Day: January 24, 1969

A well-organized and planned heist of a bank in Ocean City is cut short by the appearance of a silhouetted figure wearing a high-tech helmet. By the time the police arrive, the helmeted man is gone, but the robbers are still there, frozen in place. In one of the robbers’ mouths, police find a metal figurine of a praying mantis.

In the run-up to the 1994 election, which will decide the next Mayor of Ocean City, the race is down to two men – Ocean City’s Chief of Police, Frank Stark, and an incumbent, elder-statesman Mayor. Stark has attracted controversy by mandating violent “anti-riot” tactical training as the answer to gang activity, while claiming that the sitting Mayor is soft on crime, but most of Stark’s crime-fighting activity is focused squarely on the city’s African-American populace. When amateur videotape of the helmeted man lands in the hands of TV reporter Yuri Barnes, he suspects that the mystery vigilante – known on the street only as “Mantis” – is part of some undisclosed secret plan being hatched by Stark. Barnes’ girlfriend, Dr. Amy Ellis, is an examiner at the city coroner’s office, and says she’s heard nothing about this being part of a police operation.

It’s not long, however, before Dr. Ellis sees the masked man in action for herself, as he arrives in a flying car to break up a crime that uses a deliberate traffic jam to cover for a spree of robberies. The perpetrators are shot with some kind of dart that leaves them paralyzed, like the bank robbers, and then the helmeted man flies away with police helicopters in pursuit. The impossibly high-tech flying car dives into a tunnel, where it shimmers, emerging from the tunnel as an ordinary (if vintage) car. The frozen perpetrators are examined at police headquarters by biophysicist Dr. Miles Hawkins, who is unable to offer any conclusions. After seeing Antoine Pike, head of the Mayor’s anti-gang task force, in action, Dr. Ellis suspects that he may be “Mantis”, though Barnes dismisses that theory. Dr. Ellis has another theory: Dr. Hawkins’ attempts to determine what paralyzed the criminals may lead to Chief Stark having a powerful new weapon which she fears will be used predominantly on Ocean City’s African-American population.

Word reaches Hawkins that Pike’s much-touted truce between the city’s gangs is broken, “Mantis” swings into action to prevent a gang war that will give Stark an excuse to declare a war of his own, whether he does so as the Chief of Police or as the Mayor. But what no one realizes is that M.A.N.T.I.S. stands for Mechanically Augmented Neuro-Transmitter Interception System, a powered suit devised by Hawkins to allow him to move without his wheelchair. But the suit also gives him powers beyond walking, and he’ll need every one of them to stop Stark’s scheme to influence the election…and start a massacre.

teleplay by Sam Hamm
story by Sam Raimi & Sam Hamm
directed by Eric Laneuville
music by Joseph Lo Duca

Cast: Carl Lumbly (Dr. Miles Hawkins), Bobby Hosea (Yuri Barnes), Gina Torres (Dr. Amy Ellis), Steve James (Antoine Pike), Obba Babatunde (Cornell), Marcia Cross (Lila McEwan), Wendy Raquel Robinson (Hawkins’ Assistant), Christopher M. Brown (Hawkins’ Assistant), Phillip Baker Hall (Smitty), Yvonne Farrow (Magda), Francis X. McCarthy (Chief Stark), Alan Fudge (Captain), Grant Heslov (TV Crew), Louis Ramos (TV Cameraman), Billy Kane (DeCarlos), Jeremiah Birkett (Kid MG), Dex Elliot Sanders (L.T.), Theo Forsett (Jay), Jerry Black (Mayor Beane), Larron Tate (Day Day), Vicellous Reon Shannon (Ski), Tierre Turner (Rahsaan), Martin Davis (Todd), Kimble Jemison (Curtis), David Fresco (Motorist), Edwina Moore (Jay’s Mom), Charles Hoyes (Policeman Guard), Lucy Lin (Newswoman), Ossaun Elam (Gangbanger #1), Richard Jones (Gangbanger #2), Dane Winters (Interviewer), Nelson Parks (Office Worker), Martin Cassidy (Dispatcher), Steve Hom (Cop in Alley), Jermaine Shoulders (10K Member), Mark Phelan (Stark’s Handler), Gene Arrington (Reggie), Richard Zobel (Homeless Man), Mark Avery (Basketball Guard), Robair Sims (Thug), Craig Hosking (Pilot)

Notes: Created by future Hercules and Xena creators Sam Raimi and Robert Tapert with Batman and Batman Returns screenwriter Sam Hamm, M.A.N.T.I.S. was a made-for-TV superhero with an almost entirely African-American cast and no comic book antecedent. Fox made significant changes to the show’s casting and format before it returned in August as a weekly series; Carl Lumbly (as Hawkins/M.A.N.T.I.S.) was the only cast member or character to transition from the pilot to the series. Much was made of Hamm’s involvement at the time, as his scripts for the two Tim Burton Batman films were regarded as a revival for the character in film. The M.A.N.T.I.S. suit was designed by comics artist Denys Cowan and fabricated by KNB EFX Group (then known best for A Nightmare On Elm Street 5, Halloween 5, and Dances With Wolves).

LogBook entry by Earl Green