Machine Man in “What We Do is Secret” by Matt Duarte
This story takes place shortly after the events of the first arc of Secret Avengers.
Panel 1
Description: Steve Rogers and Sharon Carter are sitting in a command center, talking.
SHARON: I know you’ve said that Nova had to leave on some mission, but I still think we should have someone monitor Mars just in case.
STEVE: Don’t worry, I already have someone on it.
Panel 2
Description: A Quinjet is landing on the surface of Mars.
SHARON (off-panel): Oh, you’ve found someone willing to face the crushing loneliness of space for months, perhaps years?
STEVE (off-panel): With a few conditions, but yes. He was quite happy to, and I quote...
Panel 3
Description: The Quinjet has now landed, and one of the doors from the back of the plane is opening. We still can’t see who it is that’s inside there, but you can probably figure it out.
STEVE (off-panel): “Get away from the stench of flesh.”
SPEECH BUBBLE (coming from the opening door): That’s one small step for me...
Panel 4
Description: The back door of the Quinjet is now fully open. Aaron Stack, Machine Man, is walking out of it. Behind him, inside the ship, there are two huge wooden crates. One of them is marked “BOOZE” and the other one says “LMDS”.
MACHINE MAN: One giant “☠☠☠☠ YOU” for mankind.
Next: No good can come out of a robot in an empty planet.
Why is it that when I read, "One of them is marked “BOOZE” and the other one says “LMDS”," I pictured them being female LMDs? :)
ReplyDeleteThat's a great mix of snark and quality for our man Stack. Easy set up, great pay off panel...just wish there weren't two Panel 3's, ha ;)
ReplyDeleteHA! That's awesome. Sets up Aaron and his character really well. Great stuff Matt.
ReplyDeleteMatt... You win. Because you used four skulls.
ReplyDeleteBut yeah this works well, using my favourite trope of conversations carrying on as it cuts to the next scene!
you've embodied Ellis' Aaron Stack effectively with the introduction, and though I usually berate being mysterious about who a character is in a script here it's more playful than anything so... yeah. crackin' stuff!
Kudos for the skulls!
ReplyDeleteI can't help but think he'd soon get lonely and / or bored without anything to moan about.
I hope there's loads of big monsters for him to fight.
@Danial: Both Males and Females LMDS. Why? read on!
ReplyDelete@Ryan: Yeah, I did some re-arranging of panels, and I forgot to change it. Fixed it now.
@Max: It took me a while to figure out how to use the skulls, but it was totally worth it.
@Rol: See, he wouldn't get lonely, that's what the LMD's are for!
As for monsters, the idea I had for this would be for Aaron to sort of just create his own colony, populated of LMD's that move around, but don't really have much in the way of personalities. Slowly, he might be going slightly crazy, getting into arguments with the LMDs, etc. Luckily for him an invasion comes into Mars, giving him plenty to break out of his boredom/depression/insanity. I'm thinking some kind of techno-virus creatures (the Phalanx?) that could actually threaten him and use the LMDs against him.