CONCEPT PITCH: The Legend of Bruce Wayne

For those of you who read my previous COMIC PITCH on Spiderman, this is going to be very similar. The only difference is that instead of talking about a comic book, this is a TV show concept. For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, check out my previous post here.

Alright, so let's get into it. Basically this would be the "Smallville" of Batman. Saying that will probably make most of you cringe, but it's easiest way to say "Batman before he became Batman". I don't mean it'll be some soapy drama for seven seasons before it gets its act together.

The show would for the most part take place during Bruce's training with the League of Shadows. He was clearly there for a few years before he returned to Gotham so there is definitely a few seasons worth of television there. I envision the show to be a bit more serialized, following a single thread for more episodes than not (it's a lot easier to keep people's interest that way). The overarching plots would probably involve Bruce aiding the League of Shadows on missions.

Now you may be wondering how classic Batman characters would be involved in the show. For the earlier seasons, I don't think they would be. People like Commissioner Gordon or Alfred wouldn't be present until later in the show, then Bruce finally returned to Gotham City. Instead I see characters like Ra's Al Ghul being Bruce's mentor, and his daughter Talia being a romantic interest for him as well. I'm sure there would be more supporting characters, maybe a fellow recruit that Bruce has befriended, etc. Other characters would change depending on the League's current location.

 Now with a TV show like this, sticking to the mythos is impossible. Some things will need to be changed. For example, the times at which certain characters enter Bruce's life. If the League is on a mission in South America, why not have an episode with Bane in it? Sure in the comics they encounter each other in Gotham City when Bruce is already Batman but still, the audience needs some extra excitement every once in awhile and playing around with where and when to insert classic villains is exactly the way to do that.

Then there's the eventual return to Gotham City. Like Clark did in Smallville, he finally began embracing who he was without fully becoming who he was meant to be. So even though Bruce will return to Gotham and live in his mansion with Alfred, he wouldn't have the batsuit or anything like that quite yet. Instead he would have a suit similar to what he used in the beginning of Batman Begins: an armored suit was a mobile, but looked nothing like the actual suit.

It's at this point I see the show evolving to become more a detective drama. Bruce would begin investigating corruption in Gotham to weed it and out destroy it. This also represents an opportunity for Gordon to appear, as well as other classic characters. Whose to say that at this point Barbara Gordon couldn't become a supporting character similar to Chloe in Smallville. What if Harvey Dent began as a someone fighting the good fight, but over the course of the show began his descent into Two-Face. There is a lot of room for great television here and it can all be done without showing Bruce Wayne as Batman (for whatever reason, WB has a huge stigma against that sort of thing, it kind of explains why the Smallville finale was the way it was).

 Speaking of Superman, who's to say we can't have special guests on every once in awhile? While WB was real stingy about showing major superheros on Smallville, maybe further down the road they wouldn't be so ridiculous about it. How awesome would it be to have Superman in an episode? He doesn't even have to be in the suit (though that would be appreciated). There are many comic book stories out there about how Clark and Bruce met each other without really meeting each other. The opportunities here are endless.

Another great thing about this show would be the ease in which to film it. What I mean by that is that Batman is not a heavy FX superhero - unlike Superman. The show would be able to better utilize its budget for better action scenes, set pieces, guest stars, etc.

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So how does this sound to you? Would you watch a show about Batman before he was Batman? What are your thoughts on it? Suggestions? etc. I'm open to everything.
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Daily Challenge: Read some Batman. There are some wonderful stories out there. The Long Halloween, Hush, No Man's Land, etc. They're all worth checking out.
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Contact Info:

Steam: Superman1138

Twitter: Peter_Freeman

AIM: bigbossextreme

PSN ID: Rising_007

StarCraft 2 ID: Rising.145

The Dark Knight Rises: Bane Character Reveal

Everyone loves a good viral campaign, no? The Dark Knight had one with the Joker and now The Dark Knight Rises has one. Going to www.thedarkknightrises.com brings you to a flash page with some creeping chanting noises. An examination of the source file though reveals the hashtag #TheFireRises. When entered into Twitter or Facebook it began the reveal of an image pixel by pixel. This was done before for the reveal of the Joker.

Of course since none of us have any real time to spare, other people have been gracious enough to finish the entire project for us. So without further ado, I give you the first picture of one of new villains in The Dark Knight Rises:

A larger version is available here.

So what do you guys think? Does this get you excited for the new movie? Are you upset by the look of the mask? Personally I really like it. I'm hoping this viral campaign continues and will eventually reveal some sort of trailer.

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Daily Challenge: I've been on a huge Netflix binge for awhile. I love watching new movies and TV shows. If you have Netflix, or some sort of service to choose a movie/TV from, choose something new that you aren't sure you'll actually like. You may hate it, you may actually love it. But hey, if it's awful, you can complain to your friends about it and have a good laugh.

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Contact Info:

Steam: Superman1138

Twitter: Peter_Freeman

AIM: bigbossextreme

PSN ID: Rising_007

StarCraft 2 ID: Rising.145

COMIC PITCH: "Spiderman: Undercover"

Awhile back I decided it would be fun to try and come up with some stories for various comic book characters. The first that usually comes to mind with me is Spiderman. He isn't my favorite, but I think there's a lot that has yet to be done with him. I myself have mapped out a five season television show with the character. But that's not what I'm going to talk about. Today for the fun of it I'm going to pitch you a story for the Spiderman comics. Now it's been a long, long time since I've read Spiderman so forgive me if there are some inconsistencies with the canon (for example, I know Peter Parker doesn't work for the Bugle anymore).

Then again I see this more as a small miniseries than part of the overall series and just so you know, this is more of a treatment. There's no way I could outline the entire thing. Enjoy!
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The setting would be modern day NYC. Peter Parker is working for the Daily Bugle and is dating Carly what's-her-face. Seems normal right? Well everyone knows that Peter Parker is Spiderman's buddy because he's the one who gets all his pictures. J. Jonah Jameson's son is also dead and he blames Spiderman for it. He thinks that Spiderman didn't save his son on purpose as retaliation for all the bad press Jameson has given Spiderman over the years.

The people want answers and they blame Parker for not giving those to them. He is after the all the one who gets all of the pictures so he must know something about Spiderman right? So everyone at work is giving him hell about it. Well Jameson, in a strange turn of pity, decides to take Parker off of Spiderman and puts him on the case of a drug ring that's been coming into power and trying to weasel out the Kingpin. He wants Parker to go undercover and try to bust the story. Peter, looking for a quick exit to all the hate he's been getting, agrees.

So he goes undercover in this new group. Steadily Spiderman is able to appear less and less because the further he goes into the group, the less time he has to escape to save people. Peter Parker also starts to change. The stress over all the crap he was getting about Spiderman and the new found stress of not getting killed in this gang starts to break him. His composure starts to falter and he gets angry and unstable. He starts attacking people, going too far more than a few times. He has random outbursts of anger at Carly, who is only trying to help him and figure out what is going on.

At one point the Kingpin's gang identify Peter Parker as one of the gang members and kidnap Carly. Peter manages to convince his boss that this is an act of war against them and that they need to rescue her as well as attack Kingpin. He agrees and they go in. After a large battle, Peter is able to rescue Carly and blow up a few of the Kingpin's drug compounds.

During one evening, near the end, Parker finally gets a moment to himself and decides to go spy on the boss. During this chat the boss mentions somebody at the newspaper contacted him about accepting this new kid, that it would lead them to Spiderman and then they would be famous.

Knowing who this is, Parker goes to Jameson's home. He confronts him about what he heard. Jameson says that he did it to prove that Peter Parker is Spiderman and that he should be destroyed for letting his son die. Peter then launches into some speech about how he can't be everywhere at once and despite how much he wishes he could, he can't save everyone. Jameson doesn't here any of it. Peter decides to mess him up then, as punishment for getting Carly captured. He then leaves to clean up Jameson's mess.

The end has Spiderman watching a meetup between the Kingpin and the head of the other gang. He knows that there's going to be a shoot out and if he wanted to, he could stop it. But then he hears sirens off in another direction and realizes, that he can't be everywhere at once, and that here (at the meet up) is not somewhere he wants to be.

~End.

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So what did you guys think? Would you buy this as a comic miniseries? I figure that six issues would be just fine for a short story like this. What are your thoughts on it? Suggestions? etc. I'm open to everything.
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Daily Challenge: Explore YouTube a bit and find something either incredibly awesome, or extremely funny. Then share it with someone. It's always better to experience these things with another person.
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Contact Info:

Steam: Superman1138

Twitter: Peter_Freeman

AIM: bigbossextreme

PSN ID: Rising_007

StarCraft 2 ID: Rising.145