing my brother…

Page 6

Panel 1: Close up of the Female Superhero looking over her shoulder at the Charger. She looks indifferent. She’s not alarmed or scared. She’s observing.

Russell VO: …it wasn’t human.
 
Dr. Manhattan by Paul Pope.
Panel 2: This is another huge crash scene. But this one’s weirder than the one before. The Charger is hitting the Female Superhero. She’s hit hard but she manages to grab hold of the car’s door, her body crashing against it, shattering its window. This creates an invisible shockwave of force (the scene looking all the more chaotic because of it). Glass is flying everywhere. We see Russell has a painful expression on his face. He’s gripping the steering wheel hard.

Panel 3: Side-shot of the Female Superhero flying backwards from the impact. She’s still gripping the Charger’s door with her hand. She ripped it off as she flew back.

Page 7

Panel 1: We see the Female Superhero’s body digging itself into the asphalt as she reels back from the impact. In her wake, the breaking of the street, reality is turning into smaller panels containing pieces of the scenery (the image is that of the broken asphalt actually producing the initial breaking of the panels). The shockwave that produced from the hit shifted reality, unglued it. Reality is breaking up into small panels because of it. The panels float upward as the break up. This will be standard motion of them. They float upwards, trailing away from each other, revealing a black space underneath them.

Panel 2: Front shot of Russell looking towards where the Female Superhero has finally landed. He’s wide-eyed and his mouth is hanging open. He’s horrified. Remember, the driver’s door is missing.

Russell: Oh fuck...

Panel 3: We see the Female Superhero trying to get up, almost on all fours (she will be on her knees in the next panel). The Charger’s door is lying next to her. We can see Russell looking towards her in the background. We can better appreciate the damage she has left in her wake. And we can see reality splintering into more panels. (This effect can also affect the comic’s panels as well. The panel’s edges, more specifically, can account for reality breaking up, getting lost in the black underneath them.)

Panel 4: We see the Female Superhero on her knees, still on the same part of the street where she finally landed, looking over her shoulder at reality breaking up into small panels. She looks worried.

Female Superhero: No…

Panel 5: This a first-person shot of the Female Superhero looking at her hands as they break up into smaller panels. There are drifting apart, revealing a dark space underneath them. The black in between panels can best be described as the panel’s gutter, if you will. The black is really just reality in its purest form, reality unveiled.

Female Superhero: What did you do?

Page 8

We3. By Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely.
Single-page shot: Now we see the Female Superhero fully fragmented. She’s screaming. Breaking up into small panels hurts. Everything around her is breaking up as well, revealing the black underneath. We see Russell in the background still looking at her. The breaking up of reality is progressing towards Russell.

Female Superhero (the speech bubble is also breaking up into smaller panels): AAAAHHHHH!!!

Page 9

Panel 1: Over the shoulder shot of Russell looking at the broken monster lying on the street. He’s breaking up now, fragmenting as well. The monster is already dead. The street is going through the motions as well.

Panel 2: Close-up of one of the Charger’s front tires fragmenting into panels.

Panel 3: Front shot of the car, focusing on the hood, as it also breaks up into panels. We see Russell inside the car taking everything in.

Panel 4: This is a fragmented first-person view of Russell’s hands, which are gripping the steering wheel. Everything is already broken up into panels. Everything is unstuck and the black in between the panels is absorbing everything up.

Russell (the speech is also fragmented): AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!

Panel 5: Black panel.

Page 10 (Series of horizontal panels)

Panel 1: Black panel.

Panel 2: This shot resembles panel 4 from the last page (first-person view of Russell gripping the steering wheel). But now we see, from inside the car, we’re in the middle of a cornfield. The image is split into an 8-panel grid. When taken in fully, it looks like Russell’s Charger is putting itself back together in the middle of a cornfield. We only see cornstalks and blue sky ahead.

Panel 3: Front shot of Russell inside the car. His head is slumped and he’s still grabbing the steering wheel. But he isn’t fully formed just yet. There are certain details missing. We see very small panels dropping into him, making him up (the top of his head, his forearms, small sections of his shoulders, the steering wheel, the driver’s seat).

Panel 4: We zoom in on the back of Russell’s head as a final, very small panel is falling in place, making him complete.

Panel 5: Russell wakes up with a start, as if given life all of a sudden. He’s wide awake. We see more cornstalks behind him. He’s surrounded by them.

Page 11

Panel 1: Russell looks around, taking in the cornfield.

Panel 2: Now we see Russell halfway out of the car (one leg out of the car, the other still in it). Remember, the driver’s door is missing. Russell is looking around, trying to figure out where he’s at. He’s surrounded by cornstalks.

Panel 3: Russell is now fully out of the car, standing in the middle of a cornfield. He’s confused, trying to figure out where he’s at, how he got there.

Panel 4: Shot of Russell walking into the cornstalks. But there’s nothing but more cornstalks in front of him.

Panel 5: Russell looks to his side trying to see if there’s an end to the field.

Panel 6: Shot of what Russell has in his line of sight: more cornstalks.

Page 12

Panel 1: Russell comes back to his car. He’s in front of it.

Panel 2: Russell is climbing the hood of the car.

Panel 3: Close-up of Russell looking forward, wide-eyed again. He’s seen something. He suddenly knows where he is. We only see blue sky in the background.

Russell: No…

Panel 4: Big panel of Russell standing on top of his car looking towards a big two-story wooden house with a decayed pickup truck parked in front of it. There’s a big crooked tree in front of the house, overlooking the porch, with a single tire swing hanging from it. The car is parked next to it. There’s grass coming out of the truck, from under the hood. The truck’s tires are all blown out. The house itself is in an advanced state of decay. Its front door is off its hinges, the windows are broken, and the wood is rotten. It looks grey, a dead house. This is Russell’s childhood home, a house that contains the history of an exorcism within it, a house touched by death.

Russell: …it can’t be.

Interstellar. Dir. Christopher Nolan.

Page 13

Panel 1: We see Russell coming out of the cornfield and into the house’s front yard (which is unkempt). The shot comes from the porch. This means we can see the broken down truck and part of the crooked tree in the scene.

Panel 2: This shot comes from inside the broken down truck. We see Russell standing closer to the house, looking at it, taking it in. Everything is busted inside the truck, rotted. The seats are all wasted, the dashboard is cracked, and the windows are dirty. We just barely see Russell.

Panel 3: We see Russell standing in the doorway, looking inside the house. The shot comes from the front lawn. Russell is giving his back to the camera.

Panel 4: Same shot as above but from inside the house. Russell is standing in the doorway. From inside we see a very badly decayed living room with dust and cobwebs everywhere (exaggeratedly so). The floors inside the house are wooden as well, and they also look very decayed. We see an old 1960s TV with a cracked screen, broken down furniture, and a big couch that is all torn up. This is a dead house. There are windows in the living room and sunlight is seeping through them, lighting the space up. We see a flight of stairs that lead to the second floor. Beside it is a table with picture frames on it. The shot can come from inside the living room.

Panel 5: Shot of Russell’s right foot just about to touch the floor inside.

Page 14

Panel 1: We see Russell’s step has broken the part of the floor he stepped on and his right leg has fallen through the hole. This is a 2D shot. We see Russell’s foot is dangling in outer space, the kind with stars and galaxiesll’s foot is dangling in a. In other words, outer space is below the house and it looks busy (nebulas, galaxies, stars, maybe a black hole). The living room and the front door entrance count for the top part of the panel.

Panel 2: Russell is lying on the floor, his leg out of the hole, looking at the damage he’s caused by stepping inside the house.

Panel 3: Russell looks down the hole and sees everything. This can be a top down shot of Russell looking down the hole.

Panel 4: We invert the shot so we see Russell looking in disbelief, space’s light shining on his face.

Panel 5: Close up of the edge of the hole in the floor. We see Russell’s hands on the edge and a new crack in the wood. This means the floor is breaking up. Light is coming from the crack.

SFX: CRACK

Page 15

Panel 1: We see the Female Superhero bursting out of the hole, breaking up more of the floor in the process. Russell’s falls back. The Female Superhero has her back to the camera. It looks violent show of force.

Russell: What the f--

Panel 2: Close-up of the Female Superhero’s eyes. They express a very intense sense of anger.

Female Superhero: Hello, Russell.

Panel 3: We see Russell struggling to get to the stairs. The Female Superhero is getting out of the hole. She’s floor is breaking up badly because of this. We can see bits of space in between the cracks.

Russell: Get away from me!

Female Superhero: Can’t say I’m surprised at your reaction.

Panel 3: We see Russell running up the stairs. The Female Superhero is now standing in a piece of the wooden floor that seems to floating above space. A lot of the floor has broken, revealing even more of what lies below it. She is looking towards Russell.

Female Superhero: Looks like running away comes naturally to you.

Panel 4: We’re in the second floor, a hallway with one door on its left side and two on its right. We see Russell looking to the door on the left.

Panel 5: We see Russell opening the door he was looking at as the Female Superhero gets to the top of the stairs. She looks calm, composed. She’s taking her time. Behind her we see the walls are cracking up as well, revealing more of the space underneath.

Female Superhero: Left door, Russell. And don’t forget to stand back.

Page 16

Panel 1: Russell is inside the room behind the door. He’s resting his head on the door he just shut. This can be side shot that shows a bit more of the room he’s in. It looks like a child’s room. There are two beds in the room. There are toys scattered around. This room does not look decayed. And yet, it feels like a sick place, devoid of childhood innocence. There is someone lying on the bed closest to him.

Panel 2: Same shot with Russell looking at the bed next him. He sees his brother lying in it, sleeping. He’s face up.

Russell: Jake?

Panel 3: The Female Superhero kicks in the door, sending Russell flying back with it. This can be another 2D shot. The door breaks apart given the force of the kick. The second bed is behind. Russell is flying straight to it. He will hit the wall though, landing on the bed (see next panel).

Panel 4: Russell has hit the wall behind him, landing him on the bed. He’s getting up while pushing what remains of the door off of him. His nose is broken and he’s bleeding quite profusely from it.

Female Superhero (off-panel): I did warn you…

Panel 5: Shot of Russell looking at the Female Superhero who is standing on the broken doorway.

Female Superhero: …didn’t I?


Page 17

Panel 1: The Female Superhero walks closer to Russell. Russell hugs the wall behind. He’s still in his bed.

Russell: You did this!? You brought me here!?

Female Superhero: Oh, this was all your doing. Just you.

Panel 2: Close-up of the Female Superhero’s hand grabbing Russell by the neck.

Female Superhero: And before you go thinking you’re dead or in a coma in a hospital somewhere, let me assure you...

Panel 3: Close-up of the Female Superhero looking Russell. She has raised him by the neck and brought him closer to her. They are looking at each other face to face.

Female Superhero: …you’re not dead, Russell. Far from it. In fact…

Panel 4: The Female Superhero is throwing Russell back on the bed, hard.

Female Superhero: …let me show you just how alive you truly are.

Panel 5: The Female Superhero is now moving to Jake’s bed. Russell is in his bed, terrified.

Russell: I don’t understand. What are you doing? How the fuck did I get here!?

Female Superhero: Do you not recognize this place? Is your memory that unreliable? You must have a long history of repression.

Page 18

Panel 1: The Female Superhero is standing in front of Jake’s bed. Her arm is raised towards him, making Jake levitate. She’s going to stand him up in his bed in this sequence. He will look like string-less puppet.

Female Superhero: This is the place you will come back to when explaining how it is you got lost in your ways. Your brother’s possession. You’ll blame this for everything.

Panel 2: Wider shot where we see the Female Superhero levitating Jake while Russell looks on in fear and confusion.

The Exorcist.
Female Superhero: Now pay attention, Russell. I want you to remember this.

Panel 3: Back-shot of the Female Superhero still levitating Jake. He’s upright at the moment. His body is limp.

Female Superhero: You’ll blame the pastor at first, the one who stayed in your house, ate at your dinner table, saw to your brother. You’ll see him as a manipulator, a puppeteer, if you will. The metaphor fits well enough. That is…

Panel 4: We see the Female Superhero arm is still extended, but her and is in a different pose, as if manipulating something. Jake is now being twisted in near impossible ways. The Female Superhero is stretching him to his limits. Jake is unconscious through all this.

Female Superhero: …until your brother started getting his bones broken. Too vulgar a display of power for a man in his position, don’t you agree? I hope you appreciate the complexity in all of this. Speaking about things in future tense comes with its challenges, especially when you want them to leave a scar. This next part's important. You get to decide now. Your brother’s bones, did they break one at a time or all at once?

Panel 5: Close-up of Jake’s eyes. They are closed.

Female Superhero (off-panel): Let’s wake him up for this.

Page 19

Panel 1: Same shot but with Jake’s eyes open. They express pain.

Jake: Russell, help me.

Panel 2: Side-shot of Russell screaming at the Female Superhero from his bed. The camera is opposite Russell. This means we can see the Female Superhero twisting Russell into different positions, torturing him.

Russell: Please! Don’t do this. Leave my brother alone!

Female Superhero: I’ll take your begging as a sign of indecision. And here I thought you were going to be capable of doing this. Here’s to your memory.

Jake: Stop! It hurts!

Panel 3: Big panel of the Female Superhero breaking all of Jake’s bones all at once. Jake’s body is a mess here. It’s not too gory, though. I think the scene works better if we keep bone protrusions to a minimum. If you have a better way of doing this, go for it. The Female Superhero is looking at Jake. Russell is the embodiment of being terrified here. He’s hugging the wall tightly.

Jake: AAAAHHHHH!!!!!!

Page 20

Panel 1: Russell is sitting in his bed. He looks numb. The Female superhero is walking towards him now. Jake is a mess of broken bones on his bed.

Russell: Oh god, no.

Panel 2: Side-shot of the Female Superhero meeting Russell face to face. She wants the point to come across strongly here. Russell, sitting down on his bed, is looking at her, meeting her gaze.

Female Superhero: Not God, Russell. Just something different. Although, it could be argued we’re both given to reacting quite strongly when displeased.

Russell: Displeased? I fucking displeased you!? All of this, because--

Female Superhero: --you interrupted me, Russell. Plain and simple. You intervened in my fight, in something that didn’t concern you. And then you insulted me by dragging me down into your memories…memories I have no interest in. There’s a consequence to that, regardless of your original intentions...not that they were very innocent. After all, you were being chased. Consider this my own version of public service.

Panel 3: Female Superhero is now standing upright. We take the whole room now (Jake broken on his bed, the Female Superhero taking in what she has just done, Russell on his bed). The room is breaking up, though. Space is finally consuming the house and everything in it. The Female Superhero is looking the cracks, at reality breaking up again.

Female Superhero: I’ve left enough blank spaces here for you to fill up. Whether your brother was tied down to the bed or not, if he was buried afterwards, etc. Those details are not for me to give. They are for you to remember, for you to own.

Page 21

Panel 1: The Female Superhero is walking away, towards the broken doorway. Beyond the doorway we see the walls are really breaking up, revealing the space beyond. But everything looks unstable in that space. Stars are exploding and planets are breaking apart.

Female Superhero: This isn't something you're allowed to forget. Not that you will. You see, that’s the thing with memories. They’re only truly reliable when it comes to pain.

Panel 2: The Female Superhero walks to the room’s broken doorway. She’s looking back, over her shoulder, towards Russell. Everything is mostly space now. We see the exploding stars, broken galaxies and broken planets to a much larger extent.

Female Superhero: Welcome to your damnation.

Page 22

Panel 1: We focus on Russell sitting on his bed as the room falls apart around him. He’s staring at the floor, numb.

Panel 2: Same shot of reality breaking up again. Everything is turning into smaller panels but not exaggeratedly so.

Panel 3: Same shot of reality really broken up. Everything is almost black now.

Panel 4: Black panel.

Page 23

Panel 1: Black panel.

Panel 2: We’re inside the Charger again and we’re looking at the road ahead. The Charger is going fast. We can see Russell’s hands on the steering wheel (implying this is a first person shot). In the distance we see the original Charger running away from the police. This panel’s image is divided up into an eight-panel grid. It resembles the panel structure of the cornfield shot (when reality makes itself up again after Russell hits the superhero).

Panel 3: Same shot but the image is now complete and we are much closer to the original Charger, very close to a crash.

Panel 4: We back come to the scene in the opening sequence where the two Russell’s avoid crashing into each other.

Death Proof.
Panel 5: Top down view of the second Russell speeding into the cop car that’s in front of him. The cop car is swerving to its side. We already know this results in a crash.

Page 24

Panel 1: We’re at the crash scene. We see the cops have cordoned the area and the paramedics have arrived. Everything looks very chaotic. Cops walking back and forth, other patrol cars, the ambulance, people looking in at the scene. In the midst of all this we see two paramedics are wheeling Russell into the ambulance. The one leading him into the ambulance is older.

Paramedic #1: Is he conscious?

Older Paramedic: Barely.

Panel 2: Shot of three police officers standing next to Russell’s Charger (the part that’s missing the driver’s door). We see a fourth police officer running up to them while yelling something.

Running Cop: Hey! Ms. Genesis is fighting an alien monster or something on 23rd street!

Cop #2: Holy shit! Let’s go. I’ve never been able to see her in action. Heard she really likes to fuck them up.

Panel 3: We’re inside the ambulance as one of the paramedics is closing the back doors. The older paramedic is sitting with Russell in the back.

Older Paramedic (the one that’s sitting with Russell): You screwed up bad, son. What possessed you to do such a thing?

Russell: I can’t...really remember much. <cough>. Just the crash.

Panel 4: We see the paramedic shining a light on Russell’s eyes. This can be a first-person perspective of Russell looking at the light the paramedic is shining down on him.

Older Paramedic: Yeah, that’ll stick with ya. Anything else? Keep talking to me.

Panel 5: The same shot but with an inverted perspective. Now we’re looking from the top down as the doctor is shining his light on Russell’s other eye.

Russell: My brother...

Older Paramedic: What about him?

Panel 6: Side-shot of the Older Paramedic checking Russell’s pulse. Russell is just looking up. He’s remembering.

Russell: When I was 7 years old...my brother was said to be possessed.