Panel One.
Main panel. An icy planet like Hoth or the North Pole. An ice storm is raging. Ben Grimm sits alone next to a burning Fantastic Four space ship. He’s wearing a fur-lined jacket, but he can still feel the cold. He’s sitting as close to the fire as he can.
CAP (Ben): Wotta revoltin’ development. Doc Doom, Galactus, the Beyonder… but in the end, all it takes is some icky alien brain parasite and the Fantastic Four buy the farm.
CAP (Ben): ‘Course it took Reed first. I’ve seen him stretch a million different ways to Sunday, but nothing like this. I swear his brain wuz coming out his ears – and that was one big brain to start with.
CAP (Ben): Suzy wuz next. Being married to a guy who made Bruce Banner look like his dumb green alter ego, people often forgot what a smart cookie she was too.
CAP (Ben): Smart enough to spare me and Johnny the sight of whatever that thing did to her… though even invisible, we could still hear her scream.
Panel Two.
Close on Ben. His breath is frozen. Suddenly he hears a noise and looks to one side.
CAP (Ben): There was some debate about who'd go next, being as me and the matchstick ain’t got two brain cells to rub together between—
SFX: Crackle…
Ben: Eh?
Panel Three.
Johnny Storm staggers out of the storm and towards Ben. He’s on his last legs, trying desperately to keep his flame alight, but it’s flickering and fading.
SFX (Johnny’s flame): Fizzle…
Johnny: Ben…
Ben: Where you been, kid?
Johnny: I thought I saw Sue… thought… I went out after her, got lost in the storm.
Panel Four.
Close on Johnny’s face. Half Human Torch, half Johnny Storm.
Johnny: Been struggling to keep myself flamed on… but it won’t last.
Ben (off-panel): Neither will we.
Johnny: How will we make it, Ben?
Panel Five.
Ben starts to reply, but Johnny can’t keep his flame burning any longer. He collapses in a heap before his old friend.
Ben: Maybe we shouldn’t. Even if we could get back to earth, what if we took this thing with us? Without Reed to come up with a cure—
Johnny: Ohhh!
Ben: Johnny!
Panel Six.
Ben has removed his coat and wrapped it round Johnny. He’s shivering as he uses his body to shield Johnny from the ice storm.
Johnny: Ben… Ben… what’ll we do, Ben…?
Ben: Shh. Shh. It’s OK, kid. It’s OK. Why don’t we just wait here a little while…
Ben: See what happens…
Great use of the character, Rol. He's dumb, but not dumb enough to risk taking an alien parasite back to Earth. I like it. But what happens to them? I need the next page dammit!! :P
ReplyDeleteIs... Could this be... DOUBLE "THE THING"?! snow and parasites! it must be!
ReplyDeletealso I've got nothing bad to say about your scripting. It works, it's tight, it does the job. great stuff!
Yup, love it.
ReplyDeleteThat is all.
Man, this is a packed page. But I'd buy the original art or sure.
ReplyDeleteI love the premise, Sue turning invisible was a nice touch, and the whole homage to John Carpenter's classic just makes me smile.
I always look forward to the word play you bring, Rol. This is a solid start to the week. Damn, I'm now worried about my script... :)
Can't believe I didn't catch the whole "Thing vs The Thing" aspect... Must be slipping :P
ReplyDelete