This week sees Mark Millar turn up phase two of his relaunch of the Kick-Ass franchise by taking everyone's favorite preteen assassin on an international crime-stopping spree.

The i-new Hit-Girl #1 arrives in stores today from Image Comics, presenting the first part of a story from the writer along with artist Ricardo Lopez Ortiz. And while the first arc of the ongoing series follows up directly on the twist ending of Millar and John Romita Jr.'s Kick-Ass 3, future stories will see an all-star lineup of comics talent take the foul-mouthed Mindy McCready on solo adventures across the globe.

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CBR caught up with Millar on the eve of the launch for an inside look on how he chose to reinvent Hit-Girl in a different way than his brand-new Kick-Ass series, how he approached talent like Kevin Smith and Jeff Lemire to rocket the character to new environs and why readers will learn that cocaine and cheetahs just don't mix. Plus, the writer shows off exclusive new art from Eduardo Risso and Rafael Albuquerque.

CBR News: So there are scant few things we know about this first arc of Hit-Girl. We know it follows up on the Paul McQue finale of Kick-Ass 3. We know that Mindy is off to Colombia. But in what way did you think of this arc as the beginning of a new series? What about this story sets a whole new status quo for Hit-Girl?

Mark Millar: This new Hit-Girl ongoing series, to me, is essentially our fucked up version of Tintin. I remember as a kid here in Scotland looking at my Tintin and Asterix graphic novels and seeing all these other books set in different countries that made up this enormous collection. That’s precisely what I’ve set up here. It’s all four-issue stories, all with A-list writing and art and each one set in a different country. So we have Ricardo and I doing Hit-Girl Colombia, Kevin Smith takes her to Hollywood, Rafael Albuquerque takes her to Rome and so on. I want this to run for three or so years and have nine different graphic novels set in all these different countries and, like Tintin, I want people to gawp at the back and wish they had them all.

The new Kick-Ass series is very much a brand new start with a new character inspired by Dave to go and put on a rubber wet-suit on the other side of America. Hit-Girl is actually a direct continuation from the old Kick-Ass series. As readers will know, we left off with Paul McQue picking up the mantle and being trained as the new Kick-Ass, but it doesn’t quite work out. We have a lot of fun with this, and I love playing around with traditional expectations, but all I’ll say is Hit-Girl is back on her own and looking for a partner. She loved Big Daddy, she loved Kick-Ass, and she loves Batman and Robin comics. She’s after someone new to watch her back and that’s the beginning of Hit-Girl #1.

You've got a killer lineup of talent for future arcs from Jeff Lemire and Eduardo Risso on through Kevin Smith, Rafa and newcomer Kim Jung Gi. But tell me a little more about the back and forth between y'all. What high concept do you offer them when you ask them to do an arc? Do you do any kind of story editing to make each arc connect, or is this more like having each new story be a self-contained James Bond movie, so to speak?

Yes, each arc is self-contained. Our editor, Rachael Fulton, keeps a close eye and makes sure the stories are all very different, but the location has meant that each four issue arc has a unique identity. Pete Milligan, for example, is just wrapping up a story set in India, which is amazing, with Alison Sampson on art, and it really couldn’t be more different from Jeff Lemire and Eduardo Risso’s brilliant arc in Canada. We’ve got Russia, China, Hong Kong -- you have to see Goran Parlov’s Hong Kong artwork. I’m honestly just putting these books together as a fan and hiring all my dream creators to do the best run on any book ever. I really just want these for my own shelves.

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Specifically, we're looking a bit at Jeff and Eduardo's arc here. I know when I've talked to Jeff, he's pushed back on the whole concept of "Canadian niceness," and it looks a bit like Risso is channeling Frank Miller in his take on Mindy. Is part of their goal to make Canada as hardcore as possible?

Canada is already tough. The kind of snow that makes Brits and Americans cancel all public transport is the kind of snow a Canadian toddler brushes of their shoulders as they stride to kindergarten. They’re tough mother-fuckers so it seemed a good fit. Plus they gave us corrupt Mounties. I’ve never seen that before. [Laughs]

EXCLUSIVE: John Romita Jr. Reunites With Hit-Girl In Wicked Variant

Kevin Smith is no stranger to comics, but these days his availability to come and do a story on the page is pretty limited. What made him a priority for you, and how is he making Mindy his own?

I dropped Kevin a line never thinking for a moment we’d actually get him, so when he shot me a line back and started telling me his ideas, it was up there with selling Millarworld to Netflix in terms of amazing things to happen in 2017. I’m not kidding. I love that guy and have followed him since my Swamp Thing editor Stuart Moore put me onto him when I was 23 or something. He’s perfect for this, and his idea is really fun, set in Hollywood and using this structure across four issues that I won’t spoil and will only say is brilliantly inventive and I wish I’d thought of it.

Passing your characters onto other people is a weird feeling, but Kevin was my first call in terms of writers, and getting him immediately set the bar high for me. I realized every one of these arcs could be brilliant.

Finally, regardless of whether we see it in these preview pages, what's your favorite panel that's been turned in so far on the Hit-Girl series?

I’m so happy with Ricardo Ortiz. I saw this brilliant Kingpin book he did with Matt Rosenberg a couple of years back, which really had me loving both of them immediately, and I’m a huge fan. His style is so incredibly energetic and fun that no matter what Hit-Girl is doing it just somehow seems charming, even when it’s dropping a chemical weapon in a Colombian drug den. There’s a lot of fun stuff he’s drawn here. We’ve really had a good time, but it’s hard to top Hit-Girl getting chased by a cocaine-fueled Cheetah through a drug-lord's mansion as she runs around looking for her weapons. In terms of other people’s arcs, the opening two pages of Jeff and Eduardo’s is just beautiful. Hit-Girl catching snowdrops on her tongue and then turning the pages to see she’s caught in a Canadian bear-trap and just blown a guy’s head off. You see these first two pages and you’re just like, I'm in!

Johnny Romita and I couldn’t have been happier Kick-Ass #1 went down so well last week, and every indication is we’ve got a great couple of days ahead with Hit-Girl, too. Thanks to everyone for turning up for this and just enjoying a big crowd of creators having a great time. Oh, and Amy Reeder’s covers? She’s just the best. I’m still working on her, but I’d love to have her completely write and draw an arc too. She’s amazing.

Hit-Girl #1 is in stores now, from Image Comics.