Having the top-selling book of 2006 obviously doesn’t help with people’s taste, as Mark Millar demonstrates at Millarworld, in a thread called “Millar gets preview of Rob [Liefeld]‘s Onslaught art“:
[T]his is some of my favourite superhero art ever. It’s everything a Marvel superhero comic is supposed to look like. I love my realistic heroes and my quiet naturalism as much as the next guy, but kids just go NUTS for this stuff and I can’t wait to show my nephews these new pages at the weekend. Amazing stuff, Rob. Thanks for the preview. The shot of Thor blasting Hulk with a lightning bolt just may be my favourite Rob page ever.
If the Marvel and DC Adventures books looked like this kids would be stabbing each other in the playground for them.
10/10 as this stuff just DRIPS excitement.
Now, do we really want kids to be stabbing each other for comics? Just ask yourself that as Mark continues:
Children have no interest in Batman or James Bond as a result of the latest movies, but adults are loving it. They’re heading into the same danger-zone comics went into post-80s… where everyone was writing for awards more than a mass market audience. I’ve been guilty of this myself, but am pleased that projects like Civil War appeals to kids as much as adults. The Millar/ Hitchy Project announced just three or four weeks from now will hopefully also have the same broad appeal.
I love me them adult books, but was sad to see not a single kid watching James Bond. This is one of the reasons I love Rob… he’s not only a great high concept guy, but has an energy superheroes have seen since Jack Kirby esq.
Okay, ignoring the “Rob Liefeld is the new Jack Kirby” thing – which, honestly, has something to it… maybe not a strong something, but something nonetheless – the real sign that Mark is overworked and needs a break comes from the idea that Civil War, of all books, appeals to kids as much as adults. “What is a ‘Superhuman Registration Act’, Daddy?” “Never mind, son. No-one really knows. Including Marvel.”
February 8th, 2007 at 9:28 am
I’ll hold to it forever that the best Millar comics I ever read was his Superman Adventures run.
And partly that’s because he had restraint, couldn’t just take the easy route, and had to come up with actual imaginative answers instead.
February 8th, 2007 at 9:51 am
Read very few of his Superman Adventures stuff, because I wasn’t a big fan of the character at the time…but there is definitely a bit of a stretch in saying CIVIL WAR is great for kids…but some kids will be OK with not realizing why everyone is fighting and just dig that heroes are fighting heroes.
February 8th, 2007 at 10:32 am
Art Brut!
February 8th, 2007 at 12:02 pm
Liefeld’s art has an energy superheroes have seen since Jack Kirby esq.?
Wow, if that’s true, I guess that sums up why superhero books have sucked so much in the last 20-30 years.
February 8th, 2007 at 2:08 pm
Things I always wanted to see in comics when I was a kid that Millar gave me with Civil War:
The Human Torch getting beaten into a coma by an angry mob.
Spider-Man getting beaten into a coma by Jack-o-Lantern untill the Punisher shattered his skull with a bullet.
A wife telling her husband that she made love to him one last time before she left for his HEALTH.
Incest jokes.
A supervillain exploding near a playground full of children.
And a giant black man getting his chest blown out by a cryborg clone of a norse god.
Oh yeah. Mark Millar knows what children want. That’s why no comic has made me want to vomit more than Ultimates 2. I hope his new project with Hitch has something as kid friendly as a guy killing a room full of people by throwing his FINGERNAILS at them.
February 8th, 2007 at 2:08 pm
Tim beat me to it!
February 8th, 2007 at 4:38 pm
Kids don’t like Batman Begins? My 10 year old nephew loved it.
February 8th, 2007 at 11:12 pm
I had *NO* idea Krohn’s Disease made you retarded.
February 9th, 2007 at 7:27 am
“Things I always wanted to see in comics when I was a kid that Millar gave me with Civil War:
The Human Torch getting beaten into a coma by an angry mob.
Spider-Man getting beaten into a coma by Jack-o-Lantern untill the Punisher shattered his skull with a bullet.
A wife telling her husband that she made love to him one last time before she left for his HEALTH.
Incest jokes.
A supervillain exploding near a playground full of children.
And a giant black man getting his chest blown out by a cryborg clone of a norse god.
Oh yeah. Mark Millar knows what children want. That’s why no comic has made me want to vomit more than Ultimates 2. I hope his new project with Hitch has something as kid friendly as a guy killing a room full of people by throwing his FINGERNAILS at them.”
All stuff I would have adored as an 11-year old. My first comic was a Spider-Man book guest starring the Punisher featuring mobsters, designer drugs and a psycho villain. I worry about the mental health of an adult that squeamish. Kids eat this stuff up.
February 11th, 2007 at 8:02 am
Saw the black and white cover of ONSLAUGHT REBORN on the stuff-we-overstocked shelf of my LCS last week and I had to pick it up and stare. Simply awful. God damned awful. Dare I say… so bad it’s good? But not in the “good” sense of good.