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 |  A hub for the "Book of Masks" universe. |
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The Interactives "The Book of Masks"  : A high school student discovers a grimoire that can make magical disguises."The Wandering Stars" : Sequel to "The Book of Masks.""Student Bodies" : A high school student is turned into a blue goo that can possess people.For non-WdC Members "The Book of Masks: Archives" : Dodges the "Servers Busy" barrier!"The Book of Masks (Abridged)" : Introductory storylines for new readers.Community "BoM/TWS Message Forum" : Community for readers of the interactives."BoM/TWS/SB Wiki" : Notes and documentation for authors. Spoilers!Current Polls None The Latest 4/29: Interactive: "Some Will Act Where Others Dare Not" 4/29: Public: "Some Will Act Where Others Dare Not" + "Third Thoughts" --> "Casting for a New Part"
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| Today's "Spider-Man" commentary (link in the commentary below) will be my last for the foreseeable future. I will have to write my "Superior Spider-Man" arc before I resume. I am ending it here though I am still two episodes short of the "Superior" starting point, and with treatments of those two episodes already written. But those two treatments—of the IRL-episodes "Brain Drain" and "The Living Brain"—formally launch the "Superior" arc by bringing Doc Ock back on-stage to execute his plan. I figure it's best, then, to save those episodes for when I start publishing my version of "Superior Spider-Man." Don't ask me when that will be. * * * In the meantime, I'll be returning to the BoM universe, this time in its sequel interactive, "The Wandering Stars" . I was commissioned to continue a side story in which Will explores what it would be like to have different ousiarchs. The chapters are going to be kind of repetitive, because they take the form of a theme and variations: Each will describe the same situation and fight, but will imagine how it would have unfolded differently with a different ousiarch for Will to use alongside Sulva.There's another storyline that may be emerging real soon, alongside whatever various solo efforts will be ongoing. It's a collaborative effort involving many of the regular contributors. It hasn't got a launch date yet, but I don't think it will be long in getting published. |
| "S02E11 "The Man Behind the Mask"" is about as close a paraphrase of the IRL-episode as is possible. I'm not fond of this version of Electro, but it does introduce her for future mayhem. The Chameleon's appearance is underdeveloped, but I like the suggestion at the end that he would play a major part in the upcoming arc, so I didn't change it. With this episode the convergence of my animated continuity and the IRL continuity is complete. |
| "S02E10 "Trick or Treat"" closely follows "Bring on the Bad Guys, Part 3," but it almost got a major rewrite. I wasn't happy to see Jack o'Lantern show up. He is very much a Green Goblin clone, and I wanted to save Green Goblin for the "Superior Spider-Man" arc, as he is an antagonist in the comic book version of that run. But I decided to make a virtue of the similarity, and to keep JoL as a one-off who sets up and anticipates the coming of the Green Goblin. So the only changes are: Acts I and II swap places. The character of Halloween Master is new. Hammerhead replaces Silvermane as the gangster (a change motivated by events in "S02E07 "A Game of Cops and Robbers"" ), and the final fight is with a cyborg henchman rather than the cyborg Silvermane. |
| "S02E09 "The Valley of Shadows"" is another close paraphrase of an IRL-episode of Season Two. The changes: In Act I, all the fighting was done by Anya Corazon in her Spider-Woman guise, with Spider-Man a helpless ping-pong ball who contributes nothing to his own survival. As I've deleted all the extra spider-people from the alternate continuity, I changed the course and climax of the fight and tried to give the series's title character more dignity while keeping the tone of Act I light. Because of those changes, I did have to invent (or at least suggest) some new business for Act I, to replace the IRL-episode's tedious grrrrl!-power bragging. Acts II and III are very close to the IRL-episode, except for the final appearance of The Master Planner and the escape of Mysterio. |
| I have little to say about "S02E8 "The Shape of Things to Come"" or the episodes that come after. This is where the IRL-series and my version of Season Two converge to set up the "Superior Spider-Man" arc. It was easiest just to bring the four-part episode "Bring on the Bad Guys" into my continuity with as few changes as necessary. In Part 1 of "Bad Guys," of which this treatment is a close paraphrase, the secondary villain was originally identified as Overdrive; I changed him to Molten Man because I thought that name better fit his metamorphic tech. Also, the bounty reveal scene originally occurred at the end of Act I; I thought it better to place it at the end of the episode, and to make Hippo/Panda-Mania's appearances a running gag. I also added an appearance by The Living Brain. I have to confess: I really like my title for this one. Besides the quotation of an H. G. Wells title, it alludes to Molten Man's shape-changing ability, and also warns that this episode is only a hint of the tribulations that await Spider-Man over the next half-dozen episodes. I am lousy at coming up with titles, so when I hit one I like, I get really pleased with myself. |
| "S02E07 "A Game of Cops and Robbers"" is the last really original episode in my fanfic until the "Superior Spider-Man" arc starts. The next batch will be very close adaptations of the episodes from the IRL-series. A lot of sweat went into this one, and I'm not sure I like it. It feels very busy and full of double-crosses and reversals that I'm not sure work. They grow out of a need to keep Spider-Man involved in a story that really doesn't concern him, and hopping from one place to another. Is there anything of note to say? While I was still working out "S02E03 "Spider-Man Behind Bars"" , which started the small arc which this episode concludes, I had an idea to bring back one of the villains that had fallen by the wayside in Season One, and for awhile that story was going to take this episode's spot. But then I decided that villain's return should be saved for the Superior Spider-Man arc. But the story I envisioned had a place for a rejuvenated Silvermane, so I used this one to establish Silvermane's rejuvenation. That introduced one item to motivate the gangsters—getting Silvermane his "medicine."I also saw a chance to bring out The Living Brain and give it more attention. |
| "S02E06 "Screwball Live"" is another near-exact adaptation of an IRL-episode, this one from Season One. I always knew it would appear at roughly this point on my version of the continuity, but it contributed in some small way to the development of the episodes around it. The IRL-episode contained a classic MacGuffin—a data drive—that nothing was done with. Which is okay (MacGuffin's shouldn't be made much of) but as I thought about the Kingpin episodes I wanted to write, it occurred to me that this one could trigger more than one story. In "Screwball Live" it contained information about Hammerhead's operations. But what if, instead, it contained information about Kingpin's operations? That was the seed of the idea (mentioned in earlier commentaries) that the city's other gangsters might go to war for the remnants of Kingpin's criminal empire, which in turn led to "S02E03 "Spider-Man Behind Bars"" and "S02E05 "What Dreams May Come"" and also to the upcoming "A Game of Cops and Robbers."So that was a fertile idea, but it didn't require any serious changes to the IRL-story. Yes, the contents of the drive had to be changed, but that was decoration, not a plot point. More important changes: Harry Osborn had to be removed and his role assigned to another character. I also decided to take Robbie Robertson out of The Daily Bugle and give him his own media company—another potential complication for the "Superior Spider-Man" arc. And I decided to continue giving The Living Brain some cameos, and to turn up the heat a little between Peter and Gwen. |
| "S02E05 "What Dreams May Come"" is the sequel to "S02E03 "Spider-Man Behind Bars"" . I've already described how Part One was constructed after I had the idea for Parts Two and Three. This one—Part Two—had a rougher genesis. My original idea—long ago—was to adapt Amazing Spider-Man #116-118, which is where Richard Raleigh originally appeared, but I had the hardest time coming up with an adapted plot that left him alive at the end, ready for more mayhem (perhaps) in the "Superior Spider-Man" arc. (One of my biggest peeves about the IRL-series was that it eliminated so many villains for Ock/Spider-Man to battle. I wasn't going to make the same mistake for my version.) In addition, he had last been seen as the new headmaster for AIM's Bilderburg Academy, a position that would have no really good connection with a race for the mayoralty. Finally, Raleigh had been introduced in "S01E04 "Ring Around the Spider-Man"" as chasing a mystical object. What was that mystical object, and why had it led him to Bilderburg? Neither question could get an obvious answer in an adaptation of #116-#118.Then, serendipity. I started watching online clips of the HBO miniseries Chernobyl. And it came to me in a flash. Literally, in the space of about five seconds. Raleigh is building the mystical equivalent of a nuclear reactor, and it goes horribly wrong. He's at Bilderburg because his design requires a merger of the magical and the scientific, and that cuneiform tablet he stole in "Ring Around the Spider-Man" is the key to it. Magic implies the presence of Doctor Strange, so I did a little reading up on that character, and came up with the idea of the Nightmare Portal as the Chernobyl equivalent. Then it was only (only! yeah, right) a matter of inventing the right pieces and putting them together so that they would connect backward to "S02E03 "Spider-Man Behind Bars"" and forward to an episode that would start a gang war.And as I worked, other ideas began to click into place. At first Mysterio was going to be involved, but I that was too complicated. Instead, one of the most haunting images of Chernobyl—men looking into the open reactor core, and turning back around with scarred faces—gave me the image of someone looking into the open portal and having his face melt off, which gave me the origin for a character that the IRL-series introduces deeper in Season Two. I also came up with a place to park Spencer Smythe for later mischief. In this way, "What Dreams May Come" became the pivot around which the first half of Season Two turned. |
| "S02E04 "Black Cats and Crossed Paths"" is closely adapted from the Season One episode "A Day in the Life." I only made a few changes to it. First, in the IRL-series's Season One, Peter has a kind of janitorial job at Horizon, and the theft occurred as he was cleaning up Max's office. So I had to alter the circumstances of the theft. Next, I added a running gag/sub-plot about J. Jonah Jameson. It just seemed to me that the story needed a little more structure to it. It also made Peter's string of "bad luck" a little more stark, because Jameson is exactly the wrong person he should be colliding with when things go badly. But mostly I just thought it was a funny idea. I also added Master Planner's appearance at the end. And I changed the title. The IRL-episode had as its conceit that this was a "typical day" in the life of Peter Parker, with Black Cat's antics interrupting his classes and his time with friends. I got rid of that, and so the original title didn't fit it anymore. I placed the episode here, immediately after "S02E03 "Spider-Man Behind Bars"" so that the events of that episode have time to rest before the sequel ensues. |
| "S02E03 "Spider-Man Behind Bars"" has no counterpart in the IRL-continuity, but like other stories "original" to my continuity, it is based in large part on a comic book story. But that's not what I started out to write. This is a story that I backed into. To fill out the 13-episode stretch that precedes the start of the "Superior Spider-Man" arc, I used IRL-episodes where I could, but there were three slots where I had to come up with something new. That was fine, for it would give me a chance to develop villains for later use. I knew I wanted episodes centered on Kingpin and Richard Raleigh, for these were characters that had been introduced in Season One but not gotten much development. I had established that there was bad blood between them, though, and so my mind turned toward making a two-part episode that pitted them against each other. I came up with Part Two first—the climax, showing their fight and the fall of the Kingpin. But before I could come up with Part One, I got the idea for a Part Three: the aftermath of the Kingpin's fall as rival gangs fought for control of his territory and resources. A good fight needs a concrete goal, however, so I settled on the idea that they would be fighting for control of Kingpin's armory, with all its valuable gear. (In Season One I had Kingpin showing a special avidity for supervillain gear.) That would also need to be set up. So with Parts Two and Three in mind I worked backwards to Part One, which would set up elements of the two sequels. First, it would show Kingpin acquiring the greatest pile of supervillain loot imaginable, so that his rivals would have a strong motive to fight for the gear. Second, it would end with a crisis that would force Kingpin into fighting Richard Raleigh, where Kingpin would fall. To fill the idea out I ransacked back issues of Amazing Spider-Man and found the idea of a prison break from #65. To instigate the plot, and to spin it around so it would link up with Part Two, I seized on the character of Leonard Owlsley, who would betray Kingpin to Raleigh. I also thought might then turn up again as a gangster in the "Superior Spider-Man" arc. The Beetle also makes an appearance, in order to set up a later cameo taken over from the IRL-series. |
| Those of you who know the IRL-series will recognize the events of "S02E02 "Between an Ock and a Hard Place"" as pivotal to the second season. But although Otto Octavius's return and the manner of his exit are taken from two episodes—"Take Two" and "Between an Ock and a Hard Place"— most everything in between has changed. In the original series, Ock was a villain and a villain all the way thru. It was he who hired Silver Sable's gang to steal the Neuro-Cortex, and he also encouraged an Octopus lookalike in a crime spree to keep Spider-Man busy. In my continuity he is much less malevolent. He's not repentant for what he did in Season One (for he never thought he was doing wrong), but when he causes harm it is unintentional. It is his carelessness and arrogance, not malice, that bring him to grief. All of this (as I've explained repeatedly) is intended to lead up to my version of the "Superior Spider-Man" arc, where Ock and Spider-Man swap bodies. This is where the story starts moving in that direction, so if you haven't been paying attention up to now, this is where you might start. |
| My Season Two opener, "S02E01 "How I Spent My Summer Vacation"" , is taken over almost entirely without change from the IRL-episode "How I Thwipped My Summer Vacation," which opened the IRL-series's second season. I made only a few changes. In the IRL-episode, it is Hammerhead and his son, not Silvermane and his grandson, who kidnap the pop star; Peter has already met Black Cat (a formal introduction won't come in my continuity for a few more episodes); and it is only in that episode that Peter starts taking photographs for the Daily Bugle. All of my changes are motivated by changes to the first-season continuity, or else I would have lifted the IRL-episode wholesale and dropped it into my continuity. Though no great shakes, it is competent filler. As for the change in the title: It turns out that "How I Thwipped My Summer Vacation" is too long for the WdC title box when the season/episode number is included. That's okay. It gave me an excuse to change a title that I didn't like anyway. |
| Today, as part of my silly Spider-Man project, I posted Part 3 of the three-episode Season One finale. Tomorrow, I'll be posting Episode 1 of Season Two. In the meantime I can brag that I've finally reached the end of Phase One. My plan (to reiterate) is to compose my own version of the comic's "Superior Spider-Man" arc without seeing how the IRL-series did it. But because I was dissatisfied with the way the IRL-series set up characters and conflicts and histories, I decided to make my own continuity. So, starting from Season 1, Episode 1, I've been writing detailed treatments of my own version of the series. I started the project a year ago, and after long stops and short starts, I have now finished all that prep work. I now have treatments for twenty-five Season One episodes, and treatments for thirteen Season Two episodes. I have brought my series up to the point where the "Superior Spider-Man" arc can start. And that's where I'm going to leave it for a bit. I'm pooped. Episodes 1 through 13 will appear one day at a time over the next, um, thirteen days, but I'm going to go back to BoM while that's happening. I won't resume publishing until Masktrix finishes the 15-chapter arc I commissioned from him, but between now and then I'll be working on new things in the BoM universe. I've accepted a commission to write some chapters in "The Wandering Stars"; after that I'll probably do something for myself. And then we'll see. Right now, though, I want to crawl into a hole and sleep. The last three days in particular have been grueling, as I've clambered toward the end. There is a novel's worth of words in this project, and right now I feel like every single one of them was a punch to my rib cage. |
| "S01E25 "The Day of the Jackal, Part 3"" takes some inspiration from the IRL-series's "Spider-Island Part 5" by setting the climax in a spider-infested Oscorp Tower. In addition the help that (some of) The Sinister Six give in battling the Jackal comes from their appearance in "The Rise of Doc Ock, Part 4," where they are goons working for Osborn, but I changed the tenor and import of their use here. Norman's death scene also comes from that episode. Otherwise, it's mostly mine. "The Day of the Jackal," and the first season of my alternate continuity as a whole, were intended to solve three problems that I had with the first season: 1. Harry kept yo-yoing between Peter and his dad in terms of loyalty. I wanted to create a sense of steady but encroaching tension and alienation before the final snap. Did I succeed? That's not for me to judge. I have my doubts, but I'm not going to go back and revise the first season to polish it up. 2. In the IRL-series, Norman gets a great death scene in Episode 18, but then comes back in Episode 19 (in disguise) as a mutant spider-monster; gets changed back to human in the course of the 5-part "Spider-Island" arc; is hospitalized; and briefly dons a disguise as the Hobgoblin to menace Spider-Man. It's just a mess. I thought it better to end the season with his implied death, and to use that death to motivate a break between Peter and Harry. 3. The Spider-Island arc is supposed to put paid to the Jackal and his plans, but that arc is followed by the barely related two-part Hobgoblin season finale. It seemed to me better to cut out the Hobgoblin stuff, which could be saved for Season Two or later, and to end the season with the climax of the season-long Jackal plot. |
| Here's an odd one. Like Part 1, "S01E24 "The Day of the Jackal, Part 2"" is based on a real-world episode: "The Rise of Doc Ock, Part 4." But whereas in my continuity Part 2 comes after Part 1 (dur!), in the real-world series, "Spider Island 1" comes after "Doc Ock 4."In other words, my two back-to-back episodes are closely based on back-to-back episodes of the real-world series, but I've reversed the order! It's like I said in Part 1's commentary: The meaning of a story depends not only on what happens within it, but on what happens outside and around it. Here's another illustration. Because of the changes I made to the overall series, I could cut the two original storylines into ribbons while keeping the elements mostly the same, then rearrange and reverse the order without destroying their coherence. |
| As noted at the end of the treatment, "S01E23 "The Day of the Jackal, Part 1" " is adapted from a real-world episode, "Spider-Island, Part 1." One of the first things I did when I started outlining my "alternate series" was to delete the 5-episode "Spider Island" arc, which I found ridiculous and world-breaking. However, enough of that arc remained part of the Jackal's plan and motivation that when I came to outline the 3-episode story that would climax the first season, I decided to ransack the original for ideas and plot beats. The result is a storyline that retains the same shape and almost all the same action beats and plot evolutions of "Spider-Island, Part 1", but which means something quite different. It's a reminder that meaning in art and storytelling depends not only on intrinsic factors, but also on the context it appears in. |
| And as long as I am making multiple posts in one day: I have to send up a big THANK YOU in rocket-red letters to the anonymous benefactor who gifted me another year's worth of upgraded membership at WdC. That is a gift far beyond my desert, and I am immensely grateful for it. Whoever you are, you are a prince/princess/prinxex among readers! |
| Masktrix has posted the first chapter in the story I told you about yesterday, and I've posted a copy in the public Archive. Interactive: "Persecutions and Photographs" Public: "Persecutions and Photographs" Mastrix's comments: "A New Owner" |
| As I warned yesterday, today starts a run of silly Spider-Man stories that have nothing to do with BoM. "S01E22 "Let There Be Lightmaster"" would be a filler episode in an animated continuity, and it's a filler episode here. I'm not comfortable saying that—surely every episode should be special, especially the stand-alone stories that don't have an extended arc to help support them—but it's true. "Let There Be Lightmaster" references the "Sinister Six" plot arc, and it exists in part to keep that plot arc relevant as the season reaches its conclusion, but it mostly exists as padding to separate the last multi-part plot arc from the one that comes next.At least it's semi-original, being based on a comic book story and not an animated episode. Plot-wise, it somewhat tracks the comic that introduced the villain Lightmaster, so no prizes will be awarded for guessing the villain's real identity. It changes his motivations, though, to make them relevant to the animated continuity. As for Tarantula, he gets a very different treatment in this story than he does the first couple of times he shows up in the comic books. Like "S01E07 "House of Sand" " , it is intended to have a Batman: The Animated Series kind of a vibe. It's about a fallen hero who is damaged but redeemed, and is meant to be a more somber episode—something that probably doesn't come through in the outline itself. I'm not sure how well a candy-colored superhero show like Marvel's Spider-Man could capture the grayscaled tone of a BTAS episode, but this is a stab at it.There would be an image to go with it, but since yesterday WdC has decided I have a virus on my machine (though my scanners indicate I'm clean) and I can't even email images. I'll wait a day or two to see if the problem goes away (sometimes the WdC machinery gets gummed up) and try again. |
| So today brings the eleventh chapter in a ten-chapter commission. Interactive: "Maria's Crush" Public: "Maria's Crush" It was fun, even if I found that writing for Maria was a bit like digging clay out of the ground with my fingernails. Some characters write themselves; some respond well to be written; but for others you write and write and dig and dig, and when you're done you feel like you've written 10,000 words and have said 10 words worth of meaning. But people seemed to like it. My thanks to ThePrussian55, Chelsea Woodward, Easy, Wordsmitty, Centre, Achillesredux, and HayateZero for Gift Points and some very nice words. * * * Okay, now what? These last few branches have been commissions, and I'm all caught up with them. So now I'm off to work on a non-BoM project for a little while: my silly "Spider-Man" project: "Commissions and Projects" .I've been at work on it already for the past week or so, and I've got some new treatments that I will start publishing tomorrow. To see the project results thus far, check here: "Marvel Spider-Man: The Alternate Series" .I'll be posting one treatment a day, until I run out of completed treatments. I'll also be publishing short commentaries for each one, here on the blog. This project has been more successful as a learning exercise than anything else, and I might as well share some of the things I've learned. * * * But BoM readers won't be completely abandoned in the meantime. Tomorrow, Masktrix will start publishing a new 15-chapter storyline. And this one is pretty radical. For a start, it's a branch that I commissioned, which is a switch. It's an idea I've wanted to see done for a long time, but never bothered to work out myself. So I asked Mastrix to work on it for me. It takes off of these chapters, which are buried deep in an obscure corner of "The Book of Masks": "A Prank Present" ; "Of Pranks and Punks" ; "Punks and Persecutions" . Will has been working for Blackwell, but after his mentor gets eaten by a supernatural creature, Will searches the house and finds a peculiar book full of occult-themed stories. As he reads deeper into the book, he comes across an interactive story about a student at Westside High School who finds a grimoire that teaches how to make magical disguises. The story seems familiar, but Will can't quite put his finger on why this interactive story gives him such a strong sense of deja vu ...The idea (obviously, I hope) is to use these chapters as a way of telling BoM all over again but with a different protagonist. It would be the same universe, with the same characters, in the same setting, with the same rules. But it would be someone else, not Will Prescott, having the adventure. I wrote three chapters with three different protagonists but never developed any of them. So I've commissioned Mastrix to play with the idea. Tomorrow he will introduce a fourth character who finds the Libra, and launches it into a fifteen-chapter storyline. It's entirely his creation, by the way. Though I commissioned it, I only asked for two things: that it run for 15 chapters, and that Will Prescott at least put in an appearance. Otherwise, every creative choice has been Masktrix's. He's been showing me the chapters ahead of time (he's up to Chapter 10 as I post this), and I think it's really good. I think you guys will enjoy it too. EDIT: I will be publishing Masktrix's chapters in the Archives as well. The chapters leading up to where his storyline will appear begin with "The Path Through the Protective Maze" . |
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