Thunderbolts #59
Thunderbolts #59
Title: "Silent Scream!"
Writer: Fabian Nicieza
Penciller: Mark Bagely
Inker: Al Vey
Colors: Hi-Fi Design
Editor: Tom Brevoort
(Essentially what we do here at Leader’s Lair is to bring you a summary of the issue with one or two interesting pictures. With the advent of the ‘Nuff Said month of comics a summary has been provided at Marvel.com. Instead of trying to tell you what the writer was trying to say better than they could I’ve decided to simply paste the summary provided with a picture or two. To read the other summaries of other ‘Nuff Said books please click to Marvel.com- Thank you)
PAGE ONE
6 panel page, 3 tier top, 3 bottom. Leave room for top copy and indicia.
1) EST. SHOT of BURTON CANYON, daytime. A smoldering cloud of ash and dust rises above the postcard view, the remains of the former Mt. Charteris spewing dirt into the air.
In the foreground, we see a highway sign saying: WELCOME TO BURTON CANYON.
Note – from any trees whistling in the wind, thin small tendrils of pink energy float up into the air. A small can rolls on the ground, the SFX of Klink Klink Klink ALSO has pink tendrils rising from it.
2) CUT TO: the town’s main street. People are confused, some screaming, some grabbing their throats, pothers shrugging their shoulders. No sound comes out of their mouths, but thicker wisps of PINK ENERGY, like cigarette smoke, float from their opened mouths.
3) A CAR soundlessly crashes into a light pole – people move to a void it. Even thicker coils of pink energy spiral upwards from the point of impact.
4) People point to the air, at the wisps of PINK ENERGY floating from their mouths, which are coalescing about twenty yards above them, linking into a spirally, twisty taffy- like river…
5) The river flows higher into the sky, getting thicker as it draws from dozens of fine tendrils all curly-cuing up from the town streets
6) The thick river flows skywards, at the fringes of the ash cloud from Mt. Charteris, leading towards a bright pink glob of energy in mid-air – and in front of the pink glod is the deeply silhouetted form of Songbird…
PAGES TWO AND THREE
DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD as we see SONGBIRD fighting ANGAR THE SCREAMER (all in shades of pink/cyan), dynamic panel perspective overlooking the remains of Charteris beneath them and the panoramic view of Burton Canyon behind.
SCREAM/ANGAR is sound personified, the energy filtering into it is immense.
SONGBIRD is trying to fight, but every construct she makes is absorbed by ANGAR!
Her sonic carapace is partially damaged (as a result of last issue’s maneuver to stop Graviton). Mechanical components are loose, dangling with nasty sparks. Tears streak her eyes, having just gotten over the apparent death of Abe and the others.
In other words, she is in NO condition to fight, much less fight her power-doppleganger!
TITLE and CREDITS on this page.
PAGE FOUR
1) SONGBIRD tries to create a hard-sound funnel to stop the sonic river funneling into ANGAR –
2) – but he just deconstructs it, absorbing the sound into the gorging tidal stream of sound rushing into him
3) SONGBIRD turns to flee
4) ANGAR/SCREAM gestures with undulating "fingers" and –
5) – rips the hard sound wings right off SONGBIRD (who continues trying to fuel them with her own shouts, creating a perpetual make/unmake flow)
PAGE FIVE
1) SONGBIRD her wings unable to support her flight, spirals and slices downwards towards the heavily forested grounds (and the tree tops show an ash schmear an inch thick already from the Charteris dust up)
2) SONGBIRD, her wings just straggly strands of their former self, crashes through the tree tops, kicking up a billow of dust –
3) – crashing into a mountain creek (which is getting clogged by wet ash fallout) –
4) – which carries her down about a hundred yards –
5) – until, battered, exhausted, carapace damaged, matted with wet ash, she manages to prop herself up in a shallow rocky inlet.
PAGE SIX
1) She looks up, tears in her haunted eyes, seeing SHIELD aerial craft zooming above her towards the big pink glob in the sky.
2) HALF IMAGE SONGBIRD face as she FLASHES BACK showing BIG IMAGE of the TBOLTS (MACH-3, MOONSTONE, FIXER, JOLT, ION, and CITIZEN V alongside GRAVITON, as they fight M’REEL and the opening to his dimension as floods of his ARMIES come through) as SONGBIRD Is on the other side of a SONIC BUBBLE she has created around the battleground.
3) SONGBIRD is rocked as her carapace shorts out, a white hot crackle of energy signals a vacuum inside her sonic bubble sucking everyone inside – somewhere – else…
PAGE SEVEN
1) FLASHBACK CONTINUES as SONGBIRD looks up, her face and hair slightly burned from the carapace short. Where ABE and the others were is nothing but fused smoking GLASS. Even the ground is gone?!
2) She collapses to the ground in shock and exhaustion, screaming raw pain –
3) – surrounding trees, etc., are pulverized by the sonic whiplash –
4) – and from the pink energy that freely and uncontrollably rips out of the cybernetic enhancements in her throat forms the coalescing humanoid figure of –
5) – SCREAM/ANGAR (who was defeated by Graviton in #56)!
PAGE EIGHT
1) SCREAM/ANGAR looks down at her.
2) A sonic "hand" reaches out to wipe a tear.
3) COME OUT of FLASHBACK as SONGBIRD, touching her dirt and tear streaked cheeks.
4) She inspects the components of her damaged carapace.
5) She looks up in the skies to see the SHIELD craft attempting to assault ANGAR with sonic frequencies.
PAGE NINE
1) They ripple and pulse through ANGAR’s form like a pond hit by multiple stones. But they don’t hurt him.
2) CUT INT. SHIELD craft as the cockpit crew look at monitor schematics of ANGAR in mid-air, Telemetry information will indicate no discernable variation in its sonic frequency wavelengths.
3) CLOSE on the MONITOR SCREEN showing PINK ANGAR with a comparison image of the REAL ANGAR. Computer text scroll information will fill in typeset info:
David Angar; alias Angar the Screamer
Ht: Wt:
Sonic Emission Frequencies:
Profile:
Known Accomplices:
4) CLOSE on IMAGE of SCREAMING MIMI and an image next to it of SONGBIRD.
Computer Text says:
Melissa Gold, alias Screaming Mimi, alias Songbird
Former Group Affiliations: Masters of Evil; Thunderbolts
PAGE TEN
1) CUT TO SONGBIRD, making her way through the choking dust haze as she gets closer to the gutted Charteris.
2) CLOSE UP HALF IMAGE of SONGBIRD as we FLASHBACK from TBOLTS ANNUAL 97, showing MIMI and ANGAR fleeing a bank robbery
3) ANGAR is bleeding, having been shot…
4) He dies, MIMI screams herself raw, liquefying the surrounding woods
5)POV from a small skimmer craft sliding over the ravaged clean circle of damage, in the center of the devastation, a small desolate MIMI huddles against her dead lover’s body.
PAGE ELEVEN
1) MIMI looks up, seeing ZEMO extend a hand of support. Behind him is FIXER, already damage and the analyzing the sonic frequencies used to create such mayhem.
2) CUT TO: FLASHBACK of FIXER inside ZEMO’s Central American Lab, autopsying ANGAR’s body.
3) CUT TO: FLASHBACK of FIXER using ANGAR’s removed larynx, attached to a hi-tech machine, showing ZEMO how the biological aspects of ANGAR’s powers worked. The machine is sending vibrations through the vocal chords and larynx to create pink waves of energy pulsing out of them.
4) FLASHBACK CONTINUES as the sonic energy tries to take a rough, malleable form – vaguely resembling something… human?
5) Close up of ZEMO, curious…
PAGE TWELVE
1) CLOSE UP of ZEMO similar to previous panel but lit differently.
2) PULL BACK to show SCOURGE holding the miniaturized severed head of ZEMO in the palm of his hand!
3) PULL BACK FLASHBACK to show SCOURGE watching CSA technicians and scrub teams dismantling all of the equipment in ZEMO’s lab.
CLEARLY SHOW in FOREGROUND two technicians inspecting the ANGAR larynx attached to the sonic resonance equipment.
ALSO CLEARLY SHOW IN BACKGROUND, one technician showing BIOMODEM EQUIPMENT (from TBOLTS #___) with another technician shrugging curiously. (this is a set-up for further explaining the Zemo/John Watkins switch)
4) CUT FLASHBACK to show CSA technicians working on the larynx equipment under the supervision of WARTON.
PAGE THIRTEEN
1) Their continued experimentation is a success and SCREAM takes humanoid form.
2) CLOSE on SCREAM, what is it? Alive? Sentient? Whose mind is inside it?
3) CUT ANGLE showing SCREAM looking over his "shoulder" from TBOLTS #51.
4) PULL BACK to show scene from #51 where SCREAM was looking back at MELISSA.
5) INSET CLOSE on MELISSA.
6) INSET CLOSE come out of FB to same face angle on SONGBIRD, but she looks grim.
PAGE FOURTEEN
1) PULL BACK to show SONGBIRD, her arms raised in surrendered, is surrounded by ARMED SHIELD AGENTS.
2) SONGBIRD is marched into a SHIELD troop transport that has settled on the thick, ashy pulverized remains of what had been Mt. Charteris.
RADEK is there, a med-kit out, helping treat injured SHIELD agents.
3) As RADEK treats some of SONGBIRD’s burns from the shorted carapace, she points at a monitor screen –
4) – showing the SHIELD fighters unsuccessfully trying to stop SCREAM/ANGAR, who is causing the skimmer attack craft to literally shake themselves apart from harmonic frequencies.
5) RADEK looks grim. Things have been pretty rough for everyone. REMEMBER, from #54 to now, we’ve only gone through the span of like 2 DAYS! It’s been exhaustive non-stop action!
SONGBIRD is still pointing to SCREAM/ANGAR.
6) Then she points to her own carapace. RADEK furrows his brow, curious, reaching for a computer pad and stylus (which all the SHIELD guys are carrying on belt clips).
PAGE FIFTEEN
1) He writes out: HOW?
2) SONGBIRD takes the stylus and starts to draw…
3) SMALL INSET showing a rough (but showing raw talent) drawing of the CARAPACE making hard sound come out, shown as pink pointed arrows.
4) SMALL INSET showing her redraw the arrows to show sound coming TOWARDS and INTO the carapace.
5) SMALL INSET showing a foot crunching down on the carapace, crushing it.
6) RADEK points to SONGBIRD, his other hand in a quizzical palm up gesture. What about you?
PAGE SIXTEEN
1) SONGBIRD shrugs her shoulders wistfully.
2) She shows the stylus screen to RADEK. On the screen is a cemetery gravestone with the words: R.I.P. written on it.
3) Stern, RADEK crosses out her gravestone drawing and motions to the SHIELD tech agents.
4) CUT TO: A fancy computer schematic is called up showing the CARAPACE’s working blueprints. RADEK, SONGBIRD and the TECHS are looking at it.
5) Two technicians look at each other, smiling grimly and nodding. This could work…
6) The techs remove SONGBIRD’s carapace.
PAGE SEVENTEEN
1) With her
uniform top down to her waist (discreetly covering her naughty
nits with her folded arms, make it sexy, vulnerable, but also
clinical), the TECHS study SONGBIRD’s bionic implants
along her neck and vocal chords.
2) She puts her uniform top back on as they start digging into the CARAPACE.
3) SHEILD Techs work on the Carapace, putting new components on it and a new sound chip board into a slot along the front.
4) CUT TO: HOVER PLATFORM with two SHIELD AGENTS and SONGBIRD (wearing the carapace again) as it streaks across the skies towards ANGAR, off in the near distance, very light tendrils of energy rising from Burton Canyon below him.
PAGE EIGHTEEN
1) CLOSE UP of the modified CARAPACE.
2) SMALL CLOSE UP as ANGAR… smiles softly…
3) SONGBIRD lets out a piercing shout – the pink energy is violently ripped towards ANGAR…
4) … and once it touches him, a feedback loop is created!
PAGE NINETEEN
1) ANGAR’s body is warped and twisted as it is sucked INTO the carapace, SONGBIRD keeps screaming to keep the loop open.
2) ANGAR’s eyes lock on to SONGBIRD’s.
3) She writes in mid-air with hard sound, "WHY?"
4) The carapace explodes, the hover platform is sent spiraling!
PAGE TWENTY
1) It crashes into the ravaged Burton Canyon streets.
2) Stunned, SONGBIRD makes sure the other two agents aren’t badly hurt.
3) She looks up at the sky.
4) Written in slowly dissipating pink hard sound (like sky writing falling apart) is ANGAR’s response: BECAUSE I WANTED TO DIE… AGAIN…
5) SONGBIRD, tosses her shattered carapace on to the ground,
6) And calmly, sadly, crushes it under her heel…
REVISED PAGE TWENTY ONE
1) CUT TO: a booted foot crushing down hard on a small, soot-covered dead bird.
2) In FG, we see MACH-3 lying unconscious, armor system lights blinking through the ashen haze… as in the BG we see a shadowy group of people approaching…
3) JOLT (in human form) lies unconscious, MACH-3 in BG. Shadow groups is closer.
4) BG JOLT as FG is MOONSTONE her conscious body partially phased through debris and soot, ashen wastelend.
5) BG MOONSTONE as we see FG DALLAS RIORDAN, human form, unconscious, wisps of ionic energy hover over her, almost like a ghost.
6) BG DALLAS as in FG we see FIXER, conscious, his tech pack tending to his cuts, abrasions, etc. as he slowly staggers to his knees.
7) TIGHTER on FIXER, hearing sounds through the chemical haze as the shadows move towards him.
8) FIXER's eyes go wide as he hears the telltale click of a gun safety and the barrel pressed against his temple.
Page 22
A group of super powered villains: Baron Zemo, the original Moonstone, Destroyer, Solaar, and two other unnamed figures look down on Fixer.
Thunderbolts rating: 7.5 out of 10
Probably my highest rated ‘Nuff Said book. The concept that keeps them from talking makes sense to me and also feels like it fit right into the story. The origin of Scream is a cool one. I do still wish that this was a book with some text in it because I think there is some much deeper character development to be had with Songbird. Bagely does a better than average job with the art, but I guess it’s true when they say that you can’t go home again. Maybe it’s just that Bagely has spent so much time drawing high school girls, but what happened to his Songbird. All of a sudden she looks like Marvel’s answer to Ally McBeal.