Rhyno - Lights, Camera, Action! - Niel Jacoby

Panel 1: Rhino is in a locker room, psyching himself up. The benches and lockers are reinforced.

Cap(Rhino): I BEEN TRYIN' TA GO STRAIGHT FOR A WHILE NOW, BUT NOTHIN' EVER SEEMED TA STICK

Panel 2: Flashback, Rhino, in a tailored security guard outfit, the hat hanging off his horn, stands at the door of a bank.

Cap(Rhino): I TRIED SECURITY GUARDIN', BUT TURNS OUT A GIANT SCHMUCK IN A RHINO SUIT DON'T MAKE PEOPLE FEEL ALL DAT SECURE.

Panel 3: Flashback, Rhino is standing next to Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is at least a head shorter and narrower than him.

Cap(Rhino): TRIED STUNTMAN WORK, BUT THEY COULDN'T FIND ANYONE DAT I FIT IN TERMS A SIZE, IF YA KNOW WHAT I MEAN.

Panel 4: Flashback, Rhino is at a construction site, and the Wrecking Crew is scowling at him.

Cap(Rhino): EVEN TRIED DEMOLITION WORK, BUT TURNS OUT THERE WERE ALREADY GUYS WORKIN' DAT BEAT.

Panel 5: Rhino is standing in gorilla position in the UCWF(Unlimited Class Wrestling Federation) Arena in New York City, right about to go through the curtain. There's a heavyset guy with a ponytail sitting at a little table watching a monitor, and Rhino is talking to him.

Rhino: YOU THINK I'LL DO ALRIGHT, PAULIE?

Paulie: AH, DON' WORRY ABOUT IT, I BOOKED YOU AGAINST THE BEST GUY IN THAT LOCKER ROOM. JUST LISTEN TO HIM, AND YOU'LL HAVE THE HANG OF THIS IN NO TIME.

PA: APPROACHING THE RING AT 355 POUNDS, HAILING FROM LINCOLN NEBRASKA, THE DEMOLITION MAN!

Panel 6: Rhino is walking out to the ring, loudly arguing with children in D-Man shirts in the front row.

Cap(Rhino): I THINK I'M GONNA LIKE THIS GIG.

PA: APPROACHING THE RING AT 385 POUNDS, HAILING FROM NEW YORK CITY, RHIIIIIINOOOOOO!

The Rhino - Osborn's Six - J.D. Coughlan

Basically, the Sinister Six re-imagined as an "Ocean's Eleven" style heist crew in the 1960s. Slick con artist Norman Osborn has begun to recruit his team.

Panel 1: A seedy dive bar. Criminal types fill the place. They are all giving Aleksei Sytsevich, who sits in the foreground at the bar, the stink-eye. He is wearing braces over a vest, and a flat-cap. A large pint of beer sits in front of him, and he stares at it intensely.

OSBORN (O.P.): This seat taken?

ALEKSEI: Is free country.

Panel 2: Same shot, Osborn now moves to sit next to Aleksei. Osborn is grinning smugly, dressed in a sharp dark green suit and purple tie. His hair is greased back, but still looks a bit like his usual weird cornrows. Aleksei continues staring intently at his drink, ignoring Osborn.

OSBORN: Heh. Yes it is, Aleksei, yes it is.

OSBORN: I have to assume that's why you moved here from the good ol' U.S.S. of R.

Panel 3: Reverse angle. The other patrons are now in the foreground. Some are still giving Aleksei dirty looks, but not as many. Osborn has swivelled round to look at them, leaning back on the bar. Aleksei still has his back to us.

OSBORN: America! The land of opportunity! Not many opportunities for a dirty commie though, right?

Panel 4: Close up side view of the two men. Aleksei closest to us. He looks up, but still not at Osborn. Osborn leans back so we can see him behind Aleksei, still grinning.

ALEKSEI: Please do make point, man-who-knows-my-name, or you will to be leaving through window.

OSBORN: How d'you like to achieve the American dream, Aleksei -- money -- and lots of it?

OSBORN: See, I'm putting together a little team for a pretty big job, but my intentions are somewhat... sinister.

Panel 5: Back to front view. Aleksei now looks at Osborn for the first time.

ALEKSEI: How many men you have?

Panel 6: Close up of Osborn's hand as he holds up two fingers.

CAPTION: To be continued...

END OF PAGE

I may keep this going with future Spidey villains picks, we'll see.

Rhino – Rhino Saves the Marvel Universe – MK Stangeland Jr.

(6 Panels)

Panel 1: RHINO is in the middle of a street somewhere in NEW YORK CITY, but an area where there’s not a lot of human activity right now, though there are cars nearby.

Floating in the air nearby, and looking down at RHINO, is DR. DOOM.

DR. DOOM: No longer shall I tolerate you foiling the plans of DOOM.

RHINO: I don’t know what yer’ talkin’ about. I ain’t been trying to foil anyones anything. I just want…

Panel 2: Focus on DR. DOOM as he points his arms down and prepares to shoot RHINO.

DR. DOOM (1): SILENCE!

DR. DOOM (2): Face your DOOM and prepare to perish like a man!

Panel 3: RHINO picks up a large car and holds it in front of him to block the shot from DR. DOOM.

SFX: BZZZU!

RHINO: $%*#!

Panel 4: RHINO shakes the car in front of him. The car looks like it’s super-heated.

RHINO: HOT! HOT! HOT! HOT! HOT!

Panel 5: RHINO tosses the car away from him. He doesn’t pay much attention to where he’s throwing it, but the direction it goes puts it on a path that will cause it to land on top of where DR. DOOM is currently floating in the air.

DR. DOOM (1): FOOL! You only delay the inevitable!

DR. DOOM (2): Surrender and DOOM may…

Panel 6: The car that RHINO threw in PANEL 5 comes down and lands on top of DR. DOOM, exploding when it does.

SFX: Car-BOOM!

RHINO: Wait, what?

(END PAGE)

Rhino - Handle With Care - Grant McLaughlin

Four rows of panels.  Panel 1 and 8 are their own rows (one and four), extending slightly further to the left and right than rows two and three (which are made up of panels 2-4 and 5-7, respectively).

1 - Rhino stands on the street, looking wistfully into a storefront window.  From the framing, we can't see what the store is or what's within that window.  All we have to go on is the longing of Rhino's body language - he places a hand on the window, as if he could reach whatever it is that holds his attention.

RHINO (1): *sigh*

RHINO (2): One day.

2 - Rhino stands, surprised and sheepish, holding a blinged-out car door that he has just ripped off of its frame while trying to open it.  Overdrive looks out from the driver window in surprise and frustration.

OVERDRIVE: My getaway car!

RHINO (quietly): Sorry.

3 - Close-up of a deck of cards on a card table.  The deck is all ripped, rumpled, and wrecked - it's completely unusable.  In the background, it's clear from the colourful costumes that supervillains have gotten together to play a hand or two.

OFF-PANEL: So it's agreed: Rhino never shuffles again.

4 - Rhino sits at a desk, his bulky frame far larger than the tiny surface before him.  The desk and the ground around it is littered with broken pencils.  If you can manage it, Rhino can be in the midst of breaking yet another one while trying to write with it.  His shoulders slump in defeat.

RHINO: They've got to make these out of something stronger than wood...

5 - Rhino and Electro's faces look towards each other, framing the foreground of the panel.  Electro looks towards Rhino angerly; Rhino looks back in embarassment.  In the background between their faces it is clear they are in an elevator.  Particularly, we see the elevator controls (all the numbered buttons), which have an enormous finger indentation in them, which has clearly destroyed the panel (it can spark electricity if you'd like).

RHINO: It was like that when I got here.

6 - Rhino stands in a mixture of shock and agitation.  Before him, Shocker is doubled over, holding his arm, which is clearly in a ton of pain.

SHOCKER: That's what you call a high five?!

7 - Doc Ock is having Rhino over for tea (don't question this, just roll with it).  Doc Ock holds a fine china teacup, a delicate teapot, milk, and sugar - one in each of his tentacles.  He gestures proudly to a reinforced monster of a mug that is placed in front of Rhino.  It is huge, metalic, and surprisingly scary-looking for a drinking vessel.  Rhino once again slumps his shoulders sadly, a fact that Doc Ock seems to overlook in his pride.

DOC OCK: I think this should do perfectly well after what happened last time.

8 - Back to that first scene.  We've changed perspective, as we're now looking into that storefront Rhino was staring wistfully into.  Through the glass we can now see the object of his desire: a "Build Your Own Boat in a Bottle!" set that sits happily in the display case (with a picture of a boat in a bottle, possibly a child and father looking on happily, etc).  While this should be the focus of the panel, Rhino's face should be visible in the "reflection" - we can see that he is one sad panda (possibly shedding a tear).

RHINO: One day...

Rhino - Redemption Road, Revisited - R.A. Wonsowski

Been a long time since I walked down Redemption Road, so....

For those of you who don't know, one of by burgeoning notebooks is filled with notes called Redemption Road. The nut of it is that Max "Electro" Dillon goes straight when he finds out he has an infant daughter, Tess.  To support her, he becomes a skip-tracer, a kind of bounty hunter for supervillains who jump bail or go fugitive from trial.  He discovers that in both roles as good guy and father, he doesn't suck at either job...

One of my ideas for "Season 2" is that as Max's business begins to grow, he enlists some unusual help to balance his workload.  And occasionally needs a...specialized...babysitter.

Layout:
123
444
444

Panel 1:  MAX at his open closet door, shrugging on a jacket made out of one of his old costumes, green with yellow lightning stripes down the front. The closet is crammed with clothes, an umbrella stroller and a folded up playpen, stuffed toys peppering throughout, including a cuddly looking Hulk toy.

MAX - ...instant Cream-o-Wheat on the counter, if she gets fussy. And don't let her near the computer...

RHINO (off panel) - Max, I can handle it!

Panel 2:  MAX at the door of his apartment, about to walk out the door, a wistful and unsure smile on his face.

MAX - I'm not saying you can't, just Tess can be a handful, y'know?

Panel 3: Continuation of Panel 2, RHINO is on the sofa bouncing two-year-old TESS on his knee. Both are smiling, and TESS is lightly sparking with electric glee.

RHINO - My friend, your daughter is an absolute joy. Look how happy. What could possibly happen?

Panel 4: Foreground, RHINO is charging scared, cradling TESS like a football, who is giggling heartily.  RHINO clotheslines two SKRULLS in his mad dash.  Behind them, giant gamma irradiated space slugs are chasing them through Central Park, green lasers bouncing off his hide and knocking down trees. Up in the night sky, flying saucers are illuminating the scene in yellow light.  A circular inset panel in the lower right hand corner features the heads of DEADPOOL and THOR.

RHINO - EEEEEEE!!!

TITLE CARD - ADVENTURES IN BABYSITTING - a Wonsowski-Lim joint

CAPTION - featuring Deadpool & Thor!

DEADPOOL - The Super-buddies!

THOR - (mildly annoyed) I say thee nay.

Rhino - The First Crack - Simon McDonald

PANEL ONERhino slams his horn into the opaque wall of his high-tech prison cell. Outside of it, safe, a guard watches on, a smug smile plastered on his face.

RHINO

Grrraaaah!!

 

SFX

CRUNCH!

 

PANEL TWO

The guard guffaws as Rhino pants from his exertions, his face contorted by rage.

 

 

GUARD

You're as thick as your hide, aintch'a?

 

RHINO

Mention my wife again - -

 

PANEL THREE

Tight on the guard.

 

GUARD



Your wife makes me sick, you Goddamn freak.

Marrying an animal like you.

May she rot in hell for her sins.

 

PANEL FOUR

Rhino rams the wall again. Same result. Nothing. The guard already has his back turned, walking away.

 

SFX

Crack! 

 

RHINO

KILL YOU!

 

GUARD

Yeah?

How you gonna do that, huh?

 

PANEL FIVE

Rhino slumps to his knees, head resting against the wall. Exhausted. Defeated.

 

GUARD

(off panel)

I'm out here - -

 

PANEL SIX

Pull back. Rhino's lifted his head. On the wall, precisely where he smashed into it, is a tiny crack. Not much. But enough.

 

GUARD

(off panel)

- - and you're in there.

 



Rhino - Blind Date - Ben Rosenthal

1.  Rhino is walking down a New York street on a wet and windy night.  He wears a hooded jumper over his Rhino suit (as he cannot take it off).  The hood is pulled up to try and disguise his horn.  Rhino's head is down, hands in the pockets of his hoodie, trying to blend in to the crowd.  Due to his size it isn't very successful, but people seem happy to ignore him.

CAPTION (Rhino)
I'm strong.  I can crush a car with my hands if I want.


2.  Side on.  Rhino is standing out front of a movie theatre.  He has a nervous smile on his face, and is waving hello to her.  In front of him is a female, obviously dressed for a date.  She is pleased to see him, although unsure what to think of this hulking mass in front of her in a sweat shirt.

CAPTION (Rhino)
Yeah I've been slapped around by some heavy hitters in my time..


3.  Rhino is standing up straight, however the wind has caught his hood, blowing it back revealing his horn.

CAPTION (Rhino)
But this suit o'mine is bonded to my skin.


4.  The woman is looking at him in horror.  She knows who he is.

CAPTION (Rhino)
Throw what ever you want at me.


5.  Rhino is alone in an empty apartment, lonely and sad.

CAPTION (Rhino)
I can't feel a thing.

Why The Rhino?



The Rhino came to be when thug-for-hire Aleksei Mikhailovich Sytsevich volunteered for an experiment that bonded a super strong polymer to his skin. Naturally, this polymer suit- similar to a rhinoceros's hide, and outfitted with twin horns that can penetrate steel - augmented Sytsevich's strength and speed, and turned him into one of Spider-Man's strongest villains.

And now, a character featuring in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, portrayed by Paul Giamatti.

Here's the truth: I don't recall any standout Rhino stories. I can't pinpoint any quintessential Spidey versus Rhino moments. Not to worry: lets create some in our scripts this week.

And, uh, if you want to fill me in on the best Rhino stories? That's what the comments are for!