The key to Marvel Studio's success has been the specific vision for their films, spearheaded by Kevin Feige. Warner Bros has tried to recreate that, first having Geoff Johns as their central guy and then attempting to spread Christopher Nolan's magic to The Man of Steel, but the jury is still out on that. Now Fox is bringing in a central creative consultant to oversee their Marvel movies, and it's Kick Ass creator Mark Millar.
I have no doubt that Mark Millar is a super great guy in real life, and I think that his earlier stuff is pretty good. But in recent years Millar has turned into a self-parody, a guy who is either making totally unfounded claims about upcoming comic book movies or is writing comic books that feel aimed only at anti-social 12 year olds. They're totally comics for people who believe every Batman movie should be hard R.
Having him as the central consultant on all of the Marvel films is an interesting choice. As a marketing move it makes sense - Millar's name is big in the comic book world, and Fox needs the credibility bump these days. But creatively? Millar will be overseeing the X-Men and Fantastic Four movies, and he has histories with both comics, or at least their Ultimate versions. Millar's Ultimate Fantastic Four is rancid (although I didn't mind the beginning of his Ultimate X-Men run) and to me, betrays an extraordinary disdain for Marvel's Silver Age greats. I know he would dispute that, but it's how it reads on this end.
The most interesting part of the release, for me, is this quote from Fox exec Emma Watts:
"[Blah blah blah ] we look for fresh opportunities to innovate within our shared Marvel universe.”
So is Fox going to cross over Fantastic Four and X-Men or Wolverine? It's not a natural fit, but it would make sense from a marketing standpoint.
About the Author: A ten year veteran of writing for the web, Devin has built a reputation as a loud, uncompromising and honest voice – sometimes to the chagrin of his readers, but usually to their delight.
