Bestselling comic book creator Mark Millar (Kingsman, Kick-Ass) is hard at work creating new, original properties for Netflix, but the live-action series aren’t getting in the way of comics when it comes to King of Spies. Equal parts James Bond and John Wick, audiences will be introduced to the character, the world, and the outrageously deadly skillset of protagonist Roland King when King of Spies #1 kicks off a four issue miniseries from Image Comics this December.

The premise is a simple one: an aging spy wonders if a life spent serving his country made things better, or kept them the same… only to learn he has months left to make things right. And to Roland King, ‘making things right’ means ‘killing the people who actually deserve it.’ Add in the work of artist Matteo Scalera–which Millar claims is his Space Bandits collaborator’s best to date–and King of Spies is a book no action, espionage, or comic fan will want to miss. Now, Millar is offering Screen Rant readers an exclusive preview of King of Spies #2, as Roland returns to his old habits of espionage, executions, and high-flying spycraft that would make The Man from UNCLE blush.

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Get all the details on how this seemingly grim series embraces the fun, how Scalera is poised to stun readers, and more from Millar in our preview below.

Screen Rant: You’ve gone on the record that King of Spies is some of the most fun you’ve had in storytelling, so it’s no coincidence that feeling is shared by Roland in the story itself. Are the reasons the same? One from the creative side, one much, much more violent (hopefully)?

Mark Millar: Haha. It’s funny you mention how fun this is because it’s about a guy dying of cancer. But there’s a weird JOY to it, isn’t there? The fact that he feels he’s wasted the last thirty years so the few months he has left he’s going to live to the full. I’m happily fit and healthy (though my family and I had COVID two weeks back – ugh!), but I think we can all slightly fantasize about that one last adventure. He’s doing what he never had the balls to do, but now he has nothing to lose. It was great fun drawing up a list of people I’D kill if I knew I had his skills and a limited time. Choosing which President to take down was a fun scene (laughs).

SR: When people hear ‘Mark Millar spy story,’ they will obviously think of Kingsman, but this is absolutely not cut from the same cloth. That said, did one spy story inform the other? Do you see them as possibly distant relatives, even if they aren’t necessarily ‘siblings’?

MM: You know the funny thing? I’d never actually thought about it until you brought it up as the story, when I created it as a Netflix show, had a slightly different original title and I changed it last year as it was too close to something else. But Kingsman and Roland King both being in spy stories is such an obvious link. I can’t believe I hadn’t thought about how they’ll both be stacked together on my shelves when I finally get around to alphabetizing them (as I’ve been meaning to do for ten years)!

SR: You worked with Matteo Scalera on Space Bandits, which really showcased the attitude of his artwork. But the energy in King of Spies is on another level. A character like Roland is capable of giving the action serious Dark Knight Returns vibes, but it seems like Matteo is ‘unleashing’ right along with him.

MM: I think all great artists have their transformative project. A book where they go from great to next level brilliant. I remember thinking that when Johnny Romita Jr was doing Man Without Fear with Frank Miller. It was Johnny times ten to me. I just fell in love with his art in a whole new way. Likewise, Bryan Hitch on Authority and Ultimates. He’d been around for a few years and was always hugely respected, but he became the industry’s number one artist overnight. Same with Miller himself. I remember as a kid watching him drawing Daredevil and then by the time he was doing things like Sin City and Elektra Lives Again nobody could get in the ring with him. I feel that way about Matteo. I’ve always loved him. Black Science was amazing. Space Bandits was a total joy for me. But this is where his reaches Artist Superstar status. He was racing against the clock as he and his partner were about to have a baby while he was drawing this and he wanted the book done first so there’s a weird urgency to the whole thing. Like Roland himself. The whole thing feels like it has a deadline. A race against time.

SR: Comic books and graphic novels being adapted to film or TV years later is something most people are familiar with by now, but your partnership with Netflix feels like a whole different playground. Not only is KING OF SPIES being ‘realized’ in two projects, you have two things I’m sure you can’t wait for people to actually see.

MM: Sometimes I stop and realize what a unique position I’m in. It’s crazy. We sold Millarworld to Netflix a few years back and, like Disney owning Marvel, all seventeen franchises owned lock, stock and barrel by the company and we’ve been quietly developing these (Supercrooks anime launched Nov 25th this year as we work away on the live action version at the moment). But my wife and I really got on with the Netflix guys when they bid for our company and rather than just hand it over we had a separate thing entirely where after buying the company they offered us jobs in-house as executives. So Lucy runs the business side of our Millarworld department, coordinating all the legal and marketing and grown-up stuff with our colleagues in other departments. I handle the creative, working with a brilliant team over TV and movies and listening to pitches from showrunners for our projects or directors we’re interested.

But sometimes it’s me creating something new in-house and working up a production bible with my treatment, artists fleshing out the characters for a show or a movie. And sometimes we do that as a comic too. I always try to do at least one volume of a comic just so there’s something tangible. Netflix love that I love comics so much and give me this amazing budget for the best artists to bring the comics to life. Olivier Coipel was brought in to draw Magic Order. Stuart Immonen is doing the second volume (out this week). Gigi Cavenago is hard at work on volume three. Matteo is doing King of Spies. I try to work with a different guy each time, but he’s so brilliant. I could work with him for the rest of my life. Everybody loves him in the office. I think this book is going to blow people away. Metaphorically, of course!

King of Spies #1 arrives in physical and digital comic book shops on December 1, 2021.

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Andrew Dyce
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Screen Rant Editor Andrew Dyce was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Despite calling the vast nothingness of the Canadian prairies home (or perhaps because of it) film and television have been a passion since birth. As a graduate of the University of Manitoba with a degree in English Literature, Andrew has grown to appreciate the story and writing behind everything from blockbuster comic book movies to schlocky B-movie action.

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