Venom in “The War at Home, Part 1” by Matt Duarte
The first two panels sit on the same row, taking up the almost half of the page. The third panel is the biggest one, and the fourth one is an inset inside it.
Panel 1
Description: Flash Thompson, wearing the Venom suit, is inside a military issue airplane, standing right next to the door, as if he were about to air drop. He is talking on his communicator and he doesn’t look particularly happy.
VENOM: General Dodge, this is not what I signed up for, sir. Attacking an American citizen in their own home? That goes against the law, sir.
GENERAL DODGE (through comm): Complaint duly noted and ignored, Corporal Thompson. Just do what you are told. Control will take over from now on.
Panel 2
Description: Venom is jumping out of the airplane, falling through the night sky. An uneasy full moon shines in the background.
VENOM: What’s the deal, control? I normally know who I’m going after way before I’m free-falling off a plane.
CONTROL (through comm): We know, Venom. The general has been...unusually quiet about this whole enterprise. Anyway, target location should be in sight by now.
Panel 3
Description: Seen from above, Venom continues falling, and below him is a large and stately white mansion. In front of it, there are large shrubs that form a crescent shaped moon, and in the back what appears to be a helicopter pad.
CONTROL (through comm): You are to infiltrate Spector Manor and bring back Marc Spector and any known associates back to base.
VENOM: What’s so special about this guy?
CONTROL (through comm): According to the info that General Dodge gave us, he is the vigilante known as Moon Knight.
Panel 4
Description: A close up on Venom’s face. Even through the mask, he looks slightly worried.
VENOM: Wait, I’m fighting Moon Knight?
CAPTION (white font, black background): YESSSSSSS. PAYBACK.
To be continued!
Note from the author: During Venom week, I didn’t get to do my entry, so this is my catch-up script. It will continue into this week’s script.
Great set up, Matt, I'm looking forward to part 2. The only line that sounded a bit clunky to me was "That goes against the law, sir." though I'm not sure I can explain why.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Rol's line, but I'm also wondering how Venom knows it's a US citizen if he doesn't know anything about the case. It could be some Equadorian Ass Baron living in a palacial manor on US soil he bought with all his Ass Bucks. It doesn't align there.
ReplyDeleteWith that level of uncertainty, I just don't get why Venom ends up in this position. It feels a little forced for him to end up just jumping out of the plane to then find out, the reveal serves the page but not the story. If Dodge wants MK captured he's want Venom as worded up as possible. Considering Venom is only capturing Spector, not killing him, he shouldn't have major problems with it, or at least should be easily turned around on the matter with minimal subterfuge.
I love Flash's last line, something very human about it. I wonder if he sees MK as up there with Spidey in the hero stakes?
And why does Venom want payback? Must have been a throwdown I missed...
@Ryan: Good points all around, but there is some logic behind some of my choices.
ReplyDeleteThe story that I have in my head would involve General Dodge having an old grudge with Marc Spector from his army/mercenary days. The reason he purposely kept everyone in the dark until the last minute is that this is a personal vendetta, not a military sanctioned action. Hence why Flash doesn't know, and why Control noticed something strange. You were going to see more of it on Part 2, but the story ended up going somewhere differently after all (one of those wonderful moments when you realize a great connection that you MUST write). I guess it will remain in my head until this story gets fully written.
As for the "American citizen" part, the logic is that Flash obviously realized that he didn't travel by plane long, so he knows he is still in the States. However, you do make a good point about it being some person from another country just living in the US.
There was a fight between Venom and Moon Knight when the Thunderbolts were called to apprehend him. Spector got away when he blew up Venom with a barrel of gasoline (or something along those lines).
Ignore my previous comment, I foolishly read Part 2 before Part 1 :)
ReplyDeleteAnywho, this is a cool lead-up to part 2. I have to ask however, what does "an uneasy full moon" look like exactly? :P
Oh, and I liked it even more upon reading your intended background. Besides his origins story, Marc's past has never really been utilised.
ReplyDelete