Comic Book Review: Kick-Ass 2 (Issues 1 and 2)

 Kick-Ass 2 (#1 and #2 of 6)

Written by Mark Millar

Art by John Romita Jr.

Published by Icon/Marvel Comics

So Mark Millar and John Romita Jr is back and so is Dave/Kick-Ass and Mindy/Hit-Girl doing their thing in the sequel of the successful first comic book series of the same name. 

What's up with our 'superheroes' nowadays?

A quick breakdown: 

You didn't imagine this could happen
the first time, did ya'?

Dave is being trained by Mindy so he could be a better superhero, but just like before, his ass gets kicked by the 11 year old.  But he is still going out at night in his costume and he loves the attention he is getting because everybody in the neighborhood knows his legend, including the bad-guys. Now, Millar took the next logical step in this vigilante story: he puts a lot of costumed vigilantes now and its natural that the villains would pile up too. Thus, we get some of these guys teaming up forming their own groups or teams - yeah just like the X-Men, Avengers, Hellfire Club etc - to assume superiority, because at this point, one or two guys can't just cut it anymore. So this whole 'superhero' thing has just become a widespread phenomenon, just like the criminals are also ready to raise hell in every corner of the street.

And because everybody wants a piece of his damn ass - Kick-Ass joins his first ever superhero group in order to have some backup and then... goes on to beat up some big time mafioso dudes with new found friends. Oh he is really taking this up another notch. 

Fuck you Dave. That little twerp
is still kicking your butt.

As for Mindy, she's got a new dad now - well, stepdad (remember that police guy at the end of the last issue of Kick-Ass?)  - and she's fucking grounded. Yeah, she is prohibited to wear the costume, go out at night, contact Dave, and even her stash of the most dangerous weapons available to human kind has been confiscated. That means, no vigilante work, no hacking-and-slashing, and no killing sprees for the little kid. I feel bad for her because she's so fucking bored to death. 

With all of that said, I wonder how Dave would fare in his vigilante quest without Mindy? Will Dave get some far more serious beating this time? How will Mindy react to this grounded predicament she's in? 

2 issues has just been released I'm pretty excited on what's gonna happen next in this saga. Millar takes our heroes into new twists in their lives, logically writing the whole background this sequel is going to have. I really liked he fact that he put Mindy in a little bit of a hiatus allowing more room for Dave to maneuver. More Kick-Ass and a little less of our cutie. Because if you have been reading this series before, you may have noticed that the title could have been "Hit-Girl" instead of  "Kick-Ass."

John Romita Jr has incorporated the same style he did on the first book, but he made sure that this would have a new, updated feel as well. He's got a really good artistic approach for this sequel and that is something to watch out for every single issue. 

Kick-Ass 2 has started on a pretty slow note mainly because Millar wants to establish the backdrop of the whole story first before getting in to more angst and violence. But don't get me wrong, this has not turned into a dramatic, boring and "clean" show. It is still bloody and violent as ever, I guaran-damn-tee you that.