'The Magic Order' Is Mark Millar's First Comic Book For Netflix

Mark Millar made history when he signed a deal to bring his Millarworld to Netflix. Now, Netflix won't just be focused on original programming, they'll have a hand in the publishing world as well. Today, Millar and Netflix have announced The Magic Order as the first comic book to be published as part of the Millarworld Netflix deal. The comic is described as "magic meets the mob."

Writer Mark Millar has had a hand in creating Kick-Ass, Wanted and Kingsman, and he's continuing his comic book journey with Netflix's The Magic Order. When Netflix purchased Millarworld, the small comic book imprint Millar co-owns with his wife Lucy Millar, the expectation was that Netflix would be focused on both developing original programming and publishing new titles penned by Millar. "[T]his is next-level stuff and our plan is to have a range of books backed up by this incredible PR machine backed up by this amazing resource," Millar said in a recent interview.

Now we know the first comic book title that Netflix and Millar will publish: The Magic Order, a comic series written by Millar with art from Marvel veteran Olivier Coipel. The Magic Order will be six issues long, with the first issue releasing Spring 2018. It will be available for sale in print format through comic stores and other retail outlets, as well as digital purchase. Here's the official synopsis of the series:

We live in a world where we've never seen a monster and these people are the reason we sleep safely in our beds. Magic meets the mob in The Magic Order, as five families of magicians sworn to protect our world for generations must battle an enemy who's picking them off one by one. By day they live among us as our neighbors, friends and co-workers, but by night they are the sorcerers, magicians and wizards that protect us from the forces of darkness...unless the darkness gets them first.

Of the upcoming comic series, Millar said:

"We wanted to make a splash with our first book for Netflix and this is it. I love dark fantasy and there's an enormous gap in the market for something like this. Netflix hiring Olivier has also made me the happiest guy alive. I've been after him for almost ten years so to finally have our names in the same book is an absolute honour."

Netflix getting into the publishing industry opens up a world of possibilities. For example, we can probably expect to her about a Netflix-produced movie or TV series based on The Magic Order in the very near future.

As of now, the streaming giant only has a deal with Millar, but if all goes smoothly with The Magic Order, I'd expect Netflix to start making more and more deals to expand their publication library. Whether Netflix sticks primarily to comics, or branches off into other types of publishing, remains to be seen.