Captain America’s Shield – In The Hall Of The Mountain King – Shaun Richens.

PAGE 8.

7 PANELS.

Panels 1 and 2 take up the top of the page. 3, 4 and 5 are tall vertical panels that make up the rest of the page.

1. Tight shot on CAPTAIN AMERICA’S shield hanging on caps arm.

2. Pull back to show CAP from the waist up, he is holding the shield out in front of him as if preparing to receive a charge, his other arm is raised up in the air, his fist clenched and mouth wide open as he screams.

         CAPTAIN AMERICA: Avengers assemble.

3. A small shield aircraft is in the sky, its hanger doors wide open, the huge mass of THE HULK is crashing down towards the earth.

         HULK: Hulk is hero.

4. IRON MAN still carrying the BLACK WIDOW in his arms is lowering himself to the ground to land like a harrier jump jet.

5. A bloodied and bruised HAWKEYE is getting back to his feet using half of his broken bow to steady himself. 

Captain America's Shield- Method In His Madness- Dan Hill

I tried to come up with something different, something less obvious, for this one.

So, I took a minor detail concerning a villain and turned it into his whole raison d'etre.

Method In His Madness

Page 1 (5 panels)

1.1
A tight shot of an open manila folder sitting on a metal desk. A H.A.M.M.E.R logo sits on the inside cover. One of the photos in the file depicts a grainy shot of the MOLECULE MAN in his costume. The photo looks like it was taken by a bystander. A stamp over the photo reads ‘DECEASED’ in red type.

The text of the report is unreadable to us. The whole panel is gloomy, bathed in a warm, orange light from off panel.

MARSHA (CAP): Madness got to him long before The Sentry did.

MARSHA (CAP): They said he had a troubled childhood. They said the power went to his head.

1.2
A tight shot of a FIGURE hunched over the file. It’s Marsha Rosenberg (aka Volcana).

She’s sat at the metal desk dressed in an overcoat, t-shirt boots and jeans. The only light source in the room is a small volcanic flame protruding from her finger.

MARSHA (CAP): They didn’t know him like I did.

1.3

Small inset panel. Close up on Marsha as she looks over her shoulder, anxious that someone will catch her.

NO COPY

1.4
Large panel. We zoom out a little to see the rest of the room. We’re in a large lockup. In the middle of the room is the desk that Marsha sits at. Strewn around it are various files, boxes and journals.

Marsha picks up one of the journals with her free (non flamey) hand.

MARSHA (CAP): He saw and did things normal men couldn’t begin to understand.

MARSHA (CAP): He touched the fabric of reality and legendary relics.

MARSHA (CAP): In the end it wasn’t the god’s hammer that drove him mad, nor the herald’s board--

1.4
A TIGHT SHOT from Marsha’s POV looking at the journal. Inside we see the spidery handwriting of Owen Reece (aka The Molecule Man). Accompanying the journal entry is a picture of Captain America’s shield.

MARSHA (CAP): --but the patriot’s shield.

MARSHA (CAP): “The weirdest of all” he called it.

1.5
Marsha touches the picture of Owen from the file.

MARSHA (CAP): Something that should not be.

MARSHA (CAP): One in a million.

MARSHA: I miss you, Owen. I wish they understood.

Captain America: The Shield – Shieldboarding – MK Stangeland Jr.

(4 Panels)

Panel 1: Long panel. AGENT TASKMASTER (see my Exiles-based script from Apocalypse week for more information) is wearing a winterized version of his normal costume. He is chasing after the fleeing enemies by using CAPTAIN AMERICA’s shield – which he picked up in a different universe – as an impromptu snowboard.

AGENT TASKMASTER’s speech bubble should carry from this panel to each of his other speech bubbles on the page to indicate that everything he’s saying on this page is part of a single phrase.

AGENT TASKMASTER: D@*%, -

Panel 2: Close-up on the fleeing enemies as they turn around to fire their guns on AGENT TASKMASTER.

Again, his speech bubble continues from the previous panel and continues on to the next one.

SFX: THU-THU-THU-THU-THU!

AGENT TASKMASTER: - do I –

Panel 3: Large Panel.

AGENT TASKMASTER jumps into the air as he continues to move, causing the shield to block the oncoming gunfire even as it remains near his feet. One of his arms reaches down to the edge of the shield to help pull this off. Whichever arm does this should be reaching across to the opposite side of his body, in order for him to seamlessly move from this panel to when he’s throwing it forwards in the next panel.

Behind AGENT TASKMASTER is a ‘ghosted’ image of a snowboarder performing the same move (but with a snowboard instead of a shield) in order to show what moves AGENT TASKMASTER is copying in order to pull the maneuver off, much in a similar style to what’s been used previously when he’s copied other peoples abilities – this could potentially be a lawyer-friendly version of a famous professional snowboarder like Shawn White in order to both help get the idea across better and make the move seem all that more impressive.

Again, his speech bubble continues from the previous panel and continues on to the next one.

SFX: tink! TINK! tink!

AGENT TASKMASTER: - ever love –

Panel 4: Large panel as AGENT TASKMASTER flies towards the panel. He is throwing the shield ahead of him as he does to try to smack the two fleeing enemies with it – the way he does this should flow naturally from the previous panel.

Behind AGENT TASKMASTER is a ‘ghosted’ image of CAPTAIN AMERICA as if he were throwing the shield, indicating just who AGENT TASKMASTER is copying the move from, if it wasn’t obvious by itself.

Again, the speech bubble from this panel should continue from the previous panel.

AGENT TASKMASTER: - this shield!

(END PAGE)

Captain America's Shield - Lest We Forget - Ryan K Lindsay

PAGE 3 - 5 PANELS

1. The helicarrier sits amongst the clouds.

Caption: It’s hard not to stare.

2. We see a section of the helicarrier open, a bunch of S.H.I.E.L.D. troops sit in two aisles, kind of like the soldiers you see in the backs of helicopters waiting to be dropped off somewhere. Cap is amongst them.

Caption: You’re sitting there with America’s greatest trooper. And you’re going to follow him into battle.

3. We are now closer and we see one soldier looking across at Cap.

Caption: I’m here to do what’s right.

4. We are close on Cap now. He holds his shield in his lap so the back is facing parallel with his chest. His eyes look at the back of the shield, looking to his bottom left – the bottom right of the panel.

Caption: I might be about to save his life.

Caption: But one question keeps circling my mind…

5. The exact same panel but now Cap’s eyes look to his bottom right – the bottom left of the panel.

Caption: …is he reading something back there?

Captain America’s Shield – Some Assembly Required, Page 7 - Ben Rosenthal

PAGE SEVEN

1. Captain America’s shield is flying through the air due to the impact of the explosion from the previous page.

2. A red gloved hand has grasped the shield in mid air.

3. A pull back of the previous panel – A barely conscious and badly beaten Captain America now holds his shield.

4. Loki floats in the air, shocked that Captain America is standing. He does not notice a dark shadow beginning to cover him.

LOKI

What?

5. Hulk is coming down from a leap, reaching out for Loki. Loki has noticed right at the last moment, and is midway through teleporting out of the Hulk’s way.

LOKI

No.

6. Captain America is throwing his shield as he yells.

CAPTAIN AMERICA

He’s distracted. NOW!

Captain America's Shield - Alternatives - Grant McLaughlin

Page 7

Four rows of equal size, each made up of a single panel. Each panel frames the same shot, with the characters being the only movement.

1 – The angle has switched sides. We're looking from the doorway into the room. Natasha and Bruce are talking in the foreground. In the background, Clint has given up on Mjolnir and is trudging off-panel in a huff.

BLACK WIDOW: I don't know about that, Bruce.

BRUCE BANNER: Natasha, I know you can do it.

HAWKEYE (in background): Forget this noise.

2 – Natasha and Bruce continue talking. Natasha is rather hesitant, looking away from Bruce (and towards Clint), while Bruce is trying to reassure her. Clint (now off-panel) is going through other things in the armoury. You can see a small pile forming in the background of things he's passed on. Such items include an Ant-Man helmet, Wonder Man's sunglasses, a Nova helmet, and the like. Feel free to have some things flying through the air on their way to the pile as well.

BLACK WIDOW (1): I did a lot of bad things.

BLACK WIDOW (2): Back then.

BRUCE BANNER: But you've done a lot of good since!

CLINT (off-panel): No. No. No --

3 – Natasha and Bruce continue talking. Bruce continues to try to reassure her, but Natasha has reached a decision – just not the one Bruce was looking for.  She looks back at Bruce, more self-assured.  Clint's pile is larger, but the throwing has stopped. He's found something.

BRUCE BANNER: By my calculations, I'm 99.6% certain that you would satisfy the hammer's exigencies.

BLACK WIDOW (1): I appreciate your vote of confidence, Bruce, but I'm not ready to test that theory. Not yet.

BLACK WIDOW (2): Besides...

HAWKEYE (off-panel): Yes.

4 – Natasha has walked back a bit to where Clint is. She has grabbed something from him. Clint stumbles forward onto the panel from the force. Natasha is now holding (you guessed it!) Captain America's shield!

BLACK WIDOW: This is much more my style.

HAWKEYE: Hey!

Why Captain America's Shield?

We've already covered the man himself here at Thought Balloons, but the fact remains that Captain America's shield is an integral part of who he is.

Superheroes are iconic.  And I don't know if there's any more recognizable part of comic book lore than Cap's trusty vibranium buckler.  Some might argue that Batman's batarangs could fit the bill, but while those little guys are easily identifiable, they aren't nearly as unique or central to the Dark Knight as the shield is to America's premier Super Soldier.  That thing has been on Cap's arm or back pretty much since he first burst onto the comic book scene, and it certainly won't be leaving any time soon.

Every character who has filled-in for Steve Rogers has used the shield.  It's as much a part of who Captain America is as the man who wields it.

Every single adventure that he's gone on, the shield has been along for the ride.  I imagine that that would add up to a good number of untold stories.

I think it's time we tell some of them.

I'd also like to point out that I'm pretty sure that there aren't any other comic book accessories currently hanging on Stephen Colbert's wall, which I think we all know counts for a lot.

And that's The Word.