Mark Millar, the comic book creator Hollywood can’t get enough of, is in the final throes of prepping to launch Empress, his latest creator-owned title that debuts in April.
The writer behind such hits as Kingsman: The Secret Service and Kick-Ass is returning to sci-fi territory with a tale that, despite its intergalactic setting, seems very much focused on family and parents. You know, kind of like another big sci-fi story you may have heard of.
“It’s interesting that this genre has tended to skew more Blade Runner and Alien, but Star Wars proves the market is so potentially enormous, especially given that those characters just came in and dwarfed the sales on all Marvel and DC’s top characters last year overnight,” says Millar, commenting on not just the record-breaking movie but on how the Star Wars comics took over sales on the publishing side as well.
Empress, which is illustrated by Stuart Immonen, will have a seven-page preview as part of issue three of Huck, Millar’s latest comic that is in the middle of its story and which hits stores Wednesday.
Huck is already set up for an adaptation at fledgling banner Studio 8 and don’t be surprised if Empress finds a Hollywood home soon, too.
The comic centers on the wife of a galactic dictator (think someone akin to Ming the Merciless from Flash Gordon) who makes the decision to take her three kids and leave her evil husband. With the aid of a bodyguard, she tries to take her brood — Aine, her 15-year-old daughter who wants to be with her father; Adam, her gentle soul of a 10-year-old son who she knows would not survive the trials ahead to be an elite ruler; and Puck, her 18-month-old — to her home world.
