First-Ever Writers Deathmatch: Round 2-The Synopsis

Welcome to Round Two of the First-Ever Writers Deathmatch! We had ten total submissions for the contest and now we are down to the top 6.

We have not changed any of the grammar or spelling of the writers' works so the characters and style are purely theirs. Vote for the three writers which present you with the most interesting, compelling and original synopsis.

"A famous superhero is imprisoned in a maximum security facility after years of loyal service to their community". It is up to you, the writer, to establish who the “superhero” is, why they are imprisoned, back story, characters and where the story goes from there. With that out of the way, here are the competitors and their synopses.

Aakshat Sinha

Denis is locked up in a cell in a maximum security facility. Back in Tsinindali young orphan Denis runs around alone chancing upon a drunk, saving the goblet of wine that rolls out of his hand. Sylenus, the drunk, adopts him and teaches the old, sacred Borjomi way of making wine, celebrating life and death. Death of the grapes, crushed completely to ooze out the life-saving ferment. Special filtration converts ‘poison’ from the grapes to the only safe drink. All waters are poisoned since apocalypse. Kornuzo sees a visual of Denis removing his skin, revealing a donberits’ scaly hide. He removes his skin multiple times to reveal more grotesque forms. She kills some donberits in Batumi and mixes seaweed to the wine in her special flask as medicine. Finally Kornuzo stands outside the facility withdrawing her laser katana, with Denis locked up and Sylenus riding a cart around the opposite corner.

Andrew Henderson

The year is 2066.  A horrific viral outbreak has taken the world by storm as the infected plague the streets.  Commander Alistair Bane and his Nightwatch team have been tasked by the United States government to extract high-level persons of interest from infected hot zones and bring them to the safety of the fortified city of Tabula Rasa.  On a routine extraction mission to rescue a US Senator, Bane finds a pregnant survivor.  Ignoring his orders to extract only those deemed essential, Bane tries to save the young woman.  But it’s too late…as she goes into labor she’s bitten by one of the infected.  The result is Half-Breed.  Five years later, the virus has been contained and the city of Tabula Rasa houses a new world order, protected by Half-Breed and the Nightwatch.  However, behind the walls, the infected still roam…along with survivors.  Charged with the murder of the President of the United States, Half-Breed is sentenced to a Federal Supermax Prison as Imago Labs C.E.O. Mitchell Dekker assumes control of Tabula Rasa.  With Half-Breed behind bars, the city finds itself vulnerable to both external and internal threats…

Meg Cush

Four hundred and Sixty-eight. In the pursuit of internet fame, 468 innocent children lost their lives. At the center of it all are the woman ultimately responsible for what happened, the man who pulled the trigger, and the woman who would suffer for it all. The first issue of 468 begins with Nyx being shown behind bars, suffering away in solitary confinement, thinking about what lead to her being here. It shows her early days of stardom, the harsh fall from grace, and her mother ultimately giving her the idea to go forth with being a hero while she sat behind the camera and watched her own daughter risk her life for the rush of fame that she herself was denied because she became pregnant at nineteen. The issue ends with her meeting Agent Kaos for the first time.

Scott Closter

The Sixth, now a wandering nomad, prepares for a shamanic experience in the desert country of Ihaz. Hours into his trance he’s unknowingly surrounded by the Ihaz militia, but their attempts to kill the “infiltrator” prove a lesson in futility.  The Sixth dispatches them with ease, but his actions are recorded by an American surveillance drone. Due to his sudden reappearance in the middle of a war-zone, a nearby private militia is sent to bring him in for interrogation. The soldiers for hire garner his attention when their captain, extreme existentialist The Absurdist, is able to break The Sixth’s meditative state, eventually convincing him to come along peacefully for “questioning” by agents of the US government.  After several hours of inquisition The Sixth inexplicably blacks out mid-interrogation and upon waking, finds himself powerless and bound in high-tech shackles, face to face with his arch-nemesis Ohm, the self-proclaimed murderer of mankind.

Arthur Gibson

Issue one sees Vane in prison for the murder of her husband. Char wants her to escape. To Vane escape is not the way of the Hero. She follows Justice whether it is for or against her. Through flashbacks we see their relationship and their work together. Char is about action, the moment, and satisfaction of desires. Vane is about justice, assistance, and delayed gratification. She won’t harm the “image” she hopes will inspire the whole city. We see how Vane and her husband’s stormy relationship color all their lives. Is being a “Hero” a costume to put on and off or something to strive for throughout your entire life? Does becoming “Heroic” make you more human, or less? Will you and all around you become prisoners to ideals you can’t live up to? Ends in a flashback of her arrest immediately after defeating a villain who threatened a school.


Phil Bledsoe


The first issue's plot will focus on introducing the reader to the world in which the Mind's Eye operates, a world familiar to most readers of mainstream superhero comics. It will also introduce the idea that this world also includes a unique minority population: mutated victims of a recent man-made environmental disaster, who are forced to live on isolated colonies or reservations throughout the world. The Mind's Eye, with his unconventional approach to heroics, learns during the course of a routine investigation that the mutations are privy to information about industrial experiments to create an artificial plague that turns ordinary people into zombies; no one else has learned of it, because the mutations are thought of as mindless monsters rather than people. He also learns of a pattern of routine discrimination and violence against the mutations by both the legal authorities and the rest of the superhero community.