Batman 666 #2

February 19th, 2009

batman_6662

“I thought this was, frankly, going to be so far up it’s arse it could taste itself.

It weren’t though.

Really enjoyed this…”

Our hopes and fears for this fan-fic extravaganza captured by our good friend Triplets in the comments thread for part one.

Give these a go, it’s not like Amy doesn’t rush off into fan-fic territory every time he writes one of those Rogue’s Reviews you all seem to love so much. In the opinion of this mindless, this is just as fun, if not more so.

-Zom

Like he said.

My only concern about this one is…. Well, you’ll probably understand what’s thorny about one of the themes about halfway through. I might need to add a bit more dialogue somewhere to prove I’m not a racist. There’s some dodgy ground.

Anyway, here’s a tune.

Plastique De Reve – Lost in the City
[audio:http://mindlessones.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/plastique-derive-lost-in-the-city1.mp3]

I don’t know what it’s got to do with Batman, but Plastique De Reve of DFabroad fame are awesome, and I’ve just finished making my mate Vicky a mixtape, so…..

BATMAN 666 #2

This page is white with the first caption floating in the top, right hand corner. Each of the panels form one segment of a thick snaking shape winding through nothingness and off the border of the page on the bottom left.

CAP: (some sort of computery font contained within a green field): //RETRIEVAL SNAKE PRIMED @ UNDERSKY 6 BEARING SNS WINDWARD/

PANEL 1

We open on a simple domestic scene. Alfred the cat standing over an empty food bowl looking disgruntled. A radio sits on the kitchen work surface by the bowl.

CAP: (match on previous cap) //SNAKE INITIATED//

RADIO: (no tail, but crackly balloon) KZZz…ELLO…

The next few panels illustrate the cat’s trajectory across Batman’s upper penthouse and could easily be borderless.

PANEL 2

Alfred jumps off the work surface.

RADIO: ….S THEREVVVvANYBODY THERE…

PANEL 3

He’s now making his way down a corridor leading to a door with a bat-insignia on it. Batman’s bedroom.

RADIO: vVZZZVVVV…HELP…US

PANEL 4

This is the only segmented panel, ’cause we’re reaching the snake’s head and we need to suddenly zoom in for a close up of Alfred opening the touch sensitive door with his claw. Note: we cannot see inside the room yet.

ALFRED: ROWR?

SFX: HSSSSSS

PAGES 2 & 3

PAGES 2 & 3

PANEL 1

Splash. Alfred in the foreground passing into what appears to be the remains of a devastated bedroom, the ceiling cracked and collapsed in tens of different places, and most of the walls having been blown off. In the middle of the room lies what remains of Batman’s bed, black with soot and scorched sheets. The gaping holes in the masonry provide an aerial view of what remains of Gotham city after The Sensei’s SUCCESSFUL attack on it. What buildings haven’t collapsed – and the only reason Wayne Tower’s in such good shape is because it was made to withstand a nuclear blast – into the ground are now pretty much boiled rubble or reduced to the skeletons of their previous selves, teetering and ready to topple at any moment. Obviously the damage gets considerably worse as the reader’s eye approaches ground zero, the harbour, where a giant scimitar pierces Gotham’s heart. The water around it has pretty much totally evaporated and what hasn’t has tumbled into a massive tectonic tear bisecting the carnage, caused by the shattering of the plates below the city. This is a real No Man’s Land. Gotham has been murdered.

It’s dawn, but you’d never know it.

RADIO: IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE?

TITLE: BATMAN 666 – ITS HOUR COME ROUND AT LAST

PANEL 2

Just a border around one of the newly torn ledges above the city, with Alfred clambering up on it, before we….

ALFRED: RR?

PAGES 4 & 5

(The snake again, winding across two pages. It starts at the top of page 4, twisting and turning like one of its cousins inhabiting a board of snakes and ladders, and resolves itself at the bottom right hand corner of 5. It doesn’t really matter what panels are on what page so long as they follow each other in the correct sequence. The background in the “gutter” behind the snake is basically panel 6 expanded to accomodate a bit more of a view of the street with the Batman statue’s head in close up on the bottom right hand corner. Panel 6 should taper off into the statue’s mouth, like it’s being swallowed. The final caption floats in the darkness of its gaping maw – for convenience sake, we’ll call this PANEL 7 )

PANEL 1

….Drop down into the ruins. The camera races towards the street.

PANEL 2

We’re following it down the road, through the wrecked buildings, burnt out cars, and corpses, corpses, corpses.

PANEL 3

Is that the Batmobile with a massive piece of building spearing it (not ‘ACE’, btw)?

PANEL 4

We’re approaching a massive statue, legs bestriding the street. It’s a man, but we can’t quite make it out yet.

PANEL 5

Closer now. It’s a statue of Bruce Wayne in his Batman outfit looking all noble and defiant, his cape billowing, only it’s been decapitated by the explosion – the head lies on the floor at its feet. Think of the Superman statue in ‘Whatever Happened to The Man of Tomorrow?’, only via Ichibod Crane, and you’re on the right track. We should be able to make out the words on a plinth above the surface of the road, connecting its legs: ‘BATMAN, GOTHAM’S DARK KNIGHT. SLAIN DEFENDING US: 5/10/11. WE WILL NOT FORGET YOU.’

CAP: WH….WHAT DO YOU WANT?

PANEL 6

We get closer. The statue’s mouth looms, a black hole, gasping, like it’s in pain.

CAP: WE’VE COME TO TAKE YOU HOME, DAMIAN.

PANEL 7

RADIO: KZZZVVVVRYTHING’SZZZ BEEN BLOWN AWAY…

PAGE 6

PANEL 1

The lights go on. We’re now in a huge cave lit by flaming torches. a young Damian Wayne – roughly 8 years old – is in the foreground, his back to us, facing down a massive, burly ninja (Ubu). This doesn’t look like a fair fight.

PANEL 2

Ubu brings his mace crashing down, but Damian’s already in the air, his foot firmly embedded in his foe’s jaw.

CAP: I WAS EIGHT YEARS OLD WHEN MY MOTHER ABANDONED ME TO THE CAVES BENEATH THE MOUNTAIN.

PANEL 3

Ubu punches Damian out of the air. It’s like one of those road safety adverts where a child’s hit by a car – real rag doll stuff.

CAP: THERE, AMIDST THE FAITHFUL AND THE RATS

PANEL 4:

Ubu smashes his head into the rock floor.

CAP: ….I LEARNED WHAT IT IS TO BE A MAN.

PAGE 7

PANEL 1

Damian’s black and blue body bleeding out into the cracks in the stone. Darkness draws in.

CAP: I BLED FOR HOURS.

CAP: MY SHATTERED RIBCAGE AND JAWBONE MEANT I COULDN’T CALL OUT. MY SNAPPED FIBULA PREVENTED ME FROM CRAWLING AWAY.

PANEL 2

Damian ravenously tearing the head off a diseased bat corpse.

CAP: A WEEK LATER UBU RETURNED WITH FOOD.

PANEL 3

It’s very dark in the cave now. The torches are spluttering. In the forground, from outside the panel, a rotting arm reaches out for Damian. He stares at it in horror, unable to move.

CAP: THAT NIGHT I DREAMT SOMETHING STIRRED IN THE RECESSES OF THE CAVE.

CAP: THERE WAS THE SMELL OF ROTTING FLESH.

DAMIAN: (weakly) GET….GET AWAY…

PANEL 4

All large SFX with black background.

SFX: BANG!BANG!BANG!BANG!BANG!

CAP: IT WAS THEN I REMEMBERED I WAS BEING HUNTED.

PAGE 8

PANEL 1

We’re back in post-apocalypse Gotham, but we’re now in the apartment of the man we could hear on the radio. Half of the living room, which is strangely intact apart from a few enormous gaping holes here and there, is set up like a pirate broadcasting operation. Inspite of all the new technology invading Gotham – in fact probably because of it – the city’s full of hobbyists like this guy, who, luckily for them, are still able to broadcast even though the rest of the city’s centralised communication network is down. The front door is barricaded with furniture, and his wife and two children (a small boy and a teenage girl) lie huddled in the corner while their dad fiddles with nobs and speaks into some kind of outdated microphone thingy. These guys are trapped and something’s after them.

FATHER: …..PLEASE! EVERYONE IS DEAD!…

(2):… THEY’RE COMING TO GET US AND EVERYONE IS DEAD!

DISEMBODIED VOICE FROM BEHIND FRONT DOOR: (raggedy font, tail-less bubble) COME OUT, COME OUT WHEREVER YOU ARE!

SFX: BANG!BANG!BANG!

PANEL 2

Close up on children clutching their mother. They’re incandescent with terror.

BOY: DON’T WANT IT!

(2): WE WERE PLAYING IN TEDDYLAND AND THEY ALL CAUGHT ON FIRE!

GIRL: PLEASE, MUMMY….

SFX: BOOM!BOOM!

PANELS 3 & 4

This is one panel split down the middle. The first with the father talking into the mic, the next with him turning on his children in anger.

FATHER: (panel 3) IS THERE ANYBODY OUT

BOY: (his speech balloon obscures his Father’s in the centre of the two frames) DADEEEEEEEEE!

FATHER: (panel 4) SHUT UP! JUST SHUT UP!

PANEL 5

Close on Father consoling his children. Tearful.

FATHER: (small) I’M SORRY, SO SORRY…

DISEMBODIED VOICE: LITTLE PIIIIGS….

PAGE 9

PANEL 1

The door is kicked open, sending all the furniture flying….

SFX: WHAM!

GIRL: (either on or off panel – I don’t mind) EEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

PANEL 2

…..and in stride three garishly clad gorillas. If you can remember how Jackanapes looked in the original 666 episode, basically I want you to riff on that. One of the gorilla’s should be wearing the yellow clown outfit we saw back then, another is dressed in antique Elizabethan courtly attire, while the third, the one that appears to be the leader, is done up like a jester, complete with a claypole. He is in fact Mr. Claypole and ‘Jackanapes’ is actually a plural, referring to a Gotham street gang comprised entirely out of Gorillas. Gorillas have been immigrating to America in their droves ever since the greenhouse effect began to make a desert out of the jungles where they made their home. It’s the classic immigrant story, with the bulk of the settlers proving to be nothing but model citizens – offering their technological knowhow up to the powers that be in exchange for a very, very pleasant lifestyle – but with a tiny criminal element making trouble for all the rest. Gorillas experience real difficulty coping with all the prejudice surrounding them, and it’s no surprise when you consider the fearsome, slavering, red-eyed monsters closing in on the family who cower at the side of the frame. By this time the Father’s standing in the way of his wife and the kids and those who would like to eat them for breakfast.

MR. CLAYPOLE: NOT AS SORRY AS YOU’RE GOING TO BE WHEN WE EAT YOUR CHILDREN.

PANEL 3

Close up on Clapole’s fangs. He’s dribbling.

CAP: GET HIM OUT OF THAT TANK!

PAGE 10

PANEL 1

We cut again. This time we’re inside a high-tech incubator with Damian’s foetus growing inside it. From behind the glass we can make out a blurry hospital-style room, with nurses and technicians scurrying about. A dark shadow outside the tank, matched on Mr. Claypole in the previous frame, looms over the child threatening to consume him.

PANEL 2

We’re outside now too. Talia’s ordering her science-staff around – she has one woman by the scruff of the neck. This is the interior of Ra’s Al Ghul’s stronghold. Damian is about to be ‘born’.

TALIA: ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME? I SAID….

NURSE: BUT MISTRESS HIS HEART-RATE JUST SPIKED!

(2): AND, ANYWAY, HE’S NOT READY TO…

PANEL 3

Talia brandishes a knife, threatening to stab her employee in the eye.

PANEL 4

Close up on Talia’s face. She is not amused.

TALIA: DAMIAN IS READY WHEN I SAY HE’S READY.

CAP: MY MOTHER SAW TO IT THAT I WAS ‘BORN’ ONE MONTH PREMATURE.

CAP: IF I WAS NOT STRONG ENOUGH, SHE SAID, THEY COULD ALWAYS BUILD ANOTHER.

PAGE 11

PANEL 1

This is a creepy image. Damian, now approaching his teens, is kneeling on stone steps leading to The Sensei’s throne and supplicating himself before him while The Men of death look on emotionlessly, sizing up their future foe. Agrat Bat Malhat stands by the throne, as imperious and terrible as her husband. The Sensei himself regards Damian cooly. The throne-room is covered in tapestries and statues depicting various religions’ demons and gods of destruction. Again, a confused but brutally beautiful ethnicity informs The Sensei’s sense of interior design. He worships death in all its forms, irrespective of culture.

Talia makes herself scarce at the far side of the panel, chewing on a nail. She’s grown attached to Damian by this time and she’s frightened. Ubu’s ready by her side in case it all kicks off.

CAP: WHEN I WAS ELEVEN YEARS OLD, I WAS PRESENTED BEFORE MY GREAT GRANDFATHER.

PANEL 2

The Sensei and Agrat confiding in each other, while behind them, on the cliff edge, a helicopter perches waiting for Talia and her son to board. They appear to be arguing.

CAP: ALL THE WAY BACK MOTHER AND I ARGUED.

CAP: IT WAS THE FIRST TIME I SAW HER SCARED.

AGRAT BAT MALHAT: DID YOU SENSE IT…AROUND THE BOY?

THE SENSEI: SHE GUARDS HIM JEALOUSLY.

(2): SOMETHING INSIDE HER UNDERSTANDS SHE DOES NOT DESERVE HIM.

PANEL 3

Agrat looks down at her lover.

AGRAT BAT MALHAT: WHEN WILL WE STRIKE?

THE SENSEI: PATIENCE, AGRAT.

(2): ALL IN GOOD TIME.

PAGE 12

PANEL 1

A familar scene. The original Bruce Wayne and 13 year old Damian fighting Manbats atop Talia’s submarine.

CAP: AND AT 13 I WAS INTRODUCED TO MY FATHER.

PANEL 2

Bruce stills Damian’s hand before he plunges a sword through a Manbat.

PANEL 3

We cut back to the father trying to fend off the advancing gorillas.

CAP: MY ONE TRUE INSPIRATION.

MAN: P…PLEASE WE LIVE ALONG THE HALL…

(2): I’VE SEEN YOU BEFORE. WE HAVE NOTHING AGAINST YOU PEOPLE…

PANEL 4

Camera closes in on Mr. Claypole, towering over his prey.

MR. CLAYPOLE: MEN….

(2): YOU THINK WE CAME HERE, TO THIS COUNTRY, BECAUSE THE JUNGLES WITHERED AND DIED?

(3): WELL…IN PART WE DID…

MAN: ..L…LOOK…

PAGE 12

PANEL 1

Reverse shot. Man, arms outstreteched behind him, defending his children. Pleading.

MAN: ….WE’RE ALL T..T..TRAPPED HERE.

(2): WE CAN USE THE RADIO…. HELP EACH OTHER.

PANEL 2

Mr Claypole advancing further, and gesturing to the devastation outside.

MR. CLAYPOLE: …MOST OF US JUST WANTED A NEW LIFE. A CAR. A JOB. THE AMERICAN DREAM.

(2): BUT THE GORILLAS OF THE JACKANAPES GANG CAME HERE BECAUSE WE KNEW THIS DAY WOULD COME….

PANEL 3

Mr. Claypole has now backed the man into the corner as far as he will go without stumbling over his loved ones. He roars at him, his mouth big enough to swallow the man’s entire head.

MR. CLAYPOLE: WHEN GOTHAM RESEMBLED NOTHING MORE THAN A BUTCHER’S SHOP!

CAP: YOU SEE, YOU HAVE TO UNDERSTAND HOW NOVEL, HOW SERIOUSLY NEW, IDEAS LIKE COMPASSION AND MERCY WERE TO ME AT THE TIME.

PANEL 4

Another cut. Damian leaps headlong at one of The Sensei’s Men of Death. A battle rages in the courtyard of Ra’s Al Ghul’s mountain retreat. Ninjas battle ninjas battle ninja manbats. Dead bodies and blood everywhere. This is all out war between The Sensei and his son.

CAP: SO AROUND ABOUT THE SAME TIME WAR BROKE OUT BETWEEN THE SENSEI AND MY GRANDFATHER….

CAP: ….I DECIDED TO TRY A LITTLE EXPERIMENT.

PAGE 13

PANEL 1

Damian just about dodges a close range bullet which grazes his shoulder. He grits his teeth.

CAP: NOT OUT OF A SENSE OF MISPLACED SENTIMENT

CAP: OR SOME IDEALISTIC NOTION CONCERNING THE ‘SANCTITY’ OF LIFE.

PANEL 2

He smashes his fist into his enemies rib cage, but not quite through it.

CAP: I BROKE HIS WRISTS, SPLINTERED HIS PELVIS AND STOPPED SHORT OF EXPLODING HIS RIB-CAGE JUST TO SEE….

DAMIAN: YIELD!

PANEL 3

Damian is now walking away from the Man of Death’s crumpled body while the fighting continues all around.

CAP: ….WHAT IT WAS LIKE TO REFRAIN FROM THE KILLING BLOW.

PANEL 4

Damian is now lying in bed in the hospital wing having a leg grafted back on – probably some nurse is cauterizing the skin while he’s awake – while his mother wags her finger at him angrily.

CAP: MY UNWILLINGNESS TO USE LETHAL FORCE MEANT THAT I WAS A SOMEWHAT INEFFECTIVE INSTRUMENT OF WAR.

CAP: AFTER THE THIRTEENTH ORGAN GRAFT MY MOTHER SNAPPED.

TALIA: YOU GET THIS FROM YOUR FATHER

DAMIAN: BUT MOTHER IT WAS ALL IN THE NAME OF SCIENTIFIC ENQUIRY….

PAGE 13

PANEL 1

This is a match on the same shot at the beginning of Batman 666. Damian dressed in a white coat in his grandfathers labs flicking the bubbles out of a syringe.

CAP: AND SO MOTHER DECIDED MY TALENTS COULD BE PUT TO BETTER USE IN THE LABS, WHERE MY REBELLIOUS INSTINCTS COULD DO LESS DAMAGE.

PANEL 2

An image of a caged rat as a slavering bat-thing. Horrible and cute at the same time, like a gremlin.

CAP: THERE WERE A HOST OF PROBLEMS WITH THE ORIGINAL MAN-BAT SERUM. AGGRESSION WAS MAGNIFIED TO AN EXCESSIVE DEGREE, AS WAS STUPIDITY.

CAP: AND ONCE THE SUBJECT WAS INJECTED, THAT WAS THAT. NO ‘OFF’ BUTTON.

PANEL 3

A huge pile of steaming guano covers the furnishings in Talia’s quarters. A luxurious chaise lounge is smothered with poo and teeming with flies. Talia’s sexy maids scrub at it while Talia looks on, aghast.

TALIA: OH MY GOD! THE CARPET IS RUINED!

CAP: UBU IN PARTICULAR WAS BECOMING A BIT OF A NUISANCE.

PANEL 4

Match on previous shot of Damian, but now he’s injecting his own arm.

CAP: I SOON STRAIGHTENED OUT ALL THE KINKS, HOWEVER.

CAP: MOTHER WAS RIGHT TO PUT HER FAITH IN ME.

PAGE 14

PANEL 1

Damian has transformed himself into a huge Manbat. But this is Manbat mark 2 – black skinned, no fur, red eyed. Altogether much more stately and ‘human’ than the freakish animal things that have gone before – a lot like the Batman in those future Batman comics, only this isn’t a suit. The same sort of ear/horns erupt from his head, etc. He’s standing, victorious, over a broken Ubu, one foot on his head, while a pool of blood spills out from beneath him. This is their last fight and Ubu didn’t come out of it well. A curtain billows in the wind behind Damian – an open window: his escape route.

PANEL 2

Through the broken bars in the window we can see Damian about to launch himself into the night, the mountains dropping away below him…..

….and a familar rotting arm reaches out to grasp at his massive winged form silhouetted by a huge moon.

CAP: THE SERUM’S EFFECTS WOULD LAST 72 HOURS.

PANEL 3

He wings his way into a Gotham sunrise. Skyscrapers crowd in around him.

CAP: LONG ENOUGH TO GET ME TO GOTHAM.

PAGE 15

PANEL 1

Closer on one of the buildings from the previous frame, but this time the buildings around it are the ones from Gotham’s dark future. We realise it must be the same apartment block we’ve already been spending time in because there’s a man soaring out of a broken window and Mr. Claypole staring up at him triumphantly, his hands on his hips. Glass smithereens across the city.

MAN: YAIIEEEEEEE!

SFX: SKRSSSSH!

PANEL 2

Claypole turns back inside and gestures to his clothes. Tears stream down the remnants of the family’s faces.

MR. CLAYPOLE: DO YOU KNOW WHY THE JACKANAPES DRESS LIKE THIS?

PANEL 2

He pirouettes like a ballet dancer.

MR. CLAYPOLE: THE COURT MARVELS AT THE TALKING MONKEY.

(2): THE NOBLE SAVAGE TAMED BY SILK, CIVILIZED BY TAFFETER AND LACE.

PANEL 3

Zoom in on his blazing eyes.

MR. CLAYPOLE: WE ARE MOCKING YOU!

PANEL 3

The mother brandishes a feeble looking knife.

WOMAN: ….MY CHILDREN….

GIRL: ….DADDY….

MR. CLAYPOLE: (off panel)  AND YOUR FUTILE ATTEMPTS TO DENY THE BRUTAL, SNARLING REALITY BENEATH YOUR CLOTHES.

(2): ONLY NOW THAT YOU’VE SEEN THE SKY BOIL AND ALL YOUR ACHIEVEMENTS LAIN WASTE ARE YOU ABLE TO….

PANEL 4

He turns, surprised, by a voice behind him.

VOICE: HEY THERE, MR. CLAYPOLE!

MR. CLAYPOLE: OOK?

PAGE 16

It’s Batwoman and Robin suspended in the air outside the window in Robin’s new, improved, airborne Red Bird. Batwoman we recognize from her present day incarnation, but Robin looks like something out of the late eighties series G-Force, complete with bird shaped visor and *winged* cloak. His colour scheme is, for a Batman comic, about as colourful as it gets – all reds and golds. He still wears the familiar ‘R’ however. He’s manning the controls on his vehicle and stroking Alfred the cat, who, weirdly enough, now wears a mask too – not disimilar from the one Ace the bathound used to sport – and a couple of laser cannons mounted on his haunches. Batwoman smirks down at the bad guys, standing alongside her partner, confident that she could never fall….and she’s cradling the still breathing body of the Father. The Red Bird itself, is, like her driver, totally bird-themed – in fact it looks exactly like a flying, red and gold, robinified Fantasticar, wings outstretched.

It’s the end of the world, but the good guys are here.

BATWOMAN: ROBIN ALWAYS LEAVES THE RADIO ON FOR THE CAT, MRS. GANDOLFINI.

(2): YOU SHOULD THANK YOUR LUCKY STARS ALFRED HAS SUCH OLD FASHIONED TASTES.

PANEL 2

Small, scared Gorillas.

COURTLY GORILLA: ….GULP.

CAP: THE WAR IN THE MOUNTAINS WAS JUST A REHEARSAL. AT LEAST THERE THERE WERE RULES.

PAGE 17

PANEL 1

Batman and Damian in his ‘Robin’ outfit, bound with chains, and *seated* in an undersized, Joker-themed ghost train. Giant spectral faces of vintage Batman’s bizzare rogues loom around them as they struggle to free themselves from their bonds before they reach the end of the line and the train tips off into a pool of lava, where a hungry looking jokersharkbot circles, waiting. If this panel isn’t just about the most bizzare thing you’ve ever drawn then you’re kind of missing the point.

CAP: BUT IN GOTHAM THERE WAS ONLY ONE.

PANEL 2

Bruce has the Joker by the scruff of the neck in a classic ‘WHHHHHY?!?’ pose. Damian’s marvelling at the weird Joker funfair behind them. He really digs it.

CAP: HIS.

BRUCE WAYNE BATMAN: WHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHY?!?

CAP: I THINK BRUCE FOUND IT REALLY DIFFICULT. CAN’T LIVE WITH THEM, CAN’T KILL THEM.

CAP: ME, THE STRANGENESS OF IT ALL, I KIND OF LOVED IT.

PANEL 3

High Angle. The interior of the Batcave. Damian stares up in wonder at Bruce’s stuffed dinosaur.

CAP: I COULD ALWAYS SEE THE POTENTIAL.

CAP: BUT SOMETIMES I CAN’T HELP WONDERING IF I WAS HAVING A LITTLE BIT TOO MUCH FUN.

CAP: TO ME GOTHAM WAS A PLAYGROUND.

PANEL 4

Another Classic panel. A Wayne child kneeling before his Father’s dead body, a single streetlight, blackness all around.

PAGE 18

PANEL 1

Close up on Damian’s gritted teeth, tears streaming down his mouth.

CAP: I FORGOT THE STAKES COULD BE SO HIGH.

PANEL 2

Ouside apartment block. Robin cartwheels in through a large bare window pane throwing forcearangs, like little electric robins, into the building as he does so – two of them already have the courtly and clown gorillas pinned to the wall while another flies at one of their heads.  Batwoman swings her red bolas around her head (ooo er!) aiming for Mr. Claypole who’s attempting to use the mother as a shield and simultaneously taking a laser from the Alfred’s shoulder cannons to his face. All out mayhem basically.

The kids look on in amazement.

CAP: TWO YEARS AFTER THE DARK KNIGHT FELL, MAX VON ERNST AND THE NEO LUDICISTS SAW TO IT THAT THE STREETS LIT UP LIKE A DAY-GLO MONOPOLY BOARD.

BATWOMAN: GO!

PAGE 19

PANEL 1

Stop motion as Alfred pounces through the window, growing into a ferocious cat-panther as he does so. He lands, roaring. Claypole drops the woman, clutching his face.

CAP: THE OCCULT COMMUNITY DECIDED TO INSTALL THEIR HAUNTED MANSIONS, FAIRYTALE CASTLES AND EMERALD MONASTERIES IN THE SUBURBS.

PANEL 2

Alfred has Claypole on the ground, teeth around his neck.

CAP: AND IN 2010 THE MAYOR LEADS THE TOYTOWN DEVELOPMENT’S INAUGURATION CEREMONY AND THE CITY GOES VIRTUAL.

PANEL 3

Gotham’s gone even nuttier. A new brand of villain battles Batman for control of the streets. Mr Ludic, with his checkerboard in all in one, his Monopoly cloak and his Give us a Clue head aims a Cluedo gun at his foes, while Action Figure detaches one of his arms preparing to replace it with a more lethal looking gun/axe contraption. His face is disturbingly blank and dead like a doll’s. The Red Queen, leader of the supergang that comprises both Tweedledum and Tweedledee and the Mad Hatter (though they’re not in this panel), rides a roaring psychedelic caterpillar into the fray,  heart-bladed sceptre raised above her screaming, blood-red face – Lewis Carrol born bad. Her soldiers, playing card men, arrange themselves in battle-formation as Batman charges into the fray. Above it all, like some ghastly god, the disembodied Joker floats, laughing at a Gotham grown more insane year by year.

CAP: IT WAS AS THOUGH ARKHAM’S GATES YAWNED WIDE AND CLAIMED US ALL.

JOKER: HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!

PAGE 20

PANEL 1

Close up on the teenage girl’s eyes, reflecting the battle.

CAP: ONE YEAR LATER PYG PUTS THE FINISHING TOUCHES TO HIS DOLLATRONS.

PANEL 2

Close up on same girl, but this time she’s Damian’s Robin and it’s an explosion reflected in her glassy stare. There’s blood on her face. She’s dead.

CAP: THE FIRSTBORN CHILDREN OF A NEW GOTHAM.

(2): MY ROBIN’S: ‘DO AS YOU PLEASE’.

PANEL 3

Batman stares down in Horror at Robin’s body for a second time.

CAP: AND I….

BATMAN: ROBIN?

CAP: I COULD NEVER GO HOME AGAIN….

PAGE 21

Full Page. The robot jams his sword into the harbour in the centre of the panel. Now it’s in black negative – the folds in its flesh, it’s eyes, its bellowing mouth all blazing white. The scimitar pulses like a flame. It pulses red, and a beautiful rainbow bursts from it igniting the skyline.

ROBOT: a blank, golden speech bubble.

PAGE 22

PANEL 1

A smouldering candle flame in the darkness.

VOICE (tail-less) UNTIL NOW.

PANEL 2

The light slowly rises, we can just make out a figure in close up cupping someone’s ear and whispering.

WHISPERER: IN THE END YOU DIDN’T HAVE TO FIND ME.

(2): ALL ROADS LED TO YOU.

PANEL 3

We can now see it’s Damian whispering in the gloom, but we can’t make out who he’s talking to.

BATMAN: THAT NIGHT IN THE CAVE…. THE ROTTING..

(2): IT WASN’T YOU I COULD SMELL, IT WAS ME!

(3): THIS…SEPTIC LIE.

PANEL 4

Small, inset. Black panel except for speech bubble.

BATMAN: (tail-less) FATHER?

PAGE 23

Full page. Camera pulls right back. In the centre of a dingy bat-cave sits a grotesque, rotting zombie-Batman. His uniform peels like his skin. Gaping eye-sockets. Skeletal, leering mouth. Broken bat-horns. A bit like Frank Miller’s Batman when he draws him looking really fucked and old in the Tunnel of Love in Dark Knight, only much, much more gross. It stares out of the panel mindlessly while Damian, a small boy again, rests on his knee, whispering the story of his life into its ear.

DAMIAN: HAVE YOU COME TO TAKE ME HOME?





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