Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, August 20, 1994 TAG: 9408230047
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By RON MILLER KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Long
But that's not exactly the agenda for Dr. Miles Hawkins. He likes the idea of keeping his device secret so he can use it on those nights when he dresses up to fight crime.
You see, he's the Mantis. That's M.A.N.T.I.S. for Mechanically Augmented Neuro-Transmitter Interactive System, which sort of describes the secret device he wears.
He's also the hero of the Fox network's new weekly action series "M.A.N.T.I.S.," which you'll see without all those irritating periods from here on.
Introduced in a two-hour movie on Fox last season, "Mantis" created such a sensation that Fox forged ahead with plans to turn it into a weekly series that premieres Friday at 8 p.m. (on WJPR/WFXR-Channel 21/27).
The Mantis is unique in that he's television's first black superhero in a weekly series. He's also going to complete TV's only all-weird night as the regular lead-in to Fox's "The X-Files," that cult-forming series about a pair of FBI agents on the trail of extraterrestrials and other fugitives from the twilight zone.
Though actor Carl Lumbly, who plays the part, personally believes real heroes don't need to wear Superman-style fashions to accomplish things for others, he concedes the Mantis getup certainly makes him stand out.
"No one else is wearing a helmet and running around in a suit like this," he said. "But Miles Hawkins is also a superhero because he's taking advantage of the fact that he had to make a certain sacrifice to address the world as it is now."
He's talking about the tragedy that struck Hawkins down in the prime of life and made him use all his intellect and scientific knowledge to find a way back. In the original "Mantis" movie, viewers saw a brief flashback sequence in which Hawkins became a paraplegic when gunned down by street thugs. The police gave a low priority to solving the crime, no doubt because Hawkins survived.
So, the angry Hawkins decided to wreak his own vengeance as a one-man vigilante force, a tall order when you're confined to a wheelchair.
Friday's movie goes back to tell the original story of "Mantis" in much fuller detail, showing us how he used his brilliant mind and his abundant wealth to create a new invention he called the "exoskeleton," which includes a harness that supports his lifeless limbs and high-tech headgear that transmits electronic signals from the brain directly to his limbs, bypassing his useless spine.
While experimenting with the "exoskeleton," Hawkins discovers it not only makes him mobile again, but, for a limited time, can give him greater speed, strength and agility. With the kind of street criminals who paralyzed him still on the loose in the big cities, Hawkins concludes he might help people fight back by striking terror into the hearts of wrongdoers.
In other words, there was an altruistic motive behind the creation of the mysterious masked crime-fighter they call Mantis.
"Our guy didn't just wake up one day and say, `Gee, I think I'll put on this groovy outfit that makes me look like a bug and go out and smash crime at night,' " says executive producer Bryce Zabel.
As exciting as it was - and it was plenty exciting - the first "Mantis" film posed problems for Zabel, co-executive producer Jim McAdams and the writers when turning it into a series. For one thing, Hawkins had let too many in on his secret by the end of the film, including, of all people, a journalist.
They decided, with Lumbly's blessing, that Hawkins shouldn't let anybody in the police department or the media know he's the Mantis. Instead, the cops ought to be tracking down the mysterious vigilante and the media trying to expose him.
"We did a lot of realigning," said Zabel, "and now we have a new team around him."
Gone are all the allies Hawkins had in the movie. In their place are John Stonebrake (Roger Rees), an old college chum, and Taylor Savidge (Christopher Gartin), a 20-something bike courier, a sort of Jimmy Olsen-type who brings Hawkins news of the street.
Action fans who don't like their superheroes to behave like stand-up comedians will be glad to know Mantis won't be cracking jokes as he catches the bad guys. The humor will come from the slightly demented Stonebrake, who supplies Mantis with the sort of delightful high-tech gadgets "Q" makes for James Bond.
But, for Lumbly, perhaps the best part about this bizarre new character is that his real identity is that of the kind of black man society needs to see as a role model: a wealthy man who devotes his life to helping others through his philanthropy.
Though the public in Hawkins' make-believe world doesn't know he's also the Mantis, the viewers will. He thinks that makes this superhero a well-rounded and admirable character, who resembles some of Lumbly's own cultural heroes, such as George Washington Carver, when he isn't running around in his caped-crusader outfit.
"My own feeling," said Lumbly, "is that Miles Hawkins is in the tradition of a number of black superheroes who have been in our world from the time black people touched down on these shores."
by CNB