7/27/2019 Below Zero Pitch

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Icicle and Piledriver are supervillains in love. One last score and they can leave the criminal life behind. They cstart over somewhere far away.

Coil is a villain ambitiously building his reputation in the villain underworld. Pulling a heist, he double-crosses whole crew; leaves them for dead; and walks o with the loot.

Coil's never trusted anyone and doesnt know the value of friends. Icicle knows otherwise. The super-criminalsRapid City are her family. She knows they won't forget what Coil did. They won't forgive. Icicle knows her crewShe knows when they're pushed, they bend but they don't break. They push back.

She knows all that.But she's wrong.

Rapid City: Below Zero is a twelve issue descent into the life of a supervillain.

Issue 1 begins with Coils betrayal of the heist crew. His bomb kills them instantly. Icicle and Claw Hammer arthe only survivors; trapped underground with no way out. The man she loves is dead. Her friends are dead. Icicmust nd the strength to dig her way out, or join them in a mass grave. For Piledriver, for her friends, she mussurvive. She must kill Coil.

Issues 2 through 5 feature Coil's rise to power and Icicle's desperation. Coil uses a stolen artifact to leveragemembership in The Syndicate, a national organization of supervillains. Icicle calls upon friend after friend andnds them unwilling to cross the new boss. Federal Agent Hartborn is pursuing Coil and reaches out to IcicleShe is resolute and determined to handle it without his help. Out of friends, out of money, and with nowhere tgo, she confronts Coil directly. He's waiting for her with his syndicate thug, Charge, and they beat her badly. C

has recently recruited Icicle's last friend, Claw Hammer, and demands a show of loyalty: Either make her workme, or kill her yourself.

Issues 6 through 8 open with Icicle and a supervillain crew stealing a subway train. Terried, an elderly passenreveals himself as the long-forgotten hero, Templar. He battles the villains and disappears. After a later battle wTemplar and a group of superheroes, Icicle approaches the old man. He tells her that his power, granted by amagic ring, has always been rooted in evil. He's spent decades repressing that darkness only to nd himselfultimately consumed, and damned, by it. He accepts the consequences of giving in and thanks her for freeinghim. With Templar as a potential ally, Icicle demands a meeting with Coil. The meeting escalates and Icicle takaction. She uses her ice powers to steal Templar's magic ring and puts it on her own nger. Before its dark enecan transform her, Coil slices o her arm.

Issues 9 through 12 bring Icicle and Coil's stories to a conclusion. Icicle awakens in a hospital bed where she i

questioned by Agent Hartborn and his partner Andrew. They each share their own view ofCoil's evil nature.Meanwhile, Coil's syndicate superiors are not happy. They demand he take swift action to assert control. Forceact, Coil wages an all out assault on the hospital. Icicle, Hartborn, and Andrew are hunted through the chaosCoil's men. Andrew defends Icicle and is killed by Charge. Icicle, nally on her feet, stabs an ice spike throughCharge's head.

In the aftermath, Coil's men scatter. Syndicate advisor, Hector, nds Coil and tells him that he was doomed frothe start. Icicle nally weeps for Piledriver and everything she's lost. In accepting what her life has become, shlearns to use her powers to grow a new arm made of living ice. Icicle baits Coil into a nal conict. She defeatshim and leaves him to his fate. The Syndicate, however, needs to save face. The person who unseated Coil mueither replace him or be punished. Alone and despised, Icicle takes her seat at the head ofRapid City's under-world.

Below ZeroA 12 issue supervillain story of love, pain, and revenge.

written by Josh Dahl drawn by Shawn Langleyjoshdahl75@gmail.com or 617 304 5351

joshdahl75@gmail.com 617 304 5351