Okay so I didn’t love the first mini-series/graphic novel from Mark Millar, and sure, I thought “Kick Ass” the movie was pretty crummy, but overall I was pretty interested in seeing where Mark Millar and John Romita Jr. would go with volume two, the highly anticipated follow-up to the comic book series that proved to be most controversial. I mean sure it’s fishy that this came along right after plans for a sequel were talked about, and fine, many of the new characters seem oddly capable of being…oh… put in a movie with a big star at the helm, but nonetheless I was open minded to the first issue of volume two that sticks true to the first arc of the comic book and thankfully doesn’t adhere to the events of the live action movie.
Volume 2 takes off right after the battle of the first volume with John Romita’s usual sharp art work adding a grit to this insane world filled with walking avengers who vow to fight crime and make very little effort to change the world. Kick Ass has been outed and his headquarters has been blown to the ground by Red Mist, his dream girl still hates his guts, his friends are still comic book fanboys, Mindy MacReady is now living with a stable family and a dad who is begging her to put her past life behind her as she sneaks around behind his back (there’s one humorous scene involving an armory under Mindy’s floor), and Dave and co. have engaged in a fairly massive superhero and super villain war in Times Square.
This then backtracks to the events prior that have Kick Ass being trained by Mindy/Hit Girl who is readying him for combat and tailoring him as a sidekick while Kick Ass is dealing with infamy and watches brand new superheroes and super villains blossoming from every corner of the web, with the possibility of superhero teams making an appearance soon. With Red Mist out of commission for a bit, Kick Ass patrols the streets of New York in costume with his new partner Dr. Gravity, an African American man who takes great pleasure in patrolling and finds a sick pleasure in dressing as a superhero.
What was once a form of sadism has now become a fetish akin to furries, where people dress in the anonymity of a superhero and walk around rarely learning their compatriots identities and taking pleasure in their own practices. While I fail to find much entertainment in the events of the first issue involving a potential all out war, and new characters who take this fetish much too seriously as indicated in the final splash of the first issue, the real treat is Mindy MacReady who is now living the live of a preteen garnering cellphones, purses, going to parties and living a life of monotony anxiously trying to escape the clutches of the superhero world, while Kick Ass finds an entirely new dimension of this world he’s created where menaces linger in every dark corner, Kick Ass is readying for a big rumble, and Justice Forever has plans of their own that we’ve yet to imagine. A strong issue for a mediocre franchise, overall.