Book review: Kick-Ass
There's definitely a theme in Mark Millar's recent comics mini-series of twisted Origin stories. After Chosen¹ and Wanted we now have Kick-Ass, which like Wanted is being filmed - although maybe with the Stardust team of Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn behind it, it'll be closer to the original? Dave Lizewksi is a geeky teenager who decides to become a real-life superhero (minus the small detail of any actual superpowers) largely because he's got nothing better to do. So he makes himself a costume, goes out to take on a local street gang, and promptly ends up getting the shit beaten out of him, in hospital for a few months with a metal plate in his head. Once he's well again though he goes back to the crime-fighting, and while he's beating up some bad-guys an onlooker with a cameraphone turns him into a YouTube hit, spawning a whole new subculture of real-life superheroes.
This is where the story really comes into its own, with Kick-Ass (as Dave is now calling himself) teaming up with another superhero, Red Mist, and trying to find out more about a mysterious Daddy-daughter team - Hit-Girl is a classic Millar creation, a ten-year-old ninja with a potty-mouth and an insatiable bloodthirst, and apparently the movie version has already (inevitably) pissed off the Daily Mail (the fact that the screenplay is by the wife of their nemesis Jonathan Ross is just the cherry on top.) It's pencilled by John Romita Jr, and I can happily describe his artwork with the critic's favourite word, "visceral," because it's apt what with all the viscera flying about as Hit-Girl cheerfully guts anyone who gets in her way. I did really enjoy this, there's a lot of funny moments and I think the film could be great fun - I may even go see it, if only to help piss off the Mail.
ETA: The (very NSFW) trailer for the film actually looks like it might be pretty faithful:
¹I'm still waiting for the promised sequel to this, but with Peter Gross busy on The Unwritten at the moment I imagine I'll be waiting for some time yet.
This is where the story really comes into its own, with Kick-Ass (as Dave is now calling himself) teaming up with another superhero, Red Mist, and trying to find out more about a mysterious Daddy-daughter team - Hit-Girl is a classic Millar creation, a ten-year-old ninja with a potty-mouth and an insatiable bloodthirst, and apparently the movie version has already (inevitably) pissed off the Daily Mail (the fact that the screenplay is by the wife of their nemesis Jonathan Ross is just the cherry on top.) It's pencilled by John Romita Jr, and I can happily describe his artwork with the critic's favourite word, "visceral," because it's apt what with all the viscera flying about as Hit-Girl cheerfully guts anyone who gets in her way. I did really enjoy this, there's a lot of funny moments and I think the film could be great fun - I may even go see it, if only to help piss off the Mail.
ETA: The (very NSFW) trailer for the film actually looks like it might be pretty faithful:
¹I'm still waiting for the promised sequel to this, but with Peter Gross busy on The Unwritten at the moment I imagine I'll be waiting for some time yet.