KICK ASS 2 #1

The best comic book of 2008 is back. This sequel certainly feels strange in a lot of ways. One reason is that artist John Romita, Jr. is busy drawing The Avengers, which means that JRJr. is only providing the pencil breakdowns on this series. Another reason is that the film version came out in March and thus this feels bigger than it did when only comic book geeks knew about Dave Lizewski. A lot of people hated the first series. Movie critic Roger Ebert even wrote a scathing review about the film because it depicts a nine year old girl slaughtering people. I loved the first series, though. The film changed a bit to make it more viewer-friendly (in the film, Dave got the girl...and in the film, Nicholas Cage was actually an ex-cop and not a comic book fanboy playing make believe), but the book was hardcore in the most ridiculous sense. It was over-the-top in every category and it was funny, damn funny. It didn't have a moral or a point; that was the point. It was just a real kid becoming a superhero in the real world. This first issue is missing the carnage, but the humor is still there: Dave gets “laughed at in school” when he asks “a babe to go see Prince of Persia.” Dave meets a fellow wannabe superhero that has a “gravity pole.” “What does it do?” Dave asks him. He replies: “Just hit the button and you can make something twenty times its actual weight. Flip the reverse and you can float.” Dave asks, “Seriously?” The guy says, “Are you nuts? It's a baseball wrapped in tinfoil, man. How can anyone build a gravity pole?” This leads into the main storyline that has Dave joining the superhero team Justice Forever. Meanwhile, Red Mist is “traveling in Eastern Europe, out of his face on drugs and collecting all his little Twitter bastards for the shit that was to come.” Mindy is training Kick Ass, but she's still trying to go to school and play nice with her new family. The one problem that I have is that writer Mark Millar gives away the ending to the series; a Times Square battle against Red Mist. The rest of the book isn't as alive and thrilling as the early issues of the first series, but it's still a very entertaining book. JRJr. only did the pencil breakdowns, but it still looks terrific, although not as sharp. If you hated the movie or first series then you'll probably hate this, but so far it's pretty much in step with what's come before. Now bring on the carnage. After all, the original title of this second series was “Balls to the Wall.” ***