MPH
Connecting variant covers of MPH #2 (June 2014), depicting the characters of the Millarworld Universe; art by Leinil Francis Yu.
Publication information
Publisher	Image Comics
Schedule	Monthly/Bi-monthly
Format	Limited series
Publication date	May 2014 – February 2015
No. of issues	5
Main character(s)	Roscoe Rodriguez Rosa Cruz Chevy Jiggy "Baseball" Cruz
Creative team
Created by	Mark Millar [1] Duncan Fegredo
Written by	Mark Millar
Artist(s)	Duncan Fegredo
Letterer(s)	Peter Doherty
Colorist(s)	Peter Doherty
Editor(s)	Jennifer Lee
Collected editions
MPH	ISBN  978-163215-2657

MPH (Miles Per Hour) is a British heist- action- thriller comic book limited series written by Mark Millar and illustrated by Duncan Fegredo. Published by Image Comics, the series is set in the Millarworld, ^{[2] [3]} with its events being first referenced in 2014's Kick-Ass: The Dave Lizewski Years – Book Four. ^[4] Described as " The Fast and the Furious without cars", ^{[5] [6]} the series follows a group of early-20s criminals who on discovering a drug that gives them super-speed, use it to go on a series of grand heists, while pursued by a government agency with a mysterious speedster of their own. The series, originally published between May 21, 2014, and February 18, 2015, was collected as a graphic novel on April 22, 2015. ^[7] Characters from the series would later return in the miniseries Big Game in 2023. Receiving a generally positive critical reception, both a comic book sequel and feature film adaptation of the series has been in development hell since its initial publication.

Premise

When Motor City criminal Roscoe Rodriguez stumbles upon a street drug called MPH, he gains the power of super-speed, using it to break out of prison and with his friends form a group of working class criminals to go on a series of high-octane urban adventures as bank robbers, while pursued by the forces of DENO and the mysterious Mr. Springfield. ^{[8] [9]} While the initial announcement of the series described it as a six-issue series following teenagers, the final five-issue series saw the majority of its protagonists be in their early-to-mid 20s. ^{[10] [11]}

Characters

The Runners

• Roscoe Rodriguez – A low-level criminal obsessed with vision boards who breaks out of prison on gaining super-speed from the experimental drug "MPH", one pill of which provides the user a day of the power, which Roscoe uses to make him and his loved ones rich by becoming high-profile bank robbers and America's Most Wanted. Originally named "Roscoe Vasquez" throughout the development of MPH, the character was renamed by Mark Millar before final publication to have a more alliterative name. ^[2]
• Rosa Cruz – Roscoe's girlfriend, a Jeet Kune Do expert with whom he shares his super-speed, who tries to keep her younger brother "Baseball" out of the criminal lifestyle after the death of their other brother, Roberto.
• Chevy – Roscoe's best friend, with whom he shares his super-speed. Having previously been secretly in love with Rosa, he develops a god complex from his use of the pills, coming to blows with Roscoe and Rosa after they give away their money.
• "Baseball" – Rosa's sixteen-year-old little brother, a would-be gangster whom she rescues from a life of crime. Baseball's full name (and in-turn Rosa's surname), "Jiggy Cruz", was revealed in the final issue as the result of a charity competition held by Mark Millar to allow a fan to name an MPH character after themselves, a competition Millar had previously used to name characters in Kick-Ass, Nemesis, Kingsman: The Secret Service, Starlight, and Jupiter's Legacy. ^{[12] [13]}

DENO

• "Mr. Springfield" – The world's first and only known superhuman, an apparent pre-cog who crashed into Missouri at super-speed in 1986 before being arrested by the government, who has been living in luxury house arrest under the confine of DENO in Arizona for the past 29 years. ^[14] Mr. Springfield would return in a cameo appearance in the 2023 limited series Big Game.
• Special Agent Cutler – An agent of the United States Department of Extra-Normal Operations (DENO), assigned to Mr. Springfield.
• Kat – the head of DENO.

Other

• "Samurai Hal" – A Detroit-based low-level crime boss and strip club owner who was once Roscoe's employer.
• Professor Henri Troyat/Orlov – The former Chief Scientific Officer of France's superhuman development program and inventor of the "MPH" pill, who disappeared in 1984 and has been living in-hiding ever since (bar attending the occasional jazz festival). A fictionalised version of the author of the same name, Mark Millar revealed in an interview in January 2014 that the character would return in another then-untitled title set in the Millarworld shared fictional universe the following year, which turned out to be Huck, written by Millar and illustrated by Rafael Albuquerque. ^[15]

Reception

Adaptation

Ahead of its initial publication, MPH was optioned for feature film adaptation by Lorenzo di Bonaventura in April 2014, ^[22] who Mark Millar said to be "somebody I've always wanted to work with on one of the bigger Millarworld adaptations", ^{[23] [24]} with the project ultimately entering development hell.^{[ citation needed]}

References

External links

• MPH at Image Comics