I'm going to come right out and say it. I'm not a huge fan of Mark Millar's work. By that I mean that while I enjoyed his writing on Spidey and The Ultimates and Civil War, I didn't feel like I was hearing the voice of a true creator in the field of comics. I saw the horrible film adaptation of Wanted and felt like I wasted nearly two hours of my life watching that piece of shit when I could have been out doing something productive like being forcibly sodomized by a gang of mutant bikers. Those notions quickly evaporated about three pages into his masterpiece titled Kick-Ass.
Calling this brilliant work of art a masterpiece doesn't seem good enough. A masterwork? A Magnum Opus? No, it still feels like those badges seem too miniscule to do justice to the outrageously fantastic work that is Kick-Ass.
What really gets me about this book is Millar's characterization. Dave Lizewski is an average fourteen year old. Average...not out of the ordinary in any way. Smart, but not too smart. Athletic, but not a jock. Hopelessly in love with a classmate to the point that he puts on the front of being gay so that she will be his friend. Dave is the greatest of superhero characters for one reason: He's the comic book realization that every reader has but is too much of a pussy to follow through with. He puts on the mask and tights and does it, and gets the holy fuck beaten out of him in the process. Not without reward, but not without more than his share of lumps to boot.
While the story is engrossing and there are more than enough characters to keep the reader interseted, the beauty in this book is the service it does to the comic fan. Dave's impetus for putting on the mask is his love of comics. Another character finances his crusade by selling old comics to the highest bidder.
This title is the epitome of what a great comic should be. A superhero book for the guy with no superpowers. A book with it's finger so firmly planted on the pulse of modern society that it uses the social networking of the internet as a plot device. A piece of fiction so compelling that one might wonder if their child might follow Dave's lead and become something so"Kick-Ass" that the world has no other recourse but to sit back and take notice.
Tyler
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