Mark Millar’s Huck is a hidden comic book gem.
He’s no Garth Ennis, but I still enjoy Mark Millar’s comics. Most of you reading this are probably familiar with Wanted, Kick-Ass and Kingsmen, all of which received movie adaptations that were pretty enjoyable, even if they deviated from the source material (we’ll never get to see an on-screen Wesley modeled after 2000’s Eminem). As far as his comics go, I’d also recommend MPH and Super Crooks.
Millar has other series too, collectively dubbed “Millarworld” or “the Millarverse”. I haven’t gotten around to checking all of it out yet, but I’ve heard good things about comics like Jupiter’s Legacy and Nemesis, and they’re on my read list. He’s also worked with Marvel and DC before, most notably Marvel’s Civil War and Old Man Logan storylines, and Superman: Red Son.
Anyway, Millar did a huge crossover event with most of the characters in the Millarverse, called Big Game. The comic is essentially a sequel to Wanted, but it ties in all his other characters too. Among those characters was one I’d never heard of before, a big guy named Huck.
Huck seemed pretty cool. He was ridiculously strong, and his small town style of politeness was reminiscent of something you’d see in classic Archie Comics. Because he was sharing the spotlight with about 50 other characters, he didn’t really get to do a whole lot in Big Game, but what little he did piqued my interest. I hadn’t heard of Huck before, but now I really wanted to know more. I was honestly kind of expecting him to be some modern version of Huckleberry Finn.
As it turns out, Huck was from a comic called Huck. He was an autistic guy with a bunch of super powers who worked at a small town gas station and was determined to do one good deed every day. An autistic super hero? This could either be a really good story, or just another attempt to pander to a “marginalized” group.
If it was anyone else but Millar, I’d have said forget it and moved on to something else, like finally completing 100 Bullets or working through my massive manga backlog. But because it was Millar, and because I already liked what I saw of the character, I gave Huck a shot.
I’m glad I did. This shit is awesome.
Huck is a giant behemoth of a man who grew up orphaned in a small seaside town. He’s got super strength, super speed, insane endurance, and a psychic ability that allows him to track people and things. Rather than throw on a costume and make a spectacle of himself, Huck opts to keep things on the DL and quietly help the people in his small town, living life with the mission to do one good deed every day. Everyone knows Huck has powers, but the town collectively agrees to keep it a secret from the rest of the world and let him keep doing his thing.
One day Huck sees a news report that Boko Haram has kidnapped 200 girls from an African village. Using his abilities, he tracks the girls down and beats the everloving shit out of the Boko Haram soldiers. Even while he’s literally yeeting these guys 300 feet into the air, Huck still doesn’t forget his manners, asking a Boko Haram soldier to remove his glasses before he hits him:
Huck bribes the girls with candy to keep quiet about who saved them, but the people in Huck’s town figure out it’s him, and two selfish asshole neighbors decide to try to cash in on Huck by selling his story to the media and blowing up his spot. Huck receives national attention for his powers, and soon a crowd forms outside his house.
Huck also attracts the attention of a former Soviet scientist, and we learn that Huck was born to a Russian woman who had psychic powers, notably remote viewing and the power to touch people and implant suggestions into them. The Russian woman escaped to the US and gave birth to Huck before putting him up for adoption. Using an android to trick Huck, the Russian scientist tracks down the woman and captures both her and Huck. From there, Huck and his mom have to escape from a secret Russian science city.
This comic was way better than I thought it was going to be. Huck is a compelling and well-written character for sure, and while his powers aren’t really unique (I wasn’t clear on how the “finding stuff” thing worked, I think it was supposed to be remote viewing?), giving them to a character like Huck makes for an interesting story. He’s not Superman, he’s not going out and fighting world-threatening enemies (well, except for the events of Big Game). This is a guy who just wants to live a simple life and help the people in his community. He’s a salt-of-the-earth gentle giant with a heart of gold who isn’t afraid to throw down when he needs to. Huck is just as likely to use his powers to mow the entire town’s lawns as he is to go save a bunch of captives from Boko Haram.
Huck is a great comic, and I think it would do really well adapted as a live action series. Allegedly there’s plans for a Netflix movie, but everything I could find was from 2018, so I’m guessing it’s currently sitting on someone’s backburner or in production hell. On one hand I guess I should be thankful, since Netflix will probably fuck it up by adding a bunch of unnecessary forced diversity shit (especially since he’s supposed to be autistic, and he has a crush on a black girl). But on the other hand, I think the character would translate well to live action media, and a superhero like Huck would be a breath of fresh air from a genre that’s become bogged down by its own weight.
There’s another Huck comic being released in February, called Big Bad World. I’ll definitely be buying it. In the meantime, I recommend you all go check out the original.
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