Eclipso - Infinities - Travis M. Holyfield

Panel 1: An asteroid in deep space. The landscape is a blasted, rocky wasteland. THANOS sits on a magnificent throne. His BLACK ORDER (Black Dwarf, Corvus Glaive, Ebony Maw, Supergiant, Proxima Midnight) wait on one knee before him, their backs to us..

THANOS: What have you brought me today, my Cull Obsidian?

Panel 2: Corvus Glaive reaches forward to place something in Thanos' outstretched hand.

Panel 3: Thanos looks into his opened hand, gazing at the treasure he holds.

THANOS: This. 

THANOS: This is not an Infinity Gem.  

Panel 4: In the foreground Thanos' hand holds up a sliver of a black diamond. Past this we can see that the faces of the Black Order are eclipsed, half normal, half in darkness - the mark of ECLIPSO.

Panel 5: A shadowy, spectral ECLIPSO stands behind Thanos' throne, gazing lovingly at the diamond in the Mad Titan's hand. We see that Thanos' face is now eclipsed. 

ECLIPSO: No, Thanos of Titan. It is not.

ECLIPSO: It is something so much finer.

Eclipso – E-CLIP-SO! – MK Stangeland Jr.

(7 Panels)

Panel 1: ECLIPSO, surrounded by a storm of dark diamond fragments that swirl around him. Musical notes accompany the words.

TEXT (1): E-clip-so!

TEXT (2): A terrifying beast of diamonds!

Panel 2: ECLIPSO holds the HEART OF DARKNESS out above and in front of him - with the HEART OF DARKNESS in the foreground – in a way that’s overly dramatic in some manner that’s some mix of triumphant and longing. Musical notes accompany the words.

TEXT (1): E-clip-so!

TEXT (2):The Heart of Darkness is what binds him!

Panel 3: ECLIPSO, in his original form, as his powers are ripped out of him and begin to form into the HEART OF DARKNESS. Musical notes accompany the words.

TEXT (1): e-CLIP-so!

TEXT (2): A fallen angel who was wronged once!

Panel 4: ECLIPSO put in a pathetic looking light, looking far more a victim than a villain. Musical notes accompany the words.

TEXT (1): E-clip-so!

TEXT (2): No one really understands him!

Panel 5: ECLIPSO, as through he’s singing the finale to some big musical number, surrounded by some kind of chorus backing him up.

TEXT (1): E-clip-so!

TEXT (2): e-CLIP-so! E-clip-so! E-CLIP-SO!

Panel 6: A Hollywood executive meeting room.

EXECUTIVE (1): So it’s a musical about Eclipso, but it’s his side of the story?

WRITER (1): It worked for Maleficent, and she’s super evil.

EXECUTIVE (2): That wasn’t a musical.

WRITER (2): It worked for Wicked. That was a musical! A wildly popular musical!

Panel 7: Close up on the EXECUTIVE.

EXECUTIVE (1): …

EXECUTIVE (2): We’ll think about it.

(END PAGE)

Eclipso - Cry Before Night - Grant McLaughlin

1 - Bruce Gordon lies in a dark room, rather worse for wear.  It looks like he's been put through the ringer - he's bloodied, his clothes are torn, he looks to have at least one broken limb.  A single lightbulb hangs above him, lighting his prone form and the pool of (presumably) blood beneath him, but little else.  Eclipso stands behind his prone form, looking away from the reader.

BRUCE (weakly): You won't win.  They'll come for me.

ECLIPSO: Will they?

2 - Eclipso walks away, towards a doorway in the background.  Bruce continues to lie in his own viscera.

ECLIPSO: What if this is the time they don't make it?

3 - Eclipso stands at the doorway, his hand at the lightswitch, still looking away from Bruce.  Bruce lies feebly on the ground, worrying about what comes next.

ECLIPSO: What if you succumb to your wounds before they arrive?

SFX: click

4 - Darkness.  Bruce's prone form is barely visible in the darkness.  Eclipso is completely unseen.

ECLIPSO (tailless balloon): Worse, what if the creature that you've dedicated your life to hunting, the ageless monstrosity that feeds on revenge...

5 - Bruce's form continues to lie in the centre of the panel.  But now, hovering right above it is Eclipso's rictus grin and devilish gaze, floating and glowing above Bruce in the dark like a perverted Cheshire Cat.

ECLIPSO (tailless balloon): ...also feeds on fear.

Eclipso - The Madding Crowd, Part 17 - Ray Wonsowski

Previous Chapter Links:

one - two - three - four - 

five - six - seven - eight - nine - ten - 10.5 -
eleven - twelve - thirteen - G - fourteen - fifteen - sixteen

Set-up: HAWK and DOVE, with the assistance of combat magicians HARRY DRESDEN and WILLIAM GRAVEL, have beaten back the Hellspiders and collapsed the Madness Gate, forcing ECLIPSO back to his fortress on the dark side of the moon. Now joined by former captives JACKIE ESTACADO, the CREEPER, SHADE the Changing Man, and ANDREW BENNETT, the heroes mount one final assault on Eclipso's throne room...

Layout: Double pager (Yeah, I know, last one, I promise...), tilt POV in all panels 45 degrees so that upper left corner is top and lower right corner is bottom.

144 444
244 445
344 455

Panel 1 - JACKIE ESTACADO, barefoot in a wifebeater tshirt and white pants, crawls toward us on his hands and knees on a dark marble floor, his left hand reaching forward, hair in his eyes. The Darkness is coming back to him, a dark amorphous pool, but tendrils are climbing over his fingertips and reaching over the back of his hand to his wrist.

ECLIPSO: (off panel) You think I need the Darkness to grind you on my wheel?

Panel 2 - SHADE, mouth open wide, clutches his gut as he vomits up a dozen Black Diamonds, excruciating pain lining his face.

ECLIPSO: (off panel) You think I need my Black Diamonds to pulverize your souls?

Panel 3 - The CREEPER raises an arm to shield his eyes from falling debris, ebony rock and dark crystal. His fear is palpable, tears streaming down his face.

ECLIPSO: (off panel) When you dare violate my sanctum? Human filth...

Panel 4 - The cathedral-like throneroom of ECLIPSO's lunar fortress. The design should be a cross between European Gothic architecture, a medieval torture chamber, and a leather bondage domination set.  Now, imagine that ECLIPSO is the room. The ceiling has fallen in, and we see earth hanging in the black sky, and ECLIPSO's giant's head and shoulders are forming out of the walls, his arms about to encircle our (tiny) heroes on the floor, slender claw-like fingers ready to tear them apart. As a reference of scale, imagine an adult with 8 Lego mini-figs. The floor is cracking, the stones are rent, and glass flies in all directions. ECLIPSO's face is pure unadulterated rage as he screams.

ECLIPSO: I WILL FLAY THE SKIN FROM YOUR BONES AND EAT YOUR HEARTS!!!

Panel 5 - The eye of the hurricane, the calm in ECLIPSO's rage-storm.  Our eight heroes stand ready to face his unholy Wrath. Front and center, side by side, SHADE, who is holding up exaggerated fists of Madness, and Jackie, now fully transformed into the DARKNESS. From center to the left: DOVE stands behind SHADE, his hand resting on Shade's shoulder, as if lending strength. HARRY DRESDEN stands behind DOVE in the same manner, his eyes hidden under his wide-brimmed hat, magic flowing through his fingertips. The CREEPER is down low behind DRESDEN in his madman's crouch, wiping the dust and tears from his face. The right side of the panel is a mirror of the lineup: HAWK's talon-like hand digging into the DARKNESS's shoulder, WILLIAM GRAVEL has one hand on HAWK's shoulder and the other with a Desert Eagle pistol drawn, both hands glowing with dark magic. ANDREW BENNETT is on all-fours, vampire thirst evident in his bared fangs. HAWK has a $#!t-eating toothy grin as he relishes the fight to come.

HAWK: Not today, you gruesome sonuvabitch.

...next week - ???...

Why Eclipso?

Because he started out as this...

...err...

...and turned out to be this...

...err...

ECLIPSO started out as both ultra-cheesy ("He's Hero and Villain...All in One!") and a bit uninspired (even writer-creator Bob Haney admitted he cribbed Batman for Eclipso's alter-ego, Bruce Gordon). He was a rather bland bad guy, fiddling about with his black diamond in overly elaborate schemes that only seemed to interest himself. Only a chance confrontation with the Phantom Stranger hinted at something more sinister...

By the awesome Mike Mignola.

Turns out, ECLIPSO was God's original Angel of Wrath, and took his job way too far. God punished him by separating his spirit from his power. Eclipso's powers were trapped in a giant black diamond on Apokolips called the Heart of Darkness, while he was banished to the dark side our moon. Somehow, both ended up on Earth, but the black diamond was cut into a thousand identical shards.

But wait, it gets worse...

Which is what Eclipso intended. He set out to possess Earth's Mightiest Heroes in "The Darkness Within", and when that plot turned to failure, he corrupted a small South American country, killed a bunch of heroes led by Bruce Gordon, and wrestled the Spectre to a standstill.

Yes, this happened.

Although Eclipso was defeated in the end, no one has taken him for granted since. He has a way of tickling our darkest impulses to the fore, and of all the rebooting of the New52, his reintroduction has been one of the more well-handled ones.

Seriously terrifying.

In short, Eclipso is the flapping of the butterfly wing that becomes the hurricane, the seductive whisper that fans the flame of want. He is the darkest corner of our soul.

Let the revels begin, indeed.