Mark Millar

• 1. Introduction

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  Mark Millar was born on the 24th of December 1969, in Coatbridge, Scotland, a working-class town near Glasgow where he would spend the first half of his life. When he was four years old, his brother Bobby handed him two comic books that would change everything: The Amazing Spider-Man #121, the issue in which Gwen Stacy dies, and a Superman book Bobby had bought that same day. Within a week, young Mark had drawn a spider web across his face with an indelible marker, and his parents could not scrub it off in time for his First Communion photo.

  That image captures something essential about the man Millar would become. He has spent his career pushing comic books past the boundaries of what is considered acceptable, writing stories about superheroes that are violent, satirical, and deliberately provocative. He has seen his work inspire billion-dollar films and attract the attention of Netflix. He has also earned sustained criticism for the way he treats rape as a plot device, and for comments he has made in public that colleagues and journalists found offensive.

  This is a documentary about a writer who grew up poor in Scotland, dropped out of university after his father died, and went on to shape the look and feel of superhero cinema for a generation. Along the way, he broke with his closest creative ally, built and sold a comic book company, and received an MBE from the Queen. The questions worth asking are not simply what he achieved, but how he got there, and what the arc of his career reveals about the comics industry itself.

• 2. Coatbridge to Panels

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  St. Ambrose High School in Coatbridge sits close to the Monkland Canal, and it was there that Mark Millar studied chemistry, physics, and advanced maths in a household that viewed art as a waste of time for an academic boy. His five older siblings ranged in age from 14 to 22 years older than him, and it was the eldest brother Bobby who introduced him to comics. His mother died of a heart attack at age 64 when Millar was 14. His father died four years later, aged 65.

  Millar had enrolled at Glasgow University to study politics and economics, but his father's death left him without money to cover his living expenses, and he dropped out. The plan had been to become a doctor, then perhaps an economist, but he later admitted he could not quite hack it in that occupation.

  The turn toward comics came in the mid-1980s, when a teenage Millar attended a convention and met Alan Moore. The encounter planted a seed. When Millar was 18 he interviewed Grant Morrison for a fanzine, and told Morrison he wanted to write and draw comics. Morrison, who had recently returned to comics after spending most of the decade touring with a band called The Mixers, gave Millar the advice he has called the best he ever received: focus on one path, because succeeding at both writing and drawing is very hard.

  Millar chose writing. He sold his first script, Saviour, to Trident, an independent publisher based in Leicester. The artist was Daniel Vallely, Morrison's former bandmate in The Mixers. Saviour blended religious themes, satire, and superhero action in a way that brought Millar to the attention of the British comics industry and led to commissions for the long-running anthology 2000 AD and its sister title Crisis.

• 3. British Apprenticeship

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  The anthology 2000 AD became Millar's training ground throughout the early 1990s. He wrote Robo-Hunter serials, newspaper strips featuring Judge Dredd for the Daily Star, and a six-part prison story called "Insiders" for Crisis. His output also included a Judge Dredd spin-off series called Red Razors.

  In 1992, Trident's parent company Neptune Distribution went bankrupt, leaving both Saviour and Millar's second series at the publisher, The Shadowmen, unfinished. By then Millar had already become a semi-regular presence in 2000 AD. The following year, he, Grant Morrison, and writer John Smith were handed editorial control over 2000 AD for an eight-week stretch titled "The Summer Offensive", a controversial initiative that produced, among other things, Big Dave, the first major story Millar co-wrote with Morrison.

  In 1994, Millar crossed into American comics by taking over Swamp Thing, published under DC Comics' Vertigo imprint. The first four issues of his run were again co-written with Morrison, who, according to Millar, came aboard to help ensure DC would choose him over other writers pitching for the job. Sales on Swamp Thing remained low enough that the publisher eventually cancelled the title.

  For the rest of the decade, Millar continued writing sporadically for 2000 AD and various American publishers, often alongside Morrison. Their joint credits during this period include the mini-series Skrull Kill Krew for Marvel, a year-long run on The Flash, and Aztek: The Ultimate Man for DC. In 1999 and 2000, Millar also wrote a newspaper column for The Evening Times. By 1999 he was developing pitches for Phantom Stranger and Secret Society of Super-Villains, as well as a revamp of his debut series Saviour, signaling a growing ambition to move beyond co-writing and anthology work into something of his own.

• 4. Superman and The Authority

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  Millar described himself as a Superman fan, and his extended run on Superman Adventures, an all-ages series set in the continuity of the animated television show, earned two Eisner Award nominations. While writing those issues, he was also developing Superman: Red Son, an Elseworlds story he had first conceived as a child after reading Superman #300. The series was announced in 1998, though Millar had finished most of the script two years before that. When the original artist fell behind schedule, Millar refused to let other artists complete the remaining pages. DC eventually brought in Kilian Plunkett to finish the book, and Red Son was published in 2003. An animated film adaptation followed years later.

  In August 1999, it was announced that Millar and Scottish artist Frank Quitely would take over The Authority, an ongoing Wildstorm series, at the recommendation of outgoing writer Warren Ellis. The partnership produced work that was critically and commercially successful, but DC began censoring the series from the very first issue of the new creative team's run, including issues of the Jenny Sparks spin-off mini-series Millar wrote about the team's former leader. Millar and Quitely repeatedly requested a "Suggested for Mature Readers" label, but then-Publisher of DC Comics Paul Levitz vetoed the idea.

  Events outside comics eventually forced the run to an abrupt close. Quitely signed an exclusive contract with Marvel and left the title earlier than planned. Then, following the attacks of the 11th of September 2001, Wildstorm postponed the remaining issues and further edited completed but unreleased pages for sensitive content, which eventually drove the replacement artist away. Millar's final issue, The Authority #29, was published with art by Gary Erskine and a cover date of July 2002. The two Eisner Award nominations Millar received in 2001, one for Best Writer and one for Best Serialized Story for The Authority arc titled "The Nativity", arrived as the run was effectively ending.

• 5. The Marvel Years

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  In June 2000, Marvel announced that Millar would write Ultimate X-Men, after Brian Michael Bendis stepped aside to focus on Ultimate Spider-Man. The Ultimate line was designed to strip Marvel's decades-long continuity down to something accessible for new readers. Ultimate X-Men was met with immediate critical and commercial success, and Millar signed a two-year staff writing contract with Marvel, relocating with his family to New York City.

  In 2002, Millar and artist Bryan Hitch launched The Ultimates, a reimagining of the Avengers that Time magazine would later call "the comic book of the decade". Zak Penn, co-story creator of the 2012 film The Avengers directed by Joss Whedon, described The Ultimates as a major inspiration for the film. Actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who played Quicksilver in the 2015 sequel Avengers: Age of Ultron, also cited the Ultimate comics as a source. Both volumes of The Ultimates ran to 13 issues each, both suffered delays, and both ended in the same numbered issue. The second volume was partly delayed by Millar's newly-diagnosed chronic condition.

  The peak of Millar's Marvel career came in 2006 with Civil War, a seven-issue mini-series drawn by Steve McNiven that served as the centrepiece of a company-wide crossover storyline. The story revolved around the Superhuman Registration Act and split the Marvel Universe's heroes along opposing lines, with Captain America and Iron Man on different sides. Civil War #1 won Millar the 2007 Harvey Award for Best Single Issue or Story. The storyline later served as the basis for the 2016 Marvel Studios film Captain America: Civil War, which earned more than a billion dollars at the global box office.

  In 2008, Millar returned to Wolverine for the "Old Man Logan" storyline, again drawn by McNiven. Elements of that story inspired the 2017 film Logan, directed by James Mangold, which earned more than 616 million dollars worldwide and holds a 93% approval rating. By 2009, Millar had completed a final run of Ultimate Comics: Avengers series. In 2011, he left work-for-hire entirely to focus on his creator-owned properties.

• 6. Millarworld and Netflix

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  Millar introduced Millarworld in 2003 as a unified label for creator-owned comics set in a shared fictional universe. The initial slate included Wanted, published by Top Cow with art by J. G. Jones, and featuring a character whose likeness was based on rapper Eminem, which led to a public denial from Eminem's management via trade press after Millar claimed the rapper was in talks to appear in the film adaptation. Wanted was eventually adapted into a film starring Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman. The arrangement for every Millarworld series splits ownership 50/50 between Millar and the collaborating artist.

  Kick-Ass, drawn by John Romita Jr. and published under Marvel's Icon imprint, launched in 2008 and was adapted into a film two years later. The Secret Service, drawn by Dave Gibbons, became the basis for the Kingsman film franchise directed by Matthew Vaughn, which across three films has earned over 900 million dollars combined. In 2010, Millar and British publisher Titan launched CLiNT, a pop culture magazine that serialized Millarworld comics alongside contributions from Frankie Boyle, Stewart Lee, Jonathan Ross, and Jimmy Carr. In 2011 and 2012, Millar organized the Kapow! Comic Convention in London. At the 2011 event, Millar set two Guinness World Records: the "Fastest Production of a Comic Book" and "Most Contributors to a Comic Book". Starting at 9 am, he plotted a 20-page Superior story, and more than 60 creators including Sean Phillips, Dave Gibbons, Frank Quitely, and John Romita Jr. each drew a panel on stage throughout the day. The black-and-white book was completed in 11 hours, 19 minutes and 38 seconds, then published on the 23rd of November 2011, with all royalties going to Yorkhill Children's Foundation.

  In August 2017, Netflix purchased Millarworld for an undisclosed sum. Millar noted it was only the third time in history a comic book company had been bought by a production studio, comparing the deal to Kinney National Company's purchase of DC Comics in 1967 and Disney's acquisition of Marvel in 2009. Under the Netflix deal, Millar and his wife Lucy continued to run Millarworld as President and CEO respectively. Jupiter's Legacy, drawn by Frank Quitely, premiered on Netflix in May 2021 with an eight-episode season. The anime series Super Crooks followed in November 2021. Comics adapted before the Netflix deal, including Kick-Ass and Kingsman, were not included in the acquisition.

• 7. Morrison, Controversy, and Character

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  Throughout the 1990s and into the early 2000s, Millar and Grant Morrison were close friends and frequent collaborators. Morrison was widely seen as the mentor figure in the relationship. The dynamic was parodied in a strip by Garth Ennis and Dave Gibbons for a 2000 AD anniversary issue, in which Millar appeared as a small droid repeating the phrase "me and Gwant". Gail Simone parodied them in an issue of Simpsons Comics, showing the two arguing over whose X-Men series was more important: Millar's Ultimate or Morrison's New.

  Around 2004, Millar and Morrison cut all contact and never interacted publicly again. According to Morrison, this happened because Millar wanted to break away from the image of Morrison's protege after the success of The Authority and Ultimate X-Men. When asked about their relationship in a 2011 interview, Morrison said: "I wish him well but, no, there is no good feeling between myself and Mark Millar for many reasons most of which are he destroyed my faith in human fucking nature."

  Millar has incorporated domestic abuse, teenage pregnancy, and child molestation as themes in his work. In August 2013, when journalist Abraham Josephine Riesman of The New Republic asked him about using rape as a plot device across multiple comics, Millar responded: "The ultimate act that would be the taboo, to show how bad some villain is, was to have somebody being raped, you know. I don't really think it matters. It's the same as, like, a decapitation. It's just a horrible act to show that somebody's a bad guy." Industry peers and comics journalists criticized the comment publicly. Millar has also publicly expressed amazement that non-caucasians can get Down's syndrome and referred to all gamers as pedophiles in a separate interview.

  Millar is a practicing Catholic who abstains from profanity in his personal life. He was diagnosed with Crohn's disease in 2005. He was appointed a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in June 2013 for services to film and literature, appearing on the Queen's Birthday Honours list. Two years before that ceremony, a six-metre-high superhero-themed steel archway was unveiled beside the Monkland Canal in Coatbridge, created by sculptor Andy Scott with help from students at St. Ambrose High School. The archway depicts a superhero named Captain Coatbridge and two superheroines, and was part of efforts to reinvigorate the canal where Millar grew up.

• 8. What Comes Next

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  Millar announced in May 2025 that he would reunite with artist John Romita Jr. for a new project called Psychic Sam, published under a separate imprint called Side Hustle Comics rather than the Millarworld label. The premise follows a man named Sam Nicoletti who begins hearing a voice that tells him about murders the day before they happen. The announcement and a Kickstarter campaign launched on the same day, and a film adaptation was announced by producer Ivan Atkinson.

  The arc of Millar's career from Coatbridge to Netflix is also, in part, a story about the economics of creator ownership in comics. The 50/50 split he built into every Millarworld deal is a model that predates his relationship with Netflix by more than a decade. His decision to leave work-for-hire in 2011 was a deliberate bet that his own characters and stories were worth more than any salary Marvel or DC could offer. The Netflix acquisition in 2017 proved that bet correct, though the precise terms have never been disclosed.

  Some of the earliest seeds of that independence go back to a piece of advice Morrison gave an 18-year-old writer who had never been published. Millar has said it was the best advice he ever received. Whether the two men will ever speak again is another matter entirely, but the conversation itself, conducted for a fanzine in Scotland in the late 1980s, set the direction for everything that followed.