Team Superfriends|Fighting the good fight

Mark Millar and Steve McNiven–the team behind last year’s hit Old Man Logan and the writer of Marvel’s Civil War, Wanted and Kick-Ass, bring you their newest story. Nemesis is going to be one of the hottest comic book events of the new year and a bunch of people have been talking about it on the interwebs since they announced the series.

What follows is an interview with Millar and McNiven about the series. Warning: The following interview contains adult language.
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The two of you have developed quite a history working together, first with “Civil War” and then with your follow up, “Old Man Logan,” both massive hits for Marvel. I guess teaming up for “Nemesis” was a no-brainer?

Millar: I just love Steve. He’s amazing. After working with somebody this brilliant, it would be heart-breaking to work with somebody shit. I’m just spoiled now. I can’t stand seeing the brilliant artists I’ve worked with work with other guys. I’m like a psycho ex-girlfriend. The minute I come to the end of one project with Steve or Hitchy [Bryan Hitch] or John Romita Jr. or somebody, I’m just thinking of the next thing for them.

So Steve and I really had to do a third project together. We get along well, even though he’s a prick and Canadian, and we work really well together too. We’ve only done two comics together before – “Civil War” and “Old Man Logan” – and both, like you said, were massive books. So the logical next step was a creator-owned project that shatters all records. We made Marvel a lot of money with these first two projects, and we feel we paid our dues and we had fun writing and drawing almost all of the characters that we’d ever want to do. But now we want to create something, and we want it to be bigger than “Kick-Ass.” “Kick-Ass” went through five printings each [issue] and has sold something like 115,000 [copies] an issue. But we want to beat that. “Nemesis,” we hope, is the next big thing. We’re very excited and think we have something quite unique here.

So when Mark called, Steve, you were ready to go?

McNiven: Yes, definitely. Mark is fun to work with. He writes stuff that’s fun to draw, and that’s great when you’re not pulling out your hair. And he makes me lots of money, too [laughs].

There’s nothing wrong with that.

Millar: What? I’m in it for the craft, baby. Jesus, you make me feel like Jodie Foster in “Taxi Driver.” I didn’t realize I’m just your wee cash cow [laughs]. Steve’s Harvey Keitel and I’m Jodie Foster. [Laughs] I thought he loved me, but now I see it’s just about the cash.

OK. Before, we jump into this, let’s put the rumors to rest. “Nemesis” is not an Avengers project, or an X-Men project, or a Marvelman project. It’s not even set in the Marvel Universe. It’s another world that you’ve created.

Millar: Absolutely. It’s a Marvel book, technically, in the sense that it’s published by Marvel, but like “Kick-Ass,” it comes out via Icon, and that means me and Steve own all the rights just like Johnny and I own the rights to “Kick-Ass.” It’s a sweet deal.

McNiven: It’s great for Marvel to have an imprint there for us. It’s really a great place to do this kind of thing. Just looking at how well “Kick-Ass” has done. It really gets your hope up.

When we first emailed back and forth about this project, Mark, you teased me with the tagline your friend suggested: “What if Batman was The Joker?’ I guess the answer to that is you’d have “Nemesis.” What was the genesis of this project?

Millar: Yeah, a lot of people who’ve read it have been coming up with hilarious tag-lines. “What if Batman was The Joker?” is the tame one. “What if Batman was a total cunt?” is maybe my favourite, although it’s hardly going to be an ad. Marvel President Dan Buckley sort of paid me a compliment, saying, “This is such a stupidly simple and obvious idea. I can’t believe nobody’s ever come up with it before. You are the master of the stupidly simple idea.” Which I suppose is kind of flattering because everyone said that about “Kick-Ass” too. It’s almost too simple.

But, yeah. “Nemesis” is a reversal of the Bruce Wayne or Tony Stark archetype. What if this genius billionaire was just this total shit, and the only thing that stood between him and a city was the cops? It’s Batman versus Commissioner Gordon, in a weird way. Or maybe a super-villain version of “Se7en.” A billionaire anarchist up against ordinary people. The Joker’s the best thing in the Batman movies, so this guy is a bit of an amalgamation of all the stuff we like.

McNiven: And we didn’t want to do a little creator-owned book. We wanted to do something that shoots for the Top 10 and competes with “X-Men” or “The Avengers.” We want this to be as big as it possibly can be. We’re aiming directly at the mainstream, too, and have already set up some corporate backing you’ve never seen in comics before, and international press. Mark has been working overtime on this one.

Millar: I’m a great believer in creator-owned books not being small. I think probably growing up in nineties’ comics did that, seeing things like “Spawn” and “WildCats” that did really well. I just love the idea of creator-owned books outselling Marvel and DC even.

So the idea that you do your Marvel and DC stuff with big sales and then you do your little creator-owned work on your own, I’ve never been a fan of that. I’ve been really lucky that “Wanted” and “Kick-Ass” have all sold hugely. So with this, I just wanted to do the biggest one of the lot. “Kick-Ass” beat “Wanted” as the biggest creator-owned of the decade, and we’re hoping this beats “Kick-Ass.”

McNiven: Aim high, buddy.

Millar: I don’t see why it shouldn’t. Steve is the biggest-selling artist in comics. If you add up all his sales and divide it by the number of books he’s done, he’s the biggest selling artist by a mile. At the moment, he’s the biggest and best of this generation.

Steve, you need to hire Mark as your agent.

McNiven: I know. That’s why I work with him.

Millar: It’s totally true. There are guys who sell well, and then there’s Steve. It’s just a different league. So the idea of getting Steve to go from “Civil War” to “Old Man Logan” to this big, new creator-owned thing to me feels just like Todd MacFarlane going from “Spider-Man” to “Spawn.” So I wasn’t going to give him a little slice of life thing about what it’s like to be a gay Muslim living in Arkansas or something like that [laughs]. It wasn’t going to be that kind of creator-owned. It had to be huge.

Nemesis is the world’s smartest man, and the bad news for us is that he’s the world’s only super-villain. That means he’s got freeze guns and jump-jets and all these James Bond gadgets and he’s using them against us. To entertain himself, he picks a different cop every year and makes his life a misery. The book opens with him fucking over Japan’s top cop, and then our story, the mini-series, takes place as he shifts his attention to Washington and his first American attacks. The visuals we’ve released here are just single panels from the Japanese segment. It’s the best stuff I’ve ever seen Steve do.

Do we get to see Nemesis in the Bruce Wayne role – the billionaire playboy, out and about town?

Millar: I wanted it to be a kind of mystery. I liked the idea of having “who is this guy?’ as a plot thread running through it. Why does he keep going after these cops and flying and training all around the world to end up in America to take on this one guy? So we find out a little more about him every issue.

McNiven: It’s a clever idea to switch it around so you don’t have the origin at the beginning, as opposed to Batman where you get it right at the beginning. I think this makes it a little more of a compelling story.

Millar: It’s the reverse superhero concept. A superhero story normally has a linear fashion. You see how he becomes that guy, and then you see him in action. But here, we’ve done the reverse. The origin comes at the end of the story. But he’s the Hannibal Lecter of supervillains in that sense. All the cops are needed to go up against a guy as formidable as this. He’s almost supernatural, he’s so good. But he happens to just be in a costume. Hopefully nobody’s ever seen anything like it before. We’re so used to supervillains fighting superheroes, I just thought, “Imagine if there was only one person on the planet like this, and he was actually a bad guy.” How would cops deal with him, even though he has no super-powers?

Let’s talk about the main cop, the Commissioner Gordon to Nemesis’ Batman/Joker. What can you tell us about him?

Millar: Very simply, I wanted to do a book about the world’s greatest villain up against America’s greatest cop. I just liked the high concept of that – the idea of a villain going around from country to country and having a battle of wits with the best guy that he can get his hands on. And he sends them a little funeral wreath with the date and time of when they’re going to die on it, every one dying at precisely that time. All these cops in the Pacific Rim are dead, and then we come in at the American side of the story and see the struggle of this guy in just trying to stop him.

McNiven: Tell him about the charity auction.

Millar: Ah, good point. Another thing that I should mention is the two lead characters – the secret identity of Nemesis and also the cop – haven’t been named yet. At the moment, I’ve written the scripts just with kind of placeholder names, but I wanted to do is what I did with “Kick Ass,” which was have a charity auction for the kids at a handicapped school where my brother Bobby works. Doctor Bob works at this amazing place and he’s trying to raise money to send the kids on another special trip. “Kick-Ass” raised a few grand for them, and now Dave Lizewski is a movie star name. There are two names up for grabs on “Nemesis,” and we’ll get details of this auction on CBR in the New Year.

Steve, can you speak about the look of Nemesis and the cop?

McNiven: Mark and I have been talking about it quite a bit. We want to make the guys good looking. They’re not ugly mugs. And they’re relatively young, as well. Even though Mark said this cop is Clint Eastwood-level good, it’s like young Clint Eastwood, not “Gran Torino” Clint Eastwood. Not that there is anything wrong with that. We get great mileage out of the old guys. The visual is to try and keep them very clean and very elegant and not go with giant belts and big shoulder pads and pouches everywhere and that sort of stuff. We’ve tried to streamline them and give them more of an iconic look. 

We’re just talking about the different outfits right now. But Nemesis, being the central figure, we really worked hard on his design.

I started with more of a Midnighter type of look, but we wanted to work with a white costume, something that really stands out in the shadows. Very much the antithesis of a Batman costume with the cape, as well. But in working out that initial design, we realized it was a little too bulky, too much armor. We wanted something smoother and simpler, and so we really distilled it down to something that’s almost the bare essence of a costume.

A lot of the impact of the costume is going to be more in the acting of the character, as opposed to some costumes where you have giant shoulder pads and huge guns and all that stuff, and it takes the place of any particular acting on the character. This one is stripped down, and we’re trying to let the character of Nemesis come through.

Millar: Almost the way Batman was a good guy dressed in black, we’ve reversed that to the bad guy dressed in white. It just seemed obvious to me. And there are so few characters out there wearing white, it’s actually an unusual look in comics. There are loads of red and loads of blue and loads of black. We wanted a guy that’s very, very visually distinctive. When Steve sent through the first drawings, I had never really seen anything like that before. He looked quite beautiful for a bad guy. It almost looked like a costume made of moonlight, just because it was this shining light material. It’s visually quite stark, but it also looks like something people could wear in the real world. Again, this is set in our world. It’s not a superhero universe.

Mark, you’re no stranger to having your projects being picked up as movie properties. Have you already had those talks about “Nemesis”?

Millar: We actually got a call a few weeks ago when the teaser poster went up on CBR. We were pretty crafty about this in terms of how we marketed this. We had a poster out that said, “‘Civil War,’ ‘Old Man Logan,’ ‘Nemesis,’” and teased it as a potential big event for Marvel. The number of people talking about it and guessing was just insane, which we loved.

And Marvel was very good about it, not contradicting us. But what was funny was that I got a call from my agent that night – and it was funny because all we did was release a date and a title and no information. And my agent called and said two producers had been in touch saying, “We’re really big fans of this book that Mark and Steve are doing. We really like it.” Are the rights available?” [laughs].

McNiven: That, my friend, is the definition of Hollywood insincere.

Millar: I know [laughs]. I couldn’t believe it. But it made me realize how lucky I was my first picture making $350 million and getting Angelina [Jolie] in it. It made me realize how lucky I was getting [Matthew] Vaughn on “Kick-Ass” and the buzz around town being through the roof and “American Jesus” and “War Heroes” and all that getting picked up so quickly. I remember what it was like, literally being unable to pay my bills nine years ago, so to have this level of interest when I couldn’t sell a book not very long ago is just amazing.

McNiven: Sniff. I’m so touched I think I’m going to cry.

Millar: So, yeah, if a movie happens, great. If a bed-spread and lunch-box happens, great. But we’re really just focusing on the comic. Anything else is gravy and shouldn’t be taken too seriously.

McNiven: Making comics is a real job.

Millar: Exactly. Movie guys are pussies.

Millar, McNiven, “Nemesis,” March 2010. Gentlemen, thanks so much for for your time.

McNiven: Can’t talk. I’m still finishing a page.
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It’s pretty clear that this is going to be one of the hottest new titles of the new year. To celebrate the debut of this exciting new book, we’re giving away 10 Free Subscriptions to Nemesis. Everyone who preorders Nemesis #1 before March 1st will be entered into our Nemesis Contest for each one they order.

*Be sure to come on back to TFAW.com in February to order Nemesis #2 for an additional entry!

New Reviews of This Week’s Releases!

Merry Christmas! It’s Christmas Eve-Eve, but even more importantly, it’s Wednesday! This week, Josh and I cover Detective Comics #860, Chew #7, Criminal: Sinners #3, Angel: Only Human #5, Angel Annual #1, Farscape: Gone and Back HC, and the Marvel Rogue Bishoujo statue. Jingle bells, jingle bells . . .

CHECK OUT THIS WEEK’S ARRIVALS

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL

Questions? Comments? Post them below!

HOLY CRAP! I can’t (expletive deleted) wait! I gotta admit, I had some reservations early on, but they’ve all been wiped away. May 7, 2010, here we come!

Check out the trailer at Apple

Just in time for the holidays! We’re excited to introduce computer keyboards and mice featuring your favorite Marvel characters! Our Keyscaper keyboards and mice will add some flair to your desk and sufficiently solidify your geek cred.

The keyboards are available in wired and wireless versions and the mice are wireless to boot! All are PC and Mac compatible and feature a super simple plug and play connection.

One of the most exciting things about these products is that they’ll be in stock on December 16th! So if you’ve been looking for the perfect holiday gift for the comic book fan in your life, look no further.

Just in case that’s not geeky enough for you, we’ve also got two styles for the Star Trek fan at TFAW.com.

These keyboards and mice will go pretty quickly, so you’ll want to get your pre-order in soon to ensure you get your choice of these great products.

What do you think of these products? Got any questions about them? Go ahead and let us know below.

We saw these new posters for the 2010 film adaptation of Mark Millar’s Kick-Ass and had to pass them along to you, humble reader.

The movie stars Nicolas Cage (Ghost Rider), Christopher Mintz-Plasse (McLovin from Superbad), and newcomer Aaron Johnson in the titular role. Though the movie is still more than five months away (April 16, 2010), buzz is starting to generate for the film.

If you want to give the comic a go, get your order in for Kick-Ass #8, as it promises to . . . well . . . kick ass.

I’ve been waiting MONTHS for this. First Marvel and crew start off an amazing story, then the Wolverine movie and Dark Wolverine bump the dates for the final few issues of the arc for months. I’m excited to say that we’ve finally got the Wolverine Old Man Logan hardcovers now in stock!

Mark Millar and Steve McNiven bring us one of the most exciting Wolverine stories ever! The bad guys won. They banded together and the heroes fell and the villains have been calling the shots ever since. What happened to Wolverine is perhaps the biggest mystery of all.

For 50 years, no one has heard hide nor hair from him, and in his place stands an old man called Logan. A man concerned only about his family. A man pushed to the brink by the Hulk Gang. A man forced to help an old friend–the blind archer, Hawkeye–to drive 3,000 miles to secure his family’s safety.

Get ready for the ride of your life, Logan!

If you only pick up one Wolverine graphic novel this October/November, make it Old Man Logan.

Have you been reading the single issues as they’ve come out? Are you as stoked to sit down with this book and read it from start to finish as I am? Let us know below.

Via Marvel
As the buzz surrounding the upcoming Iron Man 2 film heats up, the House of Ideas preps an exciting new limited series to usher the brand-new Whiplash – one of the film’s villains – into the Marvel Universe.

“The story begins with what appears to be Iron Man attacking a small village in Russia,” says co-writer Marc Guggenheim of Iron Man vs. Whiplash #1, out November 4. “He wipes out women and children. The whole town, basically, including the father of our eventual antagonist, inventor Anton Vanko.”

“Vanko counter-attacks and damages some of the armor, which he eventually fashions into his own set of weaponry which he hopes to use to enact payback. Meanwhile, Tony Stark is prosecuted by the International Criminal Court.”

The ICC prosecutes despots and war criminals, guaranteeing a story set on a large global scale. And in-continuity. Guggenheim also assures readers that Stark’s plate quickly fills up with a bit more than he can chew, thanks to the series’ far-ranging view.

“Tony is in Montana on the job when he’s arrested by none other than the Crimson Dynamo and the Red Guardian, who are sent on a bilateral mission to arrest Iron Man for the attack on the Russian village,” he says.

Iron Man fans will remember the original Whiplash, one of Iron Man’s very first foes from his early days as a super hero. Iron Man vs. Whiplash introduces a very different man who wears the name – and who poses a very particular, very personal threat to everyone’s favorite billionaire industrialist.

“Anton has no connection to the previous Whiplash,” Guggenheim explains. “Eagle-eyed readers might wonder if he has a familial connection to Ivan Vanko, the original Crimson Dynamo, but that’s really a story for another time.”

“As for the threat he poses to Tony…he blames Tony for the death of his father and the destruction of his entire village, including his friends and neighbors. And he’s determined to use Tony’s own technology as the tools of his revenge.”

In terms of powers and abilities, the new Whiplash represents a man who learns from his enemies and possibly even improves on their own weapons.

“What makes this version of Whiplash especially deadly is the fact that his technology comes from Tony Stark’s Iron Man tech,” says Guggenheim. “So it’s an even match, power for power, strength for strength. But Vanko is motivated by vengeance and that’s the added element, the x-factor – can I say that in a non-mutant book? – that gives him an edge over Tony.”

Tony Stark and Anton Vanko aside, one of the greatest participants in Iron Man vs. Whiplash might very well be Guggenhiem’s co-writer on the series – producer Brannon Braga, of “24″ fame.

“Brannon brings an incredible mind for all things action and sci-fi – as his work on ‘24′ and the ‘Star Trek’ franchise demonstrates,” he notes. “Honestly, for me, it’s like working with a legend. We have a really easy-going style, just batting ideas around back and forth.”

“And I have to say, he’s picked up the art of comic book writing a million times faster than anyone has a right to. It’s truly frightening to watch how he’s absorbed the form like a sponge. It’s humbling, actually. The guy is just that smart.”

You can check out all the action this November in Iron Man vs. Whiplash #1 – neck braces optional!
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The first two issues of the Iron Man vs. Whiplash mini series are available for pre-order and will be the perfect way to get you psyched up for Iron Man 2 in theatres May 7, 2010.

With a name like that, it’s gotta be one of the featured books this month!

Haunt of Horror presents a collection of classic tales re-imagined by legendary horror artist Richard Corben.

First, it’s Edgar Allan Poe as you’ve never seen him before. Classic Poe stories and poems are transformed into weird and disturbing new comic-book fantasies, with the original Poe texts printed alongside the new tales as an added bonus. It’s a frightening new presentation of Poe-inspired murder, madness and monstrosities!

Then, Corben brings you a bold new interpretation full of eerie new spins on the poems and short stories of H.P. Lovecraft. Each adaptation is beautifully rendered in black and white with gray tones as only Corben can do it – along with a printing of the original source text by H.P. Lovecraft.

Not too shabby, right? Want more? How about picking it up for just $20? Done. Today only, and while supplies last, you can pick up a copy for $20 bucks.

Check out other cool horror stuff on our Horror Month page.

Religion has been a taboo in the comic book industry for decades. But with so much rich material stemming from so many religions, it was only a matter of time before pioneering artists paved the way for books we’re seeing today.

For some, these books are an affront to their sensibilities. Seeing Jesus battle zombies (Jesus Hates Zombies Lincoln Hates Werewolves) or reading a story that chronicles Earth’s apocalypse at the hands of a man-made godlike superhero (Warren Ellis’ new Supergod series) might not agree with some people.

For others, a mutant messiah makes sense in the wake of “House of M” (Cable) and the story of God sending angels to cleanse the world after losing faith in humanity (Legion, which is a precursor to the upcoming film) or a story about a post apocalyptic world where every last superhero suddenly disappears (Rapture) are not only intriguing, they’re downright impossible to pass up!

Cable

Legion: Prophets 4 Issue Miniseries

Rapture

It’s okay if these titles offend you. Everyone’s entitled to their own opinion. I for one, am very much intrigued by these upcoming offerings and have been enjoying Cable recently and have dug Rapture thus far.

So are you excited about these titles or do you abhor them? Have another religion inspired title I didn’t talk about in the article? Feel free to voice your opinion or comment below!

New Video Post: Exclusive Interview!

As we come to the end of our exclusive interview with Steve Lieber and Jeff Parker, they talk to us about Disney buying Marvel, Parker’s wish for an all-expenses-paid trip to Disneyland, and how Periscope Studios, an artist-writer collective in Portland, OR, fits into the comics landscape:

UNDERGROUND #2 NOW IN STOCK!

WATCH OUR ENTIRE STEVE LIEBER/JEFF PARKER INTERVIEW!

Questions? Comments? Post them below!