#nerd band

[wanderingmind867]

I'm just gonna share a random thought I just had. I don't like not being able to share context here, but I have to force myself to focus here. So...you know how the Riddler, the Scarecrow and the Mad Hatter are referred to as the Dork Squad? Well, I think there should be a group known as the knock-off dork squad. Using a thesaurus offline....I think Nerd Band would be a great name for this group. Who is this group I want to call the Nerd Band? Simple. The Bookworm, Ragdoll and Music Meister. Great villains who i bet are derided as cheap rip-offs of Riddler, Scarecrow and the Mad Hatter. So i seriously want to have a story about these three, trying desperately to make legitimate names for themselves as crooks in Gotham. I'd love that story a lot.

[jenniferstolzer]

Everyone check out the Suzaku 7! They’re a nerd band from New Orleans with a Gundam-esque theme. This is their first music video from their new album featuring art from me! I’ve also helped them create a comic book to help sketch out the story of the Operation Animeteor concept album!

You can find the comic here. The album will be out before new years. Follow them on youtube for more updates!

[vespaer77]

Drogon is ready for me to be done writing this song...

[wanderingmind867]

Gotham has many lesser known D-list villains. Some of them at least get to be known for their bizarreness, like polka dot man. But how about those villains who get confused for other villians? This is the story of the Nerd Band, a group of three D-list supervillians united in their ability to be confused for other villians.

The Bookworm is a villian who's been in Gotham for years. Known for masterful schemes, his love of books and his ability to speed read at an incredible pace, the bookworm used to be a credible threat. Nowadays, people always his crimes are being committed by the Riddler. Or if not the riddler, then by Cluemaster. Just like how the literary world abandoned him for his lack of "originality," now even the criminal underworld is abandoning him.

Peter Merkel is a skilled contortionist known as Ragdoll. A thief of some high renown, Ragdoll is a nationally known thief and escape artist. But ever since he chose to make his stay in Gotham City, people have continuously confused him for the Scarecrow. If Ragdoll hears one more crack about his "fear gas," he's gonna snap.

Finally, the Music Meister sang the song that the world wanted to hear. The Music Meister was the man that the world did obey. But after his one failed scheme, he fell into obscurity and poverty. By the time he came back to commit a new crime wave, people had already forgotten all about him. They think he's that other mind control based supervillian known as The Mad Hatter. And, well, just because he wears a fancy hat doesn't mean he's the Hatter! He was the boss of all of you once, damn it! He's the Music Meister; the maestro of mayhem! He can't be forgotten...

In the end, Bookworm, Ragdoll and Music Meister all end up meeting up in Arkham. Realizing they all share vendettas (not only against batman, but against society and their more mainstream counterparts) these three villians band up and become the Nerd Band! Books, Performing Arts, Music! Truly a group for the ages! These three shall become formidable criminals again, if it's the last thing they ever do!

[wanderingmind867]

Season Two of my Batman show would feature Batman, Robin (Dick Grayson) and Batgirl. All the same supporting cast members return from Season One, although I might make Dick's Aunt Harriet an occasional guest star who pops up in two or three episodes. With Season Three switching gears to Batman and Jason Todd, Aunt Harriet can't be made too important. But she would still show up in Season Two, as my personal tribute to Madge Blake.

Season Two would also have a lot of the same villans from Season One. The Penguin, The Joker, Catwoman, Two-Face, etc. Hush wouldn't show up much, though. He might return for later seasons, but I don't think I can tell many more stories with him at the present time. And The Bookworm (a character I would use two or three times in Season One) is nowhere to be seen in Season Two. That's meant to help build up to that spin-off show about Bookworm, Ragdoll and The Music Meister that I want to make.

So yeah. A lot of old villains return, but some are absent. We'd also introduce some new villains for Season Two, though. Harley Quinn, The Riddler, Mister Freeze, Poison Ivy, etc. And I might drop hints at the Court of Owls. They'd be seen in Season One, too. The Court aren't a supernatural secret society on my show, though. No, the Court of Owls is just Gotham's KKK. A bunch of influential rich men who try to run foreigners out of town. Led by people like Hamilton Hill, Carmine Falcone, even Thomas Wayne, the Court is a group with many enemies.

Hush and the Children of Arkham were their enemy in Season One. The Original Riddler (the one from the telltale games) is their enemy on this show. As is the original Joker. But all of that is covered in a TV movie bridging the gap between Season Two and Season Three. Because to get to Jason Todd, Season Three has to do a time skip. So the Court of Owls movie takes place around a year after Season Two ended. The movie introduces Jason Bard to our universe. It also features the death of the Court of Owls (as The original Joker kills everyone but their Grandmaster). It's a bit of a darker movie, but it's still got some really light spots.

Anyways, the movie ends with the Court of Owls dismantled, meaning almost all of Gotham's criminal underworld has been destroyed. So the next few years were fairly peaceful in Gotham, as silver age style crimes were all that ever happened. The Joker, Penguin, Harley Quinn, Catwoman, Riddler and Two-Face were all still commiting crimes, but the insidious world of organized crime has been completely drummed out of Gotham. Or at least it was. Until after four or five long years, Killer Croc comes to Gotham…

And so now we're almost all caught up. Season Three of my Batman show begins with the long miniseries about Killer Croc and Jason Todd. And this miniseries takes place four or five years after the Court of Owls movie. By this point in time, Robin (Dick Grayson) is a first or second year college student. Batman is now working solo most of the time, and crime is getting dangerous in Gotham again. So now we pick up in the world of the 70s and 80s pre crisis comic books, with Batman and Jason Todd working together.

And new foes are introduced, too. Foes like Anarky, Killer Croc, Ra's al Ghul, Black Mask, and others in that sort of vein. This is also when the spin off show about The Bookworm, Ragdoll and Music Meister begins. Season Three is a momentous event for the show, and it's the point upon which this show finally hits the part of the timeline that it would stay at for the rest of the show's history. If people really want more stories of Batman, Robin (Dick Grayson) and Batgirl in the silver age era, though, i suppose i could make a second spin-off all about that, too. But that's only if people really clamour for that one.

[wanderingmind867]

If I made a show or comic about the Nerd Band/Knockoff Dork Squad (Bookworm, Ragdoll and Music Meister), i'd probably have it run for as long as I could ideally make it run. Mostly just so I can have each villain that I like make 15+ appearances. Also, my show would pick up with the pre-crisis dc universe of Earth-One, where Jason Todd is Batman's new Robin. So the batfamily is currently stuck in 1985 1984/1985 when my show begins. But the villains would be eclectically collected from across all the different comics, games, tv shows and movies. Also, this show might lead to a spin-off more directly about Batman and Robin Jason, but I don't know.

In either case, the show would feature pretty much as many villians as I could make the show fit. All the D-listers, at least. This show is about three D-list villians (Bookworm, Ragdoll and Music Meister), so the least we can do is add all the other D-listers in. Penny Plunderer, Kite-Man, Killer Moth, Signalman, Crazy Quilt, The Eraser, The Cavalier, etc. And if the D-list villians are our stars, then we should have a D-list hero as our leading good guy. Someone minor for Bookworm, Ragdoll, Music Meister and these others to match wits with.

So we'd introduce a small town superhero from up in small town Quebec. Moving to Gotham to try and prove themselves as a hero outside of their local community, we meet Fatigué, a french-canadian superhero whose only power is the ability to make people feel exhausted. They can't put them to sleep or anything, they can only fatigue them. The power works better in small towns with lower crime rates. Here in Gotham…not so much.

So we'd have our obscure D-list villians fighting an obscure D-list hero. Batman would be almost completely unaware any of this is happening, since it's only affecting a small chunk of the city in some very minor ways. Also because Fatigué leaves the big city after one season, tired and overwhelmed by the millions of people milling about in Gotham. They'd return to being a small time hero in Quebec, where they'd get a hero's welcome. The moral is that heroes come in all shapes and sizes. Not every hero can be Superman. Sometimes it's better to just have a small town champion.

After Season One, I might consider sending Bookworm, Music Meister and Ragdoll on a big north american roadtrip together, where they do criminal things, fight (and occasionally befriend) minor league superheroes, and even occasionally do a heroic thing too. If this story pays off well, i'd send them back to Gotham with a slightly higher profile, but bring them back down to speed by making them see that a lot of people still don't recognize them. These would be themes the show explores. A lot of DC worldbuilding, mingled with the stories of some of gotham's most d-list crooks.

[wanderingmind867]

My take on The Music Meister (Darius Chapel): Darius Chapel was born to a musical virtuoso named Caden Chapel. His mother was named Allegra, but she died giving birth to Darius. A beautiful composer of orchestral music, Caden hated modern music. The modern vocalizations took away from the sophistication of classical music, in his eyes. So as he raised his son, Caden tried to force his son to conform to his interests. It never quite worked, since Darius was fascinated by the world of the theatre. He so dearly wanted to sing on stage, either solo or as part of a choir.

So when he once naively told his father that he wanted to be a singer, it angered Caden. No member of the Chapel family would be a singer under Caden's roof! So for years, Darius had to repress his musical urges. He had to hide his true nature from his father. It was a repressive household, one where the only music allowed was that of orchestra pit music. Instrumentals. No vocalizations whatsoever. It was stifling. A perfect metaphor for the mentally abusive household.

When Darius went into middle school, he secretly started performing for the school choir. He hid this info from his father, and got away with it for almost a full year. But near the end of the year (as Darius was just turning 12 or 13), bullies began to pick on him. He tried to ignore them at first, but eventually they got physical. When he accidentally let out a scream as they went to hit him, they unexpectedly stopped in their tracks. And that's when Darius discovered his gift.

Somehow, he was born a mutant. He hadn't realized it until now, but his voice has the power to entrance all who hear it. Depending on the pitch and the modulation, he can make people behave differently and do different things. For a timid 13 year old boy who was bullied all his life for being a singer, this knowledge was salvation. A manna from heaven. Using his gift, he protected himself from harm. When he sang, he could hypnotically trick his bullies into making fools of themselves. At home, he used his voice to make his father stop repressing him. Their home became dictated by Darius's rules. For the first time in his 13 years, he had control of his fate.

The ability to control others with his voice slowly went to his head over the years. He still wanted to be a singer, of course. But as he moved from elementary school into high school (and then high school into college), he began to feel like it wasn't enough. No, merely being a singer didn't present enough joy to him. With his voice and his ideals, he could change this world! There'd be peace on earth, if everyone would just accept him as their all knowing dictator! Fame, adulation, riches, all will be his!

These thoughts led him to become The Music Meister, the villainous virtuoso of crime! On his first big crime spree, he successfully enslaved almost the entire world. As seen in Batman: The Brave and The Bold, he successfully hypnotised everyone on earth besides Batman. He was this close to being the emperor of earth! This close! He was almost the idol of all! But no! That damned batman stopped him, and he was locked in a soundproof cell in arkham for years. For years upon end, he stewed in prison, angrily plotting his return to villainy.

Finally, he was freed from arkham on good behaviour. He was finally going to become a big name in crime again; he'd finally see his goals realized! He would rule this world! But sadly, nobody seemed swayed by his voice anymore. Well, I mean…technically people still obeyed his voice. He was able to commit a series of successful crimes. But because of The Mad Hatter (who'd also broken out of arkham), Darius receives no credit for his musical crimes. He's ignored, and being ignored is the one thing a man like him can't stand. He's a showman! He lives for fame and glory! You can't neglect him! He deserves to be worshipped and idolized!

Darius kept commiting crimes, but every single time he did, people blamed The Mad Hatter. Apparently he was too minor for any detectives to think of him! Even that stupid batman doesn't seem to think of him! It sends his blood boiling. Realizing that nobody's ever going to give him the respect he deserves, he heads to a seedy downtown bar to drown his sorrows. It's there he runs who The Bookworm and Ragdoll, two crooks who've been having similar difficulties to him. All lonely and angry, the three of them agree to an informal alliance. And well… I think the rest was probably covered in my posts on Ragdoll and The Bookworm.

[wanderingmind867]

My Interpretation of Ragdoll (modelled after the Ragdoll from the Batman 2004 show) is the Peter Merkel Jr. of Earth-One. Earth-Two was home to two Ragdolls: Peter Merkel Sr (who was an enemy of Golden Age Flash) and Peter Merkel Jr (who was an enemy of Infinity Inc). On Earth-Two, the identity of Ragdoll became a criminal legacy act. But on Earth-One, it was never like that at all.

On Earth-One, Peter Merkel Sr was a popular contortionist, that is true. But his circus remained popular for most of his life, and he never had to turn to crime. No, he was actually able to provide a stable life for his weirdly hyper child. Peter Jr managed to become his father's apprentice in entertaining, and he proved to have a natural born gift for it. Perhaps it's because Peter Jr seems to have some form of ADHD, or perhaps it's just because he grew up in a performing arts household.

Either way, Peter Merkel Sr of Earth-One dies in much the same way he does on Earth-Two. He just dies quicker than his Earth-Two counterpart. He had to retire from circus performing at 45 because his health was in severe decline. You see, Peter Sr was a good contortionist because of a bad set of family genetics. The Merkel family all carry the risk of inheriting a rare genetic disease that makes their bones softer and more flexible than others. But it also means they get weaker and weaker as they age. Most of them never live past 70 (if that). Peter Sr died at 70 on Earth-Two, but he dies at 50 years old on Earth-One.

Since his father retired at age 45, Peter had been performing as the contortionist for the circus in his stead. Since he was 16, he had been his father's substitute. But now he's 21, and his father's dead. Around a year later, the circus closes it's doors, unable to earn any more money out there in the Central City area. Now unemployed, Peter finds himself desperately out of luck when he goes on a job hunt. Nobody wants a contortionist like him. But one day (while he's busy at home watching tv), he hears stories of an elaborate crime wave that only ended recently. It inspires Peter. Who better to commit robberies than a man like him!?

So with his newly realized abilities in hand, Peter designs a new costume (abandoning the one his father used to wear), and he becomes a well known thief on the national level. He keeps a low profile, so most people don't of Ragdoll. But he moves from Central City to Metropolis to Midway City and so on and so forth. He steals himself a good sum of money, getting a knack for the abilities in the meantime. And that's when Peter Merkel Jr goes to Gotham City.

Initially, his crime career as Ragdoll was going swimmingly in Gotham. But eventually, Batman catches him and he becomes a minor criminal, forgotten amongst the city's higher echelon rogues. And once Scarecrow arrives on the scene, things go from bad to worse for him. Since their costumes are so similar, everyone starts to assume Ragdoll is Scarecrow. But he's not. Do you know how humiliating it is to have people fighting him with gas masks!? It's not funny! Sure, it means he's always underestimated and can easily score his robberies, but it's still so humiliating! His family was famous in the entertainment industry back in the day. But now he's seen as a cheap rip-off of another villain. It's unfair, and it makes him feel miserable.

This is all the buildup that we get before we see him meeting The Bookworm and The Music Meister in a seedy Gotham bar. All three of them are depressed and angry about being mistaken for other people, and so all three of them band together to change their reputation and make themselves icons of crime once more. Scarecrow, Riddler and The Mad Hatter can't keep hogging the spotlight! These three have been called rip-offs long enough. It's time they finally proved they're more than just cheap knockoffs of these other crooks! And in this way, a beautiful and brilliant partnership is born…