The Web Haunt of Ryan K Lindsay

Matt Murdock, aka Daredevil, is now in control of The Hand. He has taken along with him Carlos LaMuerto and Angela Del Toro, the Black Tarantula and White Tiger respectively. This is a great new shift for the Daredevil family and opens itself up for some great new stories, one of which I would like to tell.
This story could either be condensed into a one shot, or else put out into possibly a three-part mini.

Black Tarantula is Daredevil’s right-hand man within the Hand. He’s one of the only guys DD can trust and that can also take care of himself. Murdock is going to have to lean on, and use, LaMuerto a lot if he wants to make the Hand something that does good within the world.

I want to see Black Tarantula be given his own squad of ninjas to work with, a crew that answer to him and do whatever he says. A crew he hand picks and that he feels he can trust, but also use. They’ll have wicked little tarantula’s on the shoulders of their uniform, much like Daredevil’s soldiers have horns now. LaMuerto will handle some of the nastier jobs of the Hand because Murdock doesn’t really need to see all of the depravity and garbage that has to go on in order to keep the Hand working while they are slowly turned around. The story could open with LaMuerto leading his crew into a seedy brothel and laying waste to many of the abusive and violent patrons, while ushering out the abused and sad ladies into the waiting arms of the local church who has his money to help do good. During the raid a small group of men will recognise one of Tarantula’s men, but he’ll quickly dispose of the group and act as if nothing happened.

This man within Tarantula’s ranks is Ishi. Ishi fancies himself as the successor to Tarantula’s throne, he wants to be Murdock’s right-hand man. He wants it so bad he’s willing to set LaMeurto up, or kill him if necessary. Ishi feeds Tarantula some intel on a ninja getting around New York and doing bad things. Tarantula investigates but won’t kill the ninja, not at first, he wants real proof that the ninja is bad.

The ninja in question is a Native American, who manages to mix ninja mythology with his own cultural heritage. His name is Marlowe, and he’s not really that bad at all. He’s trained in the ninja ways, and he’s also been recently discharged from the Army for unknown reasons. He has a girlfriend who lives as a social worker in a building full of recovering drug addicts and dealers. This fact Ishi makes look like Marlowe is working with, or for, drug dealers.

When Tarantula won’t kill Marlowe, Ishi gets nervous. Ishi wants Marlowe gone because he’s getting in the way of Ishi’s underground dealings with some very bad people. Ishi tries to kill Marlowe but Tarantula stops him. This is where Tarantula starts to realise that perhaps not all is well within his house, there is slight descent, and that sort of sandfall always precipitates an entire collapse.

Tarantula follows Marlowe for the night, sees him go to his girl, and into the building full of drug dealers. They watch him interact in a common and friendly manner, and it does look pretty bad. They go in and Marlowe is already gone. Ishi kills the drug dealer and Tarantula reprimands him, takes a finger off. That is not what he wants done, no killing of anyone unless he says so. The Hand disperse and Tarantula watches Marlowe’s girl enter the dead druggies room. Tarantula has already made sure the body has been taken away.

Tarantula sits in his Hand headquarters. I’d like it to be a hollowed out floor of a normal corporate building, it overlooks the town, they are hiding in plain sight. Tarantula talks his problem over with Murdock; Murdock tells him to do what he knows is right. He trusts Tarantula to make the right decisions, with Marlowe, and with Ishi.

Tarantula tracks, alone, Marlowe to another corporate building. He watches Marlowe stalk some middle-management throw back. Tarantula makes his move, and without the suit realising either are there, the two ninjas converse about what is going on. Neither really gives away too much, but before anything fruitful can come of the meeting Marlowe sees the other Hand ninjas who have snuck along for the ride. Marlowe runs away from Tarantula and through the other Hand soldiers. He fights his way to freedom, just, and the suit still doesn’t know what’s happened.

Tarantula goes back to Marlowe’s home, it’s empty, he’s gone. He goes to the girl’s building and discovers it is a good place, a place that helps others. He realises that he is being played to some degree, and that Ishi is the man feeding him the bad intel.

Ishi scrambles as he knows that Tarantula is now onto him. He is calling in favours across the town for safety and weapons, he’s also trying to see who will work with him against Tarantula and who will not. He sees that he has to kill Marlowe, and quick, or else Tarantula will have proof that Ishi was setting up a bad hit.

Tarantula looks for Ishi, manages to beat out of one of his flunkies that Ishi has gone to find Marlowe, or else kill his girl. Tarantula finds the girl and she says that Ishi had been there, but then Marlowe chased him off. I’d like there to be asecret about the girl we don’t know, perhaps she’s just as capable of fighting as Marlowe is, or else she could actually turn out to be bad and need to be taken down. That would add another element to the story but could also clutter it, something to think about. Tarantula finds Ishi and Marlowe fighting, it is impressively spectacular on the top of a towered building, not a flat topped one. They are well matched, but Marlowe seems to always have 55 to Ishi’s 45.

From there Tarantula will need to find a permanent solution for Ishi. Ishi will go away, Marlowe living and talking openly with Tarantula, but there is still descent and Tarantula needs to squash it.

I’d like the series to be part ninja/corporate takeover, and part balls-to-the-wall crazy mysticism and fights. Marlowe will use totem animals in his fight, his being the alligator, revenge oriented, quickness, aggression, and basic survival instincts. Through this we will discover that Marlowe’s parents had been high in the Hand and then killed by an attempted coup on Elektra. He is able to channel other totem animals, depending on their characteristics and what he needs. Coyote represents trickster, intelligence, stealth, wisdom and folly, guile and innocence; lynx represents keeper of secrets, guardian, listener, and guide; octopus represents intelligence, camouflage, nocturnal, etc. He will see others as their animal; the spider represents balance, wisdom, creativity, communication and he will see this in Tarantula, Ishi will be like an opossum representing diversion, strategist, and deceiver.

In the end, of course, ninja blood will be shed before the bodies evaporate and Tarantula will have to fight for his throne against Ishi and his splinter cell of internal takeover terrorists. I think it’s about time Black Tarantula got his own corner of the Marvel U to showcase what he can do and his position within the Hand leads to the perfect opportunity to tell a very cool little story.

Posted on November 2nd, 2009 by ryan
Filed under: Writing, comics