IMAGE COMICS – @ImageComics
[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]
STORY: Mark Millar
PENCILS: John Romita, Jr.
INKS: Peter Steigerwald with Megan Madrigal
COLORS: Peter Steigerwald
LETTERS: John Workman
COVER: John Romita, Jr.
VARIANT COVER ARTISTS: Olivier Coipel with Sunny Gho; Frank Quitely
28pp, Color, $3.99 U.S. (February 2018)
Rated M/Mature
Kick-Ass created by Mark Miller and John Romita, Jr.
Kick-Ass is a comic book series created by writer Mark Millar and artist John Romita Jr. It began as an eight-issue miniseries published by Marvel Comics under the company's Icon imprint, starting in February 2008 and concluding in February 2010.
Kick-Ass is the story of Dave Lizewski, a teenager who sets out to become a real life superhero. Dave's actions are publicized on the Internet and inspire other people to put on costumes and play hero. Dave gets caught up in the activities of two costumed, ruthless vigilantes, an exceptionally talented fighter/killer, Hit-Girl, and her father, Big Daddy. Father and daughter are on a mission to take down the gangster. John Genovese.
Kick-Ass became a comic book franchise with three follow-up miniseries, the seven-issue Kick-Ass 2 (October 2010 – March 2012), the five-issue Hit Girl (June 2012 – February 2013), and the eight-issue Kick-Ass 3 (July 2013 to October 2014). The Kick-Ass comic books yielded two movies, Kick-Ass (2010) and Kick-Ass 2 (2013).
Last year, Mark Millar announced that the Kick-Ass and Hit-Girl comic books were going to be revived in a new series of miniseries slash ongoing series. The first new six-issue miniseries, entitled Kick-Ass, is written by Mark Millar; drawn by John Romita, Jr. (pencils) and Peter Steigerwald (digital inks); colored by Steigerwald; and lettered by John Workman.
Kick-Ass #1 introduces Staff Sergeant Patience Lee, a combat veteran in the Afghanistan part of the “(Global) War on Terror.” When she returns to civilian life in Albuquerque, New Mexico, as a wife and mother, Patience discovers that her husband has left her and the children. Short on money and have to put her dreams on hold, SSG Lee decides that it is time to get paid. So she puts on a familiar costume...
Because the original Kick-Ass miniseries kept selling out, I originally read the story in its first hardcover collection. I loved it. Kick-Ass is so gloriously deranged, and it seems like the ultimate encapsulation of writer Mark Millar's oeuvre, at least to that point in time.
Kick-Ass 2018 is quieter. It also seems like more of a study of the post-Barack Obama America, with its resentful white middle class, its seething white working class, and its newly invigorated white supremacy slash white nationalist culture. It is an America in which the balance between the haves and have-nots is completely out of whack because the haves not only want more, they also want it all. They want it all and will have it all by any means necessary – legal, illegal, or otherwise. In this America, even black people are turning into the very people and turning to the very systems they have traditionally lambasted – most of which revolves around violence.
John Romita, Jr.'s illustrations, compositions, and graphical storytelling are as powerful as it ever is when put to use for an intense story. Let's be honest; drawing “real” superhero comic books are mostly a waste of JRJr's time, but Kick-Ass brings out the power, heft, and meatiness of his storytelling. Here, Romita's art is served by a really good colorist, Peter Steigerwald, and John Workman is one of the few comic book lettering heavyweights capable of placing his fonts inside the Romita, Jr. graphics package.
So Kick-Ass is back, as strong as ever.
8.5 out of 10
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"
The text is copyright © 2018 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.
----------------------
No comments:
Post a Comment