Hey Kiddies,
For today’s exercise, we will dive into our comic book collection and have a little fun. We will work on our whole story telling experience. I advocate old comics, as they tell a story all in one shot, where as newer comics can hardly tell a b-line story in one issue. With old comics (really spend like 50 cents from the cheap bin) we have our first, second and third act. All plotted out for us in visual glory. We have a story in graphic form. Our mission is to translate the pictures to words. I used this exercise as an excuses to pick up “Batman Showcase”, an anthology of classic Batman comic books but use any graphic novel of your choice.
Our aim here is to get out the whole story. Finish a short story on something fun and prove to ourselves we can write, we can get out a story. Once we know we can finish a story, then making one up from scratch will be easy. With my own advice in mind, I present to you, “Batman: the Mystery of the Menacing Mask” Part one.*
Batman the Mystery of the Menacing Mask.
Batman, masked protector of Gotham, and Robin, boy wonder, are stuck in the clutches of Frank Fenton. Their bodies stand stiff as statues, frozen into a position of action in a moment of inaction. Frank Fenton, top jewel thief, stands at his desk to admire his work. He is well dressed, clothing gained from his criminal life. He wears a big smile to greet the hoodwinked heroes. He is fully aware he has the upper hand and allows his posture show feelings of superiority.
“I can’t move! It’s as if my legs weight tons.” Batman said.
“My arms are like led. What has this crook done to us, Batman?” Robin said.
What had Frank Fenton done to the dynamic duo? The answer lies in the oldest section of Gotham. Gotham Village is a collection of small streets and tiny buildings, where concrete meets cobblestone. The neighborhood is a festive representation of Gotham history. Artist, musicians, and street performers entertain window shopping crowds in quaint picturesque glory. Couples stroll, hand in hand, along sidewalks and patronize the many independent businesses.
Yet in Gotham village, the criminal element comes with maze like streets and low rent. A recent debate over the fate of Gotham Village has taken center stage. Andrew Wallace, of the city’s Anti-Crime unit, called for the destruction of Gotham Village. He cites the criminal element and their use of the festive burrow. The police always turned up cold trials in the labyrinth of Gotham Village. While, Roland Meacham, chairmen of the city’s “Committee to Preserve Gotham Village”, rebuts calls for destruction. As one of the oldest landmarks in Gotham, Chairmen Meacham feels, the village must be preserved. Thousands of families would become homeless, and loose their historic, picturesque neighborhoods. As the battle rages in newspaper headlines, Bruce Wayne, millionaire philanthropist, and Dick Grayson, ward to the millionaire, walk along the controversial streets.
“I’m pretty keen on Gotham Village, Bruce. It’s neato.” Dick said.
“I agree, Dick. I have a seat on the Committee to Preserve Gotham Village. We have the last bastion of small city feel in one of the largest cities in the world. As vigilant citizens, we have to protect our history, as Batman and Robin we have to protect vigilant citizens.”
As Bruce and Dick bask in simple pleasures of a daylight stroll, a young woman notices Bruce from his photograph in the newspaper. She watches the millionaire from a short distance. He appeared happy in a location which caused her such sorrow. She tried to contain her rage against a man who knew nothing of life in Gotham Village.
“Bruce Wayne, I hate you.” She tried but failed. “You are on the Committee to Preserve Gotham Village but this place is a cesspool of criminal activity.”
Bruce turns at the sound of the young woman’s voice. He could hear her strife. He saw tears run down her cheeks and he could not be mad at her. He knew she did not hate him, but she hated a situation she was stuck in. She needed a hero and luck brought her to the doorstep of the best hero Gotham had to offer. His attractive good looks and bottomless bank account pulled some wind from her sails, but she pressed on.
“Destruction is the best thing for this awful place, Bruce.” She said.
“Please Miss, let’s have a seat and you can tell me your story.” Bruce said.
Bruce picked a table on a nearby patio and Dick went inside to get coffee. The young lady collected herself and introduced herself as Linda Greene. Once coffee arrived, Linda began her story.
“My fiancé, James Packer, and I have been in a fight for weeks. We both grew up in Gotham Village, but I want to move away. I don’t want to raise children with all the crime here. James wants to stay. He claims he is a village boy, through and through. He wants his children to be village boys. “
Tears began to well in Linda’s eyes. She reaches into her hand bag and pulled out a napkin. When she sees the napkin, tears start to fall down her cheek. Bruce looks down and notices she holds a piece of paper, not a napkin.
“I fear James has become a real village boy and gotten himself in with the wrong crowd.” Linda said.” After we go on dates, I will call him hours later and he won’t be home. I don’t know where he goes, but I found this map in his apartment.”
She hands the paper to Bruce and Dick. They unfold the paper and find a map of Gotham Village. A circled X marks the page and both Bruce and Dick wonder if a clue had dropped into laps. Not too long ago, as their alter egos Batman and Robin, the pair was hot on the trail of a jewel thief. They followed him to the rooftops and saw him jump into a nearby penthouse.
“Robin, I will go around back. We will circle him.”
But Batman’s plan backfired. As the boy wonder landed on the patio of the penthouse, an explosion rocked the building. Smoke filled the open apartment. Robin ran towards through the open large doors into to find Batman collapsed on the floor.
”Batman, are you alright?”
“I… I’m all right, Robin.” Batman is no novice to pain. He recovers from the blow in a minute, but finds the look of shock on Robin’s face.
“Batman, quick takes off your mask.”
Batman checks the area for prying eyes and yanks off his cowl. Stamped above the eye holes on the forehead of the mask was a glowing circle with an X. He looked in astonishment at the glowing symbol. he looked to Robin in wonderment and found the same symbol on his forehead. The Circle X glew neon on the dark penthouse then faded into the darkness. Below the confused crusaders, a figure cloaked in darkness escaped into the night. His trap was set, he had Gotham’s heroes right where he wanted them.
Back in the Crime lab of the Batcave, Batman exams his mask. The lab finds trace amounts of a unique chemical compound isotope of phosphorus. A search in the Batcave’s data base reveals only one place in Gotham to purchase the rare chemical. The caped cursaders jump into the Batmobile and speed towards the chemical company.
At the Chemical factory, the dienamitc duo find a friend in the shop’s clerk. A fan of the fated hero, the clerk is all too willing to help out. He writes down the name Frank Fenton with his address, 122 Suburban Avenue, on a slip of paper and gives it to the Superheroes. The Batmoblie speeds to the next clue. Batman knows a criminal would never give out his actual address, but had no other leads to follow.
In the lobby of the 122 Suburban Avenue, the pair found “F. Fenton” printed on a mailbox plate. This was easy, maybe too easy. Batman kicks open the door to Fenton’s apartment, to find the top jewel thief with a smile from ear to ear.
“Batman and Robin Please do come in. I was about to leave for a perfect hideaway, but I waited till you arrived.”
“Well, Fenton, you are going to wish you left earlier.”
As the duo moves in to apprehend Fenton, a strange sensation comes over them. Their bodies slow down and freeze. We find back where we started, in the clutches of Frank Fenton and frozen to the floorboards. Frank starts to pack his bags at a leasurly pace. He takes time to show off the loot he nabbed. He is tickled pink with the situation and giggles as a school girl at the frozen pair. When all his bags are packed, he picks them from the floor and opens the apartment door.
“Good bye, Batman and the Boy Wonder. We should really do this again sometime. How about the next time I pull a heist, you stand by and watch me do it? Sounds like a fun time.”
“You won’t get away forever, Fenton.”
“But that is where you are wrong, Batman.” And Fenton closed the door with the pair helpless to stop him.
The effects of Fenton’s trap wore off soon after he left and the pair drove back to the Batcave in silence. Fenton got away and Batman had work to be done. He would not be fooled twice. He worked late into the night and onto the next day, where Robin found him in the morning. Over breakfast in the Batcave, Batman debriefed Robin.
“So you think, the circles with the X have something to do with Fenton’s trap?” Robin said.
“Yes, and I think I found a way to defeat it. It might be risky, but when has that stopped us?”
“But we have to find Fenton, as well.”
“I have given that some thought as well. Do you remember how Fenton said “the perfect Hideaway?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, more and more reports say there is a mysterious hideout somewhere in Gotham Village. As Bruce Wayne, vice-chairmen of the Committee to Preserve Gotham Village, I have wanted to take a walk through Gotham Village. Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson should have a visit to the burrow.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
Which is where the millionaire and ward, found Linda Greene by the coffee shop. Bruce looks down at the Circle with the X. The missing clue might have just fallen into his lap. He mulls over his thoughts as Linda sees her fiancé across the square.
“There’s Jimmy now, I will call him over.”
Is Linda’s map the clue Batman had been waiting for? Will the dynamic duo fall at the mercy of Frank Fenton? Had Linda’s fiancé jumped the line of law? Find out.;. next time… in Batman the Mystery of the Menacing Mask.
*With all my hyperbolt of finishing a story I never finished this one. Three cheers for procrastination.
WHAT TO DO NOW?