What I Found Lacking In "Man of Steel"

I think many people will agree that, as a summer Hollywood extravaganza, "Man of Steel" is pretty much up there. It's a fresh take on one of the greatest pop culture icons we've ever known, with over-the-top special effects to match. Personally, looking at it as a popcorn flick, it delivers. Some didn't like this darker version, but I appreciated it. After all, becoming a true hero demands going through a great trial.

(Spoiler Alert)

In a nutshell, what I found lacking in the movie was a thematic resolution. Yes, that whole main plot involving General Zod was put to rest when Superman snapped his neck. I wholeheartedly agree with Gerry Alanguilan when he said in his review that it wasn't something we expected from our hero, that Superman should be Super more than Man, but what concerned me was how the film's themes of identity and free will were articulated and resolved.

Superman let out a scream, presumably because he felt he gave into impulse and did something he wasn't supposed to do, which was do harm to others. Or maybe because he killed off a fellow Kryptonian, considering there weren't a lot of them left to begin with. But for me, that whole scream felt empty.

I'd be leaning towards the first reason but, still, I left the theater thinking that something was missing.

We mostly base our current actions on the consequences of what has happened before. If you get burned when you played with fire, you'd vow never to play with fire again. If you witnessed someone playing with fire and that person got burned, you'd be wary. But if your parents told you not to play with fire, and you didn't, you would never know how painful it would be to get burned.

Now if you had to play with fire and you had no other choice, which of the above three experiences would make you think twice?

In "Man of Steel," Clark Kent tried to live his life cleanly. When he was bullied by other kids in the farm, he wanted to fight back but didn't. When he was mocked in the bar by a thug, he took out his anger on the thug's truck. There was never an instance in his past when using his powers actually caused severe injury on another. He never experienced extreme regret because of something he did wrong with his powers.

If, out of anger, Clark had actually killed the kid who bullied him, he would have known then the consequences of his actions, that playing with fire can burn. There would be shock, there would be pain, there would be introspection, there would be regret, and the words of his father about "being a better man" would carry more weight. This would then justify his taking out his anger on the thug's truck instead of the thug himself.

If the above had happened, his scream after killing General Zod would have had more impact. More meaning. He wanted to be the better man by vowing never to kill another, but then ironically he had to kill to save his new home. This would have then launched him into resolving those thematic questions about identity and free will, something that Lois could have helped him with in the denouement.

Instead, we have a happy, chirpy ending with the Daily Planet abuzz with activity as if nothing happened. No reports about the rebuilding of Metropolis. No updates about that big hole punched through Earth. It had "Let's end this movie now!" written all over it. The tone shifted too abruptly, when it could have been done on a more somber, reflective note, consistent with the rest of the film.

Breaking Down Your Comics Story Outline

A lot of professional comics writers will tell you that outlining a story helps a lot in budgeting pages. If you have 20 pages in one issue, then create a 20-step outline.

But it's always prudent to start in general terms first. Once you have the beginning and the ending of a story in mind, decide: How many issues or chapters can hold this story? If you choose three issues, then you can determine what should happen in each issue for this story to be complete?

Here's an example for a Guy vs. Alien story.

• Introduce Hero
• Introduce Alien and why it's homicidal
• Hero decides to kill Alien because it killed his best friend
• Hero learns about special weapon and that it is held by a Bounty Hunter
• Hero finds Bounty Hunter and they fight (Bounty Hunter doesn't trust Hero)
• Hero makes extra effort to earn the trust of Bounty Hunter
• Bounty Hunter helps Hero get rare mineral to power weapon
• Hero and Bounty Hunter learn more about each other and become friends
• Hero and Bounty Hunter hunt down Alien
• In the final encounter with the Alien, Bounty Hunter is killed
• Hero destroys Alien with Special Weapon
• Hero buries Bounty Hunter 

Before proceeding with chopping up this outline, it is good to note that there are two throughlines in this story. The first throughline is about the Hero wanting to destroy the Alien. The second throughline is about the friendship between the Hero and the Bounty Hunter. These two throughlines ultimately meet in the end, for as the Hero successfully kills the Alien, he loses a friend. A somewhat tragic story.

So if we're going to divide this outline across three issues, we could try it this way:

ISSUE ONE

• Introduce Hero
• Introduce Alien and why it's homicidal
• Hero decides to kill Alien because it killed his best friend
• Hero learns about special weapon and that it is held by a Bounty Hunter
• Hero finds Bounty Hunter and they fight (Bounty Hunter doesn't trust Hero)

ISSUE TWO

• Hero makes extra effort to earn the trust of Bounty Hunter
• Bounty Hunter helps Hero get rare mineral to power weapon
• Hero and Bounty Hunter learn more about each other and become friends

ISSUE THREE

• Hero and Bounty Hunter hunt down Alien
• In the final encounter with the Alien, Bounty Hunter is killed
• Hero destroys Alien with Special Weapon
• Hero buries Bounty Hunter 

Note the ending of each issue. Is it a cliffhanger? Is it exciting enough that the reader would be tempted to buy the next issue? At this point, you can adjust the ending of the first and second issue and turn them into cliffhangers:

ISSUE ONE ENDING

• Hero finds Bounty Hunter; the issue ends with the Bounty Hunter attacking the Hero (cliffhanger, because at this point the reader thinks the Bounty Hunter is a major threat)

ISSUE TWO

• ...and they fight (The second issue begins on a high note)
• Hero makes extra effort to earn the trust of Bounty Hunter
• Hero and Bounty Hunter learn more about each other and become friends
• Bounty Hunter helps Hero get rare mineral to power weapon; They get into a tight situation (cliffhanger, because the reader sees the Hero and the Bounty Hunter in danger)

ISSUE THREE

• ... and save each other from death (issue begins on a high note)
• Hero and Bounty Hunter hunt down Alien
• In the final encounter with the Alien, Bounty Hunter is killed
• Hero destroys Alien with Special Weapon
• Hero buries Bounty Hunter 

Note as well that in each issue, there are a lot of opportunities for Challenges and Reveals, sustaining the high levels of tension and anticipation.

But what if your budget is only enough for one issue? Can this entire story fit in 20 pages? Conceivably, yes, though we will have to make some important decisions. We'll do that in the next blog post.

Outlining Your Graphic Novel Story

In the previous blog post, we broke down the events in the first volume of The Walking Dead comics series in terms of Challenges and Reveals to see how the story builds tension and anxiety in the reader. In that blog post, we also mentioned the idea of arcs.

An arc chronicles a transformation, or a change of state. When you look at any story, the main characters begin the story in one state and end in another state, for better or for worse. When we started, we asked you to plan out the beginning of your story as well as come up with an ending. This is the overall arc of your story. In the first volume of The Walking Dead, main character Rick started with wanting to reunite with his family. That is his beginning state. At the end of issue six, Rick has, indeed, reunited with his family, but he also completely lost his friend Shane because of them. Completely, because not only did Shane lose his physical life because of young Carl, he also lost his emotional life because of Lori.

The events that took place across the six issues chronicles the changing of Rick's state.

At the start, we asked you to develop the beginning of your story of a character. Then, we asked you to come up with a temporary ending. This is the overall arc you're working with. Now, you have to decide how many issues, or chapters, you would need for your character to move from the beginning state to the end state. You do this by outlining in specific steps how the beginning leads to the ending in terms of Challenges and Reveals, then dividing these into individual issues or chapters.

At first, this may be a challenge for you, so here's a tip: Take your favorite graphic novels or limited series (choose a short story to start off), and outline the events of their stories as we've done with The Walking Dead in the previous post. This will give you an idea of how the writers broke down the events, what steps were needed, and how many Challenges and Reveals were used in each issue or chapter, to complete the story.

An easy way of coming up with the steps is to work backward from the ending.

For example, let's have a story about a guy who decides to avenge the murder of his family by a homicidal alien. At the end of the story, the guy kills the alien using a special device.

With that ending, you ask, "What do I need for this ending to happen?"

1) The guy retreiving the device
2) The guy finding the alien

This doesn't sound like much, but it's something to work with. Let's continue by adding more:

1) The guy retrieving the device

Reveal: The device is held by a reclusive bounty hunter, who is reportedly not very nice
Challenge: Getting the device from the bounty hunter

2) The guy finding the alien

Reveal: The alien has killed others
Challenge: Determining where the alien will strike next, or if there's a pattern to the murders

Let's expand this more:

1) The guy retrieving the device

Reveal: The device is held by a reclusive bounty hunter, who is reportedly not very nice
Challenge: Getting the device from the bounty hunter
Reveal: The device can only be powered by a special energy source
Challenge: Getting the energy source to power up the device

2) The guy finding the alien

Reveal: The alien has killed others
Challenge: Determining where the alien will strike next, or if there's a pattern to the murders
Reveal: Analysis reveals that the victims had a special DNA sequence
Challenge: Sifting through a database to determine who else has that special DNA sequence
Challenge: The guy encounters the alien, but fails to stop it

So, essentially, you're moving from the general details to more particular details to create a full outline of your story. If this were a six-issue limited series, we could assume that retrieving the device and powering it up could take up the first four issues, while the last two issues will be about finally discovering the exact location of the alien and killing it.

When working backwards from the ending, don't forget the beginning. The beginning has to support the decisions you make. If you've established that you're character is more of a brainy guy than a brawny guy, how will his characterization affect your event decisions? If you've introduced friends and colleagues in the beginning, how will they play a part in the middle? In the ending? This is where you start adjusting the beginning and the ending details to make sure they, literally, "meet in the middle."

Once you have a full outline, you can then divide the outline according to the number of issues or chapters you plan to have. We'll tackle that in the next blog post.