What Is Netflix's New Millarword?

Netflix's purchase of Millarworld, the imprint founded by writer Mark Millar, stands to radically alter the relationship between comic books and television and film. However, before we learn of what's to come, it's important to understand exactly what Netflix is getting in the deal.

Millar is an established name in modern comics, familiar to even the most casual reader. But even if the titles he's written somehow -- from Marvel's Old Man Logan and Civil War to DC's The Authority and Superman: Red Son to his own Kick-Ass and The Secret Service -- don't ring a bell, then the movies some of them have inspired certainly will.

What is Millarworld?

Millar founded his own company in 2004 called Millarworld, which used to manage the creator-owned titles he published through other companies. His line of books began as a modest sampling, but has since grown into a library of content ripe with potential for film and television.

Millar is well known for collaborating with some of the top artists in the industry. Under the Millarworld banner, he makes it a point to give half of everything he earns from sales and movie deals to his collaborators

Despite these books being published by different companies with a multitude of collaborators, Millar's creator-owned work takes place within a shared universe of continuity. Many of his titles either connect via subtle Easter eggs or are directly referenced.

The Rise of Millarworld

Millarworld grew to prominence thanks to the success of three main titles. Wanted, a six-issue series originally published by Image's Top Cow studio between 2003 and 2004, has been described as Watchmen for villains. Together with artist J.G. Jones, Millar tells the story of Wesley Gibson as he discovers he's the heir to his father's legacy as a supervillain assassin.

Universal Pictures' 2008 film adaptation, starring James McAvoy, Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman, was only loosely based on the source material. However, it was a critical and commercial hit, earning more than $340 million worldwide, and served as Millar's introduction to Hollywood.

That was a big year for Millarworld, as it also marked the debut of Kick-Ass, the eight-issue miniseries by Millar and John Romita Jr. that tells the violent and vulgar story of a teenager who decides to become a real-life superhero. But even before the first issue went on sale, Kick-Ass was optioned for film. The popularity of the comic inspired two sequels and a Hit-Girl spinoff, while director Matthew Vaughn's 2010 adaptation was successful enough to earn its own follow-up three years later.

However, Millar's biggest splash in Hollywood to date arrived with the release in 2014 of Fox's Kingsman: The Secret Service, inspired by the 2012 spy comic he created with David Gibbons (Watchmen). Channeling James Bond and the spy genre, The Secret Service follows a super-spy as he recruits and trains his nephew to join a secret organization. Directed by Vaughn, the film starred Colin Firth, Samuel L. Jackson and Mark Strong, and launched the career of Taron Egerton. Earning $414 million worldwide, Kingsman led to a sequel, which arrives next month.

As Millar mentioned following the news of Millarworld's acquisition, the film-rights deals for Kick-Ass and Kingsman: The Secret Service remain intact, which means those properties aren't available to Netflix. Less clear is the status of Wanted, with which Fox has long flirted for a sequel.

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What's in it for Netflix?

Many Millarworld titles have been optioned for film. In fact, many of Millar's comics have debuted with a movie deal already in hand. But Netflix isn't here to sell comics; that's Millar's job. The streaming service wants the writer who has been able to produce lucrative properties across several mediums. Amazon Studios is taking a similar, if more conservative, approach with Robert Kirkman and Skybound.

One of Millarworld's first titles was 2004's Chosen, with artist Peter Gross, which follows a 12-year-old boy who discovers he's the reincarnation of Jesus Christ. Millar retroactively made the three-issue title the first part of a trilogy under the name American Jesus. However, no sequel series has seen publication as of yet. It had most recently been optioned in 2016 by Waypoint Entertainment.

Sometimes Millar doesn't even need to finish a book to get a movie deal. In 2008, he launched War Heroes at Image Comics with artist Tony Harris. Described as a culmination of ideas from Millar's run on Marvel's The Ultimates, the planned six-issue miniseries disappeared after just three issues. Nevertheless, it was promptly optioned for adaptation.

Despite reuniting Millar with his Civil War and Old Man Logan collaborator Steve McNiven, Nemesis debuted in 2010 to somewhere between mixed and negative reviews. However, its elevator pitch -- "What if Batman was the Joker?" -- held undeniable appeal, drawing immediate interest from Fox before moving in 2015 to Warner Bros.

Millar collaborated with artist Leinil Francis Yu on 2010's Superior, about a 12-year-old boy with multiple sclerosis who is transformed into a Shazam analog (with a twist), and on 2012's Supercrooks, a supervillain heist story. Both are in development as films.

Since 2013, Millar has collaborated with artist Frank Quietly on Jupiter's Legacy, a cross-generational superhero story; a prequel series, Jupiter's Circle, was also published, with artist Wilfredo Torres. Millar and producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura were planning to a film adaptation, with writers hired in June 2016. But by September, di Bonaventura said the story may be better suited for television.

Starlight, with artist Goran Parlov, and MPH, with Duncan Fegredo, were both tapped for adaptation in 2014, followed in 2015 by Chrononauts, with Sean Murphy, and Huck, with Rafael Albuquerque, and last year by Empress, with Stuart Immonen.

It would seem the only Millarworld titles that haven't been optioned are Reborn, with Greg Capullo, and The Unfunnies, with Anthony Williams.

The Perfect Match

All of that is to say that Netflix and Mark Millar are a perfect.

Disney plans to launch its own streaming service, requiring Netflix to produce even better original content to fill the space that will be lost when dozens of titles leave in 2019. Now that the company has sway over all these new properties, new movies and series could be fast-tracked.

Millar is no stranger to Hollywood, having served as a creative consultant for Marvel's Iron Man, Fox's X-Men films and 2015's Fantastic Four. Aside from the movies based on his creator-owned work, his stories for Marvel Comics have served as inspiration for Captain America: Civil War and Logan. Some might even say his work on the publisher's Ultimate line also helped to lay the groundwork for what became the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

It's clear, though, that Netflix acquired Millarworld, not just for Millar's collection of content, but for Millar himself. Over the past 10 years, he has turned nearly every comic he writes into a potential movie, and Netflix hopes to tap into that creative energy. For any new work he produces under his banner, Netflix gets first dibs.