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20th Century Fox has turned to one of Marvel Comics' top writers to consult on their Marvel-based superhero movies. That man is Scottish-born Mark Millar, the writer of such Marvel books as Old Man Logan, which told a tale of an senior-aged Wolverine, The Ultimates and his own creator owned work such as Kick-Ass, Nemesis and Wanted. Millar was also one of a handful of top Marvel Comics scribes picked to give creative briefs to Iron Man director Jon Favreau when he was putting together that movie.

So what will Millar do for the studio that currently has the movie rights to Marvel's X-Men, Fantastic Four and Daredevil properties? According to the studio press release Millar will be a "creative consultant". That's a broad and general label. So how does Millar sum up his job?

"As someone who has spent his entire life obsessed with both comic-books and movies, this is essentially my dream gig as it's a unique combination of both,” said the writer. “I spent ten years working at Marvel and am really happy with the work I did on the comic side of things so the idea of working with these characters now in a brand new medium is enormously exciting for me. I really like the Fox team, love this bold new direction they have for their franchises and am proud to be working alongside some of modern cinema's biggest talents. James Mangold is incredible, Matthew Vaughn's one of my closest pals and Josh Trank gave us, in my opinion, one of the greatest superhero movies of the last decade with Chronicle. The invitation to join this crew was maybe the coolest phone-call I've ever had."

Millar's Kick-Ass comic was turned into Vaughn's Kick-Ass movie, and a sequel is presently being filmed right now in Toronto.

The next Wolverine movie is currently filming in Australia, so it's doubtful that Millar will get the opportunity to roll up his sleeves and work on the mechanics for that project. Instead he'll likely be pressed into creative service on the new X-Men movie, Days of Future Past, and Josh Trank's reboot of the Fantastic Four universe. The Daredevil property seems to be dormant at Fox right now (although maybe Millar can wave some of his magic beans over that and make a new movie sprout from it.)

In some ways the hiring of Mark Millar to serve as the creative consultant for Fox's Marvel movie universe could be viewed as being similar to the creative role Avengers director Joss Whedon agreed to undertake. Whedon will not only direct and write The Avengers 2 but he'll also be shepherding the development of Marvel's phase two of movies and their S.H.I.E.L.D. TV series.