FANTASTIC FOUR — New Sample Plot Sequence
COVER SCENE – It’s inside an Old West saloon! Angle at the swinging double-doors of the saloon. In the foreground, Reed (all stretched out), Johnny, unconscious, part of his body with bits of flame, and Sue (part of her body invisible) are all knocked out, on the floor. Busted tables, spilled drinks. It was quite a fight in here. The HAND AND GUN of a gunfighter are in extreme foreground. The hand is gloved so we can’t tell if it’s a guy or gal. Framed by the half-busted salloon doors, BEN GRIMM enters, angry. He’s got a Sheriff’s badge, a cowboy hat, big cowboy boots, and his usual blue FF trunks.
PAGE ONE –
* Full-page splash, full bleed. Exterior. Afternoon. In a busy, dusty “Old West” town U.S. setting, past old banks and saloons and watering troughs and so forth, a dressed-for-the-West cowboy rider on a beautiful horse yanks on the reins, bringing it to a stop. In front of them, in foreground, are a 10-year-old boy and a 4-year-old girl, also dressed for the Old West.
PAGE TWO –
* The cowboy dismounts as the kids cough from the dust the horse kicked up.
* In closer, as the cowboy hunkers down, concerned for the kids, his hat now sitting back on his head. We see the cowboy is JOHNNY STORM. He lifts back the kids’ cowboy hats to look at them. It’s little Franklin Richards and his baby sister.
* “Unca Johnny — LOOK!” The little girl points to the sky in the distance — the 4-in-a-circle symbol flashed in the sky. They can see the trail where it’s been shot from the ground.
* Big panel. Johnny FLAMES ON! His hat burns, but his cowboy outfit is made of unstable molecules, so it does not burn up. He’s flying into the air. His arms are NOT aflame, he’s dangling the kids from them. “YAHOOOOOO!” People in the cowboy town react, surprised.
PAGE THREE –
* We CUT TO: Angle on a SALOON. Men going in and out.
* CUT TO: Inside. The point-of-view is from a female POKER PLAYER holding CARDS — 5 Poker cards, but they have REED, SUE, BEN, JOHNNY, and the KIDS on them. The woman’s legs are up, high-heeled cowboy boots perched on the dirty table, and a SHERIFF is talking to her, hands on his hips.
* The Poker Players slaps two cards down onto the dirty table — SUE and BEN GRIMM.
* The Sheriff reaches for his holstered gun —
* — and the female Poker Player stands up, grabbing him into the air with one hand and smashing his gun with the other. Now we clearly see this is SHE-HULK, dressed like a cowgirl.
* Medium close-up on She-Hulk, leaning in, threatening the Sheriff. Nice “cleavage shot.”
PAGE FOUR –
* We CUT TO: A gorgeous resort hotel. This is an expensive-looking swimming pool area. A couple of gorgeous babes in bikini’s are getting their tans, reacting as The Human Torch is flying down toward them with two kids in tow. Some gals are soaking wet, coming out of the pool. SUE RICHARDS is in a bikini, sunning, and she sits up, pulling off her sunglasses to give attention to Johnny and her kids. “I came as soon as we SAW it, sis?”
* Johnny lands, flaming off. Sue stands up. “Saw what, Johnny? “The FF signal…it flared from here.” “I didn’t send any signal.”
* On Sue, upset. “Something’s gone wrong in the Simulator!”
* “We’ve gotta find Reed and Ben!” Johnny, Sue, the kids all RUN toward us. Sue’s FF costume is forming on her body. “I’ll never get over how she does that.”
PAGE FIVE –
* Start with a strip of 6 narrow panels across the top. We show:
* A close-up of Ben’s right eye.
* Close-up of a gunfighter’s right eye, with a scar over it.
* Ben’s hand twiches over a gun.
* Gunfigher’s hand twitches over a gun.
* Ben’s FF sybmol on his shorts.
* Western symbol on gunfighter’s belt.
* We CUT TO: Ben Grimm. He’s in his FF blue shorts, a big cowboy hat, boots, and gun holsters. He’s about to have a gunfight, so his hands are poised above the pistols, ready to “draw.”
* We CUT TO: Reed Richards, in his FF costume, yelling, stretching toward him. “No, Ben — don’t draw! DUCK!”
* “DRAW!” A mean-looking old gunfighter draws his pistol, firing fast.
* “I said…DUCK!” Reed stretches fast, whipping around Ben and yanking him out of the way. Big bullets fly by —
* — EXPLODING in whatever’s behind them. “Wha–? Armor-piercing shells? HERE??”