Kick-Ass 2 #4 - Mobile Edition

Marvel Comics
Kick-Ass 2 #4
By Hervé St-Louis
October 1, 2011 - 11:44

Marvel Comics
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Writer(s): Mark Millar
Penciller(s): John Romita Jr.
Inker(s): Tom Palmer
Colourist(s): Dean White, Michael Kelleher
Letterer(s): Chris Eliopoulos
Cover Artist(s): John Romita Jr.
$2.99 US

The Red Mist (aka The Motherfucker) ’s league of super villain unleashes its wrath on an entire neighbourhood, killing children, cops, innocent bystanders as well as severely rapping Kick-Ass’ girlfriend. The authorities have had enough with costumed freaks and decide to clean up the trash. Will Kick-Ass make it through?

While I like Kick-Ass, this issue is so easy to predict that one knows where this is going to end. The foreshadowing is more than explicit; Millar practically screams at the reader that Hit-Girl will have a showdown against Mother Russia by the end of this series. Millar likes to do over the top action with unnecessary killing. I don’t see how the plot has moved by showing us that the villains are willing to kill innocent toddlers. It stretches reality that all of the Red Mist’s followers would blindly go into that. One of them does question himself after the rape of Kick-Ass’ girlfriend, but that’s it. The problem is that those goons have not been established as sociopaths earlier in the story. They are just petty crooks. That they would go on with a carnage involving kids is a whole other dimension that Millar does not address.

All Millar cares is for hyperbole it seems and having people commenting on his work and how far he pushes the envelope. The plot this issue, would have worked well for Nemesis, but here it doesn’t work. We’re not dealing with the same type of bad guys here. As a comic book reviewer, I feel manipulated by Millar’s work, because his intent is to generate rightful moral indignation so that more people can talk about his comic book, pick it up, and help his Hollywood career. This is the kind of comic book where the actual story is not happening in the pages of the comic, but beyond. There is an agenda and order to the madness. Millar is not writing a comic book. He’s advertising his skills as a suspense and thriller monger for other people to take notice. He’s not trying to entertain the readers of this comic book, which is why his plots are full of holes and nonsense. He’s telegraphing to another audience who will see the “online outrage” of comic book fans as something that can predict another home run on another Millar project.

In a sense, Kick-Ass has lost its initial purpose of showing what it would be like in real life if there were super heroes. Millar has taken this series beyond and created a reality comic book series where actual real life is changed from how people usually react and act to become a show where all the pretences are that everything is normal, but the guy holding the pen is more interested in being the Snookie of the entertainment scripting world rather than being a real writer.

Romita helps Millar achieve his goal, but I fail to see what else he’ll get out of the deal besides some hefty royalties on the next Kick-Ass film. Tom Palmer does a good job of cleaning up the dirty pencils of Romita. In the Avengers, Romita’s work is a mess of lines. Here, there is an actual flow to the page and lines.

Rating: 4/10