"Do you wanna know a secret? The world wasn't always the way you remember it. Once upon a time the skies were filled with heroes and villains and wonder and excitement. But we snuffed it all out in one single night and made people forget it had ever been this colorful. Now they only remember their superheroes through plastic toys and big summer movies. That's why everyone is so obsessed with them. They're only trying to piece together all the things they lost."
—Wesley Gibson, aka The Killer.
Big Game is a 2023 miniseries written by Mark Millar and drawn by Pepe Larraz. A culmination of more than two decades of creator-owned works, the series is a Crisis Crossover of Millar's original concepts and characters collectively named "Millarworld", including classics like Wanted and Kick-Ass.
In 1986, the world's supervillain population all banded together to wipe out all the superheroes. To further purge their existence, they rewrote all of reality so the heroes were reduced to fictional characters, allowing the supervillains to secretly rule the world as the Fraternity.
Despite this, superheroes are slowly returning as the once mundane world is now seeing a rise in superhumans and the supernatural. This runs the risk of the Fraternity's hold on the world becoming exposed and challenged, so they decide to launch a new campaign to rid Earth of superheroes once again.
Big Game provides examples of:
- All-Powerful Bystander: The Magic Order is forced to be this, much to Cordelia's chagrin. The Fraternity's mass murder of superheroes unfortunately is not a magical threat to reality, meaning the Order can't do anything about it since it's technically just another human war with no supernatural elements to it. They're finally able to help save the day when Kick-Ass points out that Diabolos is calling himself a sorcerer, meaning he's technically a magical threat even if he's using alien weaponry to achieve his "magic."
- Alternate Self: Superior is among the Jupiter's Legacy heroes that the Magic Order summons, implying that the reason why he's a fictional character in the Millarworld is because he exists in that universe, which itself is confirmed to be a Show Within a Show.
- Anyone Can Die: The whole plot of the series involves the Fraternity mass murdering various Millarworld characters, including Simon Pooni, the Chrononauts, Huck, Duke McQueen, and Eggsy Unwin. Thanks to Hit-Girl and time travel technology, they don't stay dead for long.
- Arc Welding: The series takes the ending of Nemesis: Reloaded further by showing how all of Millar's works are actually in a Shared Universe, bringing Wanted and Kick-Ass in on the action despite both more or less taking place in the "real" world.
- Asshole Victim: After all the evil shit he's pulled, you won't be feeling bad for Wesley after he's killed twice any time soon.
- Big Bad Ensemble: Wesley Gibson leads the Fraternity with Nemesis as his right-hand man. They are later joined by King Morax's court magician Diabolos and his alien forces.
- Big Damn Heroes: Once they learn that there is (technically) a magic threat, the Magic Order turns the tide of the Final Battle by summoning the heroes from Jupiter's Legacy.
- Sensing that something was wrong, Duke McQueen had also preemptively contacted the armies of Tantalus for help, and they show up to join the battle in the final issue.
- Blood Knight: Wesley comes to realize he doesn't care if the heroes' deaths had been undone, as he becomes excited by the prospect of his generation of supervillains getting their own big battle.
- The Bus Came Back: Dave Lizewski, aka Kick-Ass, returns in this series, shown to have become disillusioned with normalcy and wishes to return to superheroics via joining the Ambassadors and receiving superpowers.
- The Cameo: Since not everyone can have a substantial role in a five-issue Crisis Crossover, some of Millar's characters are reduced to single appearances:
- Former Fraternity members that died in the original Wanted, including Mr. Rictus, the Frightener, Wesley's father, Imp, Fuckwit, and Doll Master appear in the opening scene to kill The Cowl of the previous universe.
- Simon Pooni appears for but one scene and it's one where he's killed by the Fraternity just in case he ever found out how to turn into Superior again.
- Sharkey the Bounty Hunter and Extra-Billy arrive after the Final Battle to collect the body of Diabolos the Sorcerer. They also mention hunting Cody Blue and Thena Khole from Space Bandits, who realize they are being hunted and begin planning to book it out of the resort they've been staying at during the events of the series.
- Some time travel nonsense has the series take place before the events of Empress, and we see that Emporia is still living with Morax as she begrudgingly encourages Havelock to follow Morax's orders to execute Hit-Girl.
- After Wesley is killed by Hit-Girl, he's sent to Adystria and promptly decapitated by Bonnie Black, who correctly saw that he was bad news.
- Canon Character All Along: As "canon" as the Millarworld's backstory on Expy Coexistence can be, at least. Bobbie Griffin is a red-haired survivor of the superhero purge from the previous reality and was once mentored by The Cowl of her universe. In the final issue, her Secret Identity in this new reality is revealed to be a librarian. To sum it up, she's the Millarworld Batgirl.
- Chekhov's Gun: Duke McQueen mentions a button on his belt buckle that will allow him to call for Tantalus's aid. He presses it when he feels something is wrong during the superhero meetup and Tantalus's armies arrive on Earth to help fight the Fraternity and Diabolos.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: Luckily for Dave, his helping random people on his way to the superhero gathering is what makes him late and survive the massacre there.
- Crisis Crossover: Of Mark Millar's creator-owned works.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: After years of missing being a superhero, Dave Lizewski returns as Kick-Ass to help out with the crisis, but ends up not being able to do much due to his lack of superpowers. Not only does he help the Magic Order finally intervene, but is also granted superpowers and able to help with the Final Battle. He's even recruited to be the Ambassadors' American representative.
- Earth All Along: The throneworld of King Morax's empire turns out to be a prehistoric Earth. Morax is less than pleased to learn that he will eventually lose power and Earth will devolve into a more primitive society.
- Expy Coexistence: As hinted at throughout previous Millarworld works, Jupiter's Legacy is revealed to be fictional in this universe, and is heavily implied to be a distorted recollection of the "true" version of the DC Universe that the Millarworld previously existed as (the trip to 1985 makes it obvious that the "world's greatest hero" was Superman, not the Utopian). The Magic Order summons the heroes from there via a dimensional portal and Dave observes that they were all heroes that he'd read about in his comics.
- Foreshadowing: A scene in Issue #1 shows Edison Crane observing an archeological dig that reveals the existence of Ancient Astronauts in the form of multiple buried monuments and inhuman remains. This is setting up the fact that King Morax's throneworld was Earth All Along, and how the characters of Empress would become involved in the crossover.
- Happy Ending Override: The first four issues indulge heavily in this. After all the happy endings Millar's characters achieved in their respective series, in comes Nemesis and the Fraternity to kill them all off in quick succession. Thankfully, Hit-Girl saves everyone using time travel and gathers an army to fight the supervillains.
- Dave Lizewski appeared to have found peace with retirement from superheroing, but his first appearance in Big Game reveals that he's quickly grown bored and unsatisfied with normalcy, wishing to returning to being a superhero by joining the Ambassadors and gain superpowers. He gets his wish, and Edison Crane remarks on how poetic it is that the first superhero became America's Ambassador.
- Hope Spot:
- Bobbie Griffin showing Edison Crane and the Chrononauts proof of the Fraternity's Cosmic Retcon almost gets her the means to organize a counter offensive against the supervillains... if not for the fact that all four are immediately gunned down as soon as they returned to the present. Hit-Girl travels back in time to save them.
- Eggsy manages to save Mindy from walking into the Fraternity's trap, setting up a daring mission for Hit-Girl and a Kingsman agent to fight back against the supervillains. However, they are quickly caught while sneaking through a Fraternity base and Eggsy is unceremoniously killed while Hit-Girl escapes 65 million years into the past.
- I Just Want to Be Special: Davie Lizewski is hit with this again after years of a normal life. He's quick to suit up as Kick-Ass again when superheroes everywhere are called for help.
- I Want to Be a Real Man: The final issue reminds the readers that this was ultimately Wesley's motivation when he joined the Fraternity and became a supervillain. He gets killed by Hit-Girl, who calls him out for being so pathetic to scoff at old school heroism.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: All the evil crap that Wesley got away with both in this series and Wanted eventually bite him in the ass: he's killed by Hit-Girl and sent to Adystria, where he's immediately killed by Bonnie.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: The series' very premise is contingent on the Twist Ending of Nemesis: Reloaded.
- Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: The Chrononauts, Edison Crane, and Bobbie Griffin time travel to before the Fraternity's Cosmic Retcon and sees the familiar silhouette of a Flying Brick save the day. The familiar globe on top of the office his Secret Identity worked at makes it clear who the man Bobbie declares the world's greatest superhero is supposed to be.
- Lighter and Softer: While there are plenty of bloody deaths and mayhem, the series is still leagues more light-hearted and optimistic than Wanted, or even Kick-Ass.
- Loophole Abuse: The Magic Order have their hands tied concerning the Fraternity's actions, as the crisis is not supernatural in nature and the Order is only supposed to deal with magical threats to reality. When Kick-Ass points out that the Fraternity is allied with an alien that calls himself a sorcerer, Cordelia considers it a close enough semantic and the Magic Order summons the heroes from Jupiter's Legacy to turn the tide.
- Ret-Canon:
- Gary London from The Secret Service is now officially renamed Eggsy Unwin, and his spy organization is also now the Kingsman.
- The returning Kick-Ass characters that aren't Dave or Mindy have their movie designs instead. Sophia the dog from Kick-Ass 2 is also seen in a group shot despite having been killed, probably because her movie counterpart was Spared by the Adaptation.
- Retcon: Mark Millar had claimed through Word of God that Jupiter's Legacy was the superhero universe that the Fraternity had overwritten, with the Utopian being the template for which heroes like Superman and Superior were based on out of humanity's unconscious attempts to remember him. This series however seems to walk back on that: The Cowl seen in the opening pages is clearly not Jupiter's local Batman Parody Skyfox, and the Flying Brick that Bobbie, Crane, and the Chrononauts see in 1985 is a Lawyer-Friendly Cameo of Superman instead of the Utopian. Big Game seems to now claim (and confirm various Easter Eggs hinting at such throughout previous Millarworld books) that Jupiter's Legacy is nothing more than a Show Within a Show in this universe.
- Self-Deprecation: The series in general comes can come across as Mark Millar fully apologizing for his earlier Darker and Edgier comics. The dark and cynical characters of early Millar are openly defied for their mockery of old-school heroism. Wesley Gibson ends up in the pure Black-and-White Morality realm of Adystria and killed by one of Millar's most straightforward examples of an All-Loving Hero.Wesley Gibson: I used to be soft like you old-school heroes. But they burned that shit out of me and now I've conquered all my fears. I'm finally the guy I always wanted to be, and if I die here now, so be it, motherfucker. At least I get to die a man...
Hit-Girl (Boom, Headshot!): No. You're still a fucking pussy. - Sequel Hook: Nemesis is revealed to be alive but heavily hospitalized, and is said to already be planning to kill all the heroes once he recovers and escapes.
- Serial Escalation: The 'Verse began with Dave Lizewski as a bored teenager deciding to dress up as a superhero. Now, a cabal of supervillains is waging war with superheroes that include vampires, space heroes, secret agents, time travelers, billionaire playboy daredevils, and aliens.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Hit-Girl steals Chrononaut technology from Diabolos, allowing her to travel three days in the past and warn all the targeted heroes, saving their lives and building up an army to fight the Fraternity and Diabolos's forces.
- Shout-Out: Wesley's dad taunts The Cowl of the previous reality by claiming that all of his pushups didn't stand a chance against napalm.
- Spoiler Cover: Solicits lampshade how the cover to the first issue (which is also the page image) reveals the Twist Ending to Nemesis: Reloaded.
- Take That!:
- Dave complains about how the saturation of superheroes has led to comic book stores abandoning Marvel and DC and instead stock Anime merch and Manga.
- There's a clear middle finger to Darker and Edgier comics that Millar himself was responsible for; despite the villains' attempts to kill off superheroes, they come back in full force to cement how old-school Lighter and Softer heroics are always more welcome than any of the cynicism the supervillains represent.
- When Huck observes that the concept behind Sharkey and Extra-Billy is something he's seen on TV, Extra-Billy replies that they did it first.
- Undignified Death: Wesley gets TWO. First Hit Girl shoots him from behind while telling him he's still just a pussy, and then he gets decapitated in the afterlife by Bonnie.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Cordelia points out to Kick-Ass that by kicking off the trend of superheroism in the Millarworld, he had unwittingly paved the way for the Fraternity to mass murder various superheroes and bring an alien invasion through the time barrier.
- Would Hurt a Child: Some of the Fraternity's victims are Millar's younger heroes. Simon Pooni isn't even Superior anymore and he's killed on the off-chance that he might be able to transform again.
