Saturday, March 9, 2019

Crisis Weekly #21

PAGE ONE

Panel 1
El Dorado mid-disappearing, in the office of the president at Los Pinos.

Panel 2
El Dorado mid-appearing, his arms around Bloodwynd and Doomsday, in the wreckage of Washington. 

Panel 3
Close-up of Bloodwynd and El Dorado sharing a look.

Panel 4
El Dorado mid-disappearing with the two combatants.

Panel 5
El Dorado mid-appearing with the two combatants in space.

Panel 6
El Dorado letting go and mid-disappearing as the combatants grapple each other in space.

Panel 7
Close-up of Bloodwynd, his face stoic.

Panel 8
A giant explosion, nothing else visible, including bodies.

Panel 9
El Dorado mid-appearing, looking up at the sky at the explosion in space.


PAGE TWO

Panel 1
Rachel Rogerson standing in front of Wesley Dodds High School.

CAPTION: I was there.  I was there when it happened.

Panel 2
Rachel reluctantly entering the building.  Other students around her don’t seem to notice Rachel.  It seems to be just another ordinary day.

CAPTION: But I’ll never really be able to talk about it.

Panel 3
Rachel is passing Guy Gardner, now a clean-shaven security officer at the school.  He nods his head at her. 

CAPTION: It sucks, having something like that as a part of you.

Panel 4
In the foreground, Rachel continues walking.  In the background Guy is exchanging words with a black youth, Joe Gary.

GUY GARDNER: Good morning.  New to the school?

JOE GARY: Yeah.  Just transferred.

JOE GARY: Gary.  Joe Gary.

Panel 5
In the foreground, Rachel continues walking.  Farther in the background now are Guy and Joe Gary.

GUY GARDNER: Hey, you know what?  You look strangely familiar.

JOE GARY: I’m just a kid.

GUY GARDNER: Maybe I know your old man?

JOE GARY: Then you’d be better off in that regard than me.  Gotta get to class, sir.

Panel 6
Rachel continues walking in the foreground, while in the far background are Guy and Joe Gary.

GUY GARDNER: Hey, call me Guy.

GUY GARDNER: Look, I don’t mean to bug you, but it’s gonna nag me all day.

JOE GARY: I don’t know what to say.

JOE GARY: Maybe you saw him on TV?  Whatever, man.  Gotta go.

Panel 7
Rachel is running into Marty Kirby in the foreground, completely startled.  Guy is alone in the background, but we’re still listening in on him.

GUY GARDNER: Sonovabitch!

GUY GARDNER: He had a son!  He had a son!

GUY GARDNER: Rest in peace, my friend…


PAGE THREE

Panel 1
Now Rachel and Marty are squarely our focus.

RACHEL ROGERSON: Marty!  Didn’t expect to see you again!

MARTY KIRBY: Yeah.  Almost didn’t come back. 

MARTY KIRBY: Really surprised to see you here, too.

Panel 2
Rachel and Marty continue walking the halls.

RACHEL ROGERSON: My other plans didn’t really work out.  I didn’t know where else to go.

MARTY KIRBY: I know what you mean. 

MARTY KIRBY: I made a real mess of things.  But I think I ended on a good note.  I’d like to think so, anyway.

Panel 3
Rachel and Marty are standing in front of the door to a classroom.  We can see Ray Palmer inside, writing something on the chalkboard.

RACHEL ROGERSON: Don’t really want to go in there.

MARTY KIRBY: They managed to make it look like nothing ever happened, didn’t they?

Panel 4
Marty has walked in, while Rachel continues to hesitate.

CAPTION: As much as I didn’t want to go inside that classroom, I desperately needed to get out of my own head.  I needed a distraction, and somehow, even there seemed like a viable option.


PAGE FOUR

Panel 1
Rachel, seated at a desk in the back of the classroom.

CAPTION: Listening to Mister Palmer talking about science for a change wasn’t such a bad thing.  The man clearly had a passion for it, undiminished.  Used to use it to create gadgets as a superhero.  Now taught robotics.  Maybe the clockwork functions of a robot explained how he could be standing there as if nothing had happened.

Panel 2
Ray Palmer is standing in front of Rachel now, addressing her to see if she was paying attention.

RAY PALMER: Earth to Rachel.  Anyone home?

RACHEL: Uh, yeah.  Yes, Mister Palmer.

Panel 3
Rachel is staring ahead with a little more attentiveness, but she’s once again alone.

CAPTION: “Earth to Rachel.”  Interesting choice of words.  “Anyone home?”  Hard to say.

Panel 4
Rachel has leaned down toward her desk.  She has begun writing in a notebook.

CAPTION: Let’s try to understand all this.  Let’s try to make sense of it.


PAGE FIVE

Panel 1
Now Rachel is in the cafeteria, sitting alone, with a tray of food, untouched, in front of her, and she’s still bent down scribbling in a notebook.

CAPTION: I found out something about myself, something important.

Panel 2
Rachel is now sitting outside, leaning against a tree.  We can see Wesley Dodds High School in the background.

CAPTION: The invulnerability turned out to be the less interesting discovery.  I found out how I got it.

Panel 3
A car has pulled up near Rachel.  The driver is Ezrah.  Rachel doesn’t look up.  She continues to write in her notebook.

CAPTION: Turns out it wasn’t just a random thing.  I didn’t get it from some freak accident.  I was born with it.

Panel 4
Rachel is now inside Ezrah’s car.  Ezrah is looking at her, worried, as he continues to drive.  Rachel is still writing in her notebook.

CAPTION: Turns out I’m a White Martian.


PAGE SIX

Panel 1
Ezrah and Rachel are on the hood on his car, in a field.  Ezrah is sprawled out, looking at Rachel, who is of course sitting writing in her notebook.  It’s nighttime.

CAPTION: There was a call, a telepathic one, sent out by the Martian Manhunter, to all White Martians.  President Reilly held a press conference announcing it.  They wanted their cooperation, for them to join the fight.

Panel 2
Ezrah and Rachel are back in his car.  This time Ezrah is looking straight ahead, a sad expression on his face.

CAPTION: The moment I heard the Manhunter’s voice in my head, I knew.  And suddenly it all made sense.

Panel 3
Ezrah and Rachel are standing in front of her doorstep.

EZRAH: Listen, I get it.  I’ll give you space. 

Panel 4
Rachel is in her bedroom.  In stark contrast to how we saw it way back in Crisis Weekly #3, the walls are now bare.  She doesn’t have the energy to follow boy bands anymore.  We can see her Bulletproof costume crumpled on the floor.  Rachel is sitting on her bed writing in that notebook.

CAPTION: So, yeah. 


PAGE SEVEN

Panel 1
Rachel is reacting to a sound she hears at her window.

Panel 2
Rachel has opened the window and is looking out.

Panel 3
Rachel is looking at the Russian Centaur, who has a bare, ripped chest.

Panel 4
The Russian Centaur, Yuri, is motioning for Rachel to come out and join him.


PAGE EIGHT

Panel 1
Rachel is climbing out her window as Yuri watches.

Panel 2
Rachel is now standing in front of Yuri.  They’re staring at each other.

Panel 3
Rachel is now staring at her feet, embarrassed.  Yuri is looking warmly at her.

YURI: I suspect we have much in common, Rachel Rogerson.

YURI: My name is Yuri.

Panel 4
Rachel is riding Yuri’s back, clutching her arms around him, leaning her head.  They head off down the street, away from us.

YURI: We have much to talk about. 

YURI: Fortunately we have all night.

TITLE: “My Own Worst Enemy”
WRITER: Tony Laplume

FIN

Saturday, March 2, 2019

Crisis Weekly #20

PAGE ONE

Panel 1 (splash)
In the skies above the White House, Doomsday and President Lorraine Reilly/Firehawk clash.  Firehawk should already exhibit having been in an intense fight.

CAPTION: To confuse the monster with a mindless brute, interested only in destruction, is to completely misunderstand it.

CAPTION: The name it was given, “Doomsday,” is approximate to the intent of its existence.

CAPTION: Simply put, this was a creature engineered to usher the end of worlds.

CAPTION: From its release by the Caballero in Mexico, it went straight to the heart of western civilization, and there it was confronted by the one person with ultimate responsibility, the one person who had come to embody all that society had been led to despise, but also all that stood in its way: Firehawk, also known as Lorraine Reilly, also known as the President of the United States of America.

CAPTION: History will show that she handled herself bravely, without hesitation.

CAPTION: And that she was the first to fall.

TITLE: “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)”
WRITER: Tony Laplume
 

PAGE TWO

Panel 1 (splash)
Doomsday and Guy Gardner, armed with his yellow ring, clashing.  Doomsday is swinging directly at Guy’s face (evoking Guy’s crushed face from their first encounter), while Guy is unleashing the full power at his disposal, a brilliant flash that lights up the whole page, something few ring-wielders have ever done before.

CAPTION: Though he did not fall that day, Guy Gardner’s legacy, too, was immediately restored in his outstanding act of courage, stepping up before all others.

CAPTION: Where the public had been led to believe he was a moral deviant, Guy instead demonstrated the highest standard of heroic caliber.

CAPTION: He did not die, but he was defeated soundly and almost instantly.

CAPTION: The wreckage of the White House is the testament of his stand.  Already observers are saying that the grounds will be refashioned as a memorial to his efforts, and that the home of the president will be relocated elsewhere.
 

PAGE THREE

Panel 1 (splash)
Doomsday versus an army of Green Lanterns, including Hal Jordan, John Stewart and Kyle Rayner.  They are engaging in the upper atmosphere.

CAPTION: The effect of Guy’s fall had severely tarnished the ability of the Green Lantern Corps to operate within the confines of Earth, their legitimacy having been challenged by a joint resolution of the world’s governments.

CAPTION: Hal had chosen to honor the apparent wishes of his home planet and dedicated his efforts elsewhere within the sector.

CAPTION: But came back, as all heroes do, when it became clear it no longer mattered what anyone thought.

CAPTION: And to rescue his friend and colleague.

CAPTION: Even this was not enough to stop the beast, however.
 

PAGE FOUR

Panel 1 (splash)
Doomsday clashes with Superman and Wonder Woman, with various other well-established heroes off in the distance, including the Crisis Compact, which now includes our pudgy Sandman.

CAPTION: Superman had been leading the rescue efforts in Washington in the wake of the creature’s devastation. 

CAPTION: Like Hal he had been maintaining a low profile in apparent deference to the will of the population.  Even in retreat, the consummate hero.

CAPTION: Everyone knew what had happened the last time he met this opponent.  Everyone feared it would happen again.  And, just perhaps, the thought occurred to him as well.

CAPTION: He hesitated, just perhaps, for a moment.

CAPTION: Doomsday, though, grows inured to all previous challenges.  This is to say, he always grows stronger.

CAPTION: So that even a superman isn’t strong enough anymore, to defeat him.
 

PAGE FIVE

Panel 1 (splash)
Doomsday against the arrayed collection of White Martians, including the likes of Karma, Boxer, the Man-Bats, the Bully Boys, and Russian Centaur.  The Creeper is there, too.  There are thousands represented.

CAPTION: What we realized was that we would have to put aside our petty differences.

CAPTION: The very agency that had been used to pollute us, the White Martian menace, that great unknown…

CAPTION: Martian Manhunter and myself finally put aside our prejudices and held an emergency council with their leaders, and we came to an understanding, at last.

CAPTION: And…we finally slowed the onslaught.
 

PAGE SIX

Panel 1 (splash)
Doomsday standing in a cloud of dust, apparently triumphant.

CAPTION: None of it was enough.
 

PAGE SEVEN

Panel 1 (splash)
Bloodwynd, in costume, clutching his blood diamond with a determined look on his face.

CAPTION: There is a Martian legend.

CAPTION: Mars is a dead world today.  We all know this.  All life on it came to an end.

CAPTION: Doomsday came to the red planet.

CAPTION: The legend states that an ultimate weapon was conceived to defeat the ultimate predator.

CAPTION: A blood red diamond.

CAPTION: This was to be a last resort, when all else was lost.

CAPTION: The cost would be great.

CAPTION: Like all bombs, it would consume itself as well as its prey.

CAPTION: I suppose I’ve always known…
 

PAGE EIGHT

Panel 1 (splash)
Doomsday confronting Bloodwynd, still clutching his blood diamond.

CAPTION: The hope is that this will end its menace forever.

CAPTION: In other words, worlds will live…