Editor's Note: Kick-Ass #2 arrives in stores tomorrow, April 2.

Ariel Carmona Jr.: 3.5 Bullets
Paul Brian McCoy: 2.5 Bullets
Dave Wallace: 4 Bullets

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Ariel Carmona Jr. 3.5 Bullets

The greatest thing about Mark Millar's new series Kick-Ass may be that the creators seem to be having a great time putting together the project, and it shows in the tale of a nerdy average joe turned superhero sans the fancy powers and support group.

Millar has ventured into similar gritty territory before, most notably while penning the Wanted mini series which Hollywood picked up and turned into a new action flick starring Angelina Jolie, but this new book is different because it infuses realism into the story of an everyman while at the same time poking fun at all the conventions of the superhero genre.

This month's issue begins with Lizewski waking up from the brutal beating he received last issue, and Millar turns in some great character moments when the kid is more preoccupied with his dad finding out the details to his super heroics gone awry than about his physical ailments and seriously critical injuries.

The problem with this comic's narrative is that it's mostly an extension of what's come before without much more character development than what was presented in the debut issue. However, the story still resonates because even though the premise isn't new, the execution and approach to it is, and we as readers are eager to see it through.

This is helped immensely, of course, by John Romita Jr's vibrant and kinetic artwork, whose distinctive style, as usual, leaps off every page and aids in enhancing the narrative through some stunningly beautiful and highly stylized line work which is further enhanced by the beautiful work turned in by colorist Dean White.

After stints on World War Hulk, Wolverine and the Amazing Spider-Man to name a few, Romita Jr. may be at the top of his game, but he may also be enjoying doing illustrations for an untested, innovative new projects after having tackled some of Marvel's best known properties. The same may be said of Millar, who is no stranger to big summer projects, as well as to more low key, creator based work like Kick Ass.

The big question remains: will the creators be able to sustain the energy and fresh feel associated with this comic and how far can they take the tale of someone who's basically just a normal person living outside the Marvel Universe? Of course, this assumes the story is set in the real world where Spider-Man and others are just fictional fabrications, but I suppose the creators could always pull an ace out of their sleeves by presenting some larger than life creations in future installments, if they ever find themselves creatively stuck.

In the end, this book's future will be determined by Millar's ability to make his characters compelling, as is the job of any storyteller, and if he falters, not even the best looking pages will be able to bail him out. Somehow, I don't see it happening though. Thus far this book has been a refreshing reprieve from other Marvel titles steeped in current continuity or summer crossover events.

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Paul Brian McCoy: 2.5 Bullets

The excitement and over-the-top violence of the last issue kind of fizzles a bit this time around. The thing I was most interested in going into this issue was how Dave could survive the severe beating he took from the vandals when topped off with being hit by a car. His back and both legs were broken, and he was in his costume.

I'm really not impressed with the explanation. Seems he was found naked instead of in his tights, and the only explanation is that he must have had just enough strength to get out of his costume. With a broken back and two broken legs.

My immediate response was, bullshit. Someone must have helped him. But then what happened to the costume? Nothing, apparently, since he's got it back later this issue. I guess he really did have just enough strength. And a careful re-reading reveals that the costume is stashed under a parked car. I don't know how he gets it back, since he's in the hospital for months, followed by another couple of months bed-ridden at home, but when he's ready to go out again, there it is.

It's an easy out to a major problem for the character, and it cheapens the story in my eyes.

The rest of the issue is broken into two main parts: Dave's recuperation and rehabilitation, and then his next adventure. The rehab is all right, with a lot of time spent with Dave worrying about his dad and deciding to do the right thing when he can walk again. All of which is dropped and made meaningless in the space of a panel as he chucks all that and goes back out in his costume. I guess Dave really is just an ass. He deserves whatever beatings he gets.

And, in a return of the troublesome motif of the first issue, he gets into a fight with another group of minorities. Puerto Ricans, this time. After being threatened with castration by a group of girls of indeterminate ethnicity.

If you've seen the YouTube video promoting this series, you know what happens next.

At least the Puerto Ricans are actual gang members or something, and they're actually attempting to beat up a guy. I still say painting graffiti shouldn't be a crime. At the very least, it shouldn't be something to get physically assaulted over.

Romita's art is good, again, but it's a little overwhelmed by the line work. All of the shading in this book is done in a pen-and-ink style that looks vaguely like block printing. It's not a bad thing, but when, for example, we are seeing a scene from over the shoulders of a crowd of people, all the heads kind of run together into a mass of vertical lines. If it wasn't for White's coloring, the art would be flat and very difficult to follow.

Thanks to a special behind the scenes bit at the end of the comic, we get to see the process from script to pencils, pencils to inks, and inks to colors. This really drives home the problem I'm having with the line work. The pencils have a lot of lines designating shading and textures, but not all of them are needed in the final result. Nevertheless, Palmer inks every last one of them distinctly, turning the black and white art into a confusing mass of lines with hardly any distinction in width or weight. The colors are then used to really emphasize the shading and this makes a lot of those excess lines unnecessary.

So while the art is still good, and that image of Dave twisted and broken in the street is still cringe-inducing, overall, the inking is taking away the power and clarity of Romita's storytelling. When this is combined with a lackluster second issue script, it's hard to work up a lot of enthusiasm for this issue or the next. It's rare for a comic to have me so excited one month and then almost completely uninterested by the end of the next, but this one has done it.

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Dave Wallace: 4 Bullets


Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.'s creator-owned miniseries continues with a second issue which delves further into the psyche of wannabe superhero Dave Lizewski. Millar takes the time to flesh out his lead more fully this issue, without sacrificing the violent, slightly disturbing edge that made the first issue so memorable.

The issue begins with a long sequence which spells out the consequences of the severe beating that "Kick-Ass" suffered at the end of the last issue. A montage of scenes shows Lizewski's slow recovery from his injuries, reinforcing the idea that the book is set in a world where bloody injuries and broken bones can't be shrugged off as easily as they are in most comic books. We also get a lot of insight into Lizewski's character here, as Millar shows him to be even more obsessed and deluded than he seemed last issue. Dave genuinely seems to believe that he can live up to the classic superhero model, referring to his discarded wetsuit as "the tights," and eventually convincing himself to play vigilante again, despite the results of his last attempt.

Even more so than last issue, it's implied that Liewski has some fairly severe psychological problems: we see the would-be hero experience some fairly grim hallucinations and delusions as he recovers in his hospital bed, and there's evidence of a heavy guilt complex and a self-loathing streak as he wrestles with the decision of whether to don the costume again. However, amongst this fairly extreme portrayal of a troubled youth, Millar hits on some common truths, too. Anyone who has ever found themselves or one of their loved ones compelled to do something that they know isn't ultimately good for them (whether through addiction or otherwise) will recognise the self-deception and the cycle of self-destructive behaviour that Lizewski enters into here.

One of the strengths of Kick-Ass is that it doesn't sell its real-world concept short in the same way that so many other stories about "superheroes in the real world" do. Books like Marvels, Supreme Power, newuniversal and even Watchmen draw much of their appeal from their real-world setting, but as soon as they introduce super-powered beings into the equation, they inevitably lose some of their authenticity as they set their fictional "reality" apart from the world of their readers. That's not always a bad thing (the godlike powers of Dr. Manhattan in Watchmen, for example, are an important thematic element and plot point of that book), but I think that it would be a mistake for Kick-Ass to go down that route, as its core appeal stems from the idea that the central character is taking what he knows of superheroes from comics and movies and trying to apply the concepts in a harsh, unforgiving reality. I'm not surprised that there are already rumours of a movie adaptation of this book, because the premise is so simple, accessible and immediately appealing to anyone who enjoys superheroes - and Millar gets some good mileage out of the subversion of superhero clichés.

John Romita Jr.'s artwork is as strong here as it was last issue, and in conjunction with the solid, confident inks of Tom Palmer, he’s turning in some of his best work to date. Romita pulls off the combination of harsh reality and fantastical flights of fancy well, giving the would-be hero some moments of real intensity (he even looks pretty cool in places) but filling the book with realistic detail which underpins the real-world setting. Romita’s sense of storytelling is also strong here, particularly during the montage which shows Dave's recovery from the injuries sustained last issue. The book even includes a few pages of extras, showing the transition of one page of the book from the initial script through pencils, inks and all the way through to the final colours. I appreciate the inclusion of this kind of extra material in monthly issues, and it gives readers an extra incentive to check out the single issues rather than waiting for the inevitable collected edition.

Kick-Ass is not what I would call a particularly edifying read, but it's an entertaining one nonetheless, and this second issue has surprised me by continuing the heavy focus on characterisation that we saw in the first issue as well as taking the plot to some unexpected places. The final developments of this issue mirror the denouement of the previous issue, which initially made me worry that the book was going to get repetitive very quickly. However, Millar twists the premise of the nasty cliffhanger from last issue into a different direction here, with a final page which promises to take the story to a different level next issue. I’m interested to see how it plays out.

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