MPH

MPH #1-5

by Mark Millar

Roscoe et ses amis ont grandi à Détroit avec un avenir misérable pour seul futur. Leurs destins prennent une tournure différente quand ils tombent sur une drogue, le MPH, qui leur donne une super-vitesse. Roscoe entraîne alors Rosa, Chevy et Baseball sur une série de crimes ultra-rapides à travers la nation. Mais les pilules de MPH viennent à manquer et les fédéraux sont à leur trousse.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction, Superheroes, Graphic Novels Comics, Fiction, Crime

139 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 22, 2015

About the author

Mark Millar is the New York Times best-selling writer of Wanted, the Kick-Ass series, The Secret Service, Jupiter’s Legacy, Jupiter’s Circle, Nemesis, Superior, Super Crooks, American Jesus, MPH, Starlight, and Chrononauts. Wanted, Kick-Ass, Kick-Ass 2, and The Secret Service (as Kingsman: The Secret Service) have been adapted into feature films, and Nemesis, Superior, Starlight, War Heroes, Jupiter’s Legacy and Chrononauts are in development at major studios.

His DC Comics work includes the seminal Superman: Red Son, and at Marvel Comics he created The Ultimates – selected by Time magazine as the comic book of the decade, Wolverine: Old Man Logan, and Civil War – the industry’s biggest-selling superhero series in almost two decades.

Mark has been an Executive Producer on all his movie adaptations and is currently creative consultant to Fox Studios on their Marvel slate of movies.

Reviews

[Jayson · Rating 4 out of 5]

(A-) 81% | Very Good
Notes: A speedy read, on highs and greed, a slow-and-steady moral: patience pays, while envy lays a path to bitter quarrels.

*Progress updates: Preamble ◦ Issues #1-3 ◦ Issues #4-5

[Sam Quixote · Rating 1 out of 5]

In the mid-1980s, the US government caught a superhuman - the fastest man alive. They lock him up and do nothing else. Fast forward to Detroit in 2014 where we meet Roscoe, a two-bit coke hustler with the dream of putting together enough cash to start a legit life with his girl Rosa. Except he gets set up and sent to the slammer for 15 years.

Inside, he discovers a drug - MPH - that makes you move lightning-quick. Together with Rosa, his best friend Chevy, and Rosa’s troubled little brother Baseball, the four decide to start robbing banks and live the privileged lifestyle they’ve never had in a city that’s filed for bankruptcy.

One of several problems with MPH is the underwhelming and underdeveloped story. The derivative nature of it is simply “what would you do if you were The Flash and poor?”, followed up with several scenes of Roscoe and friends living it up in the unimaginative way everyone has of being rich, ie. living in luxury mansions, drinking expensive wine, driving expensive cars. And how the hell does Roscoe find the MPH in the first place? Some nobody prison dealer happens to have this drug and Roscoe’s the first person to try it?! Then later a ridiculously contrived “villain” reveals himself at the end and some time travel nonsense rounds out the story.

MPH is barely a narrative and more of a potential movie concept. And this is the thing with Mark Millar: the guy comes up with sellable ideas for movies and turns them into a comic while peddling the rights to studios because Millar’s only about the movies these days (MPH’s movie rights were sold before the first issue was published). Other readers have noticed this before - that his comics are essentially movie storyboards - and that’s definitely the feeling with MPH more so than most of his books.

I think it’s fine that Millar is doing his best to avoid getting screwed over by having his intellectual property owned by others, which is what happened to comics creators of old who didn’t have outlets like Image for their work (see Siegel & Shuster, Bill Finger, etc.). And Millar and his artists owning the rights for their comics and the subsequent movie deals/merch is great. More power to them. Comics don’t pay well for most creators, so Millar wanting to see him and his friends getting paid now and forever is laudable.

It’s just gotten a bit too business-y at this point. MPH is much too cynically put-together. Millar’s mind threw together things he thinks will have wide appeal and the resulting mess is this book. Irresponsible bankers who caused the recent financial crisis having their money stolen? Check. The poor getting a break for a change? Check. Superpowers/loose superhero story aping the increasingly popular Flash? Check. It’s superficially interesting and, once you get past the surface you discover there’s nothing else there.

It’s also utterly banal to watch one-dimensional idiots vapidly indulging in riches and superpowers. Roscoe with his stupid “vision board”, Chevy with his shallow wants, Baseball with his drugs, and Rosa with her blandness - these are who we’re supposed to be rooting for?! Then, once we’re past the stealing stuff for fun phase, we’re into the most forced confrontational fight ever and end with what I’m convinced is wish-fulfilment for Millar. Without giving too much away it involves how attractive twenty-ish women fall for plain forty-something men (Millar is 46 at the time of writing).

Like many of Millar’s recent books, he’s been blessed with a brilliant artist in Duncan Fegredo to make his movie pitches look awesome. And while Fegredo has produced exceptional work in Mike Mignola’s Hellboy series, his work on MPH is less than inspiring. Perhaps it’s the lack of fantasy subject matter allowing for artistic flourishes, replaced with the ordinary backdrops he’s forced to illustrate but Fegredo’s artwork isn’t as attention-grabbing here as it usually is. It looks more like Bryan Hitch-lite.

MPH is a very poor pseudo-story, rushed in its telling, boring and badly written. Almost no attempt is made to explore our non-characters in this go-nowhere tale before it’s over and a mega-heavy expositional finale fills in the story gaps. Millar is churning out the potential movie hits, I mean “comics”, at an accelerated pace these days but he seems to aiming for quantity over quality. MPH is just the latest in a long line of sub-standard Millarworld books.

[Craig · Rating 2 out of 5]

This started off fairly strong, but just kept getting worse and worse, dumber and dumber, as it went along. The hook is that a group of poor street kids in Detroit get ahold of a drug that gives them super speed (not unlike The Flash), and then use their newfound powers to rob banks and get rich. The whole thing reads like a fairly undeveloped movie pitch (which, apparently, isn't too far off the mark, since the film rights to this mess have been picked up). The artwork by Duncan Fegredo is about the only saving grace to this and even that gets rushed and slapdash near the end, as the story culminates in some sloppy time travel nonsense. It seems like Mark Millar cares less and less about these projects he tosses off, barely even investing the time to create characters and a story that readers might care about. Not recommended.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yet another in the expanding Millarworld line, MPH is a story about a group of kids, down and out in Detroit. Roscoe has plans, working for a local crime boss and doing his bidding, and yet falling into the trap of believing he will rise above his station and live a rich and legitimate life in the future after the hard work pays off. His girlfriend and another couple of friends in the life with him stumble across some pills that allow them a day's worth of super speed. They use this to steal everything they can and set themselves up nicely. In the background a mysterious figure simply known as Mr. Springfield has allied with the special supers office of the government, a defunct law defending branch of the government just now opened back up to deal with the threat of super humans. This creates a collision course of events that is as amazing as it is tragic.
The choice to stop stealing and give away the stolen profits to the poor across America causes a rift within the group that ends with the final act. The revelation and loss portrayed here just tells an amazing tale that was really entertaining. This would make a great movie, to be sure. I love Millar's words here as much as I love Fegredo's art. Great combination and a wonderful story told here.

Danny

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe I read it wrong or missed it, but the gaping plot hole around the instigation of the story kept me from enjoying it more.

Spoliers?
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How did the drug get to our main character in the first place? Not who made them, they addressed that. Not physically how - prison smuggling really doesn't need explanation. WHO/HOW/WHY did they get there? 'I dunno, shipping error', is beyond weak.

[Katherine (Kat) · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5 Stars
Individual Issues Rated Below -

MPH #1: 3.5/5 Stars
MPH #2: 3.5/5 Stars
MPH #3: 4/5 Stars
MPH #4: 3/5 Stars
MPH #5: 4/5 Stars

[Alex Sarll]

Millar co-wrote the best Flash run ever, but clearly had some more ideas about superspeed in the years since. So here he confers it on a gaggle of poor kids from Detroit in an otherwise realistic world, and watches the sparks fly. The sheer detail with which the power is carried through is staggering, and the plot ends up impressively neat; alas, the character work isn't quite on the same level.

[Camilo Guerra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Roscoe es un criminal de poca monta, pero tiene planes y un buen corazón, una novia linda llamada Rosa y un par de amigos que están ahí para el, así que cuando descubre unas pastillas que le dan el poder de la supervelocidad, todo se va al carajo...el quiere dinero, pero no quiere ser criminal, quiere a su novia pero su familia da líos. Es una presentación del poder de la velocidad llevado al extremo, y de la manera mas asentada al mundo y se siente especial, se siente maravilloso, además de una historia bien construida y MAGNIFICAMENTE ilustrada por ese genio del comic que es Duncan Fegredo y acá se marca unos diseños geniales, un arte intenso y detallado a manos llenas, que me recuerda mucho a Bryan Hitch en Ultimates, pero acá la narrativa es mas fluida,con fondos muy trabajados y una composición que te lleva de la mano.Muy recomendado.

[Matthew Ward · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though I found this one to be mostly predictable, I actually really enjoyed this one!

[Corto Maltese · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easily one of Millars best work and one of the most refreshing takes on the Superhero-concept I read in a while. Very nice, thought through story arc, lively dialoges and stunning art from one of the best graphic storytellers in the field. Who could ask for more?

Don't get me wrong though. This will not offer you deep insights or tickle you intelectually. It's just an action flick and doesn't try to be anything else. But I confess, sometimes I just want to be entertained popcorn-style and MPH succeded amazingly in delivering exactly that kind of entertainment.

Very funny to me personally is, that I just read another Miller-Story before this which I thought only alittle shy of being utter garbage (Clive Barker's Next Testament Vol. 1) and asked myself if it was really a good idea to purchase another Millar-book. :)

[Rolando Marono · Rating 4 out of 5]

Esta es de las primeras obras de Millar que vi que trajo Panini México. Era en formato individual pero Panini no tenía la mejor distribución en esos momentos y ya tenía suficiente con cazar cada número de Kick Ass.
Finalmente leo MPH y me gustó mucho. Un poco predecible y no muy original, pero el tratamiento de Millar de sus personajes es el adecuado, es bastante entretenida y tiene algunos giros que aunque esperados, los entrega en el momento adecuado.
La batalla final me gustó mucho, creo que tiene varias escenas que aunque el poder de velocidad podría ser común, y tenemos un personaje que usa este poder desde hace 80 años (Flash), aún así me gustó lo que vi de cómo aplican los poderes.
Los primeros números con los saltos de lugares en cada viñeta se me hicieron buenos, aprovechando las ventajas que proporciona este medio para narrar su historia.
Interesante tomo. Se nota que no habrá continuación y está bien así, Millar es bueno para arrojar todo al asador de una y no es tan bueno contando historias de más de un tomo. MPH es bastante buena así como está.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rereading for the launch of Jupiter's Requiem.

This is kind of the "launch" of the Millarverse. I liked it--it's definitely a movie pitch, but I think there's interesting ideas going on here. None of them are fleshed out, but hey--it's five issues.

[Dakota · Rating 4 out of 5]

Paced very well and all dots get connected by the end. Not the most surprising or original plot. Luckily, Mark Millar is such a talented writer that even a somewhat predictable storyline feels exciting.

[Ondra Král · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vypnout mozek a MPH je solidní popcornovka. 4 sešity by stačily

[Daryn Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice & clean.
An efficient rise & fall superpowers book which is basically like the movie LIMITLESS with super-speed.

I could've maybe used an extra 2 issues to serve up some more speedy fights, action sequences or story, but it's all wrapped up well in the end and it's a fun read nonetheless.

[Simon Chadwick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mark Millar continues to beat his own path in comicdom by exploring the genre’s tropes and wider conventions with a contemporary eye. By not having to conform to decades of back story he enjoys taking something we think we know well and creating something altogether fresh with it. His knack is keeping it relevant, upbeat and tight, and he’s not afraid to throw in a twist just when we think we know what’s coming next because of our countless exposures to the more traditional fair.

In MPH he’s playing with superhero speedsters, except in this book they’re very much not the costumed kind. MPH here is a bottle of pills, a street drug, that gives the taker extraordinary speed, so when said bottle falls into the hands of a Detroit youth, Roscoe, living on the periphery of the law a whole host of opportunities open up before him, and his friends that he shares the finite supply of pills with. Before long they’re seeing the country from end to end, taking selfies whilst riding on racing cars and helping themselves to pretty much whatever they choose. But the harsh realities soon begin to play on Roscoe’s mind, so when he decides they need to alter their ways not all of his group see it the same way he does. It’s not easy to go from nothing to everything to nothing again.

And there’s something else going on here, an individual held in a secure Government facility that displayed similar abilities years before. The Government want to put a stop to the speeding gang but need help to do so, so turn to the mystery man for help, and his involvement helps fill in the gaps as to the history of MPH and its affect.

Millar likes to team up with exceptional artists for his Millarworld projects and Duncan Fegredo is no exception. His effortlessly detailed style fits the tone of the book perfectly. The end product is about as far away from the Flash or Marvel’s Quicksilver as you could hope to get, which is sort of the point, as it weighs consequences, obligations and regrets against the freedom of doing and living as you please. Race out and get a copy.

[Jake Kilroy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes, it feels like Mark Millar writes a graphic novel over a weekend, knowing that it'll later be made into a movie. They're fun enough, but they don't have much arc. It's pretty much over as soon as it starts to thicken. They're light romps and they leave you wanting more, but not in the way I think he hopes. In this one, a pill basically gives a dude the superpower of The Flash and the feds are after him and his young hooligan friends.

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Basically, a criminal gets a hold of a drug that makes him run really fast and he and his friends go on a robbery spree. The book takes a severe and pretty neat turn at the end which made me really like it. Up to that point, I'd consider it what you'd expect from Mark Millar, lots of fast paced action and violence.

[Lesincele · Rating 4 out of 5]

Es una trama muy interesante y que puede dar mucho de sí. Lo que es la historia de este volumen queda cerrada por lo que se puede leer ya que tiene un final cerrado aunque por lo que he mirado, haya dos volúmenes más.
La historia es muy entretenida y la verdad es que el tema de la droga resulta muy interesante. Continuaré con ellos sin duda.

[Gustavo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cuando Utopía anunció este comic, leí a mucha gente emocionada, asi que empecé a leerlo con mucha expectativa. A lo mejor eso jugó en contra porque no me pareció la gran historia.

Me gustan muchas de las historias de Millar y su visión original de algunos superhéroes, pero en este caso si bien el concepto está bien, y el comic es bastante entretenido, el resultado final es poco original.

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, an okay Graphic novel. The novelty of taking a pill and getting superpowers is neat for a while. But You see there's problems that arise from that. I'd recommend this to big Mark Millar fans.

I recieved a digital copy via Netgalley.com and the publishing company

[brooke · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received this from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.


I really didn't care for this one. It was too cheesy for me - with time travel, vision boards, Occupy Wall Street kind of mentality... the art style was okay, but it just didn't come together enough for me.

[Derek Royal · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this narrative, although the lateness in the final issue broke the story momentum for me. The concept is one of the book's strengths.

[Sophia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Leider ein wenig enttäuschend. Millar-untypisch fand ich es ein wenig vorhersehbar. Die Figuren sind mir auch allesamt nicht sympathisch geworden... Grundsätzlich dennoch eine nette Story.

[The Lion's Share · Rating 2 out of 5]

Millar is hit or miss and this was kind of a miss for me.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this story! The resolution was bit on the sappy side, but I guess I'm just getting older and kinda enjoyed that.

[47Time · Rating 4 out of 5]

The artwork alone is detailed and dynamic enough to keep you reading. The story broaches on human psychology somewhat and offers a cute twist at the end with some time travel that doesn't really make any sense, but is still fun because of the way it's used. The main character gets a happy end that's bound to leave you smiling at least because it's so laughable. Overall, a quick, fun read.

30 years before the world's first superpowered individual named Springfield was locked up never to be heard from again.

Now two-bit drug dealer Roscoe has big plans for the future. Unfortunately he gets arrested while trying to sell cocaine to an undercover cop. In jail he finds from his friend Chevy that their boss Hal set him up to get to his girlfriend Rosa. In desperation he considers drugs that are commonplace in prison. A drug named MPH makes him super fast, so he just walks out while everything around him barely moves.

Roscoe brings Rosa and Chevy to California where he plans to rob banks to build a fortune. Springfield believes he can stop them.

A share of everything they steal goes back to the needy, so their popularity is high. Rosa's brother Baseball is also brought into the fold. He combines MPH with regular drugs and ends up in the 30's.

Chevy becomes upset with Rosa and Roscoe after they give the stolen money away without consulting him. In his anger he confesses that he was really who set Roscoe up to end up to be imprisoned. The two start a fight that leaves Chevy dead and sends Roscoe 30 years into the past. He is the guy the government imprisoned all those years ago. Since he served his time, he is set free. The final scene reveals that Baseball prospered in the past and left the two of them 10 million dollars in his will, so the two get to live happily ever after.

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

„MPH" basiert auf der Prämisse, dass gewöhnliche junge Leute Superkräfte aufgrund von ominösen Pillen entwickeln, und Millar spinnt darauf aufbauend eine ziemlich gute Geschichte. Dass diese Leute auf der Schattenseite des Gesetzes leben, erhöht die Spannung noch zusätzlich.

Roscoe ist ein Mann mit einem Traum. Er versteht die Gesetze der Anziehung und will im Luxus schwelgen, den er sonst nur vom Sehen kennt. Er wünscht sich ein gutes Leben für sich und seine Freundin Rosa, das in die Tat umgesetzt werden soll, sobald er den nächsten großen Drogendeal abgeschlossen hat. Als Roscoes Pläne durch Verrat in einer 15-jährigen Haftstrafe enden, trifft er auf einen Mitgefangenen, der eine Droge namens MPH verkauft. Eine Pille macht superschnell, fast schon wie der Blitz und Roscoe nutzt sie, um dem Gefängnis zu entkommen und seine Zukunft mit Rosa, seinem Freund Chevy und Rosas problematischem Bruder Baseball zu planen. Da er nur eine begrenzte Anzahl von diesen Pillen hat, muss Roscoe alles minutiös durchorganisieren. Es wird gestohlen, was sie brauchen, um sich ein neues Leben aufzubauen, es sei denn, die Polizei und ein seltsamer Mann, der in die Zukunft sehen kann, halten sie auf.

Die Geschichte beginnt in Detroit und übt unterschwellig auch Sozialkritik im Hinblick auf die Reichen und Armen. Die Story hat mir im Großen und Ganzen gut gefallen, und sie ist in diesem Band abgeschlossen und nicht wieder eine Endlosserie. Sie nimmt einige interessante Wendungen, und es gibt mehr als nur ein bisschen Ärger und Hinterhältigkeit. Ich bin zwar kein Fan von Diebstahl, weil man denkt, man hätte es verdient, aber die Pillen scheinen die Hauptprotagonisten in seltsame, lächerlich übermächtige Versionen ihrer Selbst zu verwandeln.

[Mars Dorian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wow, what the hell was that?

Talking about message fiction. Some authors use sledgehammers to hammer home a point, Millar uses a homing missile. I'd rename this miniseries Ghetto Flash--the Fastest Occupy Wall Streeter Alive.

MPH deals with the class and wealth inequality concept in the shallowest way possible, painting everything black and white, using heavy exposition dumps (characters TALK about corrupt politicians, evil corporations) instead of showing it. The good people are POC, the evil ones are white. I'm not American, but c'mon, if your stories deal with gigantic social US issues, don't do it half-assed. A subtle and nuanced approach makes for more compelling storytelling as it reflects the complexity of real life.

The main characters are also one dimensional and simplistic, especially the women (I only counted one that actually played a role), the villains are evil just because they chose to be....ungh.

This is a fast-paced comic with a heavy-handed social theme that could have been sooooo much better if Millar had chosen to go for more depth instead of the quick buck. And even though this comic is a rant against capitalism, it's also a commercial IP he has already sold to Hollywood before the release(!) so it can be turned into a big money blockbuster.

The freaking irony...

[João Proença · Rating 3 out of 5]

KM/H de Mark Millar é um livro divertido e que entretém. Não é uma obra profunda, nem o pretende ser. A história mistura superpoderes com um crítica social, acompanhando um protagonista que ganha a habilidade de se mover em velocidades absurdas e decide usar esse poder de uma maneira pouco convencional.
Com reviravoltas previsíveis e com uma arte que sabe complementar bem a história, este livro será o ideal para quem gosta de histórias rápidas, irreverentes e com um toque de rebeldia. Talvez seja uma boa porta de entrada para quem quer iniciar no Millarworld.
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KM/H by Mark Millar is a fun and entertaining book. It is not a profound work, nor does it intend to be. The story mixes superpowers with social criticism, following a protagonist who gains the ability to move at absurd speeds and decides to use this power in an unconventional way.

With predictable twists and turns and a art that complements the story well, this book will be ideal for those who like fast-paced, irreverent stories with a touch of rebellion. It may be a good entry for those who want to start in the Millarworld.