Komodo - Monsters - Arby Moay

Panel 1
We are in the West Philadelphia High School field, where a basketball game is happening between Black Jersey's and White Jersey's. A player on Black Jersey's has just scored an in-your-face dunk against a player in White Jersey's.

MELATI (OP): So... this is what you do, huh?


Panel 2
We see Melati Kusuma, a.k.a. Komodo, in her human form approaching Flash Thompson, a.k.a. Agent Venom, also in his human form. Both of them are in a wheelchair, Melati has a cloth covering her thighs to hide her missing legs while Flash does not. Flash is carrying a clipboard.

FLASH: Sometimes, yeah.
FLASH: Didn't think you'd actually come.
MELATI: Eh. I didn't really have anything better to do.


Panel 3
Back up a bit. We see Melati and Flash watch the game, with some awkward tension between them. Coach Yates, middle-aged balding guy with a mustache and Coach of Flash's school, is yelling. Some players are running across the panel.


Panel 4
Similar framing as Panel 3.

MELATI: Isn't this a little frustrating for you, "Coach"? I mean, you could easily outpace any of these guys in your... other form.
FLASH: Assistant coach. And sure, sometimes. But it's nice to feel like a normal human being from time to time.


Panel 5
Close-up on Melati. We see her full human body overlapped by her transparent Komodo form.

MELATI: Well, maybe, I dunno. I've wanted to be able to run for so long... I think I'd rather look like a monster than sit in a chair.


Panel 6
Close-up on Flash.

FLASH: You're lucky, then. Difference between you and me? You only need to look like a monster to run...
FLASH: Me...


Panel 7
Close-up on Flash's left face. It is overlapped with the transparent left face of classic Venom.

FLASH: I am a monster.

Komodo - Where You've Been - R.A. Wonsowski

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Panel 1- KOMODO is in a Paraguayan hospital room. she is wearing scrubs and has a stethoscope slung about her neck. She is smiling gently and waving to a young girl patient with a cleft palate in an old iron bed, wearing an Operation Smile t-shirt. (Note: Komodo should look like she found an intermediary form, not so lizard-y, just enough to let her keep her legs.) The equipment should look like 70s/80s surplus medical equipment. Foreground, CAPTAIN AMERICA waits on Komodo, leaning against an empty iron bedframe. His cowl is down and his shield is on his back.

CAP: I wish you would reconsider. I've seen the tapes, you were an impressive asset to the Initiative.

CAP: And with Drs. Pym and McCoy on personal leave, we could use another Avenger with medic experience.

Panel 2- CAP and KOMODO walk down the hospital hallway. The linoleum tile on the floor is peeling and the walls are unfinished concrete. Children between 2 and 8 with cleft palates are sitting with their parents along the sides. Two teenage volunteers in yellow tees and shorts pass out small stuffed animals to the children. KOMODO's smile has gone.

KOMODO: To be an Avenger is an honor and a calling of the highest order...

KOMODO: But again, Captain, I must say no.

Panel 3- KOMODO and CAP stop at a water cooler. KOMODO holds two small paper cones in one hand while working the spigot with the other.

KOMODO: Take Pym and Beast. Let us throw in Reed Richards and Dr. Strange for good measure.

KOMODO: You beat back Galactus and Kang and Immortus and Dormammu. Congratulations.

Panel 4- KOMODO passes a water cone to CAP as she gestures with hers.

KOMODO: You cured the Legacy virus and isolated vampire anticoagulants. Amazing scientific breakthroughs.

KOMODO: And for all your genius, you could not stop a mundane cancer from killing the Kree Captain Marvel.

Panel 5- CAP and KOMODO, their backs to us now, are walking out two glass double doors. The sweltering sun outside silhouettes the pair as they exit the hospital. CAP has turned from KOMODO in shame, and passes his water to an old woman sitting cross-legged on the floor.

KOMODO: If you really want to make the world a better place, find a cure for AIDS. Design crop mutations that grow in desert climes.

KOMODO: Strap the Palestinian and Israeli premiers to their chairs and don't feed them until they bang out a treaty.

Panel 6- CAP and KOMODO are surrounded by children playing soccer in a dirt lot outside the hospital. KOMODO'S arms are spread wide as if to embrace the world.  CAP looks perplexed more by the children running around him than by her argument.  A little GIRL in a dirty yellow dress tugs on the leg of KOMODO's scrubs.

KOMODO: Beating the crap out of another man-child in spandex solves nothing.

KOMODO: This...

Panel 7- KOMODO bends at the waist to face the GIRL, sternly wondering why the interruption.

NO COPY

Panel 8- The GIRL throws her arms around KOMODO's neck in an enthusiastic expression of thanks. KOMODO's eyes are wide with surprise.

SoundFX:  *hug!*

Panel 9- The GIRL runs off to join the game. KOMODO gestures to her as both she and CAP smile at each other, KOMODO from the unexpected affection, CAP for finally understanding.

KOMODO: That is how you change the world.

Komodo - Too Much Too Fast - Niel Jacoby

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Panel 1: Wide shot of a large desert, with a H.A.M.M.E.R. rover driving toward a large crater. The crater has been there for a while.

Cap: INITIATIVE FILE: KOMODO

LAST KNOWN LOCATION: MOJAVE DESERT--THOUGHT MISSING AFTER A.I.M. CHEMICAL BOMBARDMENT 3 MONTHS AGO

Panel 2: Commander Hill and a lackey are walking into a sizable cave-like formation in the crater.

Hill: WHAT'S THE THEORY, SOLDIER? NERVE POISON? ANTIDOTE TO THE LIZARD FORMULA? SOME NEW PATHOGEN THAT TURNS YOUR LUNGS TO SAND AND YOUR BLOOD TO GLASS?

Lackey: WELL, MA'AM, IT'S-

Panel 3: Hill and the lackey are just outside a darkened corridor in the formation, with what, from this distance, looks to be a vine coming out of it.

Hill: IT'S A VITAL MEMBER OF OUR INITIATIVE FORCES, SOLDIER!

Lackey: NO, NO, MA'AM. IT'S JUST BEEN INCREDIBLY DIFFICULT TO PINPOINT THE LOCATION, AND THEN ON TOP OF THAT WE HAD TO FIND OUT EXACTLY WHAT THE BOMBARDMENT WAS.

Hill: AND? I DON'T JUST ASK YOU TO TELL ME ABOUT THE PROCCESS, I EXPECT RESU-

Panel 4: Hill is staring, shocked, into the corridor in the rock. The lackey is distressed, but not surprised.

Lackey: THE RESULT KIND OF SPEAKS FOR ITSELF. THE A.I.M. BOMBARDMENT HAD A PAYLOAD OF LIZARD FORMULA--

Panel 5: Wide shot of what's in the corridor: Komodo, who is incredibly gaunt due to being stuck in the desert for weeks, and covered in extra, budded limbs, growing from all over her body.

Lackey: --AN OVERDOSE.

Komodo - Us vs. Them - J.D. Coughlan

Follows on from this script.

Panel 1: The same shadowy room from the last page. Doctor Connors sits tied to a chair, the lizard-man standing over him, gloating. Other lizard-people standing in the background in robes.

MAN: So, Dr. Connors, if you will simply revert back to your true form...

Panel 2: The lizard-man turns to look at one of the robed figures (Komodo) elbowing another in the face. The other guys in robes are also startled.

KOMODO: Sorry to gatecrash the party.

SFX: CRACK

Panel 3: Komodo, still concealed by her robe, fights off the other robed guys, successfully. The lizard-man watches in shock.

SFX: POW

SFX: THUMP

MAN: What is--!? How dare you intrude on a sacred ceremony! The Order will not let you live!

Panel 4: Close up as Komodo punches the lizard-man hard in the face.

SFX: CRUNCH

Panel 5: The lizard-people now all lying unconscious. Komodo pulls down her hood. Connors reacts with surprise.

CONNORS: Melati!

Panel 6: Komodo bends over to eye-level with Connors, with a serious expression.

KOMODO: If we're gonna get out of here alive, Dr. Connors, we're going to need...

KOMODO: The Lizard.

END OF PAGE

Komodo - Healing - Grant McLaughlin

So I can't really tell whether or not Komodo is currently depowered or not in continuity.  I'm going with a world where that answer is "yes" and she has been for a while.

1 - Low shot.  Melati Kusuma sitting glumly in her wheelchair is the focus of this panel, but the foreground is filled with the legs of people walking by in front of her in either direction.  She is stationary, looking longingly towards these limbs, which (if possible) look kind of like bars of a jail around her.

CAPTION (MELATI): I still miss it sometimes.

2 - Move closer to Melati.  She rubs her legs absentmindedly as she continues to look off into the distance with a frown on her face.  From the background, it's evident that she is in a park of some description.

CAPTION (MELATI): It can be tempting to think that, having lost them a second time, my life is over.

CAPTION (MELATI): That nothing I do will ever make me feel better.

3 - Someone off-panel calls to Melati, causing her to look (with some surprise) over her shoulder towards the source of the sound.

VOICE (off-panel): Melati!

CAPTION (MELATI): But life is about choices.

4 - Switch angles to an over the shoulder view of Melati.  She looks with an evident smile upon a group of women who are ready and waiting to play some wheelchair basketball.

CAPTION (MELATI): And I think it's about time to choose to be happy.

WOMAN: ...are we doing this or what?

MELATI: You better believe it!

Komodo - Catch Up - Ben Rosenthal

1.  Komodo is sitting in a room.  We see her full body, facing head on to the panel.

KOMODO
I look like a monster.  Something from a helpless child's nightmare.

2.  Exactly the same framing as the previous panel, but Komodo is now in human form.  We can see her legs are not there.

KOMODO
Or, I am the helpless child.

3.  A head shot.  Komodo is back in her lizard form.

KOMODO 
Like this, I only appear as a monster.


5.  The largest panel of the page. Komodo is back in her lizard form, stading up and walking out the room - we can see what it is now.  A visiting room in a high security prison.  She was visiting someone.  That someone is Hardball.

KOMODO
You're are one.

6.  A smaller panel of Hardball, similar to the first panel.  He is silent.  He is pensive.

Komodo – Latveria, USA – MK Stangeland Jr.

(The following comes from an idea I’ve had for a KOMODO story that I’d be inclined to try pitching to MARVEL if they ever asked if I wanted to write something for them.

The summery thus far: While driving cross-country, KOMODO stumbled upon an out-of-the-way town filled with rogue DOOMBOTS trying to live a more peaceful, DR. DOOM-free lifestyle. Also, THE CAPTAIN – last seen in NEXTWAVE – is living there too for reasons. However, soon after KOMODO showed up, so too did DR. DOOM – who is secretly actually another DOOMBOT, just a higher quality one – who started shooting up the place.)

(6 Panels)

Panel 1: KOMODO is using THE CAPTAIN’s attempt to fight DR. DOOM to high just out of sight so she can recover and think. She holds the head of DOOMBOT STEVE in her hands.

KOMODO (1): I need a plan! I don’t have the firepower to fight Dr. Doom head-on.

KOMODO (2): Why don’t any of you do anything?

SFX: (From Off-Panel) Pew! Pew!

Panel 2: Close-in focus on the head of DOOMBOT STEVE.

DOOMBOT STEVE (1): We are attempting to live a DR. DOOM-free lifestyle. That includes purging violence from our systems.

DOOMBOT STEVE (2): We keep THE CAPTAIN around to do it for us.

SFX: (From Off-Panel) tt-ZZZ!

Panel 3: THE CAPTAIN comes crashing to the ground and bounces off the ground a little as his own attempt to fight DR. DOOM gets lackluster results.

SFX: cr-UNK!

THE CAPTAIN: ☠☠☠☠ing ow!

Panel 4: KOMODO tries to hold in feelings of frustration as the scene deteriorates around her. The tail-end of THE CAPTAIN can be seen as he bounces off-panel.

DOOMBOT STEVE: What was that? Is THE CAPTAIN winning?

Panel 5: KOMODO makes a dash for it, still holding the head of DOOMBOT STEVE.

DOOMBOT STEVE: Where are we going?

KOMODO: I know some code. If I can find a computer, maybe I can re-install your backbone.

Panel 6: KOMODO continues to run for it as shots from DR. DOOM hit the ground behind her. She’s worried less about getting hit herself and more about the head of DOOMBOT STEVE getting destroyed.

SFX: BOOM!

SFX: Ker-SPLODE!

KOMODO: (Shouting, to get over the sounds of the explosions around her.) MIGHT AT LEAST BUY ME TIME TO COME UP WITH SOMETHING BETTER!

(END PAGE)

Why Komodo?

You ever have that character where you read a series, and they become one of your favorite characters from that series? But then, when it ends, they just kind of…disappear? Despite being part of a larger comic universe? You never hear about anything happening to them, they just kind of fade off? Where about the only evidence they ever existed are those comics where they showed up in the first place and any online references to them?

For me, that about sums up Melati Kusuma, AKA Komodo. Created by Dan Slott for the Avengers: The Initiative series (one of the first series I read regularly when I started reading comics regularly) – her backstory was that she was a student of Dr. Curt Connors, AKA The Lizard, who was missing her legs and fixed his lizard formula.

Well, the part that makes you crazy, at least. Which gave her the power to change into a lizard woman at will with a healing factor that’s just this side of the likes of Wolverine and Deadpool. Granted, she has to stay as a lizard woman if she wants to keep her legs, but it’s not really anything she seems to have a problem with.

Pile on top of that the genius she has which allowed her to get said powers – genius I would argue allows her the potential to join the ranks of other B-Level geniuses of the Marvel Universe like Beast and Spider-Man – and both her dedication and flat-out skill as a superhero that made her one of the top recruits of the Initiative series, and you have someone with a lot going for her.

Which makes it sad that, since The Initiative ended, she’s all but disappeared from the Marvel U. She’s popped up a couple times since then, but for the most part? Nada. It’s especially troubling since the guy who created her is currently the Spider-Man writer. The same Spider-Man who has Dr. Connors, The Lizard, as a long-time enemy.

That’s ‘Why Komodo’. Because I know she has a lot of potential that’s being wasted right now, and I want to see how much of that potential we can use here at Thought Balloons this week.

That includes any play at home writers who’d also like to have a go at it! As always, if you’d like to write a script this week, feel free to post it in the comments section of this ‘Why?’ below!

The Lizard – Intra-Species Rivalry - MK Stangeland Jr.

(To all our US readers out there, I'd like to first take a moment to wish all of you a happy Independence Day! Even if, technically, the time difference between this and when I'm scheduled for means that July 4th isn't until tomorrow. Time differences can be weird that way. But what the hey!)

(KOMODO is hunting down LIZARD, and has tracked him to a water treatment facility where he attacked her.)

(6 Panels)

Panel 1: LIZARD tries to grab KOMODO as she attaches to his back, her legs wrapped around his torso and her arms grabbing him in a choke hold.

LIZARD: Fixxed it? You ruined it-tssss!

LIZARD: You could have been my equal!

Panel 2: LIZARD tries to slam into a wall to shake KOMODO off. KOMODO has let her legs go of LIZARDs torso and thrown them up behind her to catch herself against the wall instead.

LIZARD: Instead you’re nothhing but a cheap mockery!

Panel 3: KOMODO pushes herself up into the air off of LIZARD with her arms. LIZARD tries futilely to reach back for where KOMODO was in the previous panel.

KOMODO: You mean a ‘dime-store version’?

Panel 4: Still upside down in the air, KOMODO slashes her claws across LIZARDs eyes to temporarily blind him.

KOMODO: I’ve heard that one before.

SFX: Slissh!

LIZARD: RrrAAGH!

Panel 5: KOMODO lands on all fours, hunched down and facing LIZARD’s direction.

KOMODO: If it means not loosing my mind, then I live with it.

Panel 6: Wide panel as we see a side view of LIZARD, his eyes not yet having grown back, lunging at the sound of KOMODO’s voice. KOMODO leaps up so that LIZARD will move right under her, with her arms spread out and ready to grab LIZARD as he travels underneath her.

SFX: Kk-HHHHH!

(END PAGE)