Wishing

CYPHER & WARLOCK -A Marvel Mangaverse Proposal

By Jamie S. Rich

FORMAT: Four-issue series, with the possibility of more?

FOCUS: A retooling of the New Mutants characters with the idea of taking Neon Genesis Evangelion-style mecha stories and placing it in a context similar to shoujo manga (like Revolutionary Girl Utena and the ubiquitous Sailor Moon). Art-wise, we would want some of the softer, cuter lines of shoujo, but the artist would also need to handle the whacked-out mech that the Warlock character is infamous for.

SOME BACKGROUND: Our main character is Douglas Ramsey, better known as Cypher. Cypher is sort of your ultimate adolescent character. Consider the adolescent dilemma: I suck and don’t fit in. Comic books are well-known as adolescent escapist fantasy, where awkward boys can imagine themselves as kick-ass superheroes (isn’t this what the X-Men franchise is built on?). Yet, we all secretly know we’d never be Wolverine. We’d end up being Cypher, the guy who has the power to speak and understand any language—Great, I’m a superhero and I still suck.

Enter Warlock, a goofball alien robot thingamajig that can morph into anything. You suddenly have a cool partner and the ability to kick some ass, yes?

In our story, Douglas is the son of Ivor Ramsey, an industrialist who has developed technology for both public and military use. His most notorious developments, as far as the general populace is concerned, are rooted in rumor—but in reality, are very real. Essentially, Ramses Corp. acquired salvaged material from a UFO crash site. This included a sample of an organic, sentient metal, that Ramsey “grew” into the creature we will come to know as Warlock. This technology, once leaked through the underground and intelligence channels, obviously became a highly sought-after item by various government and independent political organizations. It is believed that it was this technology that eventually led to Ivor’s mysterious death in a lab explosion several years ago. (Of course, no body was found, and in reality, Ivor is alive somewhere and still inventing—but that won’t likely come to play for some time. When it would, though, it would allow us to mess with the manga convention of sons using weapons created by a father they feel distanced from as a means for acceptance.)

Ivor’s disappearance occurred when Doug was only five-years-old. Doug is the only Ramsey child, and though his mother, Yukako, is still alive (as is his paternal grandmother, Elizabeth), Doug will be the main heir of the Ramsey fortune. Ramses Corp. is mainly owned by stockholders now, but most of the patents were in Ivor’s name, and now Doug’s.

Our story will take place when Doug is 13. He has had his language powers for some time, but has only used them on a rudimentary level and has yet to be discovered by anyone. He worships the X-Men and dreams of one day being a superhero. See, his father’s death left him alone and alienated. His father has had a lot of mythology grow up around his memory, and this is something Doug has a hard time coping with. His loneliness and his money keeps him separate from other children—hence, like most of our readers, escaping into a fantasy world of brightly-colored costumes. Doug is a bit foppish. He is a really pretty young man, with bright blonde hair. His private school uniform—black shorts, black suit jacket, white shirt, skinny tie—which he keeps immaculate, gives him a Little Lord Fauntleroy look (contrasted by the school bullies, who in true bully fashion don’t button their coats, keep their ties loose, etc.).

Since his disappearance, Ivor has arranged for Warlock to be delivered to his son for his protection. When Doug first gets Warlock, he is housed in his containment device—a large broach type object. Essentially, it’s like a big, round jewel mounted on an ornamental metal base. In its initial form, it is on an elastic band that Doug slides onto his hand. It instantly becomes fused with Doug, with the band disappearing and the broach becoming a permanent fixture on the back of his left hand (though in every day life he can cause it to be invisible). Warlock lives inside the jewel (or whatever it is), and can come and go at Doug’s will (though we can devise an elaborate pose for Doug for when he wants to release his buddy. Maybe something like holding up his left hand near his face, with the jewel facing out, and grabbing his wrist with his right—and then Warlock popping out in a great burst of light). Essentially, with the housing device now fused with Doug, he and Warlock are one.

At the opening of the story, Doug is transferring to the Tezuka Academy of Massachusetts, a private school for rich kids. This is where he meets Danielle Moonstar, aka Mirage. Dani is also an outcast, seeing as this is a pretty white school and she is of Native American descent. She tries to befriend Doug, but it always seems to go wrong. Little does Doug know that she is also Mirage, the strange heroine who always seems to be around when he and Warlock get in trouble (think of this as a reverse on the Tuxedo Mask character in Sailor Moon). Mirage’s costume should be something elegant, functional, and mysterious, if at all possible. Maybe something a little like Zorro, with her identity simply hidden by a blindfold with two eyeholes. Her power is her ability to conjure very real 3-D images of people’s worst fears, and as these images are made of pure energy, they also have the power to attack (imagine cool CLAMP-style illustrations).

The villains for this series are members of an underground faction of the KGB looking to restore the Soviet Union to its former power. Eventually, though, we will discover that deep in their organization, there are ties to Warlock’s home world, and the aliens that want Warlock dead so he can’t fulfill the Oedipal destiny of killing his father, Magus (if there are more comics than four, naturally). (And of course, we have our kindred spirits both suffering with daddy issues.)

Enough of that, then…to the story!

Open on Doug, age 5 (1994 or thereabouts). It’s late at night, and the young boy is in his pajamas. He is peeking through a crack in his bedroom door, listening to his dad argue with some Russians. They are speaking in Russian, which he can, of course, understand. The Russians want the living metal Ivor Ramsey has developed in order to put their country back on the map. They are threatening Mr. Ramsey. Then they notice Douglas listening and go ballistic. His dad says, “Please, he’s five. He doesn’t speak Russian.” Mr. Ramsey puts Doug to bed, and as he does, Doug says to him, in Russian, “Daddy, are those men going to hurt you?” Ivor is, of course, shocked. We see him in the light in the doorway, breathless and afraid. He closes the door. Darkness.

Fast forward 8 years (present day). 13-year-old Doug is transferring to a new school. He is a total priss blonde rich boy. His perfect appearance really makes him stand apart (think the ultra dreamy boy from countless shoujo titles). The teacher has him introduce himself to the class. He tells everyone he wants to be an X-Man when he grows up. The kids laugh. The teacher tells him that this isn’t a proper goal for a young man of his standing. Doug is ashamed and embarrassed. He takes his seat, red-faced. We see Dani Moonstar looking on. (She looks handsome in her uniform, too, which is exactly like the boys’. She should be alluring in both her normal and Mirage guise.)

On the playground, three bullies descend on him. One kid, a bruiser named Todd Flaherty, is the ringleader, and the meanest one. He said he knows who Doug’s dad is and accuses him of being an anti-American spy. This gets Doug going and he lunges at Todd. Of course, the kid gets his ass handed to him by the bullies, until Dani steps in and gets the boys off him. This doesn’t sit well with Doug, though. I mean, how is it going to help that he needs girls to fight his battles for him?

Doug heads home. He is despondent. He imagines himself as an X-Man, battling some nasty alien in the middle of outer space. Likely, we would also have something here where we see him use his translating abilities, maybe on a computer or something. Not sure. Possibly something that would also show us—via a newspaper or a TV or whatever—a news report about “The Mirage” (Dani), a mysterious do-gooder who has been spotted around town.

When Doug gets home, he finds a package on his front step. It’s addressed to him, and it says Private – For Your Eyes Only. Except it’s written in Japanese. (Again, to see Doug’s abilities, we show it in one panel in kanji, and in the next, in English.) Doug sneaks the package into his room. Inside is the Warlock housing device. He slips it on his hand, and in a great bust of light, it becomes one with him, and Warlock appears for the first time—initially bouncing across the room like a big rubber ball, and eventually landing in a crouching position in front of Doug, looking like the character will in its regular form. They stare at each other. Doug is totally in awe.

Cut to: a secret Russian surveillance station. They realize that Warlock has been activated, and it’s time to move.

There is now a strange black car parked outside of Doug’s house, with two mysterious men inside.

Inside the house, Doug and Warlock are in Doug’s bedroom. He has been up all night playing with his new friend, who he is making go through all sorts of permutations. Stuff like Gandalf from Lord of the Rings, a motor scooter, a lion, and finally, Colossus. (We can either have Doug point the character out on a poster on his wall, or really, just ignore such trivial things as why Warlock knows so much about pop culture. J ) This is when it really dawns on Doug that he now has the key to all his dreams. Of course, this would be the moment his mom knocks on his door to send him to school. Doug panics a little, not knowing what to do with Warlock. Warlock turns himself into Doug and demonstrates a gesture where Doug holds out his hand and tells him, “And then Warlock is sucked away.” Doug mimics this, and sure enough, it works. The medallion also mysteriously disappears…leaving Doug to wonder, did this really happen? And where did the package come from?

At school, things are no better than they were the day before (and if Doug knew those two agents were tailing him, well, imagine how crappy that’d be.) Gym class is awful. They are playing football, and somehow, Doug manages to catch a pass. He runs down the field, and though Todd is coming for him, Dough is surprised to find he dodged the bully—only to get clothes-lined in the neck by Todd’s outstretched arm. Much worse, the hulking coach tells him, “Ramsey, suck it up. You got some speed and some skills, don’t be a wuss.”

After, a bruised and sad Doug walks from the locker room and runs into Dani. She asks if he wants to have lunch with her, and he’s really rude. He ditches her and heads to the field behind the school. There, he tries to make the medallion reappear, but can’t figure out how. Frustrated and defeated, he holds his hand by his mouth, in something akin to the pose described in the synopsis. There is a crackle of electricity and the medallion is back. Warlock appears. Only he is sluggish and a bit out of sorts. Doug kept him up all night, and he says he’s hungry.

It’s then that some Russian agents in mech suits descend upon them. The boys scatter. Doug manages to get out of the way, but the tired Warlock barely has any fight in him, and it looks like the agents will subdue him. One of the agents removes a face shield from his mask, revealing the human inside in an attempt to reason with the creature. Suddenly, a mechanized dragon-type monster appears between Warlock and his attackers. This is one of Dani’s (now in her Mirage guise) illusions—so it’s actually an electrical being that appears to be 3-D. It looks part like a mythological dragon, part like a futuristic monster, and it gives off stray bolts of energy. Everyone freaks out. Mirage appears on the roof of the building near them, and declares something heroic—while also being a little shocked that Doug is somehow involved in this.

The agents attempt to make a run for it, but one of them gets caught in Warlock’s grasp. He slowly begins to drain him of energy, a metallic virus spreading over the agent’s mech body like ice. Doug stops him, afraid he will kill the man inside. Warlock doesn’t understand, says he needs the “buzzy food.” Dani also steps in, saying that with the man alive, he can tell them who the attackers are. When he hears that, the agent weakly activates a deadly gas inside his suit and kills himself.

Doug turns to Dani, and asks her, “Well, if we can’t know who he is, maybe we can know who you are.” Rather than answer, Mirage bails. Meanwhile, the mysterious men in the sedan report back to base that the acquisition is a failure.

Doug is in his bedroom again. He is wearing a dark suit and has on a masquerade mask. He is wondering what to do to protect his identity. He’s already been spotted as this Mirage person, and he knows if he is going to be a real superhero, he has to protect his identity. Warlock doesn’t understand why he can’t just make himself look like someone else. He morphs into different people—Todd, the agent who gassed himself, Keanu Reeves from The Matrix (or something like him), and then, Ivor Ramsey. This totally wigs Doug out. He tries to get answers out of the robot, who morphs halfway back to normal, but stops there. Doug sucks him back into the medallion.

A secret meeting back at KGB headquarters reveals they want to alter their plan. A straight attack isn’t working. They need to attempt a more personal route. (Perhaps we can have them talk to their leader, which could be a very strange figure, like the villain in Battle of the Planets or something?)

At school, Doug is getting his books knocked out of his hands by the usual suspects. Dani is watching, and can’t understand why someone like him, with the secret he has, actually puts up with that crap. Another girl is also watching, and she makes a comment about how cute and sensitive Doug is. Turns out, he’s a bit of a heartthrob amongst the female students, which actually makes Dani a little jealous. Doug is eventually saved by a teacher, who gives the bullies detention.

Todd and his cronies leave the scene of the hazing and are pissed off that Doug got them in trouble. They pass the coach’s office, who calls Todd in. He offers him a chance to get back at Doug once and for all. (The coach is a KGB plant.)

There will be some sort of transition here that I haven’t worked out yet. J Maybe something with Doug trying some amateur heroics.

Todd is injected with some nasty serum, which causes him to transform into a terrible behemoth. (Think a really cool transformation, a la Tetsuo in Akira crossed with one of the nasties from any number of demon rape anime. The Juggernaut on planet-sized steroids. (Speaking of Juggernaut…if there’s a Marvel villain you think we should incorporate into here, I’m all ears…)). Todd is instructed to get the medallion, and if need be, just rip Doug’s hand off. Todd starts smashing things Hulk-style, and Doug manages to avoid the rubble to a degree, but never enough to get breathing space to release Warlock. Mirage shows up and causes the distraction he needs; however, she hangs back, saying, “Now you can handle this beast yourself.”

Here, Warlock goes into defensive mode, and he encapsulates Doug with his body, making a classic giant robot suit for Doug to fight in. They take Todd down, with the final stroke being Warlock basically sucking off some of Todd’s rampant kinetic energy (leaving him with one half of his body metallic, making him an even cooler villain next time!). Unfortunately, this is too much energy for Warlock to handle. He expands to a huge size, with all sorts of stray bolts of electricity shooting off him. Warlock expels Doug from his body, afraid he will hurt him. He also starts babbling incoherently in his native language, which only Cypher can understand. (Font fun!)

The finale. Warlock is on a rampage. He is like an electronic Godzilla, smashing things and stumbling through town. Mirage attempts to stop him with an illusion of his greatest fear—which turns out to be a distorted, massive image of his father, Magus. This causes the creature to crumble in a heap of tears. Doug comforts him, and the exhausted Warlock asks to be returned to his “home.” Once Doug does this, he starts to thank Mirage for saving him once again, but she is already gone. He looks for Todd’s mutated body, as well, but he is also gone.

Back at Russian headquarters, it’s hitting the fan that they failed again. Here, maybe, we can reveal a little more about the overall plot of these characters. They want Warlock for two reasons—to please their master and to also learn once and for all if Ivor is alive (they believe Warlock knows). While it won’t really have a payoff here, it does leave things open. The scene ends with the leader demanding that they not fail this time.

In school, Doug sits at his desk, drawing a picture of Mirage. He has no idea it is Dani, who is sitting in the row next to him, the girl he despises. We cut to her, dreamily watching him. She has written his name a million times on her notebook. The coach lurks outside the door. He unleashes a tiny robot stink beetle and it crawls into the middle of the classroom. Dani sees it as it stops and tilts its ass in the air and lets out a stinky gas. All the kids start to run around, hacking, coughing, and passing out. Dani quickly rushes Doug out the door, before herself succumbing. (In the gas and confusion, he doesn’t really see who has done it.) Unfortunately, she shoves him right into the way of the coach. The coach’s muscles expand and he turns into a giant bruiser—not all deformed like Todd, but like one of those typical bald, badass kung-fu villains like in Kamui or the Peacock King. His shirt splits off, and he has a big tattoo on his chest (maybe a symbol of the new KGB?). Blades pop out of his arms, looking like some sort of deadly wings. He has nun-chucks (spelling?) and enters a kung-fu pose. He tells Doug he wants Warlock, that his father has deprived his people of what they require long enough. This startles Doug. How is his dad involved? The coach responds, “The same way you will soon be involved—as a corpse, dead between my fingers.”

Doug now fights with a new resolve. He and Warlock work together to defeat the coach—this time not as a giant robot, but fused into a ninja warrior, fighting with a sword. (Thus, we’ve established that we can screw around with just about any manga genre, yes?) Plus, really, they’ve had hardly any help from Mirage, and they’ve done it all on their own. And between the gas and the delayed reaction of the rest of the school, no one ends up seeing its Doug doing the fighting. (Clever!)

The series ends with Doug contemplating what has happened. He stares at the medallion on his hand and is convinced his father sent it to him. But for what purpose? And who is the mysterious Mirage? But rather than dwell, he releases Warlock, celebrating that now he can be like his idols, the X-Men. Once more Warlock forms a Mospeada like mech suit, and they rocket off into the night.

Official pitch soundtrack: Massive Attack, Mezzanine; Morrissey, Vauxhall & I; Social Distortion, Social Distortion (oh, come on…it’s the only musical reference I actually snuck in here!)