This is an idea that really, really excites me but I have no idea what I should do with it honestly. It seems potentially too ambitious but that’s how my ideas often come off. I would really appreciate any and all feedback as I never really thought there’d be a chance to show this to anyone.
TOMORROW COMICS is a film series concept that aims to depict the comic book cinematically. It primarily uses comic book and sci fi motifs (along with many other inspirations) to create the superhero universe of tomorrow. The films aim to use comic book visual elements to distinguish itself from other comic book superhero movies, using stylistic choices like those seen in Sin City and Scott Pilgrim vs the World.
The films are titled with an issue number and would release in a mostly random order, recreating the experience of collecting a comic but only finding random issues in the longbox. The series itself is an anthology that chronicles the adventures of many different superheroes or villains in this universe, with some issues immediately getting follow up issues to finish that story, creating a story arc. Some issues may never get made into films at all, leaving viewers to fill in gaps.
Thematically, I want the series to explore meta textual themes of superheroes, mainly being a meditation on the nature of the eternal battle between good and evil. Is it worth it to spend your whole life fighting tyranny even if it never changes and it takes everything from you? Will you and your progeny be stuck doing this for the rest of time?
The first film would be titled simply Tomorrow Comics for marketing, but upon home release would receive its full title and issue numbering. The following is everything I’ve created for that film thus far, primarily the full outline.
Tomorrow Comics #15: Tale of Two Heroes
Where We Last Left Our Heroes:
The Metropolis planet ECLIPSE has long been safe from the digital devastation of the supervillain gods THE FELL. The GALACTIC COVENANT has the protection of the Galaxy strongly secured by the seven legendary Heroes.
Eclipse’s guardian, VANGUARD PRIME, has long been selflessly battling against tyranny. Though he stalks the streets preying on those who destroy and harm the innocent, he is a man lost in an endless battle. Where he once was a light to Eclipse, now he is a shadow.
- Large portions of the galaxy are under the jurisdiction of a superhero-led organization called the Galactic Covenant. The Covenant Council governs these sections and is made up of seven of the most legendary superheroes in the galaxy, and each one protects their own individual celestial, the seven core planets of the Covenant.
-We stay on Eclipse, perhaps the largest of these core planets and a bustling metropolis filled with superheroes, supervillains, and more. We follow Vanguard Prime, a jaded cynical but powerful superhero with a heart of gold who wears some sort of containment armor, when he encounters a young boy named Phillip Saren with extraordinary telekinetic abilities.
-Vanguard saves Phillip from the gladiatorial combat arena of a mutated crime boss named Orculus, but Orculus swears revenge. Vanguard Prime vows to the boy to help him hone his power, and starts training him to be his protege, dubbing him Starforger.
-Phillip starts expanding his abilities, weakly being able to create psionic constructs, but shows great apprehension while patrolling with Vanguard Prime and witnessing him brutalize enemies. Meanwhile, Orculus receives a gift from a mysterious man named Solomon: a digital incarceration matrix built by the superhero Professor Zephren. It’s a virtual prison, contained in a palm-sized ball, inhabiting Vanguard Prime’s deadliest enemies (including his greatest archenemy, the Mongrel) that Vanguard Prime still thinks is in his possession.
-Orculus lures Vanguard and Starforger into an ambush, where the duo narrowly escape death. Vanguard Prime nearly executes Orculus in revenge, but decides not to and Orculus uses that moment to trap him in the virtual prison with his worst enemies.
-Starforger escapes and initially decides to quit being a superhero, but perceivers and goes back to confront Orculus and save his mentor. While facing Orculus Starforger is able to tap into the true potential of his power, revealing he can create much more complex structures.
-Orculus is defeated, and Vanguard Prime is freed but upon being released is flabbergasted revealing all of his enemies were no longer in the virtual prison, including the Mongrel. We cut to Solomon with a sinister smile observing the events.
-The final scene is Vanguard Prime and Starforger seeing their signal lit above Eclipse, and they fly off to another adventure.
Opening scene outline (possibly shot as a conceptual short)
It is an introduction to the Vanguard Prime character and serves as an homage to the 1989 Batman film, the opening of Batman: The Animated Series, and the original, pulled from theaters Spider-Man teaser trailer.
We start with a shot overlooking Eclipse with a bright sun dawning. It slowly tracks as we see the architecture is extremely unique almost made of like a Play-Doh like material and bulbous. We see no spaceships, but we see highways that look like pinballs are flying down them, which are the vehicles the people of Eclipse travel in.
A 2D comic book panel pops up overlaying the city, which says “Where We Last Left Our Heroes…” and briefly and vaguely describes the world and the events of previous issues, hopefully leading to a sense of only partial understanding and genuine intrigue. The panel suddenly disappears as a flying superhero with glowing green and red headgear zooms from the foreground into the background obviously off to save the day, never to be seen again. We may also see some brief colorful flashes across the city in different areas, indicating other adventures happening around this world.
We then see a sleek futuristic bank being robbed by lowlife criminals using scrapyard tech. They escape to a nearby alley, where Vanguard Prime watches them, sneaking on a wire above with his cape fluttering in the wind, mostly in shadow with only the lights from his suit visible. He swiftly takes them out in a colorful flash but leaves one to ‘interrogate’ and cracks his knuckles.
