mark millar | the m0vie blog

Ultimate Galactus Trilogy (Review/Retrospective)

Posted on January 26, 2011 by Darren

After spending the tail end of last year looking at the tangled inter-continuity crossovers at Marvel, I thought I’d spend January looking at some of the looser “out of continuity” tales at the major companies.

What does a continuity-lite crossover look like? I mean, a relatively self-contained comic book event that isn’t based upon years and years of events? Marvel famously launched their Ultimate line a decade ago to offer a chance to “reimagine” their classic stories – the Avengers became The Ultimates, and monthly issues of Ultimate Spider-Man, Ultimate X-Men and Ultimate Fantastic Four were available on the stands. The goal was to offer tales that would allow new readers to jump on board without having to worry about the weight of half-a-century (or more) worth of back story for the characters. Despite some minor crossover between the books – Mark Millar writing the Ultimates into his Ultimate X-Men run or Ultimate Spider-Man occasionally paying a short visit to the Baxter building – the line largely steered clear of the sort of bombastic big events that Marvel seems to love churning out month-on-month. So, what does an actual “big crossover event” look like when written for these characters? A bit like the Ultimate Galactus Trilogy, I suppose.

He's got the world in the palm of his hand...

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: crossover, fantastic four, gah lak tus, galactus, galactus trilogy, jack kirby, mark millar, Markmillar, stan lee, ultimate extinction, Ultimate Fantastic Four, Ultimate Galactus Trilogy, ultimate marvel, ultimate nightmare, ultimate secret, ultimate spider man, ultimate universe, ultimate vision, ultimate x-men, Ultimates, warren ellis | 1 Comment »

Wolverine: Enemy of the State (Review)

Posted on July 14, 2010 by Darren

Wolverine is a bit of an odd character. He’s a bit of an odd character to have endured the sheer amount of publicity that he has and to remain a big gun at Marvel. He was introduced as an opponent in The Incredible Hulk, before ending up drafted on to Chris Claremont’s revised Uncanny X-Men roster. After that, he was lucky enough to earn his own miniseries (written by Claremont and drawn by Frank Miller), which became his on-going series which led to him featuring as a leading character in multiple team books and a title character in several solo series, all at the same time. Only Spider-Man can compete with that level of exposure, and Spider-Man arguable has a better claim to it as a richly layoured, complex and pseudo-realistic character (in the sense of being “Peter Parker: Schmuck”, rather than “Your Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man”… you get the idea). On the other hand, Wolverine’s defining trait is that he is very, very good at killing things.

Even an unstoppable killing machine can stop to pet the dog...

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: comic books, Comics, enemy of the state, john romita, john romita jnr., john romita jr, mark millar, marvel, marvel universe, prisoner number zero, wolverine, wolverine: enemy of the state, x-men | Leave a comment »

Kick-Ass

Posted on June 9, 2010 by Darren

Remember how I said during my review of The Ultimates that Mark Millar was a love ‘im or hate ‘im writer, sometimes within the same work? Well, Kick-Ass offers Millar at his best and at his worst. He gets the superhero genre, understands why and how it works the way it does. That’s why he’s so good at deconstructing and reconstructing it. He grasps the escapism element and knows his target audience like the back of his hand. However, he’s a writer who refuses to ever accept that there is such a thing as “too far”. There is no taste, there is no top to go over. But, more than that, there’s no restraint. And there’s the problem with Kick-Ass: for a novel so interested in giving us a relatable protagonist and heroes grounded in “the real world”, it’s too absurdist to really work.

"They should call him ass-kick..."

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: big daddy, comic book, controversy, film, graphic novel, hit girl, john romita, kick-ass, mark millar | 10 Comments »

Wolverine: Old Man Logan (Review)

Posted on April 28, 2010 by Darren

What is it about the X-Men and crapsack futures? Mark Millar has taken everybody’s favourite feral anti-hero and dropped him in his own particular horrible future. Old Man Logan takes a familiar Millar conceit – “what if the bad guys won?” – and applies it to the familiar Marvel Universe. Of course, this being Millar, he’s piled even more horror and crappiness on top of that, giving us an inbred Hulk family and wild dinosaurs, but it’s an idea that many will recognise from his own Wanted, among other works. Of course, this being a Wolverine book, we follow the familiar antihero as he attempts to navigate post-apocalyptic America (divided into four kingdoms) while delivering a mysterious package with former Avenger Hawkeye.

A hulkin' good time...

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: alan moore, arts, comic book, dark knight returns, mark millar, marvel comics, marvel universe, old man logan, Red Skull, steve mcniven, wolverine, x-men | 8 Comments »

(Big) Daddy’s (Hit) Girl: Kick-Ass Controversy & The Art of Completely Missing the Point…

Posted on April 6, 2010 by Darren

Last week I remarked on how ridiculous it was that people were getting freaked out by the use of a certain c-word (and, no, it’s not a misspelling of the words “kick ass”) by a certain pint-sized assassin in a certain superhero spoof movie. In said article, I had the audacity to state that – although I wouldn’t agree with it – I could understand if they were upset by the gratuitous violence the little kid commits, rather than her choice of language. It appears my appeals to sanity within the moral guardian community has been somewhat answered and various commentators have begun decrying Kick-Ass for the way it treats and portrays Hit Girl, the eleven-year-old sidekick to wannabe Batman by the name of Big Daddy.

Opening Soon: The Nicolas Cage School of Parenting - Enroll Now!

Note: This article contains slight spoilers for the movie and probably bigger spoilers for the graphic novel. You have been warned. But don’t worry, if you want to wait to see the film, this article will be here when you get back.

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Filed under: Comics, Movies | Tagged: all-star batman and robin, batman, batman & robin, big daddy, comic books, hit girl, kick-ass, lecturing, mark millar, moral outrage, morality, Movies, robin, sidekicks | 8 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Kick-Ass

Posted on April 1, 2010 by Darren

Kick-Ass may be the action movie of the year. It will more than likely be the comedy of year. And it is currently among the best movies I’ve seen so far (and it’s been a very good March, might I add). Kick-Ass does what Watchmen should have, and takes superhero movies to the next level: working on the assumption that the genre is so well recognised that audiences will appreciate all the tiny little tropes, Kick-Ass picks apart the big budget superhero flick, but manages to avoid being mean.

Kick-Ass kicks... well, you see where this is going...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: aaron johnson, big daddy, Chloe Moretz, film, hit girl, kick-ass, mark millar, matthew vaughn, Movie, nicolas cage, non-review review, parody, review, superheroes | 12 Comments »

Mark Millar’s Run on Marvel Knights Spiderman – Vol. 1 (Hardcover)

Posted on March 3, 2010 by Darren

With the news of the Spider-Man reboot being bandied about and the rumour that they were “darker and edgier” with the character, I thought I’d best check out what “dark and edgy” Spider-Man looks like. Here’s a hint: it isn’t Spider-Man III. I picked up Marvel Knights: Spider-Man. For those not-too-versed in comic book lore, Marvel Knights was basically the “mature” branding for Marvel properties, like Vertigo is over at DC (Neil Gaiman’s Sandman was published at Vertigo, for example). Basically, Marvel attempted to publish several books under this header – including Spider-Man and Kevin Smith’s relaunch of Daredevil – the idea being to offer more “grown up” versions of the familiar superheroes. While it’s entirely unfair to take the fact that the series was rebranded within three years as evidence of it’s quality, it failed to convince me that Spider-Man really needs to be made “darker and edgier”.

Yes, "darker and edgier" is a euphemism for "more violent"...

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: Comics, down among the dead men, kevin smith, last stand, mark millar, marvel, marvel knights, marvel knights: spider-man, review, spider man, venomous | 1 Comment »

Superman: Red Son

Posted on February 23, 2010 by Darren

Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s Superman! Superman: Strange visitor from another world! Who can change the course of might rivers, bend steel in his bare hands and who, as the champion of the common worker, fights a never-ending battle for Stalin, socialism and the international expansion of the Warsaw Pact.

…

Let out enemies beware: the is only one super-power now.

– Russian propaganda broadcast

I’ve remarked before, and many others have remarked as well, that Superman is a very tough character to write for, particularly after seventy years of publication. This is a fact reflected by the difficulty even comic book aficionados have in picking the iconic Superman stories – the essential collections, as it were. Undoubtedly Alan Moore’s work on the character would be collected (handily in Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?), as would Grant Morrison’s All-Star Superman. I’m fairly sure that this collection would also make the shortlist. As far as interesting and insightful takes on the character go, Mark Millar has what might be termed a “doozie” here: what if Superman had landed in Russia? What if instead of fighting for “truth, justice and the American Way”, he fought for Mother Russia? It’s certainly an intriguing idea, and Mark Millar’s execution is near-flawless as well.

Well, of course the balloon is red...

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: alan moore, comic book, dave johnson, dc comics, dc universe, elseworlds, grant morrison, Jimmy Olsen, justice league, mark millar, red son, review, superman, superman: red son, superman: red son: the deluxe edition, United States | 3 Comments »

Could Kick-Ass Be a Cinematic Watchmen?

Posted on February 22, 2010 by Darren

Okay, I think we were all a little disappointed with Watchmen. Although the use of that word seems unfair. The book defined the comic book superhero genre in a way that bled into film long before the movie was made. Zach Snyder’s work seemed… redundant. Watchmen had influenced the comic books that came after and they had influenced the movies. If anything, the movie adaptation seemed much less mature and developed than the previous year’s Batman blockbuster – The Dark Knight. Publicity and reviews for this year’s Kick-Ass are beginning to emerge and it seems like it’s all good, so far. The film, along with Shutter Island, was the runaway hit of Butt-Numb-A-Thon this year, a sort of geeky Sundance. It’s an interest look at what “real” superheroes would look like, and part of me wonders if this is movie will end up being what Watchmen should have been?

Nicolas Cage's moustache could kick your ass...

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Filed under: Comics, Movies | Tagged: alan moore, comic book, film, kick-ass, kickass, mark millar, Movie, superhero, superhero films, watchmen | 2 Comments »

Mark Millar’s Run on Ultimate X-Men – Vol. 1-3 (Hardcover)

Posted on October 17, 2009 by Darren

There’s a reason you don’t hear a lot of people talk about this particular addition to Mark Millar’s bibliography. Very simply, it’s not very good. It’s as if Mark Millar has taken the usual explosive energy that underpins his work and turning it up so high that all we can discern is just a screeching noise. It doesn’t help that the book manages to turn just about every strength he demonstrated during The Ultimates into a weakness.