Fighting Global Warming
As online comic book writers, I’m giving each of you an important task. I want you to write a story which brings some attention to the blog reading public about the problem of global warming. You’ve already created a superhero story and detailed some of that character’s adventures. Now, I want you to write a new story episode that focuses on the problems of global warming.
Story Guidelines
Write your story following these guidelines:
Begin your story by in some way connecting it to the recent real world event (on 3/21/07) in which Al Gore returned to Capitol Hill to testify before Congress about the need for legislation to address global warming. Your hero might have been at the session, read about it in the news, or seen a recap of it on T. V. Maybe your hero just happened to rent An Inconvenient Truth and watch it with his/her girlfriend/boyfriend. No matter what, that event ought to in some way inspire your hero to take action on the issue.
For heroes living in other times or other worlds, you’ll have to work harder to find some way to make global warming somehow relevant. I leave that to your creative devices.
Your story might focus directly on the global warming problem or it might just be in the background and relevant somehow. If possible, make the story in some way encourage readers to rethink their own environmental practices. You could write a message-focused, change-your-ways type of story or a more subtle examination of the topic. Perhaps your hero meets legendary environmental hero Captain Planet. Perhaps your hero creates a new weapon which unfortunately heats up global temperatures. Or perhaps your hero goes to Congress to testify about the problem just like Al Gore. All sorts of story lines would be interesting to examine.
Story Length
Write a story which is 2-3 pages long (double spaced). We’ll begin it in class, have you finish it outside of class, and then post the story on our blog at our next class session. The we’ll read each other’s stories to see what you came up with.
Collaborating
If you want to collaborate with someone, you can write a story which unites your two heroes’ universes (that is, have your characters paths cross in the story). Collaborative stories should be posted by both authors on the blog.
Comic Books and Science
My hope is that this task will let you think about what it takes for comic book writers to incorporate scientific thinking into their work, one of the key issues discussed in our course text The Science of Superheroes. Also as usual, I’d like you to reflect on the issues from our readings through your own creative efforts at writing a superhero story.