Jupiter’s Legacy offers another elevator pitch, one that’s both appropriately irresistible and classic Millar: “What if Superman and Wonder Woman were your parents?”Īt Millarworld - which he founded in 2004 and runs with his wife, Lucy Millar - these kinds of punchy, driving concepts have only grown bigger and ballsier without outside interference. “What if Bruce Wayne became the Joker?” That’s Nemesis, his shockingly violent and entirely unauthorized twist on cape-and-cowl mythos, written (naturally) for a Marvel Comics imprint. “What if Superman had crash-landed in the Soviet Union instead of America?” That’s Superman: Red Son, Millar’s Eisner Award-winning DC series. That starts with his provocative what-if loglines. NetflixĪ savvy deconstructionist of superhero stories (who also earnestly loves them), Millar usually opts for a sledgehammer over a scalpel. Mark Millar on the set of Jupiter’s Legacy. “It’s a great argument,” Millar adds, always his own hype man, “because there are no real answers.” “The next level” It’s also asking an ethical question I’d not seen in a superhero film or TV show before: If you have the power to pull mountains down and change the course of mighty rivers, is it ethically right to not be involved in World War II? Is it ethically right to not stop the climate emergency? Is it ethically right to let people starve to death in other countries?” “It’s a little bit Hamlet, a little bit King Lear, on a broad canvas with a lot of very complex characters. “I wanted to do something that was an ethical look at superheroes, with grandeur and Shakespearan context,” says Millar, speaking to Inverse by Zoom from his native Scotland. “It’s a great argument because there are no real answers.” And that’s saying something, given his track record.

Now that a large-scale TV adaptation of the series is streaming on Netflix, it’s cemented its place as the most ambitious undertaking of Millar’s career. Jupiter’s Legacy has since become Millarworld’s guiding light, a long-running comic weaving together elements of Roman mythology, superhero lore, and American history - not to mention stunning illustrations by the legendary Frank Quitely. That might sound ambitious or even cocky, but fresh off the crossover success of his blood-drenched action-fantasies Wanted and Kick-Ass (both adapted into Hollywood blockbusters), Millar tells Inverse he couldn't aim any lower: otherwise, what was the point?Īs he filled up one pad, then another, the acclaimed writer – and founder of Millarworld, his creator-driven comic line now owned by Netflix – discovered a story that, by moving beyond classic narratives of good guys fighting bad guys, could reach for the existential heart of superheroes. About a decade ago, comic book titan Mark Millar sat down at his desk and wrote at the top of a Ryman pad: “The greatest superhero epic of all time?”

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