This is an outline for the first year of Villains For Hire. Each arc is three issues long.
"THE FORTRESS OF FU MANCHU”
Cobalt Man,
Coldheart and
Speedfreak meet in a bar. Ever since
Nitro blew up Stamford and caused the whole Civil War mess, the three of them have been down on their luck. A man approaches them and says he represents a man who is willing to hire the three villains to perform certain tasks for them. With nothing else to do, the three agree.
The
liaison for the employer (who does not want to interact with the three directly) briefs them on their first mission: they are to head to Hong Kong and infiltrate a fortress that originally belonged to
Fu Manchu. They question the liaison; isn’t Fu Manchu dead? Wasn’t he a fictional character? The liaison manages to answer their questions and tells them that Fu Manchu’s son has now usurped his throne…
Shang-Chi.
The three land in Hong Kong and manage to infiltrate the fortress and come face to face with
Shang-Chi. As he is the master of kung-fu, he easily defeats all three of them at once. As a finishing blow, he slices off
Cobalt Man’s head… only to discover that it is a remote-controlled robot. He is then struck from behind by the real
Cobalt Man, in human form but disguised as one of
Shang-Chi’s guards. As
Shang-Chi loses consciousness, he mocks, “How do you think we infiltrated this place, dumbass?”
The
liaison approaches his employer (always calls him
Mr. Silver or Sir) and reports the good news – the three have taken out
Shang-Chi and successfully completed the mission.
Mr. Silver muses about the kinds of weapons
Fu Manchu must have kept in his secret vaults and then tells the liaison to commence Phase Two.
“THE ULTIMATE WEAPON”
The
liaison approaches
Shang-Chi, who is badly beaten and lying on the floor of a cell. He asks him where the ultimate weapon is.
Shang-Chi doesn’t answer. The
liaison threatens him – if he doesn’t tell him where the
ultimate weapon is, he’s going to bring in ‘her’.
Shang-Chi remains silent. The
liaison leaves and his footsteps echo inside the steel prison… and then he returns, accompanied by another pair of heavier footsteps.
Shang-Chi looks up – it is the
Abominatrix. The
liaison tells the
Abominatrix to do what she wants with him and she simply smiles.
Meanwhile, another group of characters are introduced – the original
Heroes For Fire.
Luke Cage,
Danny Rand,
Misty Knight and
Colleen Wing are investigating
Shang-Chi’s disappearance…
It does not take long for the
Abominatrix to get what she wants out of
Shang-Chi. The
liaison attempts to communicate with her but can barely understand her unintelligent grunts. He reports this information to
Mr. Silver who knows exactly what it means… and then calls someone.
That someone answers. “
Mr. Robbins, you have something I want.”
Mr. Silver states.
Mr. Robbins answers – “Then I guess you’ll just have to come and get it.”
Mr. Robbins hangs up and cocks his gun.
The Hood is ready.
Cobalt Man,
Coldheart and
Speedfreak are informed that they are to go after
The Hood, New York’s new superpowered kingpin and steal a certain item that he stole from
Fu Manchu’s vault. They engage
The Hood, who doesn’t want to fight – he’d rather negotiate, like a real villain. He offers them double the amount of money that their employer is paying them in return for their devotion to his group of villains. They stop and think about this and then
The Hood begins his attack, as his group of villains arrive. They are forced to flee – they cannot fight a number this great.
Their employer,
Mr. Silver, who has been watching this from a hacked satellite camera, tells the liaison to send in the
Abominatrix.
She lands amidst the group of villains and gets to work. She kills a few instantly, scaring away most of the others.
The Hood remains. There is no negotiating with this monster. He decides it is time for him to flee… and promptly teleports away.
Cobalt Man wonders what they should do now.
The Hood arrives back in his headquarters only to find
Mr. Silver waiting for him. “
Tristam,” he says, “I didn’t expect you to be behind this.”
Tristam Silver asks him where the item he stole from
Fu Manchu’s vault is. “Ah, the
ultimate weapon?”
The Hood asks. He tells
Silver that there was no
ultimate weapon – only designs for one. Plans for a person of mass destruction created by a Chinese futurist. However,
The Hood wants to make a peace offering – and hands
Silver a file. He tells him that inside the file holds the potential for the
ultimate weapon.
Silver opens it and skims through it… it’s a file for
Robert Hunter, the supervillain known as
Nitro.
“THE EXPLODING MAN”
A military convoy headed by
HAMMER agents makes its way across the desert. They are escorting a dangerous supervillain to a secret military prison in Nevada. The trucks begin to shake. An earthquake, they wonder? And then one of the trucks explodes.
Cobalt Man,
Coldheart and
Speedfreak quickly take out the remaining
HAMMER agents. They blow open the security lock on the transport cell and help their old friend to his feet. How are you feeling, one of them asks.
Nitro grins… he’s never felt better.
The four “Stamfordians,” as
Speedfreak dubs them (
Cobalt Man doesn’t approve – “there were kids involved, man” – though he makes sure not to mention this around
Nitro) finally meet their employer –
Tristam Silver. Some of the Spidey bad guys used to talk about you,
Coldheart mumbles.
Silver ignores her. He wants to talk to
Nitro. He has so much potential… Chinese prophets from the 18th century predicted his existence… he can do something big.
Nitro wants to know what and
Silver takes him to a laboratory. There,
AIM scientists are working on a gateway – a portal to another dimension.
Silver wants
Nitro to use his explosive energy to blow a hole into another universe. “There’s so much more out there, my friend”
Silver tells him, manipulating him every step of the way.
Luke Cage waits in a dark office. They still haven’t found
Shang-Chi. They’ve heard rumours that a couple of D-list villains kidnapped him but nobody knows who. All of the bad guys he’s beaten on have kept it a secret… they obviously fear someone else more than they fear
Luke Cage.
Norman Osborn enters the office. He tells
Cage he’s only got a couple of minutes spare to talk to him.
Cage wants to know what
Osborn knows.
Osborn tells him that three villains –
Cobalt Man,
Coldheart and
Speedfreak – the guys the
New Warriors took out just before the Stamford incident, took out
Shang-Chi. The three villains just attacked a
HAMMER convoy and took
Nitro.
Osborn tells
Cage that if he wants to know who is behind it all and where
Shang-Chi is, he has to bring
Nitro back to him.
Cage reluctantly agrees… and
Osborn gives him the name he’s been after this whole time:
Tristam Silver.
“HEROES FOR HIRE”
Tristam Silver watches eagerly as
Nitro prepares to complete the task set for him. The other three “Stamfordians” wait around, just happy they’ve been paid for all of the dangerous stuff they’ve done in the last few weeks. An explosion shakes the compound.
Nitro says that wasn’t him. The
Abominatrix is thrown into the laboratory, beaten badly.
Luke Cage enters the area, with
Iron Fist behind him. “
Tristam Silver!”
Luke Cage shouts. “Get ready to have your teeth kicked in.”
Somewhere else in the compound,
Misty Knight and
Colleen Wing find the
liaison. They hold him at gunpoint and get him to take them to
Shang-Chi. He quickly unlocks the cell and is then knocked out by
Knight. They help
Shang-Chi to his feet and he asks where
Silver is… he wants to kill him.
A massive fight breaks out with
Luke Cage and
Iron Fist taking out
Cobalt Man,
Coldheart and
Speedfreak.
Silver attempts to escape while
Nitro prepares to explode – but is taken out with quick precision by
Iron Fist, who hits him in specific pressure points, taking him out almost immediately.
Silver, on his way to safety, comes face to face with
Shang-Chi.
Shang-Chi attacks him, but
Silver successfully blocks his every move. “You’re not the only master of kung fu,”
Silver mocks and then throws
Shang-Chi off the roof!
The
Heroes For Hire clean up the area. They recover
Shang-Chi and secure
Nitro and the other villains.
Tristam Silver has escaped… the
Heroes For Hire agree to join together and hunt him down, along with
Shang-Chi’s help.
Tristam Silver recovers himself down an alleyway… realises he’s going to have to rebuild everything again. It shouldn’t be hard – he’s done it countless times before. And now
The Hood is on his side…
The Hood has access to countless villains willing to do whatever he wants.
Silver smiles… tomorrow is another day. There is more fun to be had yet.
Right. If you read all that, congratulations. I hope you liked it. I wanted to do a twist on Heroes For Hire - the obvious answer was Villains For Hire. I think the second year on the book would involve a new group of villains but this time they would be hired by Osborn to go out and find Tristam Silver and other stuff. This would also probably set up a proper Heroes For Fire book - focusing on the five guys - Cage, Iron Fist, Misty, Colleen and Shang-Chi. They would also be hunting Tristam Silver and crossover with the villain team. As for a creative team... well, obviously I would want to write it after plotting it out so thoroughly though I would be happy if someone like Matt Fraction or Duane Swierczynski wrote it. I think the guy who draws Captain Britain and MI13 would be great on art and Steve McNiven would do the covers or something.
You'll all see it eventually.
