In the last couple of years I’ve found myself reading more and more comics, I guess the recent influx of comic based movies gave me a hunger to find out where all of these great characters and stories came from. Especially as several popular comic book movies are based on actual story arcs from the comics or one off graphic novels, such as The Dark Knight (based in part on Alan Moore’s The Killing Joke), Watchmen (another of Alan Moore’s works which the movie only strays away from ever so slightly) and Wanted from a few years ago (based on the graphic novel of the same name my Mark Millar). I saw the film first and enjoyed it so I thought I’d take the chance to read the original source material. To my surprise the film changes an awful lot from the original story. If you liked Wanted the film you may not enjoy the comic, however I personally believe it to be more imaginative than the film and it will give you some insight into the work of Millar if you are thinking about reading or have even read Kick Ass already.
My friend put me onto the Kick Ass series some months ago and I immediately fell in love with the concept, unfortunately living in the UK good comic stores are hard to come across, especially in my home town (Milton Keynes), however living at University in the city of Nottingham has presented the opportunity to become better acquainted with some of the great comics I have craved for. If anyone in Nottingham is reading this I buy from Page 45, a great store with great service. But I digress… my friend and I had a lengthy conversation about how we would become super heroes and so I waited for the collected edition of Kick-Ass to be released in the UK. On Thursday the call finally came and after reading it I’m pleased to say that my hopes were not dashed by this excellent comic.
The story is fast paced and extremely well written by Millar. The dialogue and narrative are punchy, funny and honest. Millar knows how people reading the comic think and he taps into that effortlessly with how he presents his title character. He’s nothing special in school, but he’s not the geek either. He could be any one of us! That’s the genius of the comic, it manages to present a scenario where super heroes exist and yet not for a second stray into the realm of super powers and nothing radioactive is in sight. If you’ll fall in love with the characters, and yes even the villains, because there’s a bit of everyone in this story. There’s the teenager who’s boredom leads him to do something fantastic. There’s the Dad who just wants to make life interesting for his child, and his daughter who will stand by her father’s side, samurai sword in hand, until the bitter end.
If you enjoy comics or are a new comer to them then I suggest Kick-Ass to you all. Yes the violence is on the extreme side, but this merely adds to the pull no punches attitude of Millar’s writing and the story wouldn’t have the same appeal without it. It doesn’t glorify someone being hit by a car or having their testicles electrocuted, it’s just saying ‘hey if this shit happened then it’d f*cking hurt’.
So go buy it, go love it and go spread the good word of Kick-Ass…. or should that be words?
Oh and there’s a film coming out soon too, check out the trailer here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrKHu2UX1vA
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