Posted in: Batman, Comics, DC Comics, Justice League, Marvel Comics, Movies, Superman | Tagged: captain america, flash, green lantern, Mark Millar, millarworld, public domain, wonder woman
Mark Millar Has An Artist And Timeframe To Do Superman, Batman & More
Mark Millar has paid an artist and has a timeframe for Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Captain America films and comics
Article Summary
- Mark Millar says he plans to make Superman films and comics himself once the character enters the public domain.
- Millar revealed a 2031 start, with a 10-issue Superman project leading into Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash and more.
- He says he already paid a deposit to lock in an artist for Superman, with a three-year schedule to complete the book.
- Millar also teased a larger plan linking Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, Captain America and other public-domain heroes.
Comic book writer Mark Millar made his first appearance at a British comic con in decades at High Vis Comic Con in Kings Heath last month, where former Bleeding Cool contributor Olly MacNamee was on hand to interview the man. In a church. And they revisited a topic Mark Millar has discussed before. Writing Superman, being asked by DC Comics to write Superman, but then deciding to wait until Superman is in the public domain and doing it all himself. And it seems more besides. He already has an artist on a deposit and a schedule that runs from a 2031 start through a run of public-domain heroes into the late 2030s. Which will mean Batman, Robin, The Joker, Wonder Woman, Captain America, The Golden Age Flash, The Golden Age Green Lantern and more. But those are the big ones.
Mark Millar recalled the origins of this plan. “I had this idea a few years back, I was swimming in Oman, right? I was out in Oman and I was out in the sea and I was swimming, and you know swimming is quite boring, so you start thinking about other things, and I was swimming quite a distance and I was actually just thinking about, as I do, thinking about Batman or something like that, and while I was swimming I had this idea for a Superman story. And sometimes this happens, right, which is to the two writers in the room, you’ll know this, but sometimes the idea comes to you fully formed. The whole thing’s there, the beginning, the middle and the end, the twists, everything, it’s all there. And I was like, “Oh my God”, and I climbed into the boat and started writing it down with wet hands, and I wrote the whole thing down for fun. I haven’t really come up with a Superman story in years. And I just said on Twitter when I was in Oman, I said, I just had this really interesting idea for a Superman story.”
The tweet, he said, did what tweets about Superman tend to do. “You know, I was curious to gauge a wee bit of interest, but it went nuts, and DC got in touch within an hour. It was crazy. And they said, if you want to write the story, write the story. And I was like, you know, I might. And, like, I could get a little carve-out of the time I’m doing other things. But then somebody said to me, you know, it’s all public domain in like seven years, and I was like, really? So I don’t have to do the DC version. I could actually make a movie of it myself. So I could do my own Superman film, do my own Superman comic, work with my pals, no interference and all that, and just do it. So I said to DC, look, I don’t mean to be horrible, but I’m going to just wait seven years, and I’ll do it myself.”
Mark Millar then laid out a timetable that is already written down, not just a convention boast. Superman first, as one book rather than an open-ended run, then the rest of the early superhero shelf as each copyright expires. “I’ve got my plan is in 2034. So I’m going to start working on these in 2031. I’ve genuinely got a schedule for the next 16 years, right? So I’ve got my schedule for the next 16 years. So, in 2031, I’m going to start doing Superman, and then the artist has three years to draw it. The artist I want will take that long, right? So it’s going to just be one big book. I’m not doing runs. It’ll be one big 10-issue Superman thing. And then I’ll do Batman the following year. And so those characters, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, all come into the public domain, and Captain America, so I’ve got a wee idea for something that pulls it all together, and that’ll take me through 2034 through 2039.”
On the artist, Mark Millar said money had already changed hands, though he would not name them. “I’ve got my Superman guy. I gave him a big chunk of money, actually, to put a deposit down about two years ago, 18 months ago, and I said, look, we need to do a contract. They can’t get out of it. It’s going to be good. You know, it’s going to work out. But the thing is, though, it’s so far away. Somebody brilliant could be just ten right now who’s going to draw one of these things. So you also can’t just make it the people you always work with. I mean, I look at comic book art every single day.”
This is not the first time Mark Millar has said he would rather wait than write Superman for DC. He posted a version of the plan in 2024, and I reported it then: a self-published Superman once the early stories leave copyright, with the usual warning attached. Copyright expiry on Action Comics #1, generally dated to 2034 in the United States, does not hand over the Superman trademark, the later costumes, the supporting cast as they developed, or anything DC still owns as a mark. A Mark Millar Superman comic or film in 2034 would have to stay within what has actually entered the public domain and couldn’t even be called Superman or any other owned trademark phrase, like The Man Of Steel or The Man Of Tomorrow, even when used in its publicity or official descriptions. He framed the wider moment the same way, telling the room that “all the intellectual properties that’ll be public domain soon” are part of why he thinks comics are in an up year, and that his own schedule is built around that window…
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