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[Abishai100]

This is my comic book stylized short-story about an eco-passionate young American woman named Shelbye whose experience with her pollution-affected pet baby alligator named Star urges her to make a symbolic gesture about 'political deformity.'

Enjoy!




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Shelbye looked at her diary entry about the dangers of industrial waste seeping into the sewers of Seattle, her beloved city.  She went to the pet store and purchased a baby alligator and named him Star.  Shelbye felt the tinge of anxiety, brooding about the destiny of Star in a Seattle plagued with manmade pollution.  She dropped a tear the day Star died (still very young), and she drifted him on a handmade craft which she floated down the river until she watched it sink with Star's lifeless body.

Two years had passed, and Shelbye felt vigilant about her activities with environmentalism-related work.  As she looked at her clippings of praise and awards for her eco-activism journalism pieces at the Seattle Gazette, she felt a strange wind about her memory of Star, her dead baby alligator.  Shelbye started drawing pictures of herself riding a grown Star and fantasized she was an 'eco-vigilante.'  "The pen lifts the human heart out of the pits of dejection," she spoke.

Commissioner Bixby stared at the photos of a gruesome deformed giant alligator which had emerged out of the sewers of Seattle and was terrorizing its residents.  He had just sent a memo to the mayor about the possibility that industrial pollution in the city had seeped into the sewers and had mutated some pet alligator some Seattle resident flushed down a toilet or drifted down a reservoir.  If the reports were true, eco-activists would be in a frenzy about Seattle's ugliness.

A crowd of Seattle 'fat-cats' were assembled at a lavish party for the city's wealthiest power plant executive, Max Heady.  It was an outdoor affair, and the guests were drunk on wine and music.  One of the guests at the event got up and screamed, "Oh my God! It's the giant alligator!"  It was Star, now grown to adult size, and on his back was Shelbye, costumed as a vigilante!  Shelbye used her megaphone and delivered a scathing speech before disappearing:

"Seattle has become a den of manmade pollution, even though it was once considered a beacon of American culture.  My baby alligator Star's body drifted into the sewers where industrial pollution mutated its phenotype, causing him to grow in size and ferocity and injecting his once lifeless body with radioactive juice and turning him into an 'eco-Frankenstein.'  Now, I return with Star as a messenger of eco-consciousness!  Remember us for our philosophical deed!"


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[Abishai100]

Movie-Man


I really like how this story turned out --- the visceral look of it and the vigilante-appeal, so I decided to post another one on this same thread, keeping the similar humanistic eco-activism themes and imagination-friendly storytelling.

The hope is to reach a level of civilization angst associated with 'bio-ecology mutation' films such as Alligator and Swamp Thing.



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The great American film-maker Martin Scorsese was in his office looking for an approved script for a Captain Planet (eco-vigilantism character) adapted live-action Hollywood (USA) film.  Scorsese had just completed work on the Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator starring Leo DiCaprio and now wanted a more youth-focused (but equally stirring) film project.  The director kept his favorite star, DiCaprio, at the front of his mind as the first-choice for the titular role in the superhero film.  However, he wondered if he had enough social consciousness and interest (and education) in environmentalism-related issues to really bring the film to the level of intellectual cogency that he wanted to reach.

Leo got a call from Scorsese's studio and received the Captain Planet script, which thrilled the successful American movie star.  Leo was a well-known eco-activist and arguably Hollywood's most outspoken environmentalist.  Leo looked over his notes about climate change and global warming.  He was reading an article in The New Yorker about the 'general sloth appeal' of not addressing pollution-related climate 'mutation' on Earth. The article suggested that people tend to deny climate change, since meteorology is not a 'predictable science,' but Leo wondered if such denials were another way to simply stall man's labors on Earth regarding waste-management.

Leo called Scorsese and told him he'd be happy to do the Captain Planet film.  Scorsese was thrilled and asked the talented movie star what made him decide to take the role, and DiCaprio replied, "American audiences should get a 'progressive' and youth-friendly 'face' or 'avatar' for all this eco-related madness since the days of the Industrial Revolution."  Filming began in Belize and continued in Ontario and Alaska.  The film took two full years to complete, but it earned DiCaprio a surprising Best Actor Oscar (his second!).  During his acceptance speech, DiCaprio said, "There's no reason American film fans should not be exposed to imagination-friendly perspectives on progressive waste and toxicity management!"

The night of the Oscars, Leo drank some warm milk with Brandy to soothe his slight cold symptoms and went to sleep, thinking he would slumber peacefully for many hours.  However, during dream-sleep, Leo saw that the Devil (Satan) visited him with a troubling conjecture.  "Leo, you've earned your Oscar for the Captain Planet film, but now consider posting various message on the Internet (with an assumed false and secret alias/identity) as a real 'cyber-vigilante'!  If you succeed in this task, you can measure what is more worthwhile, winning an Oscar for portraying Captain Planet or actually being some kind of eco-vigilante!"  When Leo awoke from sleep, he resolved to take up the special and intriguing challenge to be a secret 'Internet eco-vigilante,' but he also wondered if the 'derring-do' of the task would distract him from the 'menial labor' of eco-activism.

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[Abishai100]

THE ALLIGATOR


Here's a story about a comic book political potion. I'm so excited about Leo DiCaprio's upcoming Captain Planet project, which is a big reason I started this thread...


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Rumors of a NYC underground sewer problem had the mayor ordering workers to go down manholes and investigate. There were reports of very strong but very pleasant-smelling (perfume-like) aromas emanating from manholes in the city streets, so there were pedestrian rumors that some maniac was actually living in the sewers with some kind of 'aromatic-perfume kit' which he/she was using to release perfume-fumes into the city streets. The mayor's laborers however found nothing.

When the news reported the mayor's disappointment, an idealistic NYU student named Ajay Satan decided to dress up like the comic book superhero Batman (DC Comics) and investigate the sewers on Halloween Eve. Ajay (aka, 'Batman') believed there really was someone living down there and was trying to lure people there to deliver some kind of message. Ajay/Batman donned his costume on Halloween and went down a manhole armed with a very bright torch-light, flare-guns, tear-gas grenades, and an electric stun-gun (all of which he carried in his big backpack).

Batman (Ajay) roamed around the sewers for about two hours before he smelled strong perfume-like aromas coming from one area of the sewer-tunnels beneath NYC's streets. Batman carefully walked towards the perfume-aroma with his super-bright torch-light lit and stumbled upon a large brutish-looking fellow wearing a trench-coat. The brute's face was wrapped in bandages (to conceal his face), and it looked like his skin (on his hands) was peeling. The brute got up and introduced himself to 'Batman' (Ajay) --- "Greetings, Batman! I'm Killer Croc."

BATMAN: Why are you fuming perfumes in the sewer?
KILLER CROC: I intend to frighten New Yorkers so they realize the dangers of water-pollution.
BATMAN: Why are you referring to yourself as the comic book villain 'Killer Croc' (DC Comics)?
KILLER CROC: I figured someone would dress up as Batman, so I became Killer Croc.
BATMAN: What do you intend to do if NYC does not clean up its sewers?
KILLER CROC: I plan to plant a hydrogen-bomb.
BATMAN: Are you an eco-terrorist.
KILLER CROC: I'm a messenger from the 'dark-side.'
BATMAN: What does that mean?
KILLER CROC: I'm a prophet of the ethics failures of humanity's subconscious...
BATMAN: Oh, so you think human civilization is 'dirty'?
KILLER CROC: You're no saint, 'Batman.' Aren't you carrying tear-gas grenades?
BATMAN: They're for self-defense, not murder or terrorism!
KILLER CROC: Grant me political asylum (for my eco-activism beliefs).
BATMAN: I can put you in a psychiatric asylum, but only if you cooperate with authorities.
KILLER CROC: Someday, I hope to meet the President (Donald Trump).
BATMAN: Maybe you'll be nicer to him than you were to me.
KILLER CROC: I'll be nice to whoever cleans up NYC's sewers!
BATMAN: Fair enough, 'Alligator-Man'!

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