This is my never-published Countdown: Karate Kid one-shot proposal from 2008 (ish)…

Some background: With my first couple of books published and a few more on the way, I decided it was time to see if I can make a childhood dream come true and write for DC Comics. I pitched a Legion of Super-Heroes series to them, along with a Superman story that made it up to Editor-in-Chief Dan Didio before being shot down.

But I guess someone there liked what they saw. Adam Schlagman and Eddie Berganza asked me to pitch a Karate Kid one-shot that would tie in to the then-running Countdown series. I leapt at the opportunity, and you’ll the pitch below. Want to know why it never ended up on your store shelves? Read through the end…

Hi, Eddie and Adam! Let me say from the outset that I’m really thrilled to be pitching for this special. It was the perfect excuse for me to dig into my collection and relive some of Karate Kid’s greatest (and, honestly, not-so-great) moments.

In fact, if I’m being totally honest, I might as well admit up front that — if he survives Countdown — I would LOVE to write a mini-series about KK set in the 21st century, should the opportunity ever come up. End of commercial.

There were a lot of ways to go with this special. I have ideas for fixing the apparent continuity glitch of Karate Kid and Sensor Girl being in the Legion at the same time. I have ideas for tying into KK’s original series from the 1970s. In short, I have a lot of ideas.

In the end, though, I settled on what you’re about to see. Why? Well, because I realized that we’ve got 22 pages here. With 22 pages, you can do a lot of cool set up and put in a lot of cool hooks for future stories…OR you can dig really deep into the character and tell an amazing story. I decided to assume that this will be the only time I ever get to write KK, and even though the 12-year-old fanboy in me SCREAMED for me to pitch a broad, epic, massive story, I decided that a character-driven piece would be the way to go.

Especially given the constraints of the story (that it take place in the 21st century primarily, that it show his backstory prior to the Lightning Saga), I felt it made more sense to focus very tightly rather than take a scattershot approach and try to do everything. You just end up pleasing no one in those instances.

The story will play up KK’s memory problems throughout. Rather than explain how he can be alive in the Legion’s time, I use that very issue as a plot point — KK thinks he should be dead and doesn’t really know why he isn’t. In fact, as the story opens, we have a splash on KK — tight — showing his resolve, with captions that read:

Died once.

Don’t plan on doing it again.

The story opens in the “19 minutes” of dead time Brad provided in JLA #8, as the League waits for the JSA to arrive. In this time, I figured Superman would try to talk to KK a little bit, friend-to-friend. So we open with Superman trying to get KK to open up, asking him, “Why are you here? Which year are you from?”

Karate Kid is still disoriented. His memory blocks aren’t 100%, but they’re enough to keep him off-balance. “Batman cheated,” he complains.

“He’s been known to do that,” Superman says. “Look, the JSA will be here soon. Thom’s no help, but you seem more lucid. We’ll help you however we can, but I need to know what you’re doing here…”

And we flashback…

To the future.

The 31st century, as Brainiac 5 informs KK that, “This mission is a nightmare. No one will let me do things my way. I’m sending Dawnstar as a tracker, so of course, Wildfire insists on going. And if I send Dream Girl, Star Boy will probably try to sneak in, even though I don’t want him. And since I’m sending you…

“Well, never mind. Fortunately, Timber Wolf should be able to keep everything on an even keel. You’re the one I’m worried about. Your will is incredibly strong. I’m worried you’ll break the conditioning.”

Karate Kid agrees, then, suddenly, realizes something: “Wait a second, Brainy. I’m starting to remember something… Wasn’t I… Did I die?”

“You don’t need to worry about that right now.”

“Who’s the seventh member?” he asks. “Who—?”

Brainy quickly slaps a Titanian device on him — it dissolves into his skin. “This will monitor your memories and adjust them accordingly. It’ll keep Saturn Girl from interfering, for one thing. And for all intents and purposes you will no longer be Val Armorr, but rather…”

And we flash to the 21st century, shortly after KK’s arrival…

“Wes. Wes Holloway!” someone calls out.

KK is now Wes Holloway, a random thug being recruited by the Trident Guild. We’ll throw in a couple of in-jokes for the fans who remember Trident from New Teen Titans back in the day. Basically, since getting out of jail, the “Prof” who invented Trident has been franchising out the name and the technology for a cut of the action. Val is supposed to join as a way of keeping tabs on the era’s super-villains, but the time travel — combined with the Titanian memory implant — is causing problems.

For one thing, he can’t remember Princess Projectra. As much as he tries, he just can’t remember her. He knows there’s someone important that he’s forgetting, but he can’t place it. This haunts him as he joins the Guild and starts committing crimes.

We’ll have a little bit of fun for older readers by dropping in some references to the 1970s Karate Kid series. Nothing that will sledgehammer the story into unreadability; just some in-jokes that long-time readers will appreciate, such as references to lame villains like Commander Blud and Master Hand. (I swear to God I’m not making this stuff up!)

Val becomes more and more lost in the identity of Wes Holloway. Bits of Val Armorr linger — he won’t kill, for example, and at one point while he’s hanging out with some other Tridents, they try to get him to drink, but he won’t.

“That’s right,” one of them mocks. “Wes is all ‘my body is a temple’ and crap like that.”

Finally, he remembers — it’s not just a girl he’s forgotten. It’s his wife!

Back to those 19 minutes on the JLA satellite. Val is alone now, watched from another room by Superman and Batman.

Superman tells Batman, “One time, he thought he was dying. He wanted to die in battle, so he fought the entire Fatal Five. And defeated them. Unarmed. Single-handedly.”

Batman gives out a Morrisonian “Hh,” and remarks, “I beat him.”

Superman just smirks. “Jeff beat him. You watched.”

Silent panel of Batman, giving nothing away.

“I wish,” Superman goes on, “he could tell us more. I don’t know what he’s doing here. I want to help him. It’s killing me that I can’t.”

“We need to know his story first,” says Batman. “We can’t do anything until then.”

And we flashback again. Val is still Trident, but his memories are returning. He knows he has a mission, that there are others with him in the 21st century, but the details are filtering out. There’s a code word, he knows, that will restore his memories, but he can’t remember it.

After Computo and Omega, he thinks, what made me think I could trust Brainy again?

But at least can remember Jeckie. His beautiful queen. His love. His life.

And that’s when he’s lured into a trap by the triumverate of Ivo/Parasite/Grundy.

Big guy, Karate Kid thinks, looking Grundy up and down. I’ve handled big guys before.

What follows is nothing less than pure ass-kicking, 31st-century style, as Karate Kid proceeds to hand Grundy, Ivo, Dr. Impossible, and anyone else we have lying around their heads. He’s not disoriented. He’s not groggy. This is KK at his best, completely in command of his abilities, and when he’s on top of his game, no one can beat him.

But then the Parasite enters the fray, sapping Karate Kid’s strength and energy.

Even then, KK won’t give up. He’s beaten everyone else — he’s not about to let this purple guy take him down. But he makes a critical mistake: He punches Parasite.

“Smooth move,” Parasite says, laughing. “Touchin’ me just gives me your power faster.”

And he decks Val. Easily.

Energy sapped by the Parasite, Val is helpless as Ivo places the Starro-let on his neck. “Don’t worry,” says Ivo as Val struggles. “Soon you won’t remember why you were so worried in the first place.”

Val freaks out! He just regained his memory of Jeckie! And he’s realized that he did die, but he’s been brought back somehow. He has a second chance. He can’t lose her. Not again.

He tries his best to resist, but Parasite has made him too weak.

I’m Val Armorr, he thinks fiercely. I’m Val Armorr…

But Starro wins in the end, as Val slumps forward. My name is Wes Holloway. I’m Trident.

Back to those 19 minutes, which are almost over now. Superman enters Val’s cell. “OK, we’ve assembled the teams and… Val? Are you crying?”

Karate Kid: Yeah.

Superman: Why?

Karate Kid: I just… I just remembered something, is all.

Superman: I think we’re going to end up splitting into teams. That’s usually how these things go. Are you up for it?

Karate Kid: Have I ever not been? Come on; let’s go.

As they leave the room together, Karate Kid thinks:

Died once.

Could die again.

I’m doing this. I’m still not 100% why. Or how. But I know for whom.

For you, Jeckie. For you, I’d die. All over again.

CONCLUDED IN… THE LIGHTNING SAGA!

So, why didn’t it happen? I don’t know. It’s not because they hated my take (though maybe they did!) and preferred a different one…because there was never any Karate Kid special published.

I’m guessing maybe priorities changed and they just decided not to publish a special after all. In any event, as is sadly too common in comics, they ghosted me after I submitted this and I never heard back. 🤷‍♂️