Director Matthew Vaughn (Kick Ass, X-Men: First Class) has picked up the rights to Mark Millar‘s comic book Superior, which follows the tale of a young boy living with multiple sclerosis who is granted a magic wish to be transformed into his a superhero. Instead of fighting crime, he uses his abilities to end the war in the Middle East, feed the starving, rescue people from natural disasters and anything else the public wants.

Check out the press release below for more details.

Press Release:

Award-winning comic-book writer Mark Millar is empowering people with MS with his envelope pushing latest character Superior, the first superhero ever to be diagnosed with MS. And he is sharing him with the National MS Society (www.nationalMSsociety.org) to help raise awareness for MS and the work of the Society.

The hugely popular comic Superior, which is part of the Millarworld line, follows the tale of a young boy living with multiple sclerosis who’s granted a magic wish. He asks to be transformed into his favourite big screen action hero and uses his new super-powers to right the real world’s wrongs. Whereas most superheroes fight criminals and stop bank robberies, this little boy uses his abilities to end the war in the Middle-East, feed the starving, rescue people from natural disasters and anything else the public wants. But have these incredible powers and worldwide adulation come at a price? This dark, magical tale has been described by critics as Big meets Superman, a unique take on the superhero mythos with a magical element that appeals to Harry Potter fans as much as the traditional superhero audience. The movie rights to this book were snapped up by Kick-Ass and X-Men director Matthew Vaughn with a view to turning this into a Hollywood blockbuster.

The MS Society helps people affected by MS by funding cutting-edge research, driving change through advocacy, facilitating professional education, and providing programs and services that help people with MS and their families move their lives forward. Over the past two decades, tremendous progress has been made in advancing research to stop MS, restore lost function and to end MS forever.  In 2012 to further this mission the most aggressive research funding project ever undertaken is being launched, with a goal to raise $250 million over the next five years. To find out more about current campaigns and research please visit:  http://www.nationalmssociety.org/research/index.aspx

Graham McReynolds, Executive Vice President Marketing and Development at National MS Society, “We are most grateful to Mark for sharing Superior with us and are really enthused about our alliance. Through Superior’s innovative story, we hope to increase awareness about MS, the challenges it raises for people living with the disease and the importance of always following your dreams despite an MS diagnosis. We also hope to encourage the public to join the MS Movement and help speed the progress we’re making to create a world free of multiple sclerosis. We plan to spotlight Superior through the multi-channels of communication that the Society commands.”

Creator Mark Millar explains, “I wanted to write about a superhero with a disability and I chose MS because it’s something that touched one of my school-friends growing up. I’m acutely aware of the unexpected way the disease can strike anyone and the enormous difficulties it can cause. Superhero stories are essentially wish-fulfillment fantasies and nothing seemed more powerful to me than a little boy with a magic wish not only wanting to WALK again, but to FLY. I’m delighted to work with such an incredible institution as the MS Society and feel privileged that they approached me to use this character in a positive way. We’re used to seeing characters with MS as victims and I wanted to do something where the kid is not only a lead, but the most powerful person on the planet. I’m really delighted people have taken this to their hearts as much as they have”.

Hollywood director Matthew Vaughn was also attracted by the humanity of the lead character and added, “I have always enjoyed working with Mark and his latest exciting project Superior is something that we are very much looking forward to making”. The two worked together most recently on Kick-Ass, which hit number one in both the United States and the United Kingdom, and they’re both pleased to be working on another movie together.

Superior Issue 5 is out in comic-book stores from Wednesday 5th October.

About Mark Millar
Award-winning writer Mark Millar revamped most of Marvel’s most famous characters in the last ten years, his work cited by Time Magazine as Best of the Decade. Marvel Entertainment used his interpretation of their character in many of their recent movies and fans are excited to see this continue in their upcoming Avengers movie.

While working at Marvel, he wrote the company’s biggest-selling series of the last decade and also started his own company, Millarworld, to own and control his own characters. The first of these books was Wanted, which was turned into a movie starring Angelina Jolie, James McAvoy and Morgan Freeman in 2008. This was followed by Kick-Ass, which was adapted into a movie starring Nicolas Cage in 2010. Most recently, he sold the rights to his book Nemesis to Fox with legendary director Tony Scott attached as director. His upcoming book, Supercrooks, is the first superhero movie focusing on super-villains and has been described as Ocean’s 11 meets The X-Men. This is being helmed by Oscar nominated director Nacho Vigalondo. Wanted 2 has also just been green-lit and is currently being written for a planned 2013 release.

He is also the editor and co-publisher of Clint magazine, a news-stand publication in his native United Kingdom.

About National Multiple Sclerosis Society
MS stops people from moving. The National MS Society exists to make sure it doesn’t. The Society helps each person address the challenges of living with MS.  Last year alone, through its national office and 50-state network of chapters, the Society devoted over $159 million to programs that improved more than one million lives. To move us closer to a world free of MS, the Society also invested more than $37 million to support 325 new and on-going research projects around the world. Join the movement at www.nationalMSsociety.org

For information on the network of MS Societies around the world dedicated to ending multiple sclerosis forever, please visit www.MSIF.org

No production or potential release dates for Superior have been announced.