Book: Kick-Ass 2
Pen: Mark Millar
Pencil: John Romita Jr.
Oh, Mark Millar, what have you done!
Kick-Ass 2 is everything the original was not and nothing what its predecessor was. Here’s a sequel that was begging not to be told, but Millar and Romita went and told it anyway. We are poorer for it.
Once superheros had their origins, the next logical step is superhero team ups. Fair enough. Our buddy Dave Lizewski aka Kick-Ass and the pint-sized dynamo Hit-Girl (Mindy McCready) decide to take their partnership seriously and were practicing their moves. Mindy’s stepfather, Marcus, asked her to give up her alter ego for good. Kick-Ass decides to join a group of other costumed ordinary-heroes in a group called Justice Forever, led by former Mafia henchman-turned-born-again-Christian Colonel Stars. They may be a little too violent, but their hearts are in the right place.
Well, you can’t just do good, can you? Our former pretender Red Mist turns up with a new name and wreaks havoc including a beheading, a rape, a prison assassination and assorted murders. Kick-Ass gives it all up, but the villains didn’t get together for fun. But their latest salvo unleashes the Hulk, sorry, Hit-Girl. The body count races up and we soon have a bloody battle in Times Square.
Kick-Ass was gutsy. Kick-Ass 2 just has a lot more guts spewed around. It takes violence to a silly level, even by Millar’s standards. What is worse is it is lifeless. Deaths and rapes mean nothing in the context of what’s happening. Millar and Romita are playing ‘who can shock you more’ and they forget that they don’t have a good story to back them up.
There are a few money shots, mostly involving Hit-Girl, and a few jokes, mostly about a shark in a tank. But when the violence is so mind-numbing you don’t stop to think. You know there’s something wrong about a short series if the biggest plus you can take from it is that it ran for only seven issues.
Book: Kick-Ass
Pen: Mark Millar
Pencil: John Romita Jr.
“I always wonder why nobody did it before me.” Thus starts the first issue of Kick-Ass. It is the hero narrating, asking why no other ordinary Joe thought of putting on a suit and becoming a superhero. It could just as well be me or you asking why no one wrote a comic about an ordinary Joe putting on a suit and becoming a superhero. There must have been some stray comics that explored the idea. But it is safe to say that none did it with such sledgehammer effect as Kick-Ass.
Dave Lizewski was a nobody. Just another schoolboy with glasses, who loved comics and Ryan Reynolds’ movies, who had raging hormones, who harboured crushes on both his biology teacher and his classmate Katie Deauxma. Just another ordinary Joe. Dave also fantasized about being a superhero. Just like the rest of us. Thing is, unlike us, he decided to do something about it. He stitched a green suit, put it on and patrolled the streets at night. He got into an argument with some graffiti artists and got his ass kicked. Badly.
The beating left him immobile for months. Broken bones, even in his skull, meant the doctors had to insert metal plates and screws just to hold him together. Dave promised himself that he would leave the crime-fighting to the comics, but the call of the spandex was too strong and soon he was back in the streets. This time, however, he got involved with some goons about to mug a youngster. Maybe the plates in his head numbed the pain, maybe the comic history in his head flattered his resolve, maybe he had a few screws loose in his head, or maybe he was just a decent kid; he refused to stop protecting the kid even though he himself was being beaten to a pulp. An internet sensation was born.
The popularity gave Dave more confidence and he then moved into the bigger leagues. Trying to give a gangster a friendly warning, he found himself in a position where getting his ass kicked was the best he could hope for. He didn't, because of a puny girl, carrying an enormous sword and dicing up everyone’s limbs, all the while using swearwords that she shouldn't even know about. Enter Hit Girl and her Big Daddy.
Kick-Ass is firmly for the fans. There are repeated comic-book references and Dave Lizewski is a geek who can be any of us. His thoughtless crusade has its heart in the right place. But there is only so much an ordinary dude can do. And that is where Millar brings out his master stroke. The introduction of Hit Girl and Big Daddy. The stakes go up exponentially and the only way Kick-Ass can keep us is with the help of professionals. And who among us is not sick enough to want to see a potty-mouthed eleven-year-old girl cutting people’s heads in half!
Mark Millar has always worn his psychopathic side on his sleeve with regards to violence. John Romita Jr. complements him with a drawing style that shows the brutality but also tempers its shock by being not too realistic. The splash pages are quite brilliant, used both for dramatic and gratuitous effects.
It is easy to dismiss Kick-Ass as a lot of noise and not much substance. The subject matter is such and Millar’s style has always been over the top. But it is not the case here. There is genuine affection for the characters and Millar proudly carries his geek flag. The writing, too, is well thought out, and the dialogue is hilarious and sad in equal measure. 'Tunk' is a word that is going to stay with you for a long time!
Millar and Romita Jr did get it right with Kick-Ass. It is a book that needed to be created and I firmly believe it will stand the test of time. We, the comic lovers, made Kick-Ass happen. And we will always wonder why no one did it before.
