Writing Wednesday: Pitching Max
Sorry I didn't have anything for WW last week! I had a writing assignment due Friday that unfortunately I didn't actually finish until Friday. I'm taking a Writing for TV class where we have to write a script for either an original series or a pre-existing drama. Guess which one I picked?? I'm going to do a standalone-ish episode of Gloves Off serving as the first introduction to Max after having seen Magna-Man show up in a few episode and you learn how troubled he really is behind that mask. This is a rough outline of what I want to cover, temporarily excluding Justine for the sake of clarity.
A proposed half-hour “dramedy” imagined as an animated series for adults, Gloves Off stars the bustling metropolis of Arch City and the equally intricate lives of the superheroes and supervillains who populate it. The most prominent hero is the metal-controlling Magna-Man, whom citizens know as a mysterious but trusted role model selflessly protecting his city. But behind the mask and trademark red “M” secretly lies another figure they know well: Max, bachelor son of the beloved mayor Carlotta Morales.
She raised him with the classic ideal of "with great power comes great responsibility," but always prioritized the city's needs over his. Max was forced into deadly serious work while he was still a child and now lives in a state of perpetual exhaustion, isolation, and pressure from a mother that treats him like a soldier instead of a son. Nearly all moments of his waking existence are spent stopping crime and fighting off villains.
One such enemy is Dr. Parasite, a man with a lab coat and an assortment of shoddy lasers who attempts to capture Magna-Man on at least a weekly basis. He is initially an annoyance with his repetitive schemes and unwavering focus on Magna-Man, but over the years Max realizes that all these familiar encounters make up the only solid relationship in his life and he feels more comfortable with Dr. Parasite than with anyone else.
But how would his mother react to him getting close to a nemesis? How can he start an honest relationship when his identity must remain secret? Isn’t it his duty to spend time stopping more threatening criminals? Will there ever be space in his life for anything besides heroism?