I don't know man...I just don't know...

So, Mark Millar is now consulting with Fox about the X-Men and Fantastic Four franchises.

It’s a smart move. Fox obviously needed one person who had knowledge and experience with these characters in their original comic-book form on their team.

Especially if there’s no way Fox will smarten up and sell the rights back to Marvel where they belong.

Having one person involved with both franchises will meld them together. It worked with Whedon and the Avengers, Jim Shooter and Valiant (VH1) and of course – Stan Lee and Marvel Comics.

But is Millar the right choice?

I’m not familiar with his work. I loved the Kick-Ass and Wanted movies, but haven’t read any of the books.

I’m not saying Millar’s a terrible writer. In fact, he was one of the creative people behind The Ultimates for Marvel...which like it or not was one of the founding elements behind Marvel Studios getting off the ground. He was also invited to the set of Iron Man to hash out ideas while they were working on the script. So he’s got experience with not just the comics, but the “Hollywood” aspect of comics.

That being said… Millar is simply not a writer I gravitate towards. Or Bendis, or Ellis. These guys are love-or-hate. There’s little in between, except for people like me who want to read only one or two specific works. These guys have a specific - somewhat mature - feel to their writing that can easily turn off a lot of people. In comics that’s no big deal. The fan base is vocal, but (still) relatively small. However, as loud as haters may get, lovers will spend all their money.

Movies, on the other hand, have a universal fan base, and their haters are exponentially loud. Plus, they won’t just not spend their money…they’ll actively spend their money against a film.

So this is “make-or-break” time for Fox.

It could work, but since I’d prefer Marvel to get the rights back, I’m just not sure I want it to.