Comic book characters are a big business, responsible for billions of dollars a year in movie and TV revenue. Netflix knows this fact first-hand from its various, exclusive Marvel shows, but now the streaming video giant has gone a step further, actually popping off to the shop and picking up a comic book company to call its own.

Netflix announced this morning that it has purchased Millarworld, the comic book publisher created by award-winning writer Mark Millar, creator of the Kick-Ass and Kingsman comics, which have thus far spawned a total of four feature films. The terms of the sale were not made public.

Much like Disney’s acquisition of Marvel, where Millar worked for nearly a decade before striking out on his own, Netflix is seeing this deal as a way to create new content — movies, shows, and kids’ fare — exclusively for the streaming service.

“Mark is as close as you can get to a modern day Stan Lee,” said Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos, referencing the iconic longtime face of Marvel. “We look forward to creating new Netflix Originals from several existing franchises as well as new super-hero, anti-hero, fantasy, sci-fi and horror stories Mark and his team will continue to create and publish.”

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