Controversial Opinions (For Everything Other Than DC Comics)

[GozertheGozarian]

Mark Millar has never done a comic that didn't suck goats.

[batnbreakfast]

Mark Millar has never done a comic that didn't suck goats.

I enjoyed Ultimates at first and some of his Authority

[ed2962]

I don't see that at all?

Not in the plot per se, but how it taps into the id of the supposed young male audience and the in story vehicle for such. They're both stories of nebbish guys who are depressed about their lives. They meet charismatic figures that introduce them to a secret society where they don't have to play by societies rules. They become better "men" after learning to express themselves through senseless violence. Both works even have a scene where someone breaks the fourth wall and directly insults the audience consuming the story.

Now of course, Fight Club was trying to say something meaningful about gender roles, consumerism, and alienation while Wanted was just trying to be transgressive. But I wonder if Millar would have approached his story in the same had Fight Club not come out a few years earlier.

[ed2962]

I enjoyed Ultimates at first and some of his Authority

He's capable of doing decent work when he sets his mind to it. But he's also shown that he's more than willing to do hack work if he thinks can make money from it.

[Steel Inquisitor]

2) Again, you're using how Snyder handled Superman killing to judge how he views the act of killing in the first place. Snyder did not Clark glorify nor demonize Clark's killing Zod. He put him in a position where he did something he simply never imagined he'd ever have to do as most people who don't kill believe and used that as the basis for Clark not wanting to kill again. How anyone saw this as "Snyder thinks everyone is hard wired to kill" is beyond me.

Snyder only did that scene because it was "cool," he didn't bother looking for other alternatives - that's not his thing. Nowhere in MOS was it presented that Clark had problems killing people, there was nothing explored about that angle. Clark never went through a story arc about not killing again in any DCEU movie. If anything, after MOS he became more interested in killing people - it got easier for him. Snyder gets that reputation because the super-heroes he adapts are more about violence as a first resort, ask questions never. His Batman made Keaton's look less blood thirty, which is impressive. This is what separates him from someone like Patty Jenkins.

This is just as wrong as claiming Clark Kent is merely a mask.

Varies on the interpretation, Batman's been written both ways in the comics.

[Jack Dracula]

I think Krypton is the best DC television effort up to this point, including all the CW shows.

[numberthirty]

He's capable of doing decent work when he sets his mind to it. But he's also shown that he's more than willing to do hack work if he thinks can make money from it.

Jenny Sparks: The Secret History Of The Authority is actually solid.

That said, it's more "The Exception..." than it is anything else.

[PaulBullion]

Mark Millar has never done a comic that didn't suck goats.

I tend to agree from what I have read, but I hear Superman: Red Son is decent.

Avoid his run on Swamp Thing at all cost, though.

[A Small Talent For War]

As far as comic book stories, it's not as interesting to wonder what if Clark Kent (or Calvin Ellis), Bruce Wayne, Steve Rogers became president or what if Lex Luthor, Norman Osborn or Max Lord became President as it is interesting to wonder what if Bruce Banner became president.

[Gray Lensman]

My former LCS owners swore by Jenny Sparks - I still pop in there when I go back to visit the area.

I have read Superman: Red Son and can confirm it is very good, although an obviously different take on the character. While not by Millar I also recommend Superman: The Dark Side for a similar premise (what if the spacecraft landed somewhere else - in this case Apokolips) yet still a different take for yet another Elseworlds story.

[Gray Lensman]

As far as comic book stories, it's not as interesting to wonder what if Clark Kent (or Calvin Ellis), Bruce Wayne, Steve Rogers became president or what if Lex Luthor, Norman Osborn or Max Lord became President as it is interesting to wonder what if Bruce Banner became president.

While the final bit is an interesting premise, the case for the bolded isn't so much about what those people do when in charge, but about how the heroes react to the villain suddenly having the power of legitimacy and testing the hero now that the embodiment of what they oppose runs the society they protect. I don't think those stories work when done to an anti-hero or a group that is always on the outside looking in. The Punisher would operate exactly the same, and the X-Men wouldn't overly notice the difference if Rev. Stryker was suddenly president considering what they have been going through for the last couple of decades.

[Starter Set]

The recorder is a great instrument.

[Jim Kelly]

I recently read RED SON and didn't like it. However, Mark Millar had many good stories in SUPERMAN ADVENTURES. He also did some good work with Grant Morrison--I liked their short run on THE FLASH.

[A Small Talent For War]

I recently read RED SON and didn't like it. However, Mark Millar had many good stories in SUPERMAN ADVENTURES. He also did some good work with Grant Morrison--I liked their short run on THE FLASH.

Millar generally writes like Tarantino-lite or Guy Ritchie. Pretty much the same stories and characters with different settings and premises. A heist movie with Super-villains (Supercrooks), Harry Potter with serious Super-villains as directed by Tarantino (WANTED), Guy Ritchie directs a Harry Potter movie (The Magic Circle). Unforgiven with Mutants (Old Man Logan).

High concept, "edge" and a twist ending - he's pretty consistent and goes for broad appeal over the usual tight focus on long time comic book readers. I think he's good for bringing in new readers. I don't think he'll do anything particularly original, though.

[PaulBullion]

Millar generally writes like Tarantino-lite or Guy Ritchie. Pretty much the same stories and characters with different settings and premises. A heist movie with Super-villains (Supercrooks), Harry Potter with serious Super-villains as directed by Tarantino (WANTED), Guy Ritchie directs a Harry Potter movie (The Magic Circle). Unforgiven with Mutants (Old Man Logan).

High concept, "edge" and a twist ending - he's pretty consistent and goes for broad appeal over the usual tight focus on long time comic book readers. I think he's good for bringing in new readers. I don't think he'll do anything particularly original, though.

He also really, really likes putting rape into stories. Whether it's anally raping Apollo with a steam shovel or bringing back Alec Holland's long lost wife Linda as an undead snuff porn hooker.