PAGE ONE (six panels)
Panel 1. Two OSI agents (supercops), Raul and Captain Carnage, are standing right outside the bedroom of Gary Smith, a guy they’re trying to save from assassination. Captain Carnage is a large combat operative with an assault rifle drawn in a ready position. Raul (a shapeshifter), looks smaller and has a pistol holstered on his right side. Raul gestures to Carnage that this is where the target is.
Visual notes: please make the agents look like elite cops. Gary is scared to see them, so they should look a bit intimidating.
Panel 2. They silently enter the room. Gary, a young accountant, is sleeping in pajamas. Please draw a vent on the wall somewhere.
Panel 3. The shapeshifter politely but firmly wakes up Gary.
Panel 4. In the foreground, we see the silhouette of the assault rifle held across the tank’s body. It’s not facing Gary, but it nonetheless scares him. He screams.
Panel 5. The shapeshifter grabs Gary’s mouth.
RAUL, whispering: We are federal agents. You will not scream again. Please nod.
Panel 6. Gary’s sort of in shock. He nods. In the background, we see Carnage discreetly doing surveillance through the blinds.
PAGE TWO
Panel 1.
GARY: I’m guessing this isn’t about the file-sharing.
RAUL: We’ll explain in the car.
Panel 2. Gary looks skeptically at them.
GARY: Am I under arrest?
Panel 3. The panel shifts to inside the vent. We can barely make out something robotic spying through the vent grates.
RAUL: We’re your protective detail.
Panel 4.
GARY: Whoa, whoa. There must be some mistake. I’m an IRS agent. Not a mob inform–
INSERT PANEL: The robot sticks a laser out of the vent. Raul notices but Gary does not.
Panel 5. Raul dives with Gary to the ground. The robot fires a laser but misses (give an appropriate sound-effect).
RAUL: BUG!
PAGE THREE
Panel 1. The captain shoots into the vent.
CAPTAIN: Morph him and go!
Panel 2. The captain hustles a shell-shocked Gary towards the door. The shapeshifter turns into Gary to serve as a decoy. (Two things to help the reader keep the real Gary apart from the decoy: Carnage is within an arm’s length of the real Gary at all times. Also, the decoy, although he’s wearing the same pajamas as Gary, looks far calmer than any accountant fleeing assassin robots should be).
Panel 3. Gary turns to stare at the transformation.
CAPTAIN, to GARY: He’s a shapeshifter. Keep moving!
Panel 4. Carnage leads Gary towards the front door. To get there, they have to cross a dangerously large window facing out towards the street.
Panel 5: Carnage pulls out a mirror to look out the window without getting spotted and we can see that the cops’ SUV (identifiable because of the sirens on the top) is drowning in small killer robot things.
Panel 6:
CARNAGE: They’re on the car, Raul. Looks like we need a decoy.
RAUL: The nearest sewer access is half a block to the south. Those manholes are heavy. You remembered to rig it with explosives, right?
CARNAGE: And enough smoke canisters to block out the moon.
PAGE FOUR
Panel 1. Raul runs off.
Panel 2. Without moving his gaze from the mirror he’s holding in one hand, Carnage dangles his car key in front of Gary with his other hand.
CARNAGE: When he sets off the explosive charges, we run to the car. Twenty seconds.
Panel 3. Close-up on Gary’s face as he’s staring at the key. Whatever he was expecting to do this morning, playing getaway driver with killer robots wasn’t high on the list.
GARY: I’m driving?
CARNAGE: I assume you have more experience with a car than an assault rifle, and you’re handling one or the other. Ten seconds.
NOTE TO ARTIST: If it would be too unwieldy to show Carnage using an assault rifle in the car, I’d like to switch the weapon throughout to something smaller like a submachine gun or two.
Panel 4. Gary silently takes the key.
Panel 5-8 are a series of four small shots from the perspective of Carnage’s mirror. In panel 5, the robots are guarding the car as before, facing a variety of directions. In panel 6, they’re all facing off-panel (towards Raul running towards the manhole, but we can’t see that) and firing their lasers. In panel 7, the bombs go off (use an appropriate sound-effect) and there’s a flash of light. In panel 8, there’s smoke everywhere and all of the robots start running off-panel and firing their lasers haphazardly through the thick smoke.
PAGE FIVE
Panel 1. Gary and Carnage run out the door. Carnage has his rifle drawn, but he’s not firing. (Because the sound would alert the robots).
Panel 2. Carnage does a badass acrobatic stunt leaping over the car. It’s still very smoky but this does not throw off Carnage.
Panel 3. Gary stumbles into the car.
Panel 4. Gary fumbles with the key.
Panel 5. Carnage is scowling as he scans the back of the car.
CARNAGE: Back is clear.
Panel 6. Gary turns the keys and the engine turns on.
SFX: rrrrrrrrrr
GARY: Yes!
PAGE SIX
Panel 1.
GARY: That was easy enough. Now what?
Panel 2. There’s a bump (the sound of a robot jumping on the car).
SFX: THUMP
CARNAGE: Duck.
Panel 3. The robot uses something sharp to stab down through the top of the car.
GARY: AH!
Panel 4. Carnage shoots several rounds above Gary’s head.
CARNAGE: Amateurs. Getting on the roof never helps.
Panel 5. We see the car ripping off in the direction away from the manhole.
PAGE SEVEN:
Panel 1. The car pulls up to a security checkpoint outside the IRS building. One of those fairly low-key guard post thingies. We can see Gary holding up his IRS ID card to the guard. (He's still wearing his smoking, mildly charred pajamas and please don't forget any damage the car took from before).
Panel 2.
GUARD: Who's your guest?
Panel 3. The captain flashes his gun(s) at the roof. He is not in a joking mood right now.
Panel 4. The guard looks unnerved and he raises the gate.
Panel 5. Gary driving past the checkpost. The guard stares at the car as it leaves. Make this a sort of wacky panel-- it is not often that an IRS guard gets to see a battle-scarred car driven onto the lot.
Panel 6. Gary and the Captain are sitting outside of the office of Gary's boss. This should look like pretty banal-- Gary works for the IRS, and government accountants aren't very stylistically daring. (In contrast, the OSI building can look a lot more daring).
GARY, head in hands: There are robots trying to kill me.
CAPTAIN: Hex Abrams.
PAGE EIGHT
Panel 1.
GARY: That sounds vaguely familiar.
CAPTAIN: You flagged him for an audit yesterday.
Panel 2.
GARY: And twenty others. So?
CAPTAIN: Twenty of them weren't robotics masterminds wanted for questioning in twelve countries.
Panel 3.
GARY: And now he's trying to kill me?
CAPTAIN: Sociopathic mass murderers do have that tendency.
Panel 4.
RECEPTIONIST: Your supervisor will see you now, Mr. Smith.
Panel 5. Gary sits down in the chair opposite the boss' desk. The boss looks weaselly. The captain assumes a guard position, watching out the window. However, since this isn't a combat situation, his gun(s) are holstered.
Panel 6.
SUPERVISOR: You've gotten yourself caught up in dangerous business.
GARY: Yes, well, I'm glad to be back.
Panel 7.
The boss stares at Gary. He's about to fire Gary.
PAGE NINE
Panel 1.
SUPERVISOR: Gary, we are not equipped to handle this case. This situation is a major distraction from our regular taxwork.
GARY: My preliminary work suggests that there is evidence of felony tax evasion.
Panel 2.
SUPERVISOR: The Abrams case does not interest the IRS.
GARY, flummoxed: You want me to drop an investigation because the target is a homicidal maniac?
Panel 3.
Awkward silence.
Panel 4.
SUPERVISOR: I want you to take your problems elsewhere. It's only a matter of time before somebody gets killed on this case.
GARY: Sir, if we don’t work the tough cases, what’s the point?
SUPERVISOR: I’m not explaining to somebody’s widow why investigating 99% of tax cases wasn’t good enough. Pack your things.
Panel 5.
CAPTAIN: Firing him would send a bad message. Special Investigations has enough trouble as it is getting help on these cases.
SUPERVISOR: You run your office. I’ll run mine. If you have a problem with that, why don’t you take him?
Panel 6. The captain sizes up Gary. He’s seriously thinking about this. Gary looks hesitant.
PAGE TEN
Panel 1. Gary and the Captain walking out of the office.
GARY: I don’t think it would be wise.
CAPTAIN: If I cared about wise, I would have kicked you to the robots and called it a day.
Panel 2.
GARY: Umm, thanks.
Panel 3. Awkward silence. The Captain tries walking off. Gary follows, not understanding that the Captain is leaving him.
Panel 4.
CAPTAIN, annoyed: You’re still following me.
GARY, confused: Uhh… yeah.
Panel 5.
CAPTAIN: I’ve decided I have wiser things to do. Like apply to the IRS. I hear they have an opening for a wuss.
Panel 6.
GARY: Could I convince you to give up on wisdom?
CAPTAIN: I’m listening.
PAGE ELEVEN. Cut away to the Captain talking with his boss on a firing range. NOTE: If the timing gap between Gary/Captain talking on page 10 and the Captain meeting his boss on page 11 is too hard to follow, we could have the Captain talk with Marty over the phone instead.
Panel 1. The Captain’s boss, the preposterously good-looking and perfect Marty Stull, is doing something ridiculous like going nuts on two targets with two guns. (Please note: firing ranges are really loud, so these guys should have earphones and eye protection).
CAPTION: Special Investigations Headquarter
Panel 2. Marty is looking skeptically over his shoulder at the captain but still taking preposterous shots without even looking. If possible, please do something unusual with the targets, like having them race at the shooter to simulate combat shooting.
MARTY STULL: An accountant?
Panel 2. Big panel.
MARTY STULL: Does he have any superpowers?
CAPTAIN: No.
MARTY STULL: Combat experience?
CAPTAIN: No.
MARTY STULL: Bomb disposal?
CAPTAIN: No.
MARTY STULL: Piloting experience?
CAPTAIN: None.
MARTY STULL: Major criminal casework?
CAPTAIN: Nothing bigger than tax evasion.
MARTY STULL: Computer skills?
CAPTAIN: Word and Excel.
Panel 3.
MARTY STULL: What CAN he do?
CAPTAIN: Accounting, sir.
MARTY STULL: Let me rephrase that. What can he do in a case that isn’t the exclusive jurisdiction of the IRS?
CAPTAIN: As long as he’s alive, he’s bait to Hex Abrams.
PAGE TWELVE
Panel 1. Marty smiles. If possible, in the background, we should be able to see that Marty’s accuracy with his guns is extraordinary even though he’s firing two guns without looking. Even the boss here is not to be trifled with.
MARTY: Not even Hex would come for him here.
CAPTAIN: He’d need to be on fieldwork. Working cases that Abrams would be wise to. Super-crime, especially high-tech cases.
Panel 2. Cut away to investigators closely examining the remains of the robots outside Gary’s house.
CAPTAIN, off-panel: Every time Abrams moves, we get closer to terminating the case.
Panel 3. The captain looks uncomfortable, because he senses that Marty is about to stick him as Gary’s partner.
MARTY, looking at the Captain: He will need a battle-savvy partner.
Panel 4. Marty rules out the Captain as the partner, which makes the Captain visibly excited.
MARTY: No, not you. Somebody completely useless outside of combat. An agent we wouldn’t miss.
Panel 5.
CAPTAIN: Somebody on desk duty for threatening to eat a district attorney?
MARTY, smiling: When did you learn how to read minds?