BATRICIDE: The Script
The abortive Law/Batman crossover
This is the script written by me and Kevin O’Neill for the abortive crossover. To read the background context on how this came about, check out my Secret History of Comics chapter on Marshal Law at D.C. Comics.
MARSHAL LAW/BATMAN CROSSOVER
BATRICIDE
Pat Mills & Kevin O’Neill
June 2016.
PAGE ONE (Right Hand)
Title page. Full page headshot of the TRANSPORTER. He wears a high-tech “headbrace” mask which looks as sinister and nightmarish as medieval scald masks.
A more “sophisticated”, modern equivalent of the scald masks would be the Max Factor beauty-measuring mask of 1934:
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/picture/2013/aug/30/max-factor-beauty-mask-1934-photography
This mask controls and stabilises the quantum particles that turn the Transporter into a Human Black Hole.
We can thus see his insane features within the mask and also see he is eating a BAT which hangs out of his mouth.
(Possibly a Big Eared Bat – one of several Californian bat species)
TITLE: BATMAN/MARSHAL LAW
SUB-TITLE: BATRICIDE
PAGES TWO AND THREE
TEXT BOX: THE MISSION HOSPITAL FOR VETERANS, SAN FUTURO, CALIFORNIA.
Hospital orderly JOE GILMORE (Marshal Law’s “normal” persona) walks down a dark, sinister, graffiti-scrawled corridor of the Vets’ hospital.
Due to government cutbacks, the asylum is semi-derelict; the patients locked up and forgotten about.
The gloom of these two pages almost overwhelms us and is relieved only by cameo inset pictures of some of the inmates (regular insane super hero patients from the Law Universe) in their cells:
(i)SCAPEGOAT. A super-villain who has sewn his costume onto his skin so no-one can discover his secret identity.
He unpicks a stitch and says the mistake he made in the past was going too fast. Now he’s only taking out one stitch a week, until he’s ready for his secret identity to finally be revealed.
Joe looks through the viewing window in the cell security door and replies:
Joe: You’re making progress, Scapegoat.
Scapegoat looks suspiciously at Joe.
Scapegoat: You smell like someone I hate. I haven’t figured it out yet.
A mouse runs by Joe as he continues along the corridor.
(ii) BLUE BATTERY silently beams a giant blue mouse-trap to deal with it.
Joe: Thanks, Blue Battery.
(iii) PAUL strains against the floor of his cell. With one last, desperate effort, he tells Joe he can push Earth out of its orbit.
Joe: It’s crazy. Give up, Paul.
Paul: Never. I’m very much encouraged by the example of Marshal Law, Joe. He never gives up hunting heroes.
(2): Even though he hasn’t found any yet.
Joe considers this.
Joe: Yes. You and Marshal Law have a great deal in common, Paul.
PAGE FOUR, FIVE AND SIX.
Joe unlocks the cell door of THE TRANSPORTER and enters. There are crude drawings of Batman on the walls.
The Transporter is eating a bat. He indicates the ceiling.
Transporter: Roost up there.
(2): They like crevices.
Joe: Hooray for mental health cuts, eh, Sam?
(2): Shame they can’t let you out into the community.
Sam: Would you? I wouldn’t.
(2): No fragging way, man.
Joe: I guess not.
Sam: Knowing I’m a human black hole that would implode if it weren’t for this head harness?
Joe: But you seem in good spirits today, Sam.
Joe looks sad, aware of other as yet unknown details on Sam’s medical record.
Joe: Considering.
Sam: Because he’s coming.
He snatches another bat out of the air.
Eats it.
Smiles knowingly.
Joe: Who?
Sam : Who do you think? Batman, of course.
Joe: Who is “Batman”?
Sam (incredulous): “Who is Batman”?
(2): Joe, he is only the man.
(3): The numero uno. The head honcho.
(The Marshal Law hidden inside Joe is always lurking and waiting for an opportunity to emerge. Joe suppresses his Marshal Law hatred for super heroes as he replies. So we only get a hint of it here.)
Joe: He’s another super hero?
Sam: Super hero supreme, my friend.
Joe: Sorry. They didn’t tell me there was going to be another admission.
Sam: That’s because it hasn’t been arranged.
(He smiles knowingly)
(2): Yet.
(3): You know, I envy him, man. If they hadn’t stopped my program, I’d be crossing dimensions, galaxies, alternative Earths, I shit you not.
(4): And kicking ass, just like Batman kicks ass. I’d be doing all the crazy shit he does.
(5): I’d be bad. I’d be very bad. I would be one dangerous mother.
(6) Cos I’m the Transporter, man.
(7): But…
(8): Unfortunately…
(9): I’m stuck.
(10): In this fragging cell.
Joe: It’s for your safety, Sam
Sam: If only I could figure out how to control my powers, Joe.
Joe: That’s a big “if”, Sam.
Sam: And, as a matter of fact –
(2): I have.
His metal headbrace seethes with energy. Sam is cunning and clever as well as crazy.
Sam: Keep the faith, brother!
He vanishes.
A startled Joe is left in the empty cell.
PAGE SEVEN, EIGHT AND NINE
Night. A super hero party is being held inside a massive bat shaped steel hangar. The kind of hangar used for huge rock concerts or sports events. There’s a possible basis for the building below:
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THOMAS WAYNE is holding a special gala charity night in aid of the Orphans of the Zone.
In this alternative Earth, the “W” of “Wayne” has been turned into a BAT symbol.
It’s NOT the regular Batman logo. It’s the Wayne trademark logo that just happens to resemble a bat.
All our (rich) Marshal Law regular characters are present: the wealthy, elite super heroes of San Futuro.
They include the latest JESUS LEAGUE OF AMERICA line-up, with yet another PUBLIC SPIRIT. Virago, Public Eye and the two juvenile characters have been replaced with new heroes including Eminence Grise, whose name suggests his costume might be like a high-ranking religious cleric.
So a new JLA line up could be: PUBLIC SPIRIT, MONSTRANCE, SHROUD, STIGMATA, SIN GORGER, EMINENCE GRISE, BLACK ABBOT, PURGATORY, KOO D’ETAT and FATE ACCOMPLI.
(Kev – add or delete to suit you preferences)
MARSHAL LAW is also – reluctantly – there with COMMISSIONER McGLAND. McGland proudly points out these exciting new additions to the JLA.
McGland: Koo D’Etat and Fate Accompli.
(2): They’re the latest members of the Jesus League of America.
After a pause, a sighing, long-suffering Marshal responds.
Marshal: Yes.
His expression speaks volumes.
(2): Vive la France, eh?
(3): Will Razondette be joining them, by any chance?
McGland: Now we all know you don’t carry a torch for super heroes, Marshal.
Marshal: Except to light their funeral pyres, Commissioner.
McGland: But this is for a super hero cause I know you’ll believe in. For the Orphans of the Zone.
Marshal: Whose parents were killed by super soldiers in the first place.
McGland: Including yourself, Marshal.
Law’s eyes grimace with pain.
Marshal : Yes.
THOMAS WAYNE is introduced to the guests as the CEO of WAYNE ENTERPRISES.
Law watches, but doesn’t react. McGland notes and approves.
McGland: I see Joe is making progress with you, Marshal and you’re learning a little self-control. At last. In the past, you’d have attacked Thomas Wayne, claiming “he was the murderous bastard who sent us to die in the Zone.”
Marshal’s fist clenches with tension.
Marshal’s voice: One day at a time.
Thomas Wayne tells the guests that he recently toured South America and his heart went out to all those orphans playing in the ruins of their cities.
Law’s fist clenches more.
Wayne: I saw a street urchin with the remnant of a hero’s cape that he was flying like a kite.
(2): His little face lit up as it soared into the sky and he imagined he was a super hero. And it inspired my dream.
(3): That every war orphan will have his own indestructible bat-kite.
We see on a screen behind Wayne, a happy street urchin clutching a BAT KITE. The Bat design like the “W” logo of Wayne Enterprises.
The JLA hold up bat kites for the audience.
Wayne: For every kite you buy, I will donate a second kite. Please give generously to this worthy cause.
(2): So that no child is batless.
Law’s fist clenches harder yet.
Law’s voice: One day at a time.
Wayne: Believe me, I know what it feels like to lose your family. I lost my own son under tragic circumstances.
This makes Law get even more uptight.
Marshal: I knew it! I knew it! We have to listen to his fragging sob story every fragging time!
McGland: How many steps have you got left, Marshal?
PAGE TEN AND ELEVEN
FLASHBACK SCENE STILL WITHIN THE SAN FUTURO REALITY
In Marshal Law’s reality, Thomas and Martha are having a night out with young Bruce (the age he is when his parents are murdered in the regular reality) when they are confronted by JOE CHILL .
Wayne recognises him as an infamous South American Terrorist in Law’s reality. (A few years before Law’s Zone war began)
He intends to kill Thomas as the CEO of Wayne Enterprises. His Bat-tanks, Bat planes, Batarangs and other Bat weapons are being supplied to the corrupt regime that oppresses his people.
Wayne tries to buy Chill off; but, “unlike El Presidente”, Chill can’t be bought.
Bruce pulls free from his mother and tries to stop Chill killing his dad and is shot instead.
Chill is so horrified by what he’s done, he can’t kill Thomas and runs off.
A shocked Thomas and Martha crouch down by their dying son.
PAGE TWELVE.
BACK TO THE CURRENT TIMELINE IN LAW’S REALITY
A Bat kite rises up within the steel tent towards the girders as McGland remonstrates with Law.
As we follow the kite’s ascension over several small pictures, we hear the voices of:
McGland: He’s trying to help the war orphans.
Marshal: That this Merchant of Death created.
McGland: He’s been through so much.
Marshal: Not enough.
The bat kite ascends into the girders where there is an almost FULL PAGE scene of HORROR.
A hundred DEAD BATMEN are hanging upside down, suspended from the girders. Snarling or screaming in death, like Vampire Bats.
At first glance, in the darkness, there’s a visual uniformity about the Batmen, so the horror is emphasized.
But the uniforms are a little different to Batman in DC’s “regular” reality.
PAGE THIRTEEN
Blood drips down on Thomas Wayne.
Then it pours down on him.
The Merchant of Death.
Then the caped corpses fall towards us as if they are live giant bats.
Voice: Give me the cure, Wayne, or I’ll kill your sons across Endless Earths!
PAGE FOURTEEN
*Close-up of the face of one of the dead Batmen as his mask has come off. It’s clearly Bruce.
*Close-up of a shocked Thomas Wayne.
Wayne: They’re my sons?!
*Close-up of a shocked Law looking at the ghastly scene off pic.
Law: Hanging like bats! It – it’s horrible!
*Close-up of McGland looking surprised (at Law).
*Law feels he needs to explain to McGland.
Law (shrugging): I’m trying.
*As Wayne runs for cover, the bodies hit the ground and we can now see that each Batman is a little different to the next – including a fat Batman.
Voice: Sorry about 89. Some fat bastard into cosplay. Honest mistake.
PAGE FIFTEEN, SIXTEEN, SEVENTEEN
The Transporter is up in the rafters and calls down to Wayne.
Transporter: I thought one dead Batman would be enough to make my point. Then I thought - let’s not stint ourselves. Why not have a hundred of the bastards? Why not?
Wayne: These are my sons? You’re killing my sons?
Transporter: And you know why, Wayne.
Wayne: If this is about your cellular degeneration…I’ve told you before, Sam, it’s caused by the quantum manipulation of your body. I’m sorry. You only have weeks to live. It’s irreversible.
Transporter: Find a way, Wayne, or Bruce dies a thousand times!
He disappears into a dimensional vortex.
As ANOTHER Batman appears through the dimensional vortex. Only this time he’s alive.
This is the main Batman of our story. He looks a little different to the regular Batman.
Law attacks him – despite McGland’s remonstration:
McGland: One day at a time, Marshal. Remember?
As Law and Batman fight savagely:
McGland’s voice: You just have to make it through the next 24 hours.
(2): 24 minutes?
(3): 24 seconds?
As the fight continues:
Batman: Who are you?
Law: Marshal Law.
(2): I’m a Hero hunter.
(3): I hunt heroes.
They glare into each other’s faces.
(4): Haven’t found any yet.
Wayne intervenes.
Wayne: Bruce?
Batman stops fighting and Law follows suit.
Batman: The Transporter failed to kill me. I followed him through the vortex and I’d have dealt with him if this… gimp hadn’t interfered.
He recognises Thomas Wayne.
Batman (overjoyed): Father?!
Batman tears off his mask. We see his face lit up with love.
Batman: You’re alive!
Thomas also looks overjoyed.
Thomas: Son!
PAGE EIGHTEEN AND NINETEEN
A graveyard in San Futuro. Gloomy, raining.
There’s a hundred graves – all with a (temporary) cross with a BAT SYMBOL on them
Mourners: Batman, Thomas Wayne, the JSA, Wayne, McGland and Marshal Law.
Batman and Thomas Wayne walk away from the graves towards the cemetery’s Gothic church. Law and co. following
Batman: I really want to see Mother.
Thomas: I’m sorry. I fear the shock would be too much for her, Bruce. You see, she hasn’t been the same since the tragedy.
(He looks at the graves)
(2): And this would finish her off.
(3): But at least we have each other now, son.
Batman: And the cure?
Thomas: No, nothing can be done for her.
Batman: I meant for the Transporter.
Thomas: Him neither.
(2): I have my best people working on it, but it’s not looking good.
Batman: Then he’ll kill again.
Thomas: I know and that will be terrible.
Batman: This was your failed experiment? A super soldier who you turned into a human black hole?
(2): I never intended for any of this to happen. But some good’s come out of it. He’s brought us together, Bruce, and that’s all that matters right now.
Batman: All…?
(2): Don’t you understand, father? More Bruce Waynes will be killed across the multiverse.
Thomas: But I only need one.
(2): You, Bruce.
Batman walks away, repelled by his father’s callousness.
Thomas: Bruce, I didn’t mean –
From the direction of the church:
Law and Batman hears a scream of BRUCE!
Batman: Mother!
Law: The Crypt!
PAGE TWENTY
Law and Batman descend the stairs to a scene of horror in the crypt.
We focus on corpses in a series of pics:
Robins.
Transporter’s voice: Twenty dead Robins. And there’s plenty more where they came from.
A few bodies of young glamorous women
(2): I didn’t find many girlfriends. So there’s only a small pile of them.
A body of another Thomas Wayne.
And a body of another Martha Wayne.
(3) Your ma and pa from a world where Chill didn’t do the dirty - so I picked up the tab.
PAGE TWENTY-ONE
Close up of Transporter.
Tr: Normally, I spend a little time with all of them.
(2): Especially your mother.
Close view of dead Martha Wayne.
Tr’s voice: She squealed like a pig. And she called your name when she died.
Batman looks tenderly down at his dead mother.
Then we see dead Alfreds are also amongst the corpses.
Tr’s voice: And we’ve got some Alfreds here, of course. They’re a bit irrelevant, but I’m on a roll, you see.
(2): So you and dad know just what I’m capable of, if he doesn’t come up with a cure.
Tr: Now I think I should find that crib with Kal El…
A grim Batman hurls himself towards the reader.
PAGES TWENTY TWO TO TWENTY FIVE
Fight in crypt: Transporter versus Batman and Marshal Law. They’re evenly matched.
Transporter:
Hey - Don’t look so fragging uptight all the time, Batman.
If you’ll pardon the expression - Chill out.
Life’s a gas. You’re not in fragging church. Whoops! Sorry – you are.
(Law comes at the Transporter)
“Fear and Loathing.” Love it!
Designed to make us shit ourselves. Right? Show you’re a badass. I get that.
But I have no fear cos I’ve killed a thousand times. That’s how you lose the fear.
That’s how I became a badass.
(Batman fights the Transporter)
There are a billion Earths out there.
So many more Thomases and Marthas.
Your parents will die a thousand times, Bruce. That’s a lot of pearl necklaces.
What does it do to a man to see his parents die not once – but a thousand times?
(A snarling Batman pins Transporter down. About to lay into him. )
(But he is interrupted when Thomas Wayne arrives and looks aghast at the dead bodies of himself. Martha. Alfreds.)
(Transporter sneers up at Batman)
Tr: You need to talk to dad, Bruce. Get him to work on that cure.
Transporter vanishes.
Batman consoles his horrified father.
Law and Batman think the Transporter has teleported to another Earth. But then Batman recognizes the sound of a car engine above.
As they hurriedly exit the church, they see Transporter about to drive away in a 1958 Batmobile.
Tr: I transported a classic Batmobile and killed with it. And I enjoyed it.
He smashes into Law and Batman and drives away.
Tr: That was from the days when you used to come out in daylight.
Batman’s grim face.
(2): You were happy then.
PAGE TWENTY-SIX AND TWENTY-SEVEN
Commissioner McGland’s office. Batman and Marshal Law confer with McGland.
McGland reveals that the Transporter has now teamed-up with local super-gang: Suicida and Gangreen (Regular super villains in the Law universe).
Batman wonders why Transporter is not causing more havoc on alternative Earths.
Law responds because every time he teleports it accelerates his cellular degeneration.
Batman says his father believes his scientists are close to reversing it.
McGland: So we have a dilemma, gentlemen. Do we withhold the cure and let him wreak havoc in San Futuro, while we wait for nature to take its course?
(2): Or give him the cure and allow him to wreak havoc across the Multiverse?
Law: We give nature a helping hand.
PAGES TWENTY-EIGHT, TWENTY-NINE, THIRTY
Day. Batman and Law fly in Law’s EAGLE SHIP over the sinister and fantastic landscape of San Futuro.
They discuss their next move.
Law’s plan is that they swoop down on Gangreen and snatch the Transporter. They can’t disable his headgear or he’ll implode and take most of the city with him. But Law knows how to neutralize the technology.
Then they’ll ship him over to Alcatraz, lock him up and wait for him to die.
Batman: Alcatraz?
Law: It’s been turned into a prison for super heroes.
Batman: Weird.
Law: Unlike your set-up in Gotham City.
Batman: And all these super soldiers were created by my father?
Law: The Wayne Corporation is the principal military contractor responsible for implementing “Shocc” - Super Hero Operational Command and Control - in the Zone and American bases throughout the world.
(2): Turning us into living weapons, incapable of feeling pain.
(3): So we inflict it instead.
(4): When you meet Suicida you’ll understand.
Batman doesn’t respond as he absorbs this information about Law’s nightmare world.
Law: Don’t feel too bad. Of course on your Earth, I’m sure Wayne Enterprises is a force for good.
(2): Sorry. Cheap shot.
Batman: Not that cheap. We’re also the main supplier to the Pentagon, Darpa and Rand.
(As this is an alternate Batman, the Pentagon could exist in his reality)
Law: I appreciate your frankness.
Batman: Try to understand, Marshal. I lost my parents when I was a boy. This is my chance to get them back. To be part of a family again. I can’t turn it down.
(2): I need to belong.
Law: And I need to cure my hatred of super heroes.
The Eagle approaches their targets: Transporter, Suicida, Gangreen.
Law: Or so they tell me.
(2): I guess neither of us are doing very well right now.
PAGE THIRTY-ONE TO THIRTY-FOUR
SUICIDA has hijacked a BAT TANK and is at the controls with the Transporter as they devastate San Futuro. Other members of GANGREEN with them.
Suicida is proudly wearing a ROBIN outfit. It fits him badly and he looks utterly grotesque in it.
He fires up at the Eagle.
Suicida: Hey, Bats! Transporter gave me all the batshit on you. I thought my costume would tempt you.
The Eagle roars down, guns blazing.
Suicida, Transporter and Gangreen sing a (well-known) military cadence as they return fire:
Me and Superman got in a fight!
Hit him in the head with some kryptonite!
Hit him so hard I busted his brain.
Suicida: Now I’m screwing Lois Lane.
(Batman leaps down onto the Transporter and they fight.)
Transporter:
His friend Batman wanted some, too.
I hit him in the head with my left shoe.
I kicked him in the temple with my left heel.
Now I’m driving the Batmobile.
Batman: Not for much longer, punk.
Batman is holding onto Transporter, so Law can neutralize his headgear. But Suicida intervenes and attacks Law, thus allowing the Transporter to teleport and vanish.
As Suicida and Law fight:
Suicida: Marshal Whore! You sell-out! You number one purveyor of bullshit! Your kind make me die!
Law: That’s the plan.
Suicida: I bet you got a real hard-on teaming up with Batman?
(2) The son of that lying, thieving, murdering leech Thomas Wayne!
Law: And the Transporter is an improvement?
Suicida: I fragging like the Transporter, I do.
(He produces a thumb drive)
He brought this buttock-clenching film back from the Zone. Watch it if you dare! It’s Batricide! We’re gonna send copies to the MSM cos it’s time someone exposed him! We’re gonna be turning up the heat on this bastard Wayne!
Law: Finished?
Suicida: Never, you fragging weasel. Go screw yourself with a cactus. You might like it as much as your barbed wire!
(Law knocks him out)
Law: You are now.
PAGE THIRTY-FIVE AND THIRTY-SIX
TEXT: LAW’S SECRET H.Q.
In Law’s secret H.Q. It’s entered through a boiler in the hospital, so we see the boiler’s flames in the background as Law and Batman watch Suicida’s film:
It shows kids with bat kites in the ruins of the Zone. Micro-cameras in the kites secretly film important figures in the Zone who continue to be opposed to the US after the war and have been designated terrorists.
Wayne has been using the kids as unwitting spies as part of a secret terror surveillance program.
Then a FLYING BUSTARD is sent in wipe the terrorists out. Any civilians around are collateral damage.
A Flying Bustard is a flying super hero in a steel suit, which resembles a bat version of a predator drone.
Law and Batman see the carnage that results.
Marshal: It’s Batricide, all right.
Batman sees Law’s fury.
Batman: Marshal, no son has the right to judge his own father. Or to justify or even forgive anything his father has done. No matter how terrible. That is not the role of a son. It’s a fundamental law of nature, which we break at our peril.
Marshal: And there’s Marshal Law. I have the right to judge him.
Batman: I won’t let you. It’s still a son’s duty to protect his father. Just like that boy did all those years ago.
Marshal: I understand, Bruce. Yes. You’re right.
Law walks away, but it’s a ploy so he can catch Batman off guard; he turns round and lays him out.
A snarling Marshal, gun in hand, bursts through the fire screen into the boiler room.
Marshal: Nature’s little helper.
PAGE THIRTY-SEVEN AND THIRTY-EIGHT
Night. External view of San Simeon. In Law’s universe it was owned by the Public Spirit. It has now been bought by Thomas Wayne.
TEXT: WAYNE CASTLE.
In the main room where a giant bat fireplace now replaces the Public Spirit’s fireplace. The dying Transporter is in consultation with Thomas Wayne. He has just been handed the antidote, which Wayne’s scientists finally created.
Law bursts in and confronts them.
Law: I’ve come to finish what Chill started.
Law sees Transporter with the antidote. About to take it.
(2): The cure?!
He turns to Wayne.
(3): Why would you provide it?
Thomas doesn’t reply.
Law turns to Transporter
(4): And why would you trust him?
Transporter looks in a bad way.
Transporter: It’s all I’ve got, Law.
He’s about to inject himself.
Law: No. Because he’s offered you a job, hasn’t he?
He turns back to Wayne.
Law: Despite everything he’s done to your family.
(2): What’s the job? Some kind of personal troubleshooter?
Wayne: The threat of terrorism in our cities is very real. Sometimes we have to use extraordinary measures and employ the most undesirable people to deal with it.
(2): I mean - look at you, Law.
The triumphant Transporter injects himself and sneers at Law.
Transporter: Now I can be a badass, just like you and Batman, Marshal. You two - you really know how to kick ass.
(2): You’re my role models.
Law: Thanks.
Shoots the Transporter dead.
(He had to wait for the cure to take effect in order to safely shoot him without causing a black hole)
PAGE THIRTY-NINE AND FORTY
Batman smashes in through a window.
He had intended to save his father. But he’s repelled that Thomas would employ a mass murderer who’d killed so many members of the Wayne family and their loved ones.
Thomas explains that the violent deaths of Batman on multiple Earths will have an incalculable effect on this Batman.
If the Transporter had killed any more, this Batman could go into quantum meltdown.
That’s his rather questionable excuse why he gave the Transporter the cure and the job.
Thomas: I did it for you, Bruce. To protect my son.
(2): It’s what fathers do.
Batman: He was dying! He was finished!
Thomas: But a living weapon is a living weapon, Bruce. The R&D costs are colossal! You know this as the CEO of your own Wayne Enterprises!
Batman turns away. He looks out the shattered window towards the 1958 retro Batmobile parked outside – clearly the means by which he reached Wayne Castle.
Wayne comes up beside him and put an arm around him.
Thomas: Don’t go. This is where you belong, Bruce. With me at Wayne Castle. You’re all I’ve got now.
(2): Stay, son.
(3): Please.
It seems like Batman is persuaded and may stay with his father.
PAGES FORTY ONE
Law advances on Wayne.
Law: I find you guilty of the murder of thousands of young Americans when you turned us into super soldiers.
Thomas: Your sacrifices were necessary for the cause of freedom.
Law: And the sacrifice of your own sons across Endless Earths?
(Thomas looks across at Batman)
Thomas: It brought me back my boy.
Law: And you turned kids into spies so you could go on killing terrorists like Chill.
Thomas looks a little crazed now.
Thomas: They all had to pay for my boy’s sacrifice.
Law: Listen, Abraham, you shitbag, it won’t save your life!
PAGE FORTY-TWO
Thomas: Don’t get on your soapbox with me, you blasphemous, foul-mouthed maniac!
(He turns)
(2): Bruce! Defend your father!
Batman angrily points towards the reader:
Batman: YOU!
And then continues through gritted teeth.
Batman: Are-not-my-father.
Thomas reacts to this terrible rejection.
Then, shocked and grief-stricken, he pulls on a bell rope.
PAGE FORTY-THREE
1.Law has an epiphany.
Law: You know what? It’s not super heroes I hate.
2. Close up of Law.
(2):It’s the men in suits who send them to war.
(3): Who hide behind the mask of patriotism.
(4): Who get them to fight not for freedom, but for profit.
3.Law happily lays into Wayne.
Law: I’m cured!
4.Lays into Wayne again.
Law: I’m cured!
5.Law continues beating Wayne. A totally INSANE look in his eyes!
He looks far from cured.
Law: I’m cured!
PAGE FORTY-FOUR
1.The JLA burst in: a scary group of elite super heroes. They seem a little disheveled and flustered.
Wayne: What the hell kept you?
Public Spirit: (adjusting his costume) We were… at prayer.
Wayne: While this maniac is murdering me?
Another JLA member: If Congress can begin its day with prayer, so can the JLA.
2.Batman looks towards the JLA. Marshal Law also regards them and mentally salivates at the thought of fighting them.
Batman: As you’re cured, I’d better deal with them.
Marshal: Now let’s not be too hasty. The healing process can take time to…
(2): Kick in.
3. The JLA hurls themselves at Batman and Law.
Public Spirit: Face the vengeance of the Public Spirit, Monstrance, Shroud, Stigmata, Sin Gorger, Eminence Grise, Black Abbot, Purgatory, Koo D’Etat and Fate Accompli!
Batman looks rather repelled by them and comments disdainfully.
Batman: I’m beginning to see where you’re coming from, Law.
Law: The JLA were my boyhood heroes.
4. A bitter Law smashes his fist into whichever of them seems the most deserving to you, Kev.
Law: Down the toilet!
5. Thomas Wayne dies in the foreground from Laws beating. Meanwhile, Law smiles as he lays into the Public Spirit as Batman savagely deals with others.
Wayne: Uhhh!
Public Spirit: We trust in Him to help us fight the good fight! To finish the race! And to keep the faith!
Law: Oh, yes. Please. Keep that coming. It always helps.
PAGE FORTY-FIVE
Cut to a few minutes later.
1. Big scene of the JLA who are laid strewn all over the floor and walls, badly beaten up, but still alive. Wayne is dead.
Batman and Law stand over the bodies of the JLA.
Batman: You’re a bad influence.
Law: Just don’t do me out of my job.
2. Law checks the body of Thomas Wayne.
Law: Wayne’s dead.
3. Batman looks blankly towards us. He’s lost his mind.
No dialogue.
4. Marshal Law looks at Batman who continues to stare blankly ahead of him.
Law: Quantum meltdown?
PAGE FORTY-SIX
The Mission Hospital. Hospital orderly Joe walks down the corridor we saw at the beginning. He’s accompanied by Batman and a female nurse who is completing details on a form attached to a clipboard.
1. They head along corridor.
No dialogue
2.As they pass Scapegoat’s cell, the super-villain looks out his window hatch.
Scapegoat: I finally figured it out! I know who you are!
3. Joe punches Scapegoat in face. Not looking in his direction as he responds to Batman’s question.
Scapegoat: You’re Maaaahhh!
Batman: Where’s Law, Joe?
Joe: He’s not here at the moment, Bruce.
4. Batman: Who’s Bruce? There is no Bruce.
(2): There is only Batman.
(Blue Battery silently beams a blue strait-jacket into the corridor. It’s not real.)
5. Joe talks to nurse who checks her form. He opens a cell door.
Joe: I want him put under my care: Joe Gilmore.
Nurse: Family?
Joe: Not anymore.
6. Final close-up of Batman.
Joe’s voice: Don’t take off the mask.
(2): There’s no one there.
PAGE FOURTY SEVEN
We cut to the regular, Kevlar-clad Batman in Gotham.
1. He’s in the middle of a fight when he feels a strange psychic vibration from the recent events.
Batman Prime: Feels like someone just walked on my grave.
2. He stops, waiting to see if anything else happens. But there’s nothing.
No dialogue.
3. BIG FINAL PIC
He resumes what he’s doing – savagely smashing his fist into the Joker’s leering face.
Batman Prime: As you were.
THE END
NOTES
a)LENGTH.
On page length we think 48 pages is best as we can begin and end on strong images with inside cover for design and credits and inside back cover and back for more design/atmosphere
All our previous Law one shots use inside and back covers in this way – so the story itself could run over the full 48 pages.
Currently the story outline above is running at 47 pages. But an extra page – taking it up to 48 pages - could give us a little more space to dwell on key emotional moments and explanations.
And/or to expand the JLA fight sequence.
b)Our alternative Batman could find his way back to his own alternative Earth if you prefer. But we felt that ending up in the Mission Hospital was a stronger solution.
And it leaves this alternative Batman in situ in San Futuro, should there be a sequel.
c) Chill can be an ordinary criminal in Law’s reality, but it makes the story tighter if he is a terrorist and thus has a connection with Wayne, the Zone etc.