Kick-Ass rocks (the film, not the comic)

Yeah, I went to see the film, Kick-Ass and yes, it was a rocking good time. Everything all of the film’s various trailers promised it would be. Still, I have some issues with it (as a comic, not as a film).

To me, the comic was not only specifically designed as a storyboard for the film, but targeted to appeal to our most salacious and prurient interests. I really didn’t so much like Kick-Ass as a comic because it seemed to me that the comic held in contempt many of the core tenets that I love about comics.

Please don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t the violence in the book that set me off (hey, I like a bit of the ultra-violence as much as the next under-athletic geek boy who was terrorized by muscled-bound, no-neck jocks while in high school, but it was all the “gimmies” that the book asked while trying to position itself as an “ordinary” universe.

No, I think that Hit Girl’s high-end ninja-level skill-set was a bit much, as was her complete detachment from the consequence of her actions. personally, this (comics) is my house, and it really seemed to me that way to many liberties were taken with the storytelling and with what the writer felt he could “get away with” in order to tell the story he wanted us to believe that he could tell.

Still, that shouldn’t dissuade you from going to see the film. It really does hit on all cylinders and should prove to be the hit that Millar and JRJR hoped it would be; and for that I’m very happy for them

Kick Ass: The Movie

Last year (was it really just last year?) Marvel Comics introduced us to a creator-owned, adult-themed, violent, superhero property written by Mark Millar (Wanted) and John Romita, Jr. (Amazing Spider-Man) entitled Kick Ass. I purchased the first three issues of the series, before deciding to pass on the concept (and the series) in its entirety. Now it is being translated into a big-screen (R-Rated) film.

Kick Ass is about an otherwise ordinary New York City high school student named Dave Lizewski, who takes his love of comics to an otherwise unprecedented level in that he actually transforms himself into a real-life superhero. He assembles a suit and mask, which he wears under his normal clothing, begins exercising, and practices things like walking on roofs and the like.


Oh yeah, the thing is, he isn't bitten by a spider (either radioactive or genetically enhanced), exposed to gamma radiation, injected with a super soldier formula, or builds a suit of armor. He is, as ordinary as are you or I. Still he Eventually looks to fight crime. His first attempt very nearly gets him killed as he takes a severe beating and stabbing by thugs. This is followed by his wandering off into the street and being hit by a car.

Not the most auspicious start. Still he (as Monty Python would tell us) gets better, inspires others (Hit-Girl, Big Daddy, and Red Mist), and together they...well, here’s where we que the videotape as it were:


Kick-Ass

Trailer Park | MySpace Video

This vid was shown off at the 2009 San Diego ComicCon, and well, was a big hit. Look for it around April 2010.

Wanted!

Hey, last night I went to see Wanted, — which, as we all know is based on the eponymous Top Cow comicbook by written by Mark Millar with art by J. G. Jones. I justed wanted to crack wise, praise it for being wonderful. The film’s premise is that about a 1,000 year-old fraternity of assassins grew out of a society of weavers, who wanted to keep the world in a proper order. They get their mission hits from a mystical loom that is powered by Fate. The targets come out in a series of codes that are translated by their leader, Sloan (Morgan Freeman). well the fraternity’s safety is compromised by Cross, and assassin gone rouge. So his son Wesley (James McAvoy)is recruited to be trained and fight back. this flick co-stars Angelina Jolie as Fox, one of the fraternity’s top hitters.

This film shows off it’s pedigree as the premise of it could only have been developed by comicbooks writers as it really only works in sort of a Matrix-style universe, where assassins can “curve” bullets, or speed up their hears so that they can react faster to situations than those around themselves. Don’t get me wrong, this is all fine, and — for the purpose of this film — that premise works just fine, but it it really is the sort of shorthand that comicbook writers use to get their stories to work.