Dark Betty Saga: pt 3: Crisis in Infinite Riverdales
Good news, Correctness readers! We have managed to find an excerpt for the script for part 3 of the Dark Betty Saga: Crisis in Infinite Riverdales, due for Christmas. We had a 45 minute argument in our office about who wrote this script- the names have been surreptitiously removed from the document. What do you guys think? Morrison? Miller? Moore? Dave thought Claremont, at this point, given the X-Men forever storyline, I tend to agree. Possible spoiler alert: It looks like this series will bring the Dark Betty story cycle to its conclusion.
Crisis in Infinite Riverdales: The Dark Betty Saga
Issue 3: Dark Betty Rising DRAFT 2
Page 1:
Ext. Road Night. Instead of a splash page, we begin with a series of smaller panels which reveal the wreckage of Archie’s jalopy from it’s head-on collision with Mr. Weatherbee’s car. In quick succession we see: The two vehicles have fused. Jughead’s hat is in a tree. The last of the steam from the radiator. The cross hatching of the side of Archie’s hair with rivulets of congealing blood. Moose’s legs sticking out from under the back of the car. Veronica is twisted into impossible angles. Shattered glass on a speedometer gauge.
CAPTION:(Archie’s Voice)(over scenes above) : In the beginning, there were three: Bets, Ronnie, and me. One malt with three straws. We were a team. We were a family. We were a family that dated each other. Also, there was that redhead girl sometimes. Basically though, in the beginning, there were three.
Page 2:
Perhaps a few stacked panoramic panels showing the crash site, and then images of Archie, Reggie, Veronica, Moose and Midge gathering themselves, steadying themselves. Archie is dabbing away blood from his face. Veronica looks stunned, she has curled up into a ball.
CAPTION: (Archie’s Voice)Then there was the accident. We were going too fast. We were going to hit Mr. Weatherbee. Bets- Betty- she tried to save us- it’s hard to remember. She – somehow- was she out of the car? Did Betty save us?
ARCHIE
Is everyone okay?
VERONICA
Jesus, my head, my head, I can’t…
REGGIE
I’m fine, I think, we’re all- Betty…
JUGHEAD
What? My God, Arch he’s right.
Something- Betty…
VERONICA
Was she thrown out? Did she fly out
of the car? Oh My God. Betty?
Page 3:
ARCHIE
She was in between the two cars.
Ours and Mr Weatherbee’s. She’s dead.
She’s dead. We saw her die.
Caption: “As we saw last ish- Ed.” Or something. –Ed.
VERONICA
No… No!
REGGIE
He’s Right. Oh Jesus. She tried
To save us. What was she thinking?
A Close up at the place where the two cars have melded into one. A few shreds of Betty’s dress flutter in the breeze. A larger panel, wide, on the whole accident site.
VERONICA
No. No. No.
Jughead
Arch? Is she gone.
PAGE 4:
SPLASH: Surrounded by flames, eldritch plasma, and beams of pure energy, Betty rises into the sky. Beautiful, and terrifying, she is full of a disturbing power and anger. The others look on in abject horror.
CAPTION: (Archie’s Voice)She told me once that she’d always be there for me. I never thought she meant even in death…
ARCHIE
Bets?
VERONICA
Betty? You…
BETTY
Betty has transcended. I am DARK BETTY!
CONT.
Page 5:
Some panoramic panels: A swirling mist surrounds the whole Riverdale gang, and in the blink of an eye, they have all disappear leaving an empty nighttime forest road.
Bottom half of the page: With a sudden “THWUDGE!” The whole gang arrives in a barren astral plane, as the mist they were transported in dissipates around them. A weird orange desert-scape under a sky with 2 moons.
Thwudge? – Ed
Page 6:
Close up on Archie Straining under some effort.
ARCHIE
(thought bubble)
Can’t Move! None of us can!
He looks around to see the others in the same predicament, held motionless my mysterious forces- Except for Betty. She is hovering several feet off the grown surrounded by a greyish flame, casting a strange light on her.
BETTY
I need to speak to you one at a time.
Hope you don’t mind waiting around.
In another panel, Betty gestures towards Veronica. Suddenly, Veronica floats towards Betty- Still frozen, standing, but nonetheless floating inexorably towards Betty.
VERONICA
(Thought Bubble)
My God, Bets, what happened to you?
What happened to us?
BETTY
I can hear you thoughts, Veronica.
What has happened is irrelevant. I died,
I returned, there is much I wish to say.
Page 7:
The others stay frozen, immobile. Veronica settles onto the ground near Betty. A puff of powdery desert sand rises up into the sky.
VERONICA
(tearful, terrified)
Bets? I…
BETTY
(tenderly)
Ronnie, hush.
Betty presses her finger to Veronica’s lips, then gingerly begins running her other hand through Veronica’s hair, petting her in a parental but condescending way.
BETTY
He played us off each other for so long.
We were a game to him. He held you like he
held me. One hand on your cheek, he
called you “little squirrel” too, didn’t he…
VERONICA
I – He, yes… but I thought…
Betty draws the still helpless Veronica closer, and puts her hand on Veronica’s cheek.
BETTY
He shared everything, little
squirrel. When he kissed you-
Veronica is terrified, a close up panel of tears trickling out of the corner of one eye.
VERONICA
Betty, no, please, no…
BETTY
Was it just like this?
Betty closes the last few millimetres, and tenderly kisses Veronica. Veronica struggles, but is still immobile, her only protest a muffled and terrified whimper.
Page 8
Archie struggles in vain against his psychic bonds.
ARCHIE
No!
REGGIE
(with a crazy boner)
Yes!
Betty turns swiftly and is suddenly alight with the same weird rageful flame which we saw a when she first arose from the car wreck. Energy flows from beneath her skin, making her inhuman.
BETTY:
Silence, Reginald! Silence all! You
have tested my limits of my kindness
enough this day!
JUGHEAD:
Bets, where is Mr. Weatherbee?
Our car, we collided, you…
BETTY:
Saved you? Indeed I saved you, for
I was not yet finished with you.
Weatherbee I had no need of. He
Is gone.
JUGHEAD:
You could have saved him!
BETTY:
And I could have let all of
you die in that car wreck , but I chose
to let you live! Do you want to see
Hot Dog again, Jughead?
JUGHEAD
My dog? You wouldn’t…
BETTY
Then enough of your mewling, Forsythe
Pendleton Jones III, you miserable
cholesterol junkie!
Page 9
Suddenly two diner style tables appear in the middle of the waste in a flash an a puff or eldritch force. Using her strange new abilities alone, Betty hurls Veronica hard into a chair at one of the tables. Veronica tumbles over the back of the chair, and drags herself to her feet, Her dress is a shambles, a sexy, sexy shambles.
ARCHIE:
Why are you doing this, Betty?
Betty calmly makes her way over to the second table and sits down in a chair. Her strange garb transforms itself into a 1950’s ensemble. With the slightest motion of her hand, a malt appears at each table, and in each malt, 2 straws. The desert plain is balance. On either side of the frozen Riverdale gang are 2 tables. At one table a helpless Veronica is seated. At the other table is Betty.
BETTY
The time has come to choose, Archiekins.
Choose one of us.
ARCHIE
Betty, why-
BETTY
Try not to forget how I saved your life.
Your precious Veronica may have been able
to afford healing factor and an
Adamantium skeleton, but you, Archie
Andrews, are as frail and human as ever.
Choose.
Page 10
And that’s all of the excerpt we could get on hands on folks. What do you think?
