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