I was never the biggest fan of the Kick Ass franchise, but I liked the movies and I understand why it’s popular. Mark Millar’s violent, bloody, and kind of icky take on superheroes is a definite product of its time in that it provided a deconstructionist view of the sub genre that showed audiences that vigilante violence isn’t really that glamorous and can be incredibly bloody and destructive.
Now, a new book in the franchise arises with the titular character facing off against everyone’s favorite little girl psycho assassin. Let’s see how it turns out.
Written by Steve NilesCover by: John Romita Jr.
Illustrated by Marcelo Frusin
Colored by Sunny Gho
Lettered by John Workman
NEW STORY ARC! It’s KICK-ASS versus HIT-GIRL. Old allies become enemies when Mindy screeches into Albuquerque to kill the imposter who’s been running gangs in New Mexico. And as Hit-Girl sets out to avenge Dave and stop Kick-Ass’ criminal operations for good, Patience fights to survive as the target of the best assassin in the biz-and questions whether she could ever kill a child to save her own life.
“Kick Ass vs. Hit Girl” #1 opens with the new Kick Ass, a woman named Patience Lee, vowing to get herself out of the life she created for herself and which used to involve robbing drug dealers and either giving their money away or burning it. Unfortunately, the gang of killers that she’s gathered around herself feel that they don’t need her anymore, and the cartels are willing to strike a deal for Patience’s head. Also, Hit Girl is here for some reason and makes her presence known the best way she knows how: through the mindless and bloody destruction of some random goons.
Steve Niles continues taking the reins of the franchise and provides the writing for “Kick Ass vs. Hit Girl” #1. Sadly, his background in horror comics doesn’t serve him very well for a vigilante crime thriller and it shows. His writing has some good points–there’s some good internal conflict with the main character trying to balance life without the mask with the very real and terrifying violence that the masked life creates–but there isn’t really anything that makes the book unique or interesting. Hero stories are well trod ground in comics and any new stories have a hell of an uphill battle to achieve recognition. Sadly, this conflict is delivered in a boring internal monologue through boring captions over boring action.
But all this pales in the light of the book’s biggest failing: its pacing. “Kick Ass vs. Hit Girl” #1 is a book that sells itself on the spectacle of seeing the titular hero fight a former ally who is one of the greatest forces of destruction in comic book history. And yet, we have no explanation as to why these characters are fighting and what might be done to reconcile the two. They don’t even meet in the book, they’re just introduced separately and Hit Girl is just there to remind the reader that she exists. It feels like the book is being lazy because the creators know it will sell based on the title and the reputation of the franchise, which is incredibly disappointing.
Artist Marcelo Frusin is the artist in “Kick Ass vs Hit Girl” #1 and teams up with colorist Sunny Gho to provide art that does a good job of uplifting the pretty standard writing. Frusin has a deceptively simple and effective narrow line art style and is very good at displaying nuance and emotion, which helps uplift the slow and kind of boring opening of the book. There are a couple of instances where the faces feel like they might have been traced and near the end Hit Girl looks a little bit weird, but it’s nothing too serious and shouldn’t distract from the book too much.
The best parts of “Kick Ass vs. Hit Girl” #1 happen when Frusin’s pencils combine with Gho’s colors to create some pretty cool action. Frusin and Gho make really good use of light and shadow in the middle of the book to create a very cool stylized look and the action utilizes some pretty extreme close ups of some impressive blood and gore effects to give the action a sense of frenzied blood and destruction.
Continued below“Kick Ass vs. Hit Girl” #1 is not a terrible book. It has some very good artwork and doesn’t pull its punches when it comes to the action and blood. Unfortunately, action and violence alone cannot sell a book and while it makes a valiant effort to tell a good story, it’s all stuff we’ve seen a million times before and doesn’t do a very good job of hyping up the title and its reason for existence. The pacing is the true death knell of the book and makes it feel like a product that knows it can be lazy because it can coast on the reputation of the title.
Maybe the next issue will be better.
Final Verdict: 5.7- A functional but pretty bland superhero crime thriller that doesn’t do a whole lot to separate itself from the pack and is probably just for die hard fans and completionists.
