MPH (Miles Per Hour) is aBritishheist-action-thrillercomic booklimited series written byMark Millar and illustrated byDuncan Fegredo. Published byImage Comics, the series is set in theMillarworld,[2][3] with its events being first referenced in 2014'sKick-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 grandheists, 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 agraphic novel on April 22, 2015.[7] Characters from the series would later return in the miniseriesBig Game in 2023. Receiving a generally positive critical reception, both a comic book sequel and feature film adaptation of the series has been indevelopment hell since its initial publication.
WhenMotor 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 ofworking class criminals to go on a series of high-octane urban adventures asbank 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]
Connectingvariant covers ofMPH #1 (May 2014), depicting the Runners: Baseball (Jiggy Cruz), Chevy, Rosa Cruz, and Roscoe Rodriguez; art byDuncan Fegredo.
The Runners
Roscoe Rodriguez – A low-level criminal obsessed withvision 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-profilebank robbers andAmerica's Most Wanted. Originally named "Roscoe Vasquez" throughout the development ofMPH, the character was renamed byMark Millar before final publication to have a morealliterative name.[2]
Rosa Cruz – Roscoe's girlfriend, aJeet 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 agod 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 acharity competition held byMark Millar to allow a fan to name anMPH character after themselves, a competition Millar had previously used to name characters inKick-Ass,Nemesis,Kingsman: The Secret Service,Starlight, andJupiter's Legacy.[12][13]
DENO
"Mr. Springfield" – The world's first and only known superhuman, an apparentpre-cog who crashed intoMissouri at super-speed in 1986 before being arrested by the government, who has been living in luxuryhouse arrest under the confine of DENO inArizona for the past 29 years.[14] Mr. Springfield would return in acameo appearance in the 2023 limited seriesBig Game.
Special Agent Cutler – An agent of the United States Department of Extra-Normal Operations (DENO), assigned to Mr. Springfield.
Professor Henri Troyat/Orlov – The former Chief Scientific Officer ofFrance'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 occasionaljazz festival). A fictionalised version ofthe 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 theMillarworldsharedfictional universe the following year, which turned out to beHuck, written by Millar and illustrated byRafael Albuquerque.[15]
