Mark Millar
Mark Millar (; born 24 December 1969) is a Scottish comic book writer, known for his work on "The Authority", "Swamp Thing", the "Ultimates", "Marvel Knights Spider-Man", "Ultimate Fantastic Four", "Civil War", "Kingsman: The Secret Service", "Wanted", "Chrononauts", "Superior" and "", the latter seven of which have been, or are planned to be, adapted into feature films. His DC Comics work includes "". At Marvel Comics he created "The Ultimates", selected by "Time" magazine as the comic book of the decade, and described by screenwriter Zak Penn as a major inspiration for 2012's "The Avengers" movie. Millar wrote "Civil  War" and "Wolverine: Old Man Logan", two of Marvel's biggest-selling storylines. The former inspired the 2016 Marvel Studios film "", while the latter was the inspiration for the 2017 20th Century Fox film "Logan". Millar has been an executive producer on all of his films, and for four years worked as a creative consultant to Fox Studios on their Marvel slate of films. In 2017, Netflix bought Millar's comic line, Millarworld, which Millar and his wife Lucy would continue to run, publishing new comics and adapting them for other media. Early life. Millar was born 24 December 1969  in Coatbridge, Scotland. His parents were also born in Coatbridge, and Millar spent the first half of his life in the town's Townhead area, attending St Ambrose High. He has four older brothers, and one older sister, who are 22, 20, 18, 16 and 14 years older than Millar, respectively. His brother Bobby, who as of 2010 worked at a special needs school, introduced him to comics at age 4 while attending university by taking him to shops and purchasing them for him. Still learning to read, Millar's first comic was the seminal "The Amazing Spider-Man" #121  (1973), which featured the death of Gwen Stacy. He purchased a Superman comic that day as well. Black and white reprinted comics purchased by his brothers for him would follow, cementing his interest in the medium so much that Millar drew a spider web across his face with indelible marker that his parents were unable to scrub off in time for his First Communion photo a week later. Millar has named Alan Moore and Frank Miller as the two biggest influences on his career, characterising them as "my Mum and Dad." Other writers he names as influences include Dave Sim , Grant Morrison, Peter Milligan, Warren Ellis and Garth Ennis. More recent writers that have impressed him include Jason Aaron and Scott Snyder. Millar's mother died of a heart attack at age 64, when Millar was 14, and his father died four years later, aged 65. Although Millar enjoyed drawing comics, he was not permitted to go to art school because his family frowned upon such endeavours as a waste of time for the academic Millar, who studied subjects like chemistry, physics and advanced maths. He initially planned to be a doctor, and subsequently decided that becoming an economist would  be a viable alternate plan, but later decided that he "couldn't quite hack it" in that occupation. He attended Glasgow University to study politics and economics, but dropped out after his father's death left him without the money to pay his living expenses. Career. 1980s–1990s work. When Millar was 18, he interviewed writer Grant Morrison, who was doing their first major American work on "Animal Man", for a fanzine. When he told Morrison that he wanted to be both a writer and an artist, Morrison suggested that he focus on one of those career paths, as it was  very hard to be successful at both, which Millar cites as the best advice he has received. Millar's first job as a comic book writer came when he was still in high school, writing Trident's "Saviour" with Daniel Vallely providing art. "Saviour" combined elements of religion, satire and superhero action. During the 1990s, Millar worked on titles such as "2000 AD", "Sonic the Comic" and "Crisis". In 1993, Millar, Grant Morrison and John Smith created a controversial eight-week run on "2000 AD" called "The Summer Offensive". It was during this run that Millar and Morrison wrote their  first major story together, "Big Dave". Millar's work brought him to the attention of DC Comics, and in 1994 he started working on his first American comic, "Swamp Thing". The first four issues of Millar's run were co-written by Grant Morrison, allowing Millar to settle into the title. Although his work brought some critical acclaim to the ailing title, the book's sales were still low enough to warrant cancellation by the publisher. From there, Millar spent time working on various DC titles, often co-writing with or under the patronage of Morrison as in the cases  of his work on "JLA", "The Flash" and "Aztek: The Ultimate Man", and working on unsuccessful pitches for the publisher. Marvel and DC career. In 2000, Millar replaced Warren Ellis on "The Authority" for DC's Wildstorm imprint. Various images and text in issues #13–14 and 27–28 were censored, out of editors' concerns over their depiction of violence, sexuality, or for political reasons, which in some cases, was the result of fallout from the 11 September 2001 attacks. The restored uncensored pages in issues #13–14 and 27–28 were first printed in "The Authority: Absolute Edition Volume 2". Millar announced his  resignation from DC in 2001, though his miniseries "" was printed in 2003. In 2001, Millar launched "Ultimate X-Men" for Marvel Comics' Ultimate Marvel imprint. The following year he collaborated with illustrator Bryan Hitch on "The Ultimates", the Ultimate imprint's equivalent of "The Avengers". Millar's work on "The Ultimates" was later adapted into two Marvel Animated Features and the subsequent 2012 Hollywood box office smash "Marvel's The Avengers". In 2006, Millar, joined by artist Steve McNiven, began writing "Civil War", a seven-issue miniseries revolving around the passing of Superhuman Registration Act as a result of the  death and destruction unintentionally caused by superheroes. The series, which was the central book in a company-wide crossover storyline, saw Captain America and Iron Man on opposing sides of that schism. The story inspired the 2016 film "". In 2009, Millar wrote the dystopian "Old Man Logan" storyline, which appeared in the "Wolverine" series. The story was set in a possible dystopian future in which Wolverine, having been traumatised by how Mysterio tricked him into killing X-Men, became a recluse, living in the Southwest United States after the government collapsed, and various supervillain enclaves controlled the country. Needing rent  money for his family's farm, Wolverine comes out of retirement when called upon by Hawkeye to assistant him on a dangerous job. Elements from the story inspired the 2017 20th Century Fox film "Logan". Millarworld. In 2004, Millar launched a creator-owned line called Millarworld that published independently owned comic-books, with ownership split 50/50 between Millar and the collaborating artist. The first book under the Millarworld brand was "Wanted", which subsequently became a Hollywood film in 2008 starring Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman. Millar created and wrote "Kick-Ass" in 2008, which was adapted into another Hollywood film  for Millar in 2010. Other books published by Millarworld included "Chosen", "The Unfunnies", and "War Heroes", which was distributed by different publishers. In 2010, Millar left his Marvel work-made-for-hire contract, committing full-time to Millarworld, creating and writing "Nemesis" (2010), "Superior" (2010), "Super Crooks" (2012), (2012), "Kick-Ass 2" (2012), "Hit-Girl" (2012), "Kick-Ass 3" (2013), "Jupiter's Legacy" (2013), "Jupiter's Circle" (2015), "Starlight" (2014), "MPH" (2012), "Huck" (2015), "Chrononauts" (2015), "Empress" (2016), "Reborn" (2016). Millarworld enjoyed interest from Hollywood with Millar staying on as an executive producer on all adaptations. "Nemesis" was optioned by  20th Century Fox with Tony Scott attached to direct. "Superior" was optioned by Fox with Matthew Vaughn on a producer. "Super Crooks" and "American Jesus" were both optioned by Waypoint Entertainment. "", starring Colin Firth, was released in 2014. Lorenzo DiBonaventura took "Jupiter's Legacy" and "Jupiter's Circle" under his wing and began development in 2016. Netflix released a television adaptation of "Jupiter's Legacy", as an eight-episode season, on May 7, 2021. "Starlight" was optioned by 20th Century Fox. "Huck" was picked up by Jeff Robinov's Studio 8. "Chrononauts" is in development at Universal. Millarworld was purchased  for an undisclosed sum by Netflix in August 2017, the first acquisition for Netflix and the third time in history, Millar noted, that a comic-book company had been purchased by a studio. Millar would also run Millarworld with his wife Lucy Millar, as President and CEO, respectively, publishing new comics under the Netflix label, which will adapt them for film and television. "Kick-Ass" and "Kingsman" were not a part of the deal. Awards and accolades. In August 2011, Millar appeared in his native Coatbridge to unveil a superhero-themed steel archway beside the Monkland Canal that was created  by sculptor Andy Scott, with help from the students at his alma mater, St Ambrose High School. The six-metre-high archway, which was inspired by Millar's work, depicts a superhero named Captain Coatbridge and two female superheroines, and was created as part of efforts to regenerate the canal. In June 2013, Millar was appointed a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to film and literature on the Queen's Honours Birthday list. Personal life. As of January 2015, Millar had three daughters: One aged 16 at the time, was from his  first marriage. He and his second wife, Lucy, who is from England, had two daughters together, aged three and ten months at the time. Political views. Speaking about his political views, Millar has described himself thus, "I regard myself as traditionally left of centre and progressive, a Eurosceptic in the Bennite mould, and the policies espoused by the coalition formed under the Yes umbrella are the closest to my own particular ideology." Before the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, Millar was cited as a supporter of Scottish independence by groups such as the National Collective, and made comments interpreted in support  of independence. However, in the run-up to the referendum, Millar stated that he was "genuinely undecided". In a January 2015 interview with "The Herald" he stated, "Originally I was Yes and then about six months before I started having doubts, and then I just went silent on it because I saw the country going mad. People who I love were falling out with each other." In 2020, Millar explained on Twitter that he is not a "tribalist" when it comes to Scottish independence, stating, "After the Blair era I was tempted for a year or two" regarding the matter , but questioned whether an independent Scotland could function economically. Millar supported British withdrawal from the European Union and endorsed a "Leave" vote during the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum.