After Kingsman:The Secret Service, 5 Mark Millar Comics that Should Become Movies

This weekend, the tongue-in-cheek spy adventure Kingsman: The Secret Service releases, and will either prove Samuel L. Jackson is the best super-villain of all time, or make us wish even harder for that solo Nick Fury film. Also starring Colin Firth, Taron Egerton, Mark Strong, Mark Hamill (really!), Michael Caine, and Sofia Boutell, Kingsman tells the story of a young street punk’s recruitment into a James Bond-esque spy organization. Heavy on espionage-homage, Kingsman is also adapted from the Mark Millar comic series of the same name.
That’s something we’ve said a lot lately, what with the success of both Kick-Ass films and Wanted, both Millar originals, plus his Civil War series poised the Marvel Cinematic Universe with the third Captain America film. It’s obvious Millar’s innovative brand of storytelling is ideally suited for mega-blockbuster movies, so we thought we’d provide a rundown of some other his other work that hasn’t made it to the screen (yet), but totally should.
Superior
This is the story of wheelchair-bound boy named Simon Pooni who, thanks to the intervention of a space monkey (sure), is transformed into his favorite superhero: Superior. It’s a meta-fictional tale that combines elements of the original Shazam! with Millar’s own unique twists. Because Superior features a superhero who is both “fictional” and “real,” there’s a chance it could turn out a little like Last Action Hero., which is either a big plus or a big minus, depending on who you ask. Either way, it is, in the end, a tenderhearted series, and much of the profits from it generated went directly to children’s charities. Director Matthew Vaughn holds the rights to the film adaptation, so it’s possible we could see it happen very, very soon.
Jupiter’s Legacy
Taking the notion of gritty, realistic superheroes one-step beyond Kick-Ass, this ongoing Millar-penned series features heroes with actual superpowers living in a hyper-cynical society. Scores of heroes compete for corporate sponsorship, while others hide their abilities to avoid world-wide registration. Commenting on both the commercialization of fictional superheroes, and speculating on what real ones would “really” be like, it is one of Millar’s most innovative works in years.
Ships in 1-2 days.
Old Man Logan
With Hugh Jackman seemingly stuck playing Wolverine for LIFE, at some point, this brilliant Millar series could be adapted into a thoughtful, less action-packed X-Men tale. Set in a future in which superheroes have vanished and Wolverine/Logan is hanging out on a farm, it’s a subtle character piece with a mystery at its core: Why did Wolverine go into hiding years ago, and why hasn’t he unsheathed his claws out in ages? A film adaptation would allow Jackman to channel both Wolverine and the forever-in-hiding Jean Valjean of Les Misérables.
Ships in 1-2 days.
Starlight
Mark Millar loves washed-up superheroes! In Starlight, we get to know a Buck Rogers/Flash Gordon type named Duke McQueen. Duke isn’t a little bit washed-up, he’s a lot washed-up. What happens to Flash Gordon after years and years of saving the universe? What happens when he’s living with the memory of his wife’s death and is (as the action movie cliché goes) getting “too old for this kind of stuff”? More touching than much of Millar’s work, Starlight is the next humanist big-screen science fiction epic waiting to happen. Who could play Duke? Why not Harrison Ford? It’s perfect. Starlight has already been optioned, and, as Paste pointed out, includes some of Millar’s most diverse and inclusive characters to-date.
Superman: Red Son
You’re not mis-reading that; it’s “Son,” not “Sun.” Yes, we know Krypton orbited a red sun, not of our yellow one, which gives Supe his powers. But what gave him his politics? In this alternate universe story, Millar imagines a version of Kal-el crash-landed in the communist Soviet Union. Probably not something the majority of American audiences would clamor to see, it would nonetheless be awesome even to glimpse it as an Elseworld within the forthcoming Justice League movies. Plus, how cool would it be if Tom Welling or Brandon Routh returned to play the Soviet Superman?
Which Mark Millar series would you like to see onscreen next?






