Werewolf By Night
The Contender: Son to a werewolf pack, Jack Russell is cursed with the burden of lycanthropy. For three nights every month he transforms into a wild, savage beast, stalking the night. Ashamed and terrified of what he could do while in his beast form, Jack spends his time looking for a cure.
The Costume Reboot: Full-on Rick Baker-style prosthetic werewolf – none of this namby-pamby Twilight wolfhound puppy tosh.
Essential Scene: The sweeping opening delves into the history of the Elderspawn, the children of the Elder Gods who are all human-animal hybrids.
Runaways
The Contender: Yes, yes, it’s already maybe-sort-of getting a movie (though it’s bloody slow moving ), but these chaps and chapettes would be perfect for the short movie treatment. We envision a sextet of shorts that would set up the movie, Animatrix style, introducing each of the characters so that the following feature can start without all that origins pre-amble.
Kismet
The Contender: Also known as Her or Paragon, Kismet was created by the Enclave in an attempt to birth a super-powered entity. Like all the best heroes, she starts out as a man, battles the Hulk, goes into a chrysalis state and emerges as the beautiful heroine we all know and love. Frankly, a feature movie of such blazing gorgeousness would be too much to handle.
Black Bolt
The Contender: Bolt is born with more power than anybody has ever seen. So much so that his geneticist parents make him wear a power-suppressing suit, and lock him up until he is able to keep his abilities under wraps. Once released, however, he discovers that brother Maximus has been conspiring against him with alien Kree.
Midnight Sons
The Contender: “The first distinct family group,” according to Marvel, formed by Ghost Rider when Lilith schemes to use her demon children to seize control of Earth. The Nightstalkers, Morbius the Living Vampire, Ghost Rider, Johnny Blaze, Vengeance, the Darkhold Redeemers and even Blade all unite against her, forming the Midnight Sons.
Jack Of Hearts
The Contender: Alien-born halfling whose father created the awesomely powerful Zero Fluid, a renewable energy source that costs Heart’s father his life. When Heart falls into a vat of the stuff, half his body is burned black while he gains the power to fire ‘zero blasts’ from his fists. He trains with Iron Man and attempts to become a superhero.
Cloak And Dagger
The Contender: Tyrone Johnson and Tandy Bowen meet as street-pacing runaways: he a stutterer, she a rich girl sick of her supermodel mother. When they’re both kidnapped and experimented on, the duo have their latent mutant genes awakened and they embark on a war against drug dealers while also attempting to help other runaway kids.
Ms. Marvel
The Contender: Sixties-living Carol Danvers is a modern woman. She doesn’t plan on getting married, and becomes a CIA agent instead. But just as she tires of that life, her DNA is merged with that of Captain Marvel’s and she becomes superhero Ms. Marvel. Ideal for a short as it taps into en vogue Mad Men -style gender politics while giving it an injection of Marvel-ousness.
Darkhawk
The Contender: Normal bloke Chris Powell’s physical form is dumped into another dimension while his consciousness is transferred into that of an android shell. Ditch the mysterious amulet element, and Darkhawk’s justice-seeking adventures would make for a tense, futuristic enactment of lawful vengeance.
Jean DeWolff
The Contender: More battles of the sexes, as powerless Jean dresses to impress in ‘30s gear while confronting the sexism of her time. Due a timely upgrade, with Jean facing sexist behaviour as a detective for the NYPD – have things really changed post-millennium? Or is still a man’s world?
Daughters Of The Dragon
The Contender: Martial arts experts Colleen Wing and Misty Knight unite to kick butt and generally clean up the streets as private investigators dubbed Daughters Of The Dragon. We envision a moody noir thriller replete with saxophone score, smoky-voiced narration and blue blush lighting.
Agents Of Atlas
The Contender: In the 1950s, FBI Agent Jimmy Woo recruits Venus, Marvel Boy, a robot known as M-11 (no, not the motorway) and Gorilla-Man to help him save President Eisenhower from Yellow Claw. Which is a brilliant premise for a short film – focussed, mission-oriented and with some vividly vibrant characters. Also, vintage period details should give it a little classy edge.
Iron First
The Contender: Danny Rand becomes Iron Fist when he obtains the ‘heart of the dragon’, which gives him the power to focus his chi and either become a healer or a destroyer. He’s also a dab hand at martial arts, having been trained by the legendary Lei Kung. It’s a tale of revenge, as Rand searches for his father’s killer. Think gritty, sinewy cop drama without the cops.
Spider-Woman
The Contender: More chemical experimentations gone awry, as young Brit girl Jessica Drew gets radiation poisoning and is injected with a spider blood serum that saves her life. When her parents disappear, the newly Spider-Womanised Jessica is recruited into HYDRA and trained by Taskmaster. Then, after a botched job that involves the death of a group of college students, she discovers HYDRA want to use her for ill deeds.
Power Man
The Contender: Luke Cage, framed for a crime he was innocent of, is slammed into the jailhouse. There, more experimental tinkering goes awry and Luke’s transformed into Power Man – gifted with impenetrable, steely skin and super strength. Decent character for a short, wrapped up in anti-hero issues of guilt and responsibility that would make for a meaty little drama.
Power Pack
The Contender: Perfect for attention deficit kiddies – and a more candy-cane young superheroes story than X-Men: First Class. The adults are out, but saving the world is still in, as the Power Pack deal with decidedly real world, grown up issues like pollution, sexual abuse and crack addiction. All in really cute outfits.
