As I slowly dip into more recent comics to pad out my endless list of must-buy classics, a few big names constantly crop up. Mark Millar is one of those names. In an attempt to both get into his stuff and try to somewhat get a handle on Marvel’s continuity so I could read Secret Invasion, I read Civil War, which I went on record as having liked it but not been wowed. Then I read the Superman Elseworlds tale Red Son, which is savagely brilliant. My interests finally piqued, I started picking up back issues of the titles he’s put out this year, which is no small task since the man apparently isn’t bothering to sleep or eat given the number of issues he’s written. Now that I’m finally caught up, let me try to explain why Mark Millar deserves every drop of praise he’s getting.

**spoilers and more after the break**

Fantastic Four #554-559

As a kid, there were three superheroes I never cared for: Captain America, Superman, and the Fantastic Four. Now, I’ve given Superman a chance thanks to Kingdom Come, Grant Morrison’s All-Star Superman, and the aforementioned Red Son. Meanwhile, Ed Brubaker has surely cemented himself as Captain America’s definitive writer. But the Fantastic Four still make me hesitant. As a kid, I only thought Sue and Johnny were any cool. Then I hit puberty and realized the full and awesome implications of Stretch Armstrong Mr. Fantastic’s powers (hint: they in no way involve fighting crime). Even then, I never found a very compelling story to seek out. But I’m coming around, thanks to Mark.

The first arc removes the monkey wrench placed in the Richards’ marriage in Civil War and replaces it with an even bigger wrench in the form of Reed’s ex-girlfriend Alyssa. She and her husband have made an alternate Earth because the planet will be uninhabitable in ten years due to global warming and pollution. Man, not even Gore was that alarmist. In this new world, weapons will be forbidden, a rule enforced by a giant robot cop that will crack down on violence with extreme prejudice. Shockingly, it goes wrong, because all these scientific geniuses were too busy to watch Robocop. From here on out it’s explosive fun complete with a stabilization of Sue and Reed’s relationship. Then Mark titled the new arc “Death of the Invisible Woman,” providing strong evidence that he is, in fact, an evil bastard. It’s already shaping up to be a doozy with the kidnapping of Doctor Doom and the planned resurrection of an old foe. I can’t wait to see how it ends.

“Old Man Logan”: Wolverine #66-68

The Dark Canadian Returns. Mark Millar was given the biggest badass in the Marvel Universe (and perhaps ever; only Batman really offers a challenge to the throne) and mixed him with good old Frank Miller grittiness. Taking place 50 years after a massive battle left his friends dead and the super-villains in control, Old Man Logan shows us a subdued and broken Wolverine, who cannot even pop his claws because of trauma. He lives in a part of California ruled by the descendants of  Bruce Banner, and owes the Hulks rent money. To pay it, he treks across the country with a now-blind Hawkeye (which is just hilarious if you think about it) to deliver a package. Along the way we discover that the country has been taken over by supervillains and split into warlord territories.

When they enter the Kingpin’s turf, they discover that Hawkeye’s daughter (and Spider-Man’s granddaughter) has taken up the Spider-Girl moniker and went off to kill the Kingpin and got caught. Logan and Hawkeye go to free her, and the results are shocking. I cannot wait to pick up the next episode and, hopefully, see Logan get down and dirty once more. This might just be the comic book event of the year, to hell with Final Crisis and Secret Invasion.

Marvel 1985 #1-4

A fantastic What If? tale, 1985 is a sort of real-world crossover, in which all the major villains of the Marvel Universe find a portal out of comic books and into our reality. In a world without superheroes, these villains can easily subjugate the population, and it’s up to one comic book geek to stop them. Taking out the comic strip baddies, you’re not left with a lot of characters, but the intrigue and mystery Millar pours into the boy, his father Jerry, and Jerry’s catatonic childhood friend are a thrill, and though, Millar has started to explain how all this happened and what makes his small cast of characters so important, there’s still some big gaps left to fill, and I’m on the edge of my seat to see how it all gets sorted.

Kick-Ass #1-4

What if someone became a superhero not because of a freak accident, being born special (or alien), or a great trauma, but rather out of boredom and a sense of isolation? That’s the question Mark Millar asks in his new series Kick-Ass. Dave Lizewski is your average high schooler; not a jock, not a brain, just kind of there (put it this way: a sizable portion of today’s youth can identify with him). His mom died of an aneurysm a few years ago and he and his father get by as best they can without her. One day he gets a hair up his ass and decides to buy a wet suit and a ski mask and take to the streets to fight crime. Almost immediately he gets the shit kicked out of him and winds up naked in the street until he’s taken to a hospital.

Of course, he opened the can of worms, so as soon as he’s recuperated he puts the suit back on and, this time, manages to stop some thugs from beating a man. Within hours a video of the masked teen hits YouTube, and Dave dubs himself Kick-Ass and enjoys all the fame he technically doesn’t have. This makes him cocky, and he gets in over his head on his first mission. Enter a 10-year old girl with a katana and a potty mouth, who saves our hero with a few gory swipes. Suddenly Dave’s not the only “hero” on the block, and he’s woefully outclassed by the ninja tween iteration of Rosemary’s Baby and her chainsaw-toting guardian (which calls to mind the drill handed Big Daddies from the Randian video game Bioshock).

Kick-Ass is a hilarious take on Stan Lee’s pioneering superhero pathos, and you’ll be hard-pressed not to find something at least darkly funny on nearly every page. It really feels like you or one of your buddies put on a costume to grow some confidence, and the conversations between Dave and his geek friends uncomfortably mirror my own (though my friends and I are all in agreement that Galactus as dust cloud is ridiculous). And for the love of God, someone get John Romita, Jr. a zombie comic, and not Marvel Zombies either, something that doesn’t suck. His hilariously graphic drawings add a whole new level to the mix, to the point that watching a man’s head be cut in half or a stomach ripped open is elevated to brilliant absurdist humor. Millar’s already said the comic has grown from a planned one-off mini to a longer series, and I hope the wall-to-wall entertainment and perverse tribute to the motivations of many of Marvel’s heroes never stops.

War Heroes #1

I didn’t think he could top Old Man Logan, and I certainly didn’t think he’d do it in the same year, but Mark Millar may just have outdone himself with this brilliant mixture of political relevance and good old superhero antics. In it, he posits an America that has been the victim of multiple terrorist attacks, one that finally invades Iran and suffers from an even worse economy than we have now. Even though these attacks always spark surges in enlistment, Americans have finally reached their breaking point and refuse to fight. The government’s solution? Offer super powers to anyone who enlists.

The first of a planned six issues is mainly told through the viewpoint of Jay, a war hero sent home just long enough to be decorated, and his brother Calvin, who is about to enlist. Millar deftly uses the older brother to point out the sham in his service; Jay loves the respect he gets, the fact that women can’t keep off of him, and those little pills that make him a god, but seemingly couldn’t care less about his sense of patriotism or duty. Now, I’m not saying (nor am I suggesting Millar is saying) that soldiers aren’t patriotic, but it’s an interesting allusion to the current benefits promised (though not always delivered) of enlisting in order to bolster sagging numbers of new recruits.

While I feel silly pouring such magnanimous praise on just the first issue, but if this comic delivers even half of its incredible potential I believe it could be a perfect companion piece to that other great political/superhero comic (and artist Tony Harris’ day job), Ex Machina. If you’re at all familiar with that series or of my slavish, fanboy obsession with Brian K. Vaughan, you appreciate how much that praise means. In fact, I an see a lot of Vaughan in the writing of this, what with all the magnificent and genuinely surprising reveals and the quick establishment of a misleading plot with a slow germination of the real, likely darker and more personal story. It’s so good it makes me sad that there are only five more issues. Here’s hoping there are no more delays.

So there you have it: five great runs all running around the same time. Apparently this is the Year of the Scot, and we should be grateful. Millar has an innate ability to craft some dark and thought-provoking stuff, but it’s just so much fun. It’s rare that comics find that balance; I find Vaughan’s material to be immensely readable, but I don’t think I could call Ex Machina or Y: The Last Man fun in the traditional sense. Something like World War Hulk is a marvelous sideshow, but offers no real substance to make it worth pouring oneself into. Mark found the happy medium. He’s got a clear love for his profession, and gives off that kind of geek-cool vibe that people like Kevin Smith exude, the kind of vibe that suggests that he’s always thankful for the job he has and doesn’t put up a wall between himself and his fans.

Any one of these titles could probably earn him an Eisner nom for Best Writer (maybe not 1985, since that’s just pure zany fun), but combined they make him a force to be reckoned with. They’re thoughtful without being pushy, hilarious without letting the jokes get old (I’m looking at you Spider-Man), simple while offering a surprising amount of depth, and, most of all, a complete joy to read. Mark Millar has entered that fledgling pantheon of writers who I will buy based on name alone. Considering that pantheon is made up of Alan Moore, Frank Miller, Ed Brubaker, Joss Whedon, and Brian K. Vaughan, I’d say he’s in good company.