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So I was just forced to watch the entire single season of the 1994 Scifi known as M.A.N.T.I.S.
Basically a Scientist is shot and paralyzed during a riot. The Pilot is heavy in the 'its a white conspiracy' idea as the Cop who shot him turns out to be a sockpuppet of nasty Corporation called BOXX. Oddly enough the African American Mayor and Chief of Police are also in on the conspiracy to increase the social problems in the Poor (mostly African American Suburbs) so its really a story about corruption and How Corporations have a hell of a lot of influence over local Government.
The pilot stars the ever awesome Gina Torres as the local CSI lady though she isnt in the Series that follows.
The Series itself is renegotiated twice from this initial. Its hard to do a story about rampant anti African American Racism when the series is being filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia and being subsidized by Canadian Film Grants.
It begins with a tale early on where the Hero is an old friend of a tinpot African Dictator whose nation is divided into tribes who hate the crap out of each other to the point of being the next Rowanda- somehow we are expected to think this is a good person (despite the fact she is of one particular faction who seems to have monstrous wealth and power despite the rival tribe's Objections and the Undemocratic inequality) and by comparison the Corrupt African Americans at in Port Columbia are bad.
It evolves into a crappy Post Modern tale of a Paraplegic Scientist who builds an Artificial nervous system wired Exoskeleton powered by brain impulse data from his Helmet. We get to see a slower development of the conspiracy dumped on us in the Pilot.
Halfway into the series it is promptly dumped in favour of an Alien infiltration story where other dimensional Men in Black begin an invasion mixed with time travel and monsters.
While the larger conspiracy plot was a really interesting core of the early series the best episodes were the last two-
'Ancestral Evil' in which we have a D&D Reference (a minor character says: 'A Druid? Like Dungeons and Dragons?').
The final episode with the Invisible Dinosaur where the Hero MANTIS and the very interesting Police Detective Lt. Maxwell perish in a fiery explosion in the Canadian North West. This ending sucks as a rushed termination of the series but the story up to that point is more like Fox's X-Files with the Heroes downed in a crash of their flyer in the mountains and the supporting stars hike the mountain in search of them only to run into the same 'invisible dinosaur' just defrosted out of the glacier.
While they cant really bring the series back with the existing stars, I can see this return with a new MANTIS who inherits the technology. Given the mutually lawless horrors of the 'War on Terror' that have occured over the last ten years I could see this as an opportunity for an African American Vet injured by some conflict in Afghanistan winding up in a 'obscure and privatly funded medical program' to develop an Exoskeleton for parapelegic troops back from the war - at least as a one off Movie.
So maybe oneday the M.A.N.T.I.S. will return.
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I remember watching MANTIS as a kid. I don't remember being blown away by it, but I remember wanting to like it and pulling for it since there wasn't much in the way of superhero television outside of cartoons at the time.
The basic concept is pretty sound and the idea for using a disabled war veteran as the hero would make it relevant. I actually think a comic series would be a good way to revive the character. Seeing as how Sam Raimi produced the series, maybe a new MANTIS could be introduced the next time Dynamite or Marvel uses the Darkman character for anything.
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Fox really didnt commit to this series properly.
FYI My brother and i are concieving an Exoskeleton that can be locked into a certain position with motor cycle tyres and an electric motor and lithium electric battery pack making the wearer into his or her own motorcycle.
It will be frikin awesome if we get it to work.
Fox really didnt commit to this series properly.
FYI My brother and i are concieving an Exoskeleton that can be locked into a certain position with motor cycle tyres and an electric motor and lithium electric battery pack making the wearer into his or her own motorcycle.
It will be frikin awesome if we get it to work.
You mean a Cyclone?
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You mean a Cyclone?Fox really didnt commit to this series properly.
FYI My brother and i are concieving an Exoskeleton that can be locked into a certain position with motor cycle tyres and an electric motor and lithium electric battery pack making the wearer into his or her own motorcycle.
It will be frikin awesome if we get it to work.
I wish - the prototype design is to be unarmoured. so it will lock in a shape where the front wheel locks into position near the hands - the rear wheel near the knees - if that is even achievable.
We will find out eventually. :)