Twisted ToyFare Theatre: Behind the Scenes Week 9-ish

December 2, 2008 on 8:14 pm | In TTT, Twisted ToyFare | No Comments

Justin here. Now that it’s been out for almost a month, I think it’s safe to discuss the creation of one of the most shocking Twisted ToyFares of all time – ToyFare #137’s “Invasion of the Mego Snatchers.” AKA (SPOILER WARNING) “The one we where reveal that everyone’s a Skrull.”

I’ve decided to do things a little different this time – instead of posting Jon’s storyboards for the strip (because I’m lazy), I decided to post the entire email conversation between the TTT writers, so you can see how the strip evolved. Enjoy!

JUSTIN WROTE ON 5/12/08: So I know it’s sort of a foregone conclusion that we’ll do a Secret Invasion TTT, but…it’s a foregone conclusion that we’re going to do a Secret Invasion TTT. I was thinking we might as well strike while the iron is hot and do one closer to when the event is going on. So here’s an idea I had for a framework for the strip.

We start with Spidey and Hulk on the couch and Hulk is holding a bizarre object. Spidey asks him what it is and Hulk announces that he
is, in fact, a Skrull, and he’s infiltrated as the Hulk so that he can take over Megoville. Spidey looks at him for a moment, then says, “Klax, what the hell are you doing?” Hulk looks at Spidey and says, “Vlix? I thought you were supposed to be minding the prisoners.” Spidey says, “No, that was Vlax.” “No, Vlax was supposed to be infiltrating the X-Men,” etc. etc.

Long story short, it turns out that the Skrulls have actually replaced every single person in Megoville, and there is no one left in the town who isn’t a Skrull. (The problem, it seems, is that the Skrull who was supposed to be coordinating everything took on the form of Spider-Woman and hasn’t left his apartment since).

At that point, I was thinking that maybe the Skrulls have stashed all the Megos on the Skrull homeworld, and they’ve just been carrying on living their lives there. So maybe the Skrulls have to secretly invade their own planet to get it back (maybe they have better potato chips and public schools so the Megos don’t want to leave?) or maybe the Megos have infiltrated their society with fake green chins and the Skrulls have to suss out Who They Can Trust.

I just like the idea of a team of Skrulls who’ve totally blown their plan and following them as they try to rescue it.

Thoughts? Sounds like something we might wanna do? Should we wait a few more issues so there’s more distance from the Annihilation two-parter?

ROB BRICKEN WROTE ON 5/14: • At some point, a ship should land with all the little used TTT characters; Thor, Mr. T, Iron Chef, Snowball Ice-Man, etc. The Skrulls are ecstatic that they have someone to secretly invade, until those guys also reveal themselves as Skrulls, a second wave of the invasion.

• Maybe the Skrulls invaded way back in ToyFare issue #19, destroying even the precious little continuity used in TTT?

• If you do decide to wait, might it be funny to suddenly have a Mego Spider-Woman show up in TTT, and everyone act like she’s been part of TTT continuity forever? As she acts completely mysterious and/or clearly someone who does not know Earthling ways? It’d be a pretty good set-up to an actual Invasion TTT.

• Might the Skrulls have plugged are the real Megos into a Matrix, where they lead their exact same lives in a perfect replica of Megoville? I like the idea of the strip ending with Spidey waking from his Matrix pods, seeing hundreds of arguing Skrulls, and immediately going back to sleep in the pods, where all TTTs effectively take place from then on.

JUSTIN WROTE ON 5/14: Regarding Rob’s point on continuity – it actually is in TTT continuity that the Skrulls invaded Megoville and took over the entire town waaaaay back in ToyFare #70 (when Redwing attempted to blow up the town to stop the invasion but Cap stomped on him).

I think it would be funny is we establish that every strip since then (and probably even a few before) we’ve been following Skrulls, while the real Spidey has been sitting in a couch on the Skrull homeworld. Man, that would piss people off.

The idea with the ship full of people is really funny too.

TJ DIETSCH WROTE ON 5/14: There’s gotta be some kind of Super Skrull involved. I think the last issue revealed that there are actually Super Skrulls for every team, so we should have the lamest one of all, whether it be Great Lakes Avengers, Power Pack, The Defenders, X-Treme X-Men, something along those lines.

ALEX KROPINAK WROTE ON 5/14: Skrull Officer: “Okay, Fr’rt, you’re assigned to be our Illuminati Super-Skrull.”

Fr’rt: Sweet!

Skrull Officer: “Aaaand Bc’ch…you’re assigned to some of the left-over subjects: Mojo, Doug Ramsey, and Swarm. Try to come up with something by tomorrow, huh?

Bc’ch: “…F–k…”

Skrull Officer: “Yeah, maybe next time you’ll bring more than a pack of ‘Juicy Fruit’ to our office potluck picnic.”

ADAM TRACEY WROTE ON 5/14: Or maybe a Super Skrull with all crappy powers, or at least the crappy parts of powered individuals. For instance, he’s part-Wolverine so he’s short, part-Sasquatch so he’s hairy, part-Deadpool so he’s got cancer, part-Xavier so he’s bald on top (or in a wheelchair?) and part-Doop so he’s…whatever Doop is.

ROB WROTE ON 5/14: I was trying to imagine what a Super Skrull for the Defenders would be, and between their group obnoxiousness, stupidity, lack of talent and egomania, I pretty much came up with Dane Cook.

RACHEL MOLINO WROTE ON 5/14: I love the idea of all the Megos having been stashed on the Skrull homeworld. The question is (as I think you’ve already pointed out) would you rather that mean that: TTT has been taking place with the real Megos on the Skrullworld this whole time; or that TTT has been composed by Skrulls the whole time? I really think the second option is funnier, and maybe I don’t have a good perception on this, but I don’t see why it would piss many people off. It’s a joke poking fun at the concept of retconning, and I think its brilliant. Especially if we ignore the retcon (or retcon the retcon) and call it out a little in a following TTT.

Now, if you were to make a plot of the Skrulls trying to take back their homeworld from the Megos, I think it would inevitably be a 2-parter.

Rob’s ideas are really great alternatives. I love both the ship of little-used TTT characters who turn out to be Skrulls, and the Matrix-style ending. These are probably even integrate-able with each other, but still, it sounds like a 2-parter, no? (not that we’re trying to avoid one)

JUSTIN WROTE ON 5/14: I think that when the Skrulls discover that the “Skrulls” they’ve been hanging out with all this time have really been Megos in disguise (if we go in that direction), they should get really incensed. “But…that means that everything I’ve done for the past four years hasn’t had any meaning!”

As for the end, we could always just have Dr. Strange magically make it so that it never happened and we really HAVE been reading about the Megos this whole time. Or we could have Bendis suggest that Dr. Strange do that. Or we could have Bendis do that.

ROB WROTE ON 5/14: No no no—you have to leave it as is, meaning Skrulls have been in TTT since issue whatever. Yes, that’ll piss some readers off, and yes, that’s totally hilarious. In fact, I like my Matrix ending, because it’s a slap in the face that all future TTs will effectively not be real as well. HAHAHHAHAHA

I’m drunk.

Justin here again now (in the present). So, as you can see, a lot of what ended up in the final script came out of that initial flurry of emails. (The idea that the real Megos who have been living on the Skrull homeworld are hopelessly lame came out of the finalization meeting, and was basically so fans would never, EVER ask us to make TTT be about the real Megos.) And in the end, it turns out that Rachel was right and I was wrong: I figured fans would be pissed off at the ending, but so far all the feedback we’ve gotten is that this strip was one of fans’ favorites of the year. Which is a much better reaction to get. I GUESS.

So, what did you think of the strip and its genesis?