Mark Millar Says ‘Aquaman’ Trailer Makes Modern Marvel Look Like ‘70s TV Marvel

Kick-Ass and Marvel’s Civil War comic book writer Mark Millar fired shots at Marvel Studios Friday when praising DC Films’ just-released Aquaman trailer and director James Wan.

“Aquaman trailer just made modern Marvel look like 70s TV Marvel, chums,” Millar wrote in a tweet. “The green gauntlet has been slapped down and DC back in the game. A 5 min trailer so damn audacious, [James Wan], you damn genius!”

The 1970s saw some of Marvel Comics’ most famous superheroes reach the small screen for the first time in live-action, including Spider-Man — who appeared in the Spidey Super Stories segment of educational children’s television series The Electric Company before starring in short-lived CBS television series The Amazing Spider-Man — and the Hulk, who headlined his own series as portrayed by bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno.

Millar penned multiple titles for Marvel Comics, including The Ultimates, Ultimate X-Men, and Marvel Knights Spider-Man, after leaving his multi-year post at DC Comics, penning such titles as Swamp Thing and Superman Adventures.

Despite his enthusiasm for Aquaman, Millar has openly criticized the output of Warner Bros.’ DC Films, saying the Marvel characters work better in movies because DC’s characters “aren’t cinematic.”

“I say this as a massive DC fan who much prefers their characters to Marvel’s,” Millar told Yahoo Movies in February. “Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman are some of my favorites but I think these characters, with the exception of Batman, they aren’t based around their secret identity, they are based around their super power.”

In 2008, the famed comic book writer pitched what he called his “Magnum Opus of Superman stories,” in what would have been an 8-hour saga across a trio of films to be released just one year apart.

“It’s gonna be like Michael Corleone in the Godfather films, the entire story from beginning to end, you see where he starts, how he becomes who he becomes, and where that takes him,” Millar told Empire.

More recently, Matthew Vaughn — who helmed three movies based on Millar’s works — has been tentatively attached to Man of Steel 2. When approached by Vaughn over a possible collaboration, Millar said his Millarworld deal with streaming giant Netflix prohibits his involvement.

“He actually phoned me up a few months ago, and he said, ‘Hey, listen, DC, they’re very interested in me doing Man of Steel 2. Do you want to come in and do this?’ And I was like, ‘I’m exclusive to Netflix for years. We can’t even have that conversation,’” Millar told the El Fanboy Podcast.

“And he was like, ‘Oh, man. What’s the chances of this?’ And then he kind of drifted away. And he’s attached himself to a couple of things and all that. Y’know so, it’s one of those things that might, I mean — if somebody phones Matthew up and offers him enough money it could all change tomorrow.”

Aquaman releases December 21.