Yeah I agree with the above comment, I consider myself a Millar fan, he does big and bold just as good as the rest of them do. I wouldn't say that he's a ground breaking writer by any means and most of the time he needs to shut up but he writes entertaining stuff. I know that some fans have been turned off regarding what they perceive as his politics entering into his work i.e his first two Ultimate arcs but I tend to look past that and just read the stories. Old Man Logan turned out to be a little disappointing, an example of an awesome idea not being executed right maybe? I dunno I felt it slowed considerably in the second half.
I don't know from Old Man Logan, but the Ultimates series were the best things he ever did, in some measure because it
was interestingly political.* But its politics were deeply confused, and that's part of why I can't decide if it's brilliant or only entertaining.
What I can't figure out is how much of the political confusion was intentional. Because it is
deeply confused. Is America bad? Sure, that goes without saying. But at the same time, the Liberators were not only complete assholes, but pawns of Loki, who is playing a mere game. And Millar seemed to get off heavily on watching the Liberators get killed in the climax--especially Captain Arab, I mean Abdul al-Raman**, who can really only be termed a hero in the political context of the Ultimate universe--get his hands sliced off by the official good guys in the form of Captain America. Raman also had a stupid Darth Maul light saber. Come on, Mark Millar and possibly Bryan Hitch, that's prima facie lame.
So what are we supposed to take away from this? Everyone is a pawn in a war of Asgardians, but Odin will save us? That's entertaining, but not very relevant. I might be willing to accept a political theme of "every nation, and every citizen of every nation, is a dick," which at least is relevant, if not necessarily constructive.
*And in large measure because it was beautifully rendered by Bryan Hitch and Paul Neary, instead of the inexplicably popular Frank Quitely.
**This name literally translates as "Slave of The The Benevolent" (sic). Excellent work! Then again one need only look at my avatar to see how easy it is to fuck up a foreign language.
Edit: oh, what I did really really like was the Union--the EU superteam. It was nice to see the European nations metaphorically rendered as loyal (in a won't-let harm-come-to-it-sense) to America, instead of as part of the Liberators (which is what a reactionary American writer would have likely wrote). But this just renders it more politically confusing. What is the message? Europe is the only continent with non-stupid, non-evil people? America can only regain global hegemony by close cooperation with Europeans? We should never engage in military action, ever, because foreign superteams will destroy the Statue of Liberty and put it on Youtube and only Captain Britain can save us?
What? I still guess the only coherent message is, again, "everyone is a dick." This is actually probably the overarching theme in Millar's ouevre. : /
