The Implications of the Millarworld Universe (SPOILERS)

[Dispenser Of Truth]

So today, in the wake of Kick-Ass finishing up (that being the one Millarworld title I wasn't reading, it really looks like his worst major work from what I've seen, even if the first movie was entertaining), Millar finally revealed the connections that form his Millarworld Universe:

"Okay, here we go. I've waited literally YEARS so I could tell you this.

Now Kick-Ass wraps today and explains it all. Basically, the books fit into each other as so...

*WANTED explains how the world used to have superheroes, but in 1986 they were all defeated and the bad guys made us magically forget the heroes ever existed in the first place. We remember the heroes simply as pop-culture characters, that red cape hanging up in the Professor's lair at the end of Wanted #2 belonging to...

*The Utopian from JUPITER'S LEGACY. Jup's Leg is a series of movies and comics that exist in the real world and which Superman and all the Superman imitators over the years have been an attempt to remember. But the Utopian is the one who actually existed, though he now only exists as a comic-book and (COMING SOON as it says on the boards) movie character.

*KICK-ASS is about a kid who lives in this world without heroes, but who loves them so much that he BECOMES one. The bad guys rule the Earth, posing as billionaires and world leaders, but Dave still loves and believes in heroes. He's the tipping point. He's the beginning of the next generation of these guys and as we saw in the closing pages of Kick-Ass 3 #8 the SUPER-POWERED characters who replace him are starting to appear. A kind of superhero Darwinism, probability increasing the chances of more superheroes exponentially with every one that appears. The first of these is...

*NEMESIS who is referred to here in the closing pages as the cop killer in Japan.

*MPH who are referred to here as the four kids breaking the sound barrier on foot

*And finally SUPERIOR. Simon, the kid with MS who stars in the book, can be seen leaving the theatre near the end of this issue, Dave holding the door open for he and his friend, essentially passing the hero baton along for him to pick up and then we pull back to see the opening scene in Superior where Simon and Chris are exiting Superior 5. Superior is another character who will appear in JUPITER'S LEGACY at some point as this is the magical world where he's summoned from in the story and...

*...SUPERCROOKS takes place in this world too, hence the two posters on the cinema wall.

*All the other books tie together too but there's a LOT more too this and a big plan I've had in mind for a few years. This is everything all nicely set up, but what's also nice is that you don't need to read all the books to understand. THAT SAID, reading them all will only make you appreciate the big picture all the more.

Bestest,

MM

PS Even the books not mentioned will connect as the series continue. Yes, even American Jesus. But only in the most subtle and unobtrusive way. Nobody's going to be flying around when I do that final volume in a couple of years, besides maybe a few angels in the apocalypse. Stay tuned. It's all part of the plan...

PS What I like about this is that we essentially have two universes. Like DC and Marvel. If I want to write about a fictional world filled with superheroes I have the Jup's Leg line, where the stories are more outrageous, and if I want to go very real I have the ones in the kinda real world like Kick-Ass and MPH. In a way it's like Earth 1 and Earth 2. But you can read every book entirely self-contained. I think that's very important."

It's an elegant setup--there was basically the DCU, things went to hell, now new guys are showing up--that even as a (conflicted) fan of Millar's, I'm impressed by. But this raises some points and some questions worth noting.

This is part of the Marvel Multiverse: Marvel 1985 is actually a part of the Millarverse (and therefore so is all the rest of his work that features Clyde Wyncham): the main character of that writes an equivalent comic in his "real" world, and in Kick-Ass a store owner is shown hyping the comic, noting the writer claimed it was a real-life incident from his childhood. So even though it'll obviously never cross over directly, Millarworld is a part of Marvel's Multiversal superscructure. This raises a larger problem...

How does 1985 fit in?: 1985 is clearly shown as being set in a world without superhuman beings...except that was a year before the villains rewrote history. So are the events of 1985 just shown as it's "remembered" by those who went through it, their memories of the event not being entirely wiped along with their memories of their own heroes? Even when Clyde Wyncham shows up in Millar's Fantastic Four run, Mr. Fantastic mentions that he's his world's only mutant/superpowered being. A flub on Millar's part, did the mind-wipe stretch into the 616 universe, or is it something else altogether? I don't know if it's even something that can be addressed at all, except maybe in a future Millarworld book at Icon--though he seems to be staying at Image for the foreseeable future.

Even though the Jupiter's Legacy characters are real, the events of the book aren't: It's explicitly noted as being a movie in-universe, and it can't be a reference to a former adventure of theirs as it's set firmly in the present. The tensions of that story probably don't correspond to the 'real' versions of the characters either, as the heroes were shown as ideal in Wanted's flashbacks. There's actually a metafictional justification, given that JL and Supercrooks are movies, for why the heroes are ineffective dicks who raise a generation of narcissistic killers and the villains are glamorized: the villains, in charge of the world, probably arranged that, as a dig at their old rivals. Even though the origin shown for them is probably real, any information we're given about those characters afterwards is probably suspect outside of Jupiter's Legacy itself.

Who's the "real" Superman, Utopian or Superior?: The Utopian is stated to be the inspiration for Superman and all his analogues. However, if Superior existed as well, it's hard not to see him as obviously being more fitting. He's a solar-powered alien whose title starts with "Super", for god's sake. Superior's upcoming appearance in JL might sort it out a bit.

Either Superior or the Utopian is still alive: We saw in Wanted that Solomon Setzer's (Lex Luthor's) archnemesis is still alive and powerless in an assisted living facility. However, we don't know who his nemesis was. It was implicitly a Superman analogue, making it supposedly Utopian, especially since Superior's actor Tad Scott is still alive and active (he may well BE the original Superior, stripped of his memories and powers. He certainly showed some heroism). However, Scott may not be the first actor to play the character, and the actor was shown as having black hair rather than the older Utopian's white mane (though that may have just been the Jupiter's Legacy movie predicting how he would age).

There's a good reason all the heroes are showing up now: The Fraternity was crippled at the end of Wanted, the American and Australian (and likely European) branches major players almost entirely taken off the board. So while chances are something like Ormon creating a new superhero is something they could have headed off before, they're spread thin enough that they couldn't stop it anymore. There's even a good chance this is an implicit explanation why apparently no one did the real world superhero thing before Kick-Ass here, even though there's plenty of those guys in the real world.

Every cop and authority figure we've seen the books is now suspect: In Wanted, a random cop on the street recognizes the significance of the Fraternity badge. There's the possibility of a hypnotic block, where people instinctively recognize the authority of someone with the badge and forget afterwards. But if they just KNOW, then everyone from Blake Morrow to Marcus Williams to Dave Lizewski and Jack London are potentially in on the massive conspiracy, at least being aware that there's an authority above theirs that they can do nothing about. The President at least must know the whole story, meaning that even as he's shaking Superior's hand he's awaiting his bosses orders on how to handle the situation.

Nemesis may be part of the Fraternity: This has been guessed before, but now that it's known he lives in Kick-Ass's world, it may be reasonable to assume the Fraternity employed him in part to taint the idea of "real" costumed characters. His impossible predictive abilities would also be explained by superhuman allies.

What's with Secret Service and Starlight?: I believe a Nemesis comic may be seen in one of the Millarworld books, but the killer may have based his identity off an existing character, so that probably isn't an issue. But Hit-Girl's collection is shown as including Secret Service comics. How the hell does that work, exactly? This is probably just plain Millar not having everything lined up at the time. Starlight is more interesting: it's shown pretty clearly as being in a world without supernatural elements, and we know it connects to the other books, so how could it have a movie? Is it in a world of its own, which would be utterly bizarre as it wouldn't have the direct tie to the larger story that Jupiter's Legacy and Supercrooks do. It's too late in the game for it to be a gaffe on Millar's part, so maybe it's a movie based off the guys life?

[Ben11345]

What's with Secret Service and Starlight?: I believe a Nemesis comic may be seen in one of the Millarworld books, but the killer may have based his identity off an existing character, so that probably isn't an issue. But Hit-Girl's collection is shown as including Secret Service comics. How the hell does that work, exactly? This is probably just plain Millar not having everything lined up at the time. Starlight is more interesting: it's shown pretty clearly as being in a world without supernatural elements, and we know it connects to the other books, so how could it have a movie? Is it in a world of its own, which would be utterly bizarre as it wouldn't have the direct tie to the larger story that Jupiter's Legacy and Supercrooks do. It's too late in the game for it to be a gaffe on Millar's part, so maybe it's a movie based off the guys life?

Secret Service is set in the Kick-Ass world. Dave mentions the "Celebrity Kidnappings" which happened in the comic.
I don't exactly know about Starlight either but a poster for it appears in the background of Dave's "Credit scene" at the end.
A poster for War heroes is next to the Starlight one so I guess they're either films or comics in the Kick-Ass world.

[Vidocq]

I've heard of Millarverse ever since I read it for myself when he did that Old Man Logan/Fantastic Four/1985 connection (At the end of an arc, Old Man Logan appeared with his adopted son, a now growned Hulk, The protagonist of 1985 was apparently the Doctor Doom of that universe). Never really cared that much for it... but goddamn it, now that I know that it's this expansive and connected I feel almost a compulsion to track every last bit of it down and write some kind of Timeline or map out how events influenced each other.

I don't even want to but I feel like I have to. Ain't that weird? Like a geek OCD.

[Dispenser Of Truth]

I've heard of Millarverse ever since I read it for myself when he did that Old Man Logan/Fantastic Four/1985 connection (At the end of an arc, Old Man Logan appeared with his adopted son, a now growned Hulk, The protagonist of 1985 was apparently the Doctor Doom of that universe). Never really cared that much for it... but goddamn it, now that I know that it's this expansive and connected I feel almost a compulsion to track every last bit of it down and write some kind of Timeline or map out how events influenced each other.

I don't even want to but I feel like I have to. Ain't that weird? Like a geek OCD.

Ha! You want a basic timeline, here you go, sticking to the "main" universe, which happens to have the designation 1218 in Marvel's multiverse (MAJOR SPOILERS if you want to read it yourself, and for the end I'm just saying "the events of", as it can be assumed readers will either know what it's referring to or can look it up):

-In 1932 in the wake of the stock market crash, Sheldon Sampson has a dream of a mysterious island that promises salvation for America. Bringing along his brother and several of his friends, they make their way to the island, which turns out to be some sort of machine. They find a pair of alien beings, and while it's unknown what happened from there, they returned to America as the world's first Superheroes, with Sheldon as their leader, The Utopian.



-Presumably in 1938, Superior appears.

-In 1964, Clyde Wyncham begins to develop massive reality-warping powers, but is brain-damaged by his terrified mother and left in a largely comatose state.

-At some point afterwards (in the 60s/70s), Duke McQueen is abducted to the planet of Tantalus, which he saves from the evil Tyrion. Returning home, his stories are mocked.

-Also somewhere in here, Jack London manages to raise himself up from his poverty-stricken circumstances by joining M16.

-In 1985, two major events occur: Clyde Wyncham inadvertently summons the villains of the 616 universe--it takes local comic fan Toby Goodman to get in contact with the heroes of the universe to come save the day, and Clyde is taken back to the Marvel Universe, while Toby goes on to become a comic book writer who recounts the experience through his work. Meanwhile, a Mr. Springfield under so far unknown circumstances gains uncontrolled super speed, causing destruction throughout Missouri before managing to stop himself and winding up imprisoned. That both these incidents are shown as taking place in worlds without superhuman elements, as well as Duke McQueen's lack of belief, may be explained by the next event in the timeline.

-In 1986 the supervillains of the world, led by Professor Solomon Setzer and Mister Rictus, manage to defeat or kill every single superhero on the planet. Reality is rewritten into a simulacrum of our own world with the Fraternity secretly ruling from behind the scenes, while the few surviving heroes are given the most demeaning existences possible, often as 'actors' who played the heroes they used to truly be. It is unknown if the Utopian was one of these survivors, but his cape hangs as a private trophy of Setzer's (and allow me to note, for a moment, how much I dislike this. Yeah yeah, in the Millarverse the big S is just a pale reflection of Utopian/Superior, but so much of the power of the scene where the cape is revealed is in the implicit understanding that it really is Superman, Wesley and Setzer's talk making it especially clear. Sure, Wesley's "Oh Jesus, is that what I think it is?" could be referring to Utopian, who's a figure in his world. But however much it may tie the plot together, the emotional impact is lessened)

-The events of Wanted/The events of Kick-Ass (hard to tell which comes first, but the events of Wanted probably happen before at least any of the next point, for reasons I noted in my original post)

-The events of MPH/Nemesis/Secret Service at least commence, then the events of Superior. Jupiter's Legacy and Supercrooks are apocryphal for the purposes of the timeline, taking place only as movies within the larger universe that happen to reflect on the formerly existing heroes and villains (though Millar's comments suggest they may still be real in some way that might connect back to the main universe); War Heroes is entirely its own thing; Starlights place is unclear.