This is what the obviously insane Mr. Millar is calling his 4some of ongoing Marvel comics.
Fantastic Four, Wolverine, 1985, and Kick-Ass.
1985
I have a curious interest in seeing superheroes in the real world. It's a theme that runs through my work, I suppose, and I guess it comes from discovering Alan Moore when I was twelve in 1982. This was the beginning of realistic superheroes really hitting the mainstream and all comic-book writers try to recreate the stuff that wowed them when they were twelve years old. Kick-Ass, Wanted and Chosen all take place in our world, but even stuff like Ultimates and Authority don't feel too far away from us either. Marvel 1985 really takes this to the next level and has all these villains travelling here through a wormhole and doing whatever they please. That was the beginning of the story in many ways.
The idea that even a low-level crook like Electro or Sandman would destroy pretty much anything they found on our world. we can't be wowed anymore just by seeing the Hobgoblin zip past on his glider because people in the Marvel Universe see this every day, but in the real world we'd be seeing this with fresh eyes and it would be awesome. It's the antithesis of Marvels in many ways. That was a book about a real person in the Marvel Universe. Our story is about these fantastic characters existing here in our world.
Toby's an eleven year old boy who hasn't quite discovered girls yet and just lives and breathes Marvel comic-books. He's in a small American town, has almost no friends and nobody besides the two guys who run the local comic store to talk about his great passions. He's very slightly emotionally retarded and has been on medication since his parents split and his Mum remarried and at first we think these sightings of The Vulture or The Red Skull or Ultron in his home town is just an example of his drift into mental illness. But we soon discover this is all very real and something really bad is going on in town and it's all centered around a haunted house in the middle of the woods. Now this house and this big plan is all very, very related to my Fantastic Four run. The villain here is the villain there and the two stories tie together, both feeding into Wolverine: Old Man Logan too. Of course, you can read these all on their own and they're beautifully filling, but read them all together and you can find our where one guy came from or what another guy did next. Wolverine, FF and Marvel 1985 are really my own One Man Event this Summer. Even Kick-Ass ties in loosely, which is a bit cheeky for a creator-owned book, but there's a link between the 11 year old comic fan from 1985 and the 16 year old comic fan from 2008. I did this with the first wave of Millarworld books back in 2003, but I'm tying everything together much more overtly here. It's a genuine big crossover and all ties together with the two men who trained up Doctor Doom.
More 1985 art in this spoiler:
Fantastic Four
Millar and Hitch have already started their run on this title and it's been aces so far I think.
The most important thing for Bryan and I was to make the book feel new again. We agreed that Doom was going to be the only very established character we used and everything else would be brand new material. Lee and Kirby were always creating new characters and concepts. They didn't always work, but the rate of their creativity was so stunning that a massive chunk of the current Marvel U came out of those first 100 issues. We're trying to add to this mythology with Nu Earth, CAP, Alyssa and her crew plus upcoming stuff that ties into Wolverine: Old Man Logan like The Protectors, Reed's cousin, The Hooded Man and The Masters of Doom. The latter are probably my favorite creations from the whole run. These are the guys who trained up Doctor Doom in the black arts and they're genuinely very frightening. These are good characters to leave behind for others to play with.
There's just tons to play with here and that's been jostling for space with all the upcoming dramas like the Anti-Galactus, the new Nanny, the big secret with Franklin and Valeria that rocks the team to the core, the journey into the future with Old Man Logan and a world without superheroes, the mystery of the Hooded Man, the death of Sue, one of the team getting married, one of the team being a traitor (and none of that involving the Skrulls). We have huge things planned, but nothing bigger than The Marquis of Death and Earl Wyncham. These are the men who trained Doctor Doom and they come back right after we have the team vacation in Scotland with Reed's cousin (and another big mystery). Plus the gay Johnny Storm from a parallel universe living in a civil partnership with Reed. He's Jack Storm and has been a lot of fun to write so far.
Click the spoiler for
glorious Bryan Hitch artwork!
And finally, he is teaming up with the incomparable Steve McNiven for a Wolverine story entitled:
Old Man Logan
He's described it as Unforgiven with Logan as Clint Eastwood.
Yeah, this is Wolverine at "eighty." Thanks to his healing factor, he only looks in his late fifties (and probably much like I'll look in my forties) so he's still getting around pretty good. It's Dark Knight for Wolverine, essentially. The big, wide, show-stopping series that plays around with the most popular Marvel character of the last forty years, a dystopian vision of the Marvel Universe and a unique look at their futures. The heroes have gone, the villains have won and we're two generations away from the Marvel we know. Now they're all just trying to live their lives in the midst of the eco apocalypse we read about in Fantastic Four.
McNiven eye sex follows:
The last one is
Kick-Ass buuuuut we already have a thread for that.
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Kick-Ass is a pretty realistic take on super-heroes if you ask me. It obviously is still a comic book, but it's also not the same as something like X-Men. Ultimates and his Ultimate X-Men were both a step in the realistic direction, especially when you consider, up until then, "realistic" super-heroes consisted of either Silver Age nonsense or 90's XTREME and dark and gritty stuff. Those were all still clearly fantastical super-hero farces if you ask me.
Ultimates indulged in the super-hero stuff still and no one is confusing it with Pride & Predjudice or anything, but the "super-hero" in Ultimates is about as down to earth as you can get with people that can can fly and wear spandex. Everyone had flaws and some were basically assholes saving the world, but if you can't see a difference between Ultimates' realistic take and the typical super-heroes in New Avengers, then there's not much point in this conversation.
Authority was basically a precursor to Ultimates and there are very similar undertones and messages in that book. Perception of heroes and their role in saving / policing / ruling the world and other more real world concerns can be seen in the title. I'd consider these more realistic concerns and a more realistic take on super-heroes. Honestly, if you could move planets, you'd probably try and "fix" the world after dealing with politicians and their bull shit, much like the Authority ended up doing. It's still super-heroes and comic booky, obviously, but, again, it's doesn't have Dr Strange's cape not working under these conditions or a sentient moth devouring reality and then getting regressed into a larval state after a cosmic football toss either.
I'm not sure if you are just making a joke or if you can't tell the difference between realism and various undertones and connotations or if you honestly think Millar's work doesn't have an inkling of realism to it. This was a big waste of hot air if you were just joking though.
Take Immortal Iron Fist and Blue Beetle. Brubaker and Fraction have a much mroe realistic take on the character than the cheesy kung-fu origins of the character employed. Roger's Blue Beetle is a pure super-hero book and doesn't really rely on realism. It's just plain fun with great characters and action. Both are great, but you can't tell me you can't see one being more realistic than the other, even though IIF has heavenly cities and teleporters and crazy impossible kung fu moves.
Only on my most clouded or cynical days would I believe that Wesley Gibbons, the Ultimates, the Authority, or Kick-Ass ring true as people.
https://twitter.com/Hooraydiation
Strongly agree.
I've been reading my Ultimates hardcover lately and am struck that once the novelty wears off, you essentially have a strong undercurrent of cynicism, spectacle, and creepy celebrity-worship.
So, like real life?
Get the fuck off. Because if you think it isn't, you're fucking delusional.
That's what bothers me the most about the political aspect is that he is ham-fisted as Hell, but he also comes from that same starfucker perspective that drives many of us crazy. But that's the way things are, especially politically. For decades now if it's not popular, if it's not spun and celebrity-endorsed and given a media campaign then it's not going anywhere. I mean, for God's sake the one thing that blew up Barack Obama before anything else in 2004 was that his opponent was getting divorced from a celebrity. Millar gets it, but he comes at it from that same commonplace insider perspective that a lot of people, including probably most of the Ultimates readers, come from where they may even think that they see through the bullshit as they instead buy right into it.
You know the life I live and how I relate to people.
I know how shallow popular culture is.
But thank you for going off on an insulting tangent without paying attention to the context of what we were talking about.
Uh, I thought thats always what the series has been about.
At least it was for me.
He's saying that there's nothing to the book beyond that and an initial novelty.
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Gotcha.
Honestly to me thats always what Ultimates has been, an extremely cynical "Dark Knight" take on superheroes in the style of a big budget action movie.
Were you guys looking for something else?
Well, to him and myself, those elements aren't a complete recipe for realism.
Which is what this conversation is about.
https://twitter.com/Hooraydiation
Except for maybe the villains being giant douchenozzles, but I have no problem with that.
Enemy of the State was awesome and in continuity.
Fair enough, never read it.
You're quite welcome.
I'll also spare you the commentary on how the idea of comparing the lives of normal folks like us and superhumans in any reality is assinine.
You bluff that you have the Ultimate Nullifier
"I don't believe in Galactus! I don't! Come on, everyone! If you don't believe, he can't hurt you!"
Seriously though, i don't see this story going the route of plucky kid saves his town and, in the process, learns to believe in himself.
https://twitter.com/Hooraydiation
I'll admit that I haven't followed it much since its announcement, but as I recall from back that--that's exactly what happens. Although that was before the issue #1 or 2 solicit that mentions the Hulk was arriving.
Oh... Yeah. That Hulk. The one in Bale's sig.
Bale, I could write a lengthy response on precisely why a book where both Hornet and Slyde die off panel is terrible, but I have a feeling nobody would care but me.
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But for a balls out Wolverine action story, it dosen't get much better.
The JRjr art certainly helped of course.
1985 might be neat. With a few exceptions, most of Millar's work that I have read has heroes being assholes. If he writes the villains as assholes, it might be ok. As long as the villains are not the protagonists, because a protagonist who is just an unrepentant asshole for 6(?) issues is not fun, even if the art is really good.
and... uh.. yeah thats all I got.
I'd buy all 4 of these series for the art alone.
But thankfully thats not all that looks interesting (to me anyway)
Wait. Didn't people love the Irredeemable Ant-Man precisely because he was an unrepentant asshole?