Despite his pretty striking success in both comics and Hollywood, Mark Millar tends to be a polarizing figure within the industry for essentially taking what some consider "I could have thought of that" ideas and unapologetically exploiting them to their fullest financial potential.His upcoming "Nemesis" series with artist Steve McNiven through Marvel's Icon imprint is already being criticized as the ultimate extension of this notion with a premise straight from a comic shop conversation - "What if Batman was The Joker?"
I've caught criticism of the story idea and Millar's alleged writing strategy from message boards, Tweets from his fellow creators and especially within the blogging community, but a new Twitter account called "Mark Millar Ideas" might be one of the most blatant.
The most obnoxious (and funny) of the profile's tweets so far reads: "What if instead of KILLING KILLERS, the Punisher RAPED RAPISTS?"
Now, I personally don't have a problem with most of Millar's work. I loved his first two runs on "The Ultimates" (although his latest...), I thought his run on "The Authority" was great, "Kick-Ass" is my cup of tea, the list goes on. Given my higher ratio of amusement to annoyance, I think a little criticism goes a long way with his catalog.
I mean, labeling Millar a hack isn't really fair or deserved in my eyes. The dude is, in the words of more than one fan, "just in touch with his inner 15-year-old."
I can't accept the notion that what Millar's allegedly doing intrinsically harms the industry, devalues characters or takes a cheap shot at storytelling, partially because, aside from "Civil War" and a few other examples, he mostly takes his work outside of the mainstream comic book universes. Mostly, though? I just don't care either way. If he plops out a turd, there are other awesome comics to enjoy. Besides, if you don't know what you're getting into when you pick up a Millar comic by now, there's really not much anyone can do for you.Whether you think his ideas are lame, or played out or just plain lazy, as long as he attaches top artistic talent and continues to sell (likely to half the people who claim to hate his work), the guy is going to be around doing what he seems to do best.
He knows it too, and he straight up confronts the issue in his recent interview over at CBR:
"Marvel President Dan Buckley sort of paid me a compliment, saying, "This is such a stupidly simple and obvious idea. I can't believe nobody's ever come up with it before. You are the master of the stupidly simple idea." Which I suppose is kind of flattering because everyone said that about "Kick-Ass" too. It's almost too simple."So is the premise behind "Nemesis" too Mark Millar for even Mark Millar? I could easily change my mind after reading it once it drops, but for now I'm just going to accept the writer for who he is. As long as he's honest about his inspiration, stays consistent in his quality and doesn't hide behind pretension, there's little sense in hulking out.
I will say this, though. If a character so much as mentions a magical loom in the "Kick-Ass" film, I will openly weep as I exit the theater.
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Monday 07 December
By Tim C
Nobody who wrote those Superman Adventures comics can fairly be called a hack. My personal opinion is that having a lot of success has kind of spoiled his instincts. He's more self-indulgent about how he plays with the toys we all share (which is fine on a project like this, since they're *wink wink* original characters) and his plotting has gotten worse. With a setup like this, where it is so simple that it's not even particularly original, it's all going to be in the execution. It'll probably be a little worse than Wanted and make a zillion dollars, once the movie is made.
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Monday 07 December
By tommy
Hack is a word the jealous, and un -talented people throw out at talented people. There are some who are truly Hacks, Uwe Boll, but in general I stand by my statement above. Un-talented and bitter fan-boys call someone a hack because they can’t do something themselves.
The creator of this Blog could be called a hack for creating such an obvious blog (about comics) but it’s a good site, and someone took the initiative to do it, instead of think about it or just talk about it.
If you’ve ever read a Millar comic you know the guy is NOT a Hack. He is one of the finest writers the medium has today. Innovative, original, and un-afraid. I love his work. (BTW, Civil War was awesome)
Be bitter everyone... me? Make mine Millar
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Monday 07 December
By James Call
Amen. Glad to hear someone finally say that about Millar. He delivers good popcorn fun, and that's why I read my comic books. I don't need a morality lesson. I want to be entertained, and he provides entertainment every time.
Monday 07 December
By Nick
As Chris Sims has pointed out in the past, this is the guy who wrote a story in which Captain America used Guile's Flash Kick from Street Fighter II on a guy with two lightsabers.
That was the ending to a truly great dramatic series that will go down as not only one of his finest works, but it HAS to be considered as one of the best superhero books of this decade.
The man knows how to write something that is unapologetically fun. Not fun in a Dan Slott She-Hulk way, of course. Fun in a summer blockbuster way. And even those times when he completely strikes out, it's still clear that he had an absolute blast writing it and that he loves his job more than I will ever love anything in my life.
He's good people as far as I'm concerned.
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Thursday 24 December
By neuronsinmybrain
People have been saying this has been done before blah-blah-blah. See Ireedeemable and whatever other obscure comic nobody ever read or heard of unless you work in the industry 24-7. But honestly, it does have potential and I would probably looking forward to it as its the only interesting thing Marvel stands to publish next March. Looking at the whole line its locked in 616 Siege or whatever other legacy storyline that Spiderman and the X-franchises had planned in the past 2-3 years.
By comparison, Marvel had a MUCH wider variety of alternative comics with Knights earlier in the decade before people like Bendis, Loeb, and Fraction started taking entire franchises over with their uber dreck.
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