Comic Basic Plot

Because I have never drawn a comic before, and I only have limited time in which to draw one fro my practical, I want to make sure that I'm not too over ambitious. I need to demonstrate the Hero's Journey with a female character, and I think that using Vogler's take on the Hero's Journey will be a much better ideas - the stages are shortened down to twelve instead of seventeen, and (to me) is a little looser, leaving me with more freedom.

So that I could test out different ideas without thinking too much about any one story, I put all of my ideas down onto sticky notes, in order of the stages of the Hero's Journey, letting me mix and match the order of them.

I want to make sure that my plot is simple enough to be able to draw, and I want it to be comparable to other superhero comics. If I was writing this for the sake of just telling a story, then I would probably try to make it a lot more different, but this needs to show that a female character would work just the same as a male in a typical action/comic book story line (even if Campbell would disagree).

After some talking over with classmates, I came to this basic idea for the plot;

Ordinary World - The heroine is shown at college/work

Call to Adventure - Heroine is called upon by former hero/Mentor(Herald) to handle a hostage situation with a supervillain.

Refusal of the Call - Heroine refuses; she has given up the superhero lifestyle - "violence hasn't gotten me anywhere good" (cut to maybe a photo etc of someone to imply that last time it caused serious casualties that she doesn't want to repeat)

Meeting with the Mentor - Mentor meets in person to inform her that the hostage is in fact someone she knows, making this a mission that she can not refuse (possibly putting a male character in the 'damsel in distress' role)

Crossing the Threshold - Breaking into wherever the villain has the hostage - some place under surveillance to explain how the mentor knew, or the villain is broadcasting themself or something

Tests, Allies, Enemies - Meets the Threshold Guardian - cronies of the villain that need defeating - fighting very defensively and trying to avoid actual violence, disarming and handcuffs etc.

Approach to Innermost Cave - Recon/Strategising

Supreme Ordeal - Reluctant to fight Villain (Shadow) through a series of close calls manages to disable villain.

Reward - Rescues Hostage

Road Back - While distracted w/hostage, villain rises and nearly manages to kill both of them

Resurrection - Re-fight, realises that being passive won't solve anything where supervillains are concerned - has to accept that she has to use violence and embrace her powers

Return w/Elixir - Brings hostage safely home and also accepts her superpowers; it's worth using them if she can protect people.