Netflix and Mark Millar have announced their latest comic book project: “Space Bandits,” a female-led sci-fi story.
Millar described “Space Bandits” as “a female ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’ set in space with a massive and exciting cast of characters.” Artist Matteo Scalera will illustrate the comic-book translation of the original Netflix property and it will be published by Image Comics.
In “Space Bandits,” Thena Khole and Cody Blue are among the universe’s most-wanted felons. They each run their own criminal operations, running heists across the galaxies — hopping from ship to ship to fleece everyone inside. But when both women are betrayed by their treacherous crews, the bandits only have one thing on their minds: revenge.
“In a world with a billion superhero properties and gloomy, rain-soaked dystopian sci-fi, there’s a gap in the market for sci-fi that’s upbeat and fun,” Mark Millar commented. “I wanted to combine all this into a big, high-octane story.”
According to Millar, he has been working on “Space Bandits” as a property for Netflix since last summer “and now I’m being joined by the brilliant Matteo Scalera for the comic-book translation of this story,” he said. “The guy’s a genius and I’ve followed him for years. Having him draw this is like someone you’ve always had a crush on going out on a date with you. He’s just amazing.”
Netflix acquired Millarworld, run by Mark and Lucy Millar, in August 2017. In addition to continuing to publish comics from Millarworld, Netflix plans develop films, TV shows and kids’ series based on its portfolio of character and comic book franchises. Millarworld’s titles include “Kick-Ass, “Kingsman,” “Wanted,” “Reborn,” “Empress,” and “Jupiter’s Legacy.”
The first comic created by Millar under Netflix’s ownership was “The Magic Order,” first published last year, a six-edition comic written by Millar and illustrated by Marvel’s Olivier Coipel (“Thor,” “The Avengers”). Other projects include “Sharkey the Bounty Hunter” by Millar with artist Simone Bianchi and “Prodigy,” a comic adaptation with artist Rafael Albuquerque of Netflix’s original movie about a girl with dangerous supernatural powers.
Netflix and Millar are developing TV series based on “Jupiter’s Legacy” and “American Jesus,” along with movie adaptations of “Empress,” “Sharkey the Bounty Hunter” and “Huck.”
“Space Bandits #1” will be available in stores on Wednesday, July 3, priced at $3.99. The final order cutoff deadline is June 10. The comic also will be available for purchase across many digital platforms, including the official Image Comics iOS app, Amazon Kindle, Apple Books, comiXology, and Google Play.
In addition, available to order at the same time will be a limited-edition series of “Space Bandits Legends Covers,” featuring Millar’s all-time favorite comic-book artists. The first will be illustrated by comic-book legend Howard Chaykin and will retail for the same price comics cost when Millar was in high school — 75 cents.
A detail of Chaykin’s limited-edition cover for “Space Bandits” is pictured above. Below are the full covers illustrated by Matteo Scalera (left) and Chaykin (right).
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