Author: Richard Jones >>
• New Writer
• @RJonesWriter
Genre: Sci-Fi Horror / Dystopian
Fandom: Marvel | X-Men / Spider-Man crossover
Premise: In a timeline where the Age of Heroes never began a destitute scavenger named Peter Parker tracks a mysterious biological signal to a buried Weapon X facility. There he discovers that the “Spider” was not an accident of nature but a dormant Sentinel program designed to hunt mutants.
THE PITCH | A TREATMENT
The story is set in a rusted industrial version of Queens. Mutants are a rumour whispered in fear and “superheroes” are non-existent. Peter Parker is not a photographer; he is a “Tech-Rat” who salvages copper and chips from the ruins of the old world.
While scanning dead radio frequencies Peter picks up a rhythmic thumping sound. A heartbeat. It leads him deep into the sub-basements of a condemned Trask Industries lab. He thinks he has found a power source he can sell. Instead he wakes up a biological weapon that bonds to his DNA.
The story explores the body horror of his transformation and the realisation that he was created to be a predator not a protector.
SAMPLE SCENE | THE DISCOVERY
The frequency was dead air static except for the rhythm. Thump-thump. Thump-thump.
Peter wiped the grease from his forehead and adjusted the gain on his scanner. The signal was coming from behind the blast door. He had spent three hours cutting through the mag-locks with a stolen laser torch and his battery was dying.
“Come on,” he whispered. “Be worth it.”
The heavy steel groaned and slid open. The air that rushed out smelled of stale ozone and formaldehyde. Peter clicked on his headlamp. The beam cut through the dust illuminating a room that hadn’t seen light in twenty years.
It wasn’t a vault. It was a laboratory.
Shattered glass crunched under his boots as he walked past rows of empty stasis tubes. They were all labelled with serial numbers and the stamp of Trask Industries. Failed. Failed. Terminated.
The signal grew louder. It was vibrating in his teeth now.
He reached the end of the row. A single cylinder remained intact bathing the corner of the room in a sickly bio-luminescent violet light. Inside suspended in a thick gel, something drifted. It wasn’t a man. It was a mass of black shifting matter with spindly legs that twitched in time with the signal.
Peter leaned in closer mesmerised. He reached out a gloved hand to wipe the dust from the glass nameplate.
PROJECT: ARACHNE.
STATUS: DORMANT.
OBJECTIVE: GENETIC PURITY.
The rhythm stopped.
Peter froze. The thing inside the tank had stopped drifting. It had turned. A pattern of stark white shapes formed on the black mass. They looked like eyes.
And they were looking right at him.
AUTHOR NOTES | DIRECTION OF THE STORY
From this point I want to focus on the physical transformation. It shouldn’t be a cool suit montage. It should be painful. Peter tries to hide the “infection” from his Aunt May who is sick and reliant on his income but the suit starts speaking to him. It wants to hunt. The climax will be him encountering the first “Mutant” he has ever seen, perhaps a feral version of Logan and realising the suit is forcing him to kill.
INTERNAL TEAM NOTES
JAMES: This is a fascinating and creative concept which is perfect for the first issue of Fan Fiction Fulfilment. The inversion of the Spider-Man mythos into a Sentinel program is a genius hook.
SAM: The visual potential for the “Bio-Suit” is massive. We can lean heavily into H.R. Giger influences here. I’m thinking organic cables and wet textures rather than spandex.
SUMMER: I love the grit of this. The “Tech-Rat” angle gives Peter a desperation we rarely see. The readers are going to lose their minds over this darker tone.
DECISION | 21.05.27
JAMES: Agreed. We will headline Issue 01 with this story. It sets exactly the right tone for the magazine.
Looking forward to the Giger-esque suit designs Sam.
Summer please schedule a briefing for the “Bio-Suit” visuals with Richard. Thanks.