Kick-Ass 3

Attention this is not your kids comic book!  This was a good & satisfying ending for Dave but not really for Mindy.  I like where it ended as a whole though.  Mark Millar has made series his greatest creator owned success compared to other titles I have read recently.  Some characters live some die this wraps up everything, if I told you how it ended that would spoil the rest of this series.  Now Mark Millar is not a genius with a script unlike some other comic writers like Brian K. Vaughan, Frank Miller or Neil Gaiman.  Now that doesn't mean that Millar isn't a good writer his style is just blunt & to the point.  Mark touches on what is important & lets the reader figure out the rest.  This leads to some of my biggest complaints about this series.  I feel that Mark Millar kind of didn't know what to do with Hit-Girl in this volume its like he spent so much time focusing on Kick-Ass that her narrative got cut short & left hanging.  I wish this had been cleared up.  I also didn't like the little after credits scene that Mark Millar put in at the end of the book implying that there could be a sequel or spin-off.  Its not something we need but it will be welcomed if it exist.  

Kick-Ass 2

This book took the concept that Mark Millar first introduced in back in Kick-Ass Vol. 1 & cranked it up.  Everything was edgier I even found myself cringing at times.  There is no way a lot of this material will make it into the upcoming movie due to some recent events.  For as awesome as Jim Carry looks dressed up as Colonel Stars & Stripes in the new movie he really doesn't get a lot of screen time in the book.  His fate is something that is straight out of the Song of Ice & Fire series; I can only speculate that Millar was inspired by the third book in that series.  I hope he gets more screen time in the movie than he did on the page.  Another big moment which shocked me to the point of almost putting the book down is that blatant & graphic display of gun violence against children especially since the Sandy Hook Elementary shootings that occurred near the beginning of the year.  Granted this book was published before that but it is still disturbing.  That scene then snowballed into the rape of Katie Deauxma in the book which was shocking but less so compared to the massacre of  small children.  Pile on the atrocities to give Red Mist his hat trick by killing Dave's dad & Mark Millar has created the sickest adolescent villain since King Joffrey.  I will be truly shocked & will probably even walk out of the theater if kiddie massacre is included, but the rape could be eluded to & have even more of an impact story-wise since Katie & Dave are actually dating in the movie.  Overall where the previous book showed that this series had a heart & soul this volume decided to rip it out & stomp on it.  I am really glad to know that the next volume Kick-Ass 3 will be the final volume other-wise the main character would eighty-six himself due to how depressed he is becoming.  If you think about it how has something like Kick-Ass survived if not thrived in a time where violence involving children has been in the news on a frequent basis.  Its not just Kick-Ass what about books like the Hunger Games series both of which have gotten the Hollywood treatment.  There is even a Marvel comic focusing on the subject by pitting teen heroes against each other in a fight to the death called Avengers Arena.  There are also other movies coming out soon that are touching on this same subject of violence involving children & even young adults Fruitvale Station & I Declare War.  The first of which is based on or inspired by an actual event where as the second looks to be more of a social commentary.  So it begs to question is this the new norm?

Hit-Girl

This is the second volume in Mark Millar's magnum opus known as the Kick-Ass series.  Even though this title was published after Kick-Ass 2 it takes place in between Kick-Ass 1 & 2.  This is essentially a Hit-Girl story shows how she gets to the position she is in at the beginning of the third volume.  Overall I liked this book it gave some depth to the character's it shows that Kick-Ass's real ability comes in being able to keep Hit-Girl grounded which is kind of cool; in doing this the author has found a way to make him a peer of Hit-Girls instead of pathetic wannabe like the first volume made him out to be.  In a way they have made Kick-Ass into a character similar to Alfred.  Can you imagine what Batman would be like if there was no Alfred.  He would be a mess the same can be said about Hit-Girl.  The best part of this series is when Mindy is taking out the hit-men in her own home & goes over to the neighbors to get a sledgehammer that is just hilarious.  There are some really good Easter eggs in here for comics fans that just make you smile when see & read them on the page.  There is even some character development with Red Mist but it feels unfinished.  It seems that all the little Red Mist segments are just thrown in so the reader doesn't forget that he exist.  The real redeeming moment for this series happens on the final pages of this series where Mindy realizes that her family should come before war on crime this helps to show that this series has a heart underneath the violence & gore that Millar has become known for.  

 

Kick-Ass

I finished re-reading Kick-Ass the other day & I must say it was much better than I thought given my first encounter with the title.  The first time I read this was shortly after I saw the movie & I thought that this was one of the few cases where the movie out shines the book.  I still feel that way but now that I have re-examined this title & I realize that this is an amazing book all on it's own.  Just think of all of new ideas for comics that have come since this book was released we now have a title called The Bounce & Deathmatch these are titles that most likely would not exist if Kick-Ass hadn't paved the way.  Also there is now a whole sub culture of people dressing up in super-hero costumes & going on patrol in major cities around the world.  This might have been going on even before Kick-Ass but it started making headlines in national news media following this title.  This is a simple story about a high school kid who starts dressing up like a super-hero to but quickly discovers what a bad idea it is.  There are some major differences between the book & the film I still feel that the film is superior.  The main reason I like the film more is due to the fact that Dave gets Katie where as in the book she crushes him mentally & physically.  There several other differences but I view them as minor compared to that of Dave & Katie.  I also think that this title has grown on me due to the fact that I have become even more desensitized to this type of graphic violence over the years in movies, books & television.  Its a shame in someways because that is something that I don't believe an individual can ever regain.  Now that Mark Millar is working on Kick-Ass 3 & the second movie is coming out in August I advise people to check out this title & see what inspired the film.  I truly think this is going to be the creator owned work he is remembered for.  It has also set the tone for what people can expect from his work uber violence, gore & snappy dialog.