Happiness Quote by Mark Millar

Millar’s throwaway “honestly” is doing a lot of PR-heavy lifting. In one breath he bridges two brands that are supposed to be oil and water: Superman Adventures, the all-ages, corporate-icon sandbox, and Wanted, his sleekly marketed exercise in transgression. The line is less a confession of artistic range than a statement of leverage in a comics economy that loves to sort creators into tidy archetypes: the wholesome craftsman versus the edgy auteur. Millar refuses the binary, then dares you to call him on it.

The subtext is strategic reassurance. To mainstream editors and licensors, he’s saying: I can play nice with your crown-jewel property; I’m not a liability. To his fanbase that came for the provocation, he’s signaling: my “respectability” gigs aren’t selling out; they’re proof I’m in control. It’s a creator staking autonomy in a field where IP often owns you back.

Context matters: Millar rose in the era when “adult” comics gained cultural cachet and Hollywood started strip-mining graphic novels for franchises. Wanted was built for that moment - high-concept, high-shock, easily pitchable. Superman Adventures represents the opposite pole: a moral universe with guardrails. Claiming equal happiness hints at a craft-first ethos (structure, pacing, clarity) that works whether the content is aspirational or nihilistic. It also slyly suggests that the thrills of writing aren’t inherently tied to darkness; they’re tied to control of the machine, whether the machine is DC’s flagship myth or Millar’s own.