Kick-Ass!

Mark Millar? Pass.

They're actually calling it "Kick-Ass"? Are they just not trying anymore? What's next? "Tits in Spandex"?

Knowing Millar, his next project will involve Reed Richards as a teenage rapist stalking the neighborhood for women to violate with his elastic body parts. The title?

COCKS & RUBBERS

Pay no attention to Headless. I am personally looking forward to this series, it seems to be one of Millars most ambitious. The soundtrack and viral video have gotten me in the mood for the tone of this series. God willing it will live up to the promise of being a realistic take on low level heroism.

Well, there goes the premise of the entire series down the shitter. The only reality this comic has is that Millar is full of shit. This comic will now be known as BLOW ASS.

Cheers!

To wit:

Methinks that Millar got so excited about writing about nine year old girls that he forgot the whole "realism" thing.

I

Christ, Fett, why do you talk so much about a series you claim to want nothing to do with? Personally, I'll give it a chance when it comes out. But then I'll let you have your opinion based mostly in nothing.

Yeah, christ. Try reading it first.

I got a kick outta the preview: http://comics.ign.com/articles/849/849643p1.html

I enjoy the humorous "unreliable/delusional narrator" take (see: SCRUBS). I'll have to check it out.

Just finished it and really liked it. Romita's art was just about the best I'd ever seen it, and really suited the story which surprised me as he tends to do big epic superhero stuff. Millar is being a little bit more subdued here than usual, which is much appreciated. I usually like his stuff, but it'll be interesting if he'll keep restrained as the series goes on. From what I can guess this book doesn't need the typical insanity he comes up with. We'll just wait and see, I guess.

Interesting comparison there. I think they could very well make some sort of comment on that as the series goes on.

I casually picked this up the other day. I'm open to a second issue, but holy shit, this was honestly, truly, the very worst comic book I've ever read.

Is it really entertaining? He spends the whole issue whining in a bed, then burns all his comics (ooooh edgy!) then fights some puerto ricans and just doesn't get his ass kicked as much. Still had the same lame pop culture references.

Kinetic from DC's short lived DC Focus imprint of books was better.

Really? That bad, huh?

What was it specifically that you didn't like? At the very least the art is gorgeous.

Apparently, he thought so. Stupid question.

I love how people use the word edgy to sum up that they don't have any legitimate criticism for something. That moment in the comic, while you may not have liked it, was organic to the story. He was mad at himself for getting swept up with the desire to be a superhero, so he burned the things that inspired him to do it. I'm so completely sure that when Mark Millar wrote that perfectly appropriate character moment he was expecting to blow everyone's fucking mind and have the crusty old comic industry implode with his shocking new idea.

I also like how you boiling down the issue to its strictest terms somehow proves it's bad in your mind. It's like Randall in Clerks II summarizing the Lord of the Rings movies as being nothing but walking. You can strip anything down to be about nothing the way you just did.

This is a very Mark Millar book, so it's going to be polarizing like that. I don't see much of a middle ground for people who read it outside of the art, which is almost undeniably great. I'm liking it so far, but that solicitation mentioned somewhere above has me wary of where it's going to go.

This comic has nothing to say. Relentlessly brutal and vulgar without any insight whatsoever. I'll read a second issue because I feel that perhaps it's building to some sort of big statement, but the writing is sophomoric, second-grade equivalent garbage.

Cordo, I'm not a regular comic book reader, and haven't developed any feelings for Millar at all. I don't understand your defense in the least.

I'm a big JRJR fan so naturally I got the first issue. Apparently I didn't hate it as much as some of you did. I thought the concept has a lot of potential and it's going to take a bit of time for that to be realized. However, having read the second issue, I feel we're already wasting time.

The first beating was too over the top and completely unnecessary, I want to see how the "YouTube" aspect of this plays out (I think that could be interesting) but this should have been what happened in the first issue. Have the character get beaten silly but somehow "save" a person like he does in this issue and take it from there.

As it stands, I really fail to see what the big point of the 1st issue was, not to mention the miraculous recovery the protagonist undergoes in such a short period of time. I did think this was going to take a much more realistic approach to things, but it seems that was just hype.

I'm still going to get issue #3, but not sure after that.

I can appreciate that. I'm not really expecting it to say anything, myself. Millar's not one for allegory by his own admission. While he does write things based on real life situations and ideas, he's usually not attempting to put across any specific point. Civil War's marketing would seem to contradict this, but that was all Marvel's bullshit hype.

Personally, I'm just wanting to be entertained by this particular book, and find the art alone makes it worth sticking with for the time being.

He wasn't defending it from you. He recognized someone expecting it to be thought-provoking wouldn't like it, such as yourself, but also pointed out there are many people who will read it with an anti-Millar bias that will colour their opinion.


It sounds like this is more of a problem with month-to-month comics with the way the storytelling has evolved. Unfortunately, most of these titles come across best in trade where you may not notice that there was an entire issue where 'nothing happened' as much.

Personally, I don't mind so much. I read a stack of comics a week and have my fun with 'em regardless of how mildly irksome the serialized nature can be. It's not like I can't pick something else up in the mean time, and it's usually somewhat fun waiting to find out what happens next.

So... what you're saying is that this comic is worthless but you still like it? I'm trying to follow this here.

A comic may have the best art in the world but if the story is shit then it's just a waste of money.

No, I'm saying it's not thought-provoking, but I'm not expecting it to be so I'm not bothered by the fact that I find it to be nothing more than mindlessly entertaining.

Also, I didn't find the book decompressed nearly as much as others have, so my point about not really minding decompression was aside of how I felt about this book.


I wasn't trying to say that the art should supersede all other considerations about the book. What I meant to get across (and apparently failed, my mistake) was that the art alone should keep the book from being one of the most horrible ever.

Additionally, I haven't found it to be shit so far, so I'm not wasting any money anyway. Later issues may turn me off, though. I tend to see these things through to the end, usually so it'd have to get insanely horrible to make me stop. It's only $3 an issue and I re-sell them to a used bookstore (if not on eBay for the 'hot' ones) so I can't complain about wasting the money. It's the same thing if I see a movie. It could be shit, but I don't know until I see it, do I? At least I can see some sort of return with comics.

Smeagol, you've got some low fucking expectations.

That's what SHE said!

Considering that the second issue transitions from David hallucinating his dead mother at his bedside to his miraculous recovery, subsequent beat down of three gang members, and issue 4 apparently introducing a 9-year-old hitgirl called Hit-Girl, i'm inclined to think this series may end with a rather cliche twist. Cliche but appropriate, though, since the only way a costumed superhero could succeed or exist in the real world is in the delusional mind of a critically injured comic book nerd while he's recuperating in the hospital.

How dare I. It's not like having such expectations leads to pleasant surprises or anything.

If you wanna say, "I'm just reading this for mindless entertainment", then you've forfeit your right to be self-righteous about it.

This is such a bullshit elitist argument you've started. It's like you think everything you enjoy is of such unquestionable brilliance and of lofty social, political and spiritual value, or else it should be.

Sometimes you should just want to have fun. So what? This is one of those books thus far. I'm not espousing the idea one should merely enjoy things that are vacuous, but that you can't fault something for being so when it doesn't proclaim to be anything else.

Also, the jury isn't even in yet. The story isn't even close to finished, so shut the fuck up. You're the one being self-righteous here, I'm just returning the favour by appealing to fucking reason.

You haven't even said what's so fun about this book geared to teens revolving around mindless violence AGAINST children.

Because it wasn't necessarily pertinent to the discussion at hand. I'm not here to convince anybody that they should like it, or even why I did. It's obvious people will either love this book or hate it, so all I'm doing is giving shit to the useless nonsense spouted against it that belies a complete lack of logic or reason. If you're going to insult something with as much passion as you and Mike Shayne have, at least have your criticism be coherent and rational.

To summarize what I've been saying: The art's solid, the story's unfinished, you don't have to like it, it's not trying to be thought-provoking, it's just entertainment and that's okay sometimes, end of fucking story. Should I give you flash cards for all that or do I have to repeat it another sixty thousand times?

It's very telling in all of this is how often you've said "I don't get XYZ." throughout this thread, when people have said in no uncertain terms exactly what they meant at every turn. Even Mike Shayne with his pathetic reductive arguing is faring better than you here.

I also find how you've hidden exactly how the book's content offended you until now very funny. Oh the poor fictional children! You should start a campaign to save all these suffering non-existant kids if you feel that strongly about it.

Or perhaps you should focus your time and indignant bullshit on something worth it. Try and say that back to me, and hopefully you'll be halted by the fact you''ll be defending your right to reactionary clap-trap against a plea for common sense.

In the interest of not giving you any more inches to run like a jackass with, I will say that the book engaged me in its story sufficiently to have me actually want to read the next issue. That is literally enough for me to keep reading it until such point as I don't feel that way. It had an interesting premise, great art, and admittedly crass absurd black humour, but sometimes that's all I need from a piece of entertainment when I want to unwind.

There's humor in this book?

Also, are you really blasting me because of the "effort" I'm giving in this thread?

Gosh, posting is hard.

Smeagol, don't get sand in your vagina because you like bad comic books. The Earth keeps spinning.

I can't believe you guys are putting so much effort fighting over this comic.

I can't believe you went through all the trouble to post that response. GAWD.

FINGER CRAMP!

I think the only suffering that people are enduring in this thrwad is in reading your posts.

Hey you started this bullshit. I actually was interested in why you didn't like it and politely asked for elaboration because I actually have an interest in hearing about peoples' differing viewpoints. Unfortunately you had to be an arrogant cunt about it.

It's Kabong's bullshit elitist attitude that's pissed me off. Somehow, because I like something he does not (and more importantly, because I enjoy the occasional vacuous piece of entertainment), he is the best fucking person on the planet. Once again, put that attitude in a context of me actually attempting to engage him in a civil discussion of what he didn't like and why, and of course I'm going to get pissed off.

I actually heard the King of Queens audience going "Ooooooh!" when I read this cutesy post.

If you're going to be a prick, at least spell correctly. I understand typos happen, but they steal the thunder from your smug bullshit.

Oh good, Smeagol's at it again. I guess the COBRA ran out, and he can't get his medication anymore.

Do you have a manual you all get these little quips from? I'd like to track down all copies of it and burn them.

Also, I'll preempt your "It's called the dictionary/English For Dummies/insert other unimaginative title here." jokes right now, thanks.

Actually, they come right out of my brain. If you had an operable one, I suppose you could have preempted that as well.

Quick, everybody, I've got him distracted! Discuss the comic!

So now you're going to attack me on how I only cut off so many of your tired predictable responses. You know you're on a great footing when you're doing that.

I like how you actually seem to think I was being out of line here. Kabong was being a prick when I attempted to discuss the comic, so I gave him hell for it. I literally asked him why he didn't like it and he acted the role of an elitist snob. Fuck you for being so stupid to not read the posts and grasp that. Your brain must be somewhat inoperable, too.

You're adorable when you think you're right.

Funny, I could say the same to you.

Smeagol, you haven't said anything of substance in this thread other than, "Hey, I like it!" Also, I imagined you throwing up your hands in mock innocence when you did this, which gave me a laugh.

That's all he ever does. I'd love to see Smeagol and Isildur's Bangs get into an argument. They'd both hang on like pit bulls and repeat themselves without end. The argument would eventually so monopolize both their time that they'd lose their jobs and families, stop eating, and collapse.

Well I have only read the first issue and I don't think it was face melting awful. I think Millar is just trying to rush the concept of a world full of real life people in spandex. So while the first issue should be more about the kid's world and life, he rushed into the over-the-top violence. He also confuses vulgarity for the way kids talk. You can't fake it with a few jizz and fucks thrown around. Still, I'm curious what a world full of non-super heroes would like.

Step outiside and take a look around.