Velvet - Two Roads Converged - Niel Jacoby

Full Splash: Interior of a normal-seeming office building, in a corner office. It is obviously after hours, and the only light is moonlight shining in through the windows. Velvet Templeton is opening the door of the office just in time to notice Nick Fury, Agent Of Shield lowering himself in from an air duct. They are both surprised to see the other.

Velvet Templeton – Didn’t See That Coming – MK Stangeland Jr.

(6 Panels)

Panel 1: The headquarters of a criminal organization. The organizations LEADER and an OFFICER are standing next to a table covered in various planning materials, including numerous papers.

TELEVISON: …are unsure as to who was behind the failed attack, but did state that it is currently their top priority.

Panel 2: The LEADER turns to the OFFICER.

LEADER: Explain to me again how our carefully and brilliantly constructed plan to assassinate the very head of ARC-7 itself failed?

Panel 3: The OFFICER gets defensive as he tries to avoid getting any further ire thrown his way.

OFFICER: It was his secretary! Somehow she made a mockery of the entire operation!

Panel 4: The LEADER facepalms.

LEADER: And nobody, not once, ever considered she might come into play somehow?

OFFICER: We didn’t have anything to give us reason to suspect…

Panel 5: The LEADER flips the table over in a burst of rage.

LEADER: WELL THEN SOMEONE ROYALLY &%$#^* UP BIG-TIME!

Panel 6: The LEADER rushes to get in the OFFICER’s face.

LEADER: OUR ENTIRE OPERATION – OUR ENTIRE ORGANIZATON – IS IN JEPORDY OF BEING COMPROMISED BECAUSE EVERYONE THOUGHT IT WOULD BE A GOOD IDEA TO WRITE OFF HIS SECRETARY AS A NOBODY!

(END PAGE)

Velvet - Hard Day, Night - Grant McLaughlin

1 - Night time.  A hotel in an exotic European country in the late 40s / early 50s - Velvet's early career.  She limps back into the room through the balcony door.  Holding an unremarkable briefcase in one hand, she is bloodied and broken.  Her face is a series of cuts and swellings.  She trails blood after her.

CAPTION (VELVET): Everyone has bad days.

2 - Flashback.  Close-up on Velvet's face.  It is about as damaged as panel 1, although her wounds look a whole lot fresher.  Her head is tilted down and she looks dazed (perhaps a little out of it).

CAPTION (VELVET): When all the choices you've made seem like the wrong ones.

3 - Pull back to reveal Velvet is at the mercy of three mean looking mugs.  She is on her knees, flanked by two of them.  One of the baddies has grabbed her by the hair and pulled her head back so she is looking up.  She finds herself starring down the barrel of a gun held by the third starring down barrel of a gun of the third man.  This seems to shock her back to reality, as her eyes widen in realization of what's happening.

CAPTION (VELVET): When your doubts and failures stare you right in the face.

4 - Still flashbacking, but a quick jump forward in the timeline.  The three men are down for the count - the manner of their dispatching can be up to you.  The important thing is that Velvet walks away from them - probably with that unremarkable briefcase.  While in serious pain, a look of determination is clear on her face.

CAPTION (VELVET): You know that by the light of day, most of it won't seem quite so bad.

5 - Back to the hotel.  Velvet stands near a dresser / end table in the hotel, looking at the briefcase that she is holding in both hands.  The room's bar service should be visible on that surface, including at least one bottle of liquor.

CAPTION (VELVET): But by night?

6 - Velvet sits (has collapsed?) on the floor in front of her bed.  She looks down at the drink in her hand.  The briefcase lies off to the side, discarded and forgotten.  In the panel foreground off to one side, a near empty liquor bottle should sit on the surface from the previous panel.

NO COPY

Velvet - A Long Line of Dead Men - Simon McDonald

PANEL ONE
We are in a lavish hotel room. Velvet Templeton is attaching a silencer to her handgun. In the background a slightly overweight man is seated smugly on the couch, cigarette dangling from the side of his mouth, seemingly unperturbed by Velvet's presence, or the gun. He's dressed in a suit, the jacket draped over the couch's arm. His name is Paul Lambert (new character, no reference).

CAPTION

London, 1948

LAMBERT

The Service is in disarray.

Sending a woman to do a man's job.

PANEL TWO
Silencer attached, the gun is now turned on Lambert. Velvet's reciprocating Lambert's smug smile.

VELVET

Oh, I don't work for Military Intelligence.

PANEL THREE

Lambert rolls his eyes, the weapon still aimed at his head.

LAMBERT

Be a dear and put the gun down.

You don't know what you're doing. 

The future you're staring at if you pull that trigger.

PANEL FOUR

On Velvet - no response.

PANEL FIVE

Lambert locks eyes with her, trying to talk his way out of this.

LAMBERT

Ask yourself if you're prepared for what comes next.

The first one is easy. But then there's the second. A third. More.

Are you honestly prepared for the long line of dead men who will haunt

your dreams?

PANEL SIX

On Velvet as she squeezes the trigger

SFX

SPUT!

VELVET

We'll see.

Why Velvet Templeton?

There is more to Velvet Templeton than meets the eye.

By day she works as the secretary to the Director of ARC-7, an elite covert operations organization. But in a previous life, Velvet was an operative of ARC-7, one of the best, until taking up her current role behind a desk.

In other words, Velvet is a badass Moneypenny, who wouldn't put up with James Bond's macho bullshit.

At time of writing, Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting's espionage series has just completed its first arc. It is absolutely fantastic, the kind of spy story I've been missing since Greg Rucka's Queen & Country was placed on perpetual hiatus.

I'm sure Velvet's world will prove a fun sandbox for our writers to play in.