Mark Millar is a highly successful, yet polarizing, comic book creator who has created some of the best comics to come out this century for Marvel, DC, Image, and his own creator-owned efforts. Millar initially rose to prominence when he worked on the Warren Ellis-created Wildstorm series The Authority. Throughout his career, he wrote on some big titles, such as Swamp Thing, The Flash, and Superman Adventures. However, Millar broke out when Marvel Comics brought him into the Ultimates Universe, and this led to Millar writing on the flagship comics in that world before penning one of the most famous Marvel crossover series of all time.
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From his work in Marvel and DC to his own creator-owned titles, here is a look at Mark Millar’s best comic book stories.
10) Nemesis
Mark Miller and Steve McNiven created Nemesis in 2010 for Marvel Comics, although it was under the creator-owned Icon Comics imprint. The entire idea behind this story was the question of what it would look like if Batman were the Joker. The main character in the series is Nemesis, a supervillain with the wealth and technology of Batman, but with no moral compass at all. His main enemy is a regular metro police officer named Blake Morrow. Having a regular cop as the person who has to eventually stop this mass-murdering lunatic was a great idea, and the four-issue mini-series was successful enough to warrant later sequels, which put the series in the same world as Wanted.
9) American Jesus
American Jesus was a Mark Millar and Peter Gross series that was like nothing else the comic book author had created. The Image series was the first part of a trilogy called the Chosen One. American Jesus is a three-issue miniseries that follows a modern-day teenager named Jodie who believes he is the newly resurrected Jesus Christ, and he has the destiny to lead humanity through an apocalyptic war with the Antichrist (who becomes the U.S. President). With religious undertones of faith, destiny, and power, this was Millar’s chance to tell a Second Coming story, but set like a superhero epic. What is best about the story is the twist that concerns the prophecy and who Jodie really is.
8) Jupiter’s Legacy
Jupiter’s Legacy is a Mark Millar and Frank Quitely comic that was made into a Netflix series, although not all the story was told in that series. The Image Comics story follows a group of aging superheroes based on the Justice League and their children, who have powers of their own. What results is an older group of heroes who believe their ways are the best and the younger heroes who feel it is time to make changes for the future, leading to a battle of the generations. Jupiter’s Legacy is an interesting series where Millar explored the idea of what it means to be a superhero and where the heroes should step aside to allow humanity a chance to grow without them.
7) Civil War
The most famous Mark Millar storyline of all time is also one of his most polarizing. Millar is the man who wrote the Civil War storyline for Marvel Comics. The story starts with a group of young heroes who accidentally cause an explosion that kills children at a school, which leads the U.S. government to start the Registration Act. Iron Man takes the government’s side while Captain America fights for freedom. The series took on the idea of what it means to be a hero, which is a topic Millar has always shown interest in. However, it also had a seemingly endless series of superhero battles that began to grow tedious by the finale. In the end, it was an important story to tell, but one that might have gone on a little too long.
6) Old Man Logan
One of Mark Millar’s best storylines for Marvel Comics came when he co-created Old Man Logan. This was an alternate future storyline that showed an Earth where Wolverine accidentally killed all the X-Men at a time when Marvel’s most powerful villains finally teamed up to win and conquer the United States. The series takes place after this happened, with Logan retired and living a desolate life with his family, refusing to come out of retirement. However, when tragedy comes to his door, he has no choice. This was one of Marvel’s best alternate Earth stories, and it was so beloved that Old Man Logan ended up in Earth-616.
5) Huck
One of Mark Millar’s comic book stories that not enough people talk about is Huck. Published by Image Comics, Huck was orphaned as a baby, and when he grew up, he began to do good deeds around his city. He did so many good things that the people in his town believed him to be a treasure they had to protect. However, when Huck heard that 200 schoolgirls were kidnapped in Nigeria, he went to rescue them, and when he returned home, he was a national celebrity. Tuck is a Mark Millar version of Superman, and this is Millar’s chance to show the goodness of a hero, and it is one of his most sincere stories to date.
4) Kick-Ass
Kick-Ass remains Mark Millar’s most popular creator-owned work. The first series was released by Marvel Comics in 2008 with John Romita Jr. as the artist. Millar then moved it to Image Comics and then Millarworld. It was made into a movie with a sequel, and it tells the story of a teenager named Dave Lizewski who puts on a mask and is determined to become a superhero, with disastrous results. However, when he meets a young hero named Hit-Girl and her father, Big Daddy, he begins to find success, only to end up with his first real nemesis, another teen named Red Mist. This is a highly entertaining series that shows what would happen if someone tried to become a hero, with no powers, and how ridiculous the situation would end up being.
3) Wanted
Wanted is another Mark Millar series that ended up getting a movie of its own. The comic book remains notable for the fact that Millar and artist J.G. Jones used Eminem as the basis for how their hero, Wesley F. Gibson, looked. The story follows Wesley, an unassuming man who has a bad job and no direction in life. However, when he learns his father was a powerful supervillain who made the world forget that heroes existed, and he was to take over his mantle, his life changes. Wesley ends up training with a mysterious criminal organization and then has to decide if he will take up his father’s mantle or bring the entire organization down. It was a highly entertaining origin story for a supervillain storyline, and it remains a Millar masterpiece.
2) The Ultimates
Mark Millar was signed to join the Marvel Ultimate line of comics with Ultimate X-Men. However, it didn’t take long for Millar to get the job writing for the most important comic in that line. Millar and Bryan Hitch began writing Marvel’s Ultimates, which gave them a chance to reimagine the Avengers story in the new universe. Millar went a long way in showing how different this team was, from the most stoic and uptight Captain America to his teammates like Thor (who no one believed was a real God) and the more military-based Hawkeye. This was a great way to show the Avengers in modern times, and it gave Millar a chance to really stretch his creative muscles.
1) Superman: Red Son
In 2003, Mark Millar wrote the Eisner Award-nominated Elseworlds series, Superman: Red Son. The plot idea was genius. What if Kal-El had landed in the Soviet Union instead of America when he landed on Earth and was raised in the Communist nation rather than the democratic United States? Instead of fighting for truth, justice, and the American way, he was raised to become the ultimate Communist symbol. Millar included historical figures like Joseph Stalin and John F. Kennedy, and he also reimagined Batman as a freedom fighter trying to bring Superman down. What made Red Son such a great series was that it showed that, even in Communist Russia, Superman was destined to be a good man in the end.
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