Kevin Smith’s already directed an episode of The Flash, and he’s going to be back directing another episode for season three. But what he really wants to do is direct and write an episode of Arrow.
Image: Green Arrow #13
Smith created Onomatopoeia as a villain for Green Arrow back in 2002. He’s the usual martial artist and weapons expert, with the quirk of saying comic book sound effects out loud. (Sidenote: I do not ever want to be targeted by any adult who goes around saying, “Kablam!”)
Onomatopoeia has a very distinct look and quirk in the comics, which might not translate to TV that well. That doesn’t mean Kevin Smith hasn’t thought about how to make it work. He told Den of Geek:
[I]nstead of just doing the actual sound — which to me, in the real world, would be like the dude from Police Academy making noises with his mouth — he’ll just have little cards. Business cards that have typewritten words of whatever the fuck. So instead of him saying ‘blam’, you’d find this card on your desk and turn around and ‘blam’, he’d shoot you and stuff like that. Which I think is a little more chilly, you know, for doing it in live action.
Smith has a great grasp on the fact that the word “boom” in a word balloon with the image of an explosion is a great visual, but would definitely lose something in a medium with sound. But the cards have a similar visual appeal and his second example is even chillier than the first:
So [you read] ‘slit’, and you’re like “slit?”, and then all of a sudden you turn around he cuts your fucking throat and dude just cocks his head Michael Myers style and watches you go down. So yeah, I’ve obviously thought about it a little bit, but it would be cool to do. Hopefully, hopefully they will tap me.
It kind of reminds me of the Avengers episode “You Have Just Been Murdered”, where millionaires are fake murdered to prove it’s possible, and given cards with those words on it. And then extorted for money.
There’s just something threatening about an obtusely-worded card.