SciFiNow favourite comic writer Mark Millar – he of Kick-Ass, the recent Supercrooks, Civil War and Old Man Logan, to just pick four seemingly at random – has been announced as the creative consultant for 20th Century Fox’s Marvel movies: 2013’s The Wolverine, 2014’s X-Men: First Class sequel, X-Men: Days Of Future Past, and Chronicle director Josh Trank’s Fantastic Four.
Mark Millar hinted at it on Twitter 30 minutes before the announcement, saying, “Right, I’m off to see Dredd. While I’m gone the biggest news of my career will be announced on news sites so stay tuned. This is big.”
And it is big, having been responsible for fan-favourite runs on X-Men (launching Ultimate X-Men in 2001), Fantastic Four (launching Ultimate Fantastic Four and working on the regular book alongside Ultimates collaborator Bryan Hitch from 2008-2009) and Wolverine with the aforementioned Old Man Logan and Wolverine: Enemy Of The State, the variable quality of Fox’s Marvel output looks to be in considerably safer hands.
President of Fox movie production Emma Watts commented, “In addition to his groundbreaking Marvel work, he is simply one of the most original voices in comics today, and will be an invaluable resource to us and to our filmmakers as we look for fresh opportunities to innovate within our shared Marvel universe.”
Millar added that he is “proud to be working alongside some of modern cinema’s biggest talents. James Mangold is incredible, Matthew Vaughn’s one of my closest pals and Josh Trank gave us, in my opinion, one of the greatest superhero movies of the last decade with Chronicle. The invitation to join this crew was maybe the coolest phone call I’ve ever had.
“As someone who has spent his entire life obsessed with both comic-books and movies, this is essentially my dream gig as it’s a unique combination of both.”
Mark Millar and Lenil Yu’s recent Supercrooks is available as a graphic novel from 24 October 2012, pre-order it now for £12.74 from Amazon.co.uk.
