Hey, Bat-fans! As you’re no doubt aware, today’s the U.S. release date for The Lego Batman Movie, a not-quite sequel to 2014’s incredibly popular The Lego Movie, in which Batman (voiced by Will Arnett) costarred. This time he has to deal not just with the Joker, but Batman’s new sidekick, Robin, who wears bright green shorts that are waaay too short for the Caped Crusader’s liking.
Speaking of animated superheroes, were you aware that I once wrote an adventure for a certain group of merry mutants? And that it counts as my sole writing credit on the Internet Movie Database? Well, now you do!
X-Men: Darktide was a licensed short created by the students of the DAVE (Digital Animation & Visual Effects) School in Orlando, Florida. Like The Lego Movie, it involved blocky toy versions of the characters—in this case, the Minimates line produced by toy manufacturer Art Asylum—and was developed as a special straight-to-DVD supplement.
My involvement came in 2005, when I was contacted by Marvel Comics’ Licensing division. The folks there had been impressed with my writing of the X-Men: The Chaos Engine Trilogy novels (published between 2000 and 2002), and now they wanted to know if I’d be interested in stepping into this animated project to do some script-doctoring. As it was explained to me, the DAVE School’s plot and character storyboards had been approved, but the script was lacking in terms of dialogue and a clear understanding of the X-Men.
My response to the offer was an enthusiastic yes, and soon enough I was tweaking the script—which (he said modestly) was approved on my first draft. It’s a pretty simple story: the X-Men start out fighting the giant robots called Sentinels, and end up going toe-to-toe with their archenemy Magneto and his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Good wins out in the end, and the team heads home. The DAVE School was happy with my changes and, best of all, so was Marvel.
I didn’t see the results until months later, and that’s when I received a copy of the finished set of DVD and three X-Men Minimates that were included. I thought the final video turned out pretty well. You can judge the results for yourself—it’s on YouTube.
An unexpected bonus was that, not only did I get paid for the work (the most important aspect, of course), but my involvement with X-Men: Darktide led to me getting my own entry in the Internet Movie Database! Sure, it’s only one credit, but it was a pleasant surprise when I came across it.
So, interested in seeing X-Men: Darktide, now that I’ve hyped it so much? Then just click on the screen grab below and get to watchin’!
And while we’re on the subject of comic book superheroes, especially Batman, allow me to direct you toward a free digital comic that you can download right from this very site—a comic that features a certain psychotic Bat-villainess you might have seen in a 2016 movie called Suicide Squad, tormenting a certain Amazon warrior who’ll be starring in a movie of her own this year…
Heroines & Heroes is a collection of comic stories and pinups all drawn by me, dating back to my days in the early 1990s small-press movement—that age of dinosaurs in which creators like me used to make our comics by printing them out on photocopiers and then stapling them by hand. In H&H you’ll find mainstream heroes and small-press heroines, and even a couple of anthropomorphic bikers.
Leading off is “V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N (in the Summertime),” a three-page Wonder Woman vs. Harley Quinn story that I wrote and drew in the late ’90s as a sample for a DC Comics editor who thought I’d be a good fit for their Batman: The Animated Series comic (it didn’t work out). It’s followed by an adventure of small-presser Jeff Wood’s rabbit-eared superspy, Snowbuni; three pages from the long-canceled indie comic Motorbike Puppies; and an adventure of the indie superheroine The Blonde Avenger.
And did I mention it’s a free download? (Yes, I did.) Then what’re you waiting for? Head over to the Heroines and Heroes product page and get your own copy today!
