M.A.N.T.I.S.

M.A.N.T.I.S.

By theLogBook.com
January 24, 1994

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

M.A.N.T.I.S.

First Steps

By theLogBook.com
August 26, 1994

Paralyzed after being shot while trying to rescue a child from an inner city riot, Dr. Miles Hawkins is roused from his recovery by a letter of resignation from John Stonebrake, a brilliant cyberneticist working at Hawkins Industries. Stonebrake has been working on a powered suit that could restore Hawkins’ mobility, and Hawkins demands to try it out, control helmet and all, with John following closely. During their test of the suit, Hawkins overhears a woman screaming, and races to intervene, discovering that he can hurl her attackers a great distance as a result of the suit’s superhuman strength. But after stopping the assault, a malfunction brings Hawkins to his knees and John rushes him back to the lab.

Hawkins is called in to offer his medical advice on what seems to be an outbreak of a fatal disease. Hawkins immediately recognizes the genetically engineered virus from its effects: it’s a biological weapon that he created. Despite the fact that he informs Lt. Leora Maxwell she is almost certainly infected from even a brief exposure, she breaks quarantine to try to find who’s responsible for spreading the virus. Hawkins also breaks quarantine to visit an old business partner of his, Solomon Box, who was ordered to destroy the virus. After his confrontation with Box, Hawkins survives an attempt on his life, and is then stunned when Taylor Savage, a witness to his foray in the suit has tracked him down and “wants in” on whatever Hawkins and John are up to. With his help, Hawkins discovers that Box plans to sell the virus to North Korean operatives, and the only solution may be to once again don the Mantis suit.

written by Bryce Zabel
directed by David Nutter
music by Christopher Franke

Cast: Carl Lumbly (Dr. Miles Hawkins), Roger Rees (John Stonebrake), Christopher Gartin (Taylor Savage), Galyn Gorg (Lt. Leora Maxwell), Kenneth Mars (Reese), Cordelia Gonzales (Dr. Rivera), Brion James (Solomon Box), Clabe Hartley (Tony), Lorena Gale (Lynette), Jerry Wasserman (Detective Paul Warren), Kevin McNulty (Fred Saxon), Ric Reid (Rex Hauck), Suki Kaiser (Ashley Williams), Martin Cummins (Dog Face), Cathy Weseluck (TV Interviewer), Robin Douglas (Manager), Madison Graie (Hassled Girl), Brock Johnson (Punk), Harvey Thomison (Dr. Zoom), Jason Lee (Korean Official)

Notes: M.A.N.T.I.S. has undergone a significant rethink to become a weekly series, walking back some elements of the pilot movie aired in January 1994. The fictional “Ocean City” setting is now “Port Columbia”, though it still has all the hallmarks of a major coastal California city. With the sole exception of Carl Lumbly as Dr. Miles Hawkins, the entire cast of the pilot, and their characters, have been jettisoned by the weekly series.

There’s strong evidence to suggest that the series and the pilot movie are not in the same “universe”. This episode seems to portray the first time Hawkins has tried on the M.A.N.T.I.S. suit, which he had already used prior to the pilot movie. Unlike the pilot’s plot point that Hawkins had worked with the city government of Ocean City, here he says that the investigation into the outbreak is the first time he’s consulted with the police since being paralyzed. In the pilot, M.A.N.T.I.S. is an acronym for the suit’s technology, whereas here it’s a term invented by Taylor Savage. It’s probably best to view the pilot movie and the series as two very different tellings of the same story.