I’ll say this much: Mark Millar has his formula down pat.
Written by Mark Millar
Illustrated by Duncan FegredoThe all-new Millarworld Universe kicks into high gear with the launch of Millar and Fegredo’s fast and furious miniseries. When a group of hard-luck teens in Motor City stumble upon a street drug called MPH, they gain the power of super speed. Will they use it to save the world? Hell no! Not when there’s dolla, dolla bills to be had, y’all. A high-octane urban adventure, MPH brings you super speed like you’ve never seen before! This launch features a variant cover by Jock, a blank cover variant, and a special series of linked cover variants by Fegredo showcasing the book’s cast.
For better or worse, Mark Millar is the master of superhero meets “reality” what-if comic book ideas. I’ll bet he’s got a rolodex filled with pitches for comics that will almost immediately be films. He’s already used “What if Batman were a villainous terrorist?” and “What if Captain Marvel were real?” and now he’s moved on to The Flash.
“MPH” opens on the very first known user of the MPH drug, the unexpected consequences of having superhuman speed, and not knowing how to control it. Mark Millar does scenes like these so routinely that it’s become too easy for him. What would happen if real life and real physics applied to someone given an incredible power? Well, the same thing that happens every time: property gets wrecked, people get hurt, and some very important people take notice. This is imagery that Mark Millar has been evoking for years and years, even going back to his time working on Ultimate Marvel Comics.
“MPH” does benefit from having a somewhat sympathetic and even likable protagonist in Roscoe. Yes, he’s intimately involved with drug peddlers, but he lives in the dilapidated city of Detroit and doesn’t come from a great background to begin with. He’s doing what he does to get by, and though he has much higher goals than just getting himself into a livable situation (he keeps a “vision board” – a metaphorical snake oil tactic for success sold to him by his druglord boss) you get the sense that he wants to be a noble person in the end and create a legitimate life for he and his girlfriend. But he’s naive too, which is why it’s easy to have empathy for his current predicament. Millar may be retreading similar ground with the story, but he’s managed to create a character that is both an everyman and wrapped up in something that’s highly illegal.
But once the MPH drug comes back into play, the comic itself becomes all too familiar again. When you take the drug, the world seems to stop around you. In reality, you are much faster than everything and everyone else. Whether the comic is set in something resembling the real world, or Central City, this isn’t a groundbreaking depiction of the power. Yet, it feels as if Millar wants it to be one. At the end of the day, it’s a well-worn trope.
A trope that’s beautifully drawn by Duncan Fegredo, which is certainly worth something. Mark Millar comics are known for their easily pitch-able concepts. For some reason, they don’t seem to get as much credit – except in the comics press – for always having some of the best artists in the medium to their names. Duncan Fegredo is certainly that, the most recent evidence being his work on “Hellboy: The Midnight Circus” – an original hardcover graphic novel that was all over year-end lists in 2013.
His detailed and realistic depictions of a world meant to resemble our own are exactly what Millar’s books need if they’re going to hit the conceit they’re going for. The cross-country trek of the original MPH user takes us through a lush rural environment and into a deserted industrial area, all at super speed. The whirring, destructive rampage is a fit for Millarworld, right alongside Leinil Yu and Bryan Hitch, which was completely unexpected from the same brilliant artist that crafted the creepy and otherworldly Mignolaverse. Peter Doherty’s colors work nicely in concert with Fegredo to depict a lush and colorful outside world and contrast it with the drab interiors of the world Roscoe now inhabits.
Continued belowThere’s not a moment where the art is less than stellar. Even routine conversations are filled with a feeling of life and activity, with plenty going on around everyone to fill the pages with bustling atmosphere. Fegredo’s art has a cinematic and grandiose quality, which really makes the rote slowdown sequences into something greater.
Duncan Fegredo’s art is not to be missed, whatever it is he’s working on. That said, Mark Millar is traditionally a stronger opener than he is a finisher. With that in mind, “MPH” is a surprisingly ordinary affair, with a bare minimum attempt to link the superhuman with the reality and not much aside from it. The cast is interesting, the central character is appealing in some ways, but “MPH” #1 survives almost entirely on Mark Millar’s formula for a pitch and not much more beneath the surface.
Final Verdict: 6.7 – Browse
