Commentary - The Beginning of the End - Part Two

Part two was my first real challenge to write and I shuffled a lot of plot points and racked my noggin getting into the mindset of someone else's character, Sparkplug. The story was supposed to double as both a 'eulogy' of sorts to part one and convey that deep thinking characteristic of him. I'm not a 100% happy with the final product but I think it achieved the solemn yet powerful tone.

I had this sub-plot involving the Carnival but I felt it detracted too much away from the Massacre and spun it off for part three.

NOVEMBER 27

My nickname for this section was 'The Revenge Squad Strikes Back.' I wanted to the reveal of Trevor, Mack, and John to be loosely based on the bad-assery from that one scene from The Matrix when the whole team appears in the Matrix to meet the Oracle. Going with the pov of Sparkplug, I replaced the phone as the medium of introduction with a streetlight.

Saved from last issue, I decided to reveal the final words of Phillip DeParis for this one and delivered it through an evolution of Sparkplug's power, to generate an electromagnetic pulse. The writers of the show seem to bounce from reason to reason, but I'm pretty sure emotions are a sticking point for controlling powers. Here, it comes into play. Since Sparkplug is a reserved and introspective person, being able go beyond what he knows of his power requires a lot of anger.

Of course, we've got Trevor and his gun but the majority of the story is Mack in action. Then to cap off the attack with another cool use of a power, I wrote in Azuteor to demolish the building and send the faction leader down to the center of the earth, not the best way to die but justifiable?

NOVEMBER 28

I starting writing this issue with the idea that Mack would narrate the majority of it as he speaks to Blue at his grave and explain to him what happened after he died. It was his way of resolution and saying goodbye to a good friend. Another idea I had was to have Sparkplug have his interpretation of teammates revealed, Trevor and Seal in particular. It's always interesting to me to see how people view each other.

Then to end the day, I imagined Mack would make a gesture to Blue's grave and nothing was more fitting than using his iconic baseball hat.

2000

I've been a fan of the implied optimistic endings so I decided to stick in this flashback of when Mack first discovered his power. In comparison with the A-Plot, this epilogue of sorts is meant to strike home that even in the darkest hour of life, there is always hope.

NEXT TIME...
Tattoos, Gypsies, Props, and Choices