Tips for Creating a Man Vs Beast Conflict in Comic Books

Man vs. beast is a common conflict used in stories. Most readers are familiar with the "Moby Dick" conflict between Ahab and a whale. There is also the mythologies behind werewolves, vampires, and other monsters of the night. In comic books, man vs beast takes a different role. The combination of images and words allows for a different experience than the ghosts and goblins of film and prose fiction.

Perhaps the shining example of man vs beast may not be one at all. Superman was killed by a beast named Doomsday in the 1990s. The story was so big that is made the national news. The point here is that, though Superman is from Krypton, he was a man like being fighting the antithesis of a beast. The story covered a lot of ground, and proved one of the oldest conflicts in history could be represented in the comic book form.

A comic book writer should enjoy toying with the man vs. beast conflict. The hero need not die like Superman, but think of it like the Rocky films-allow the protagonist to be beat around some. Batman is another example of a character battling beasts. The dark knight has fought several kinds of aliens, werewolves, vampires, and many other things fitting for a good comic book story. Perhaps the best example is the trilogy of graphic novels "Batman vs. Predator." Here we have Batman fighting against a creature on safari. The Predator character first appeared in film, and allows in comic books, for a different take on the man vs. beast story. Instead of a stupid character that is all brute force (like Doomsday) the Predator is as intelligent as any person walking the earth. It does not seek destruction; it wants a challenge.

The basic beast need not be from horror or even mythology. It can appear out of our imaginations. The beast will have to be opposed by a hero. It will have to beat him up some. If you're brave the beast can even win the battle, but the happy ending usually has the beast dying. A monster can be shown much easier in a comic book. What 1,000 words could do in a novel can be done with one panel of a comic script. This is not to say the comic book tells the superior man vs beast story, but it can be easier for the reader to grasp the monster and the author to create it.