Kick-Ass 2 #7 – Review

By: Mark Millar (writer), John Romita, Jr. (breakdowns), Tom Palmer (inks), Dean White (colors), Chris Eliopoulos (letters) & Aubrey Sitterson (editor)

The Story: The big showdown between the “heroes” and the “villains” doesn’t go quite as planned.

A Few Things:

1. Again…”superheroes” in reality. – The whole premise of Kick-Ass is kinda to show what a silly idea superheroes are.  This fact shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone.  Little boys who have watched wrestling, boxing or MMA and decide to “try it out” with their friends know that getting dropped on your head or hit in the face with a stick really hurts.  Still, it’s funny that Marvel/DC shovel so much of that stuff at us and we just eat it without really wondering how superheroes in the non-Hulk/Superman class are able to endure so many bare-knuckled, super-powered blows to the face…  Millar and team don’t shy away from showing us the nasty brutality of these fights.  In fact, that’s the calling card of this series. Seeing the wonderful way that Millar and Romita make you feel the nastiness of the action with people getting mauled, smashed and bleeding everywhere.  They really put you down in the mud and the blood.

2. Ouch! Hit Girl… – Nice moment for Hit-Girl in this issue…  She’s been borderline untouchable in this series so far, but c’mon… She weighs like 50 pounds.  There’s a reason why Manny Pacquiao  and Floyd Mayweather aren’t looking to get into a boxing ring with either of the Klitschko brothers– it’s because they’d get killed.  Again, this is the REAL world that Millar is showing us and skill only makes up massive size differences when the person you’re attacking is completely unskilled.  On top of that, Millar pops the bubble of how “highly trained” Hit-Girl really is. I mean, she was trained by her dad who was a comic book artist.  How badass can you get that way?  It recalls those old ads for “learning karate” at home in old comic books.   In this issue, we see what happens when Hit Girl has to fight someone with legit skills.  But, the cool outcome of that fight is that Hit Girl wins because a) real world shit happens to her opponent and b) Hit Girl– like Kick Ass, has fighting spirit.  And in some ways, “fighting spirit” is the only superpower anyone in this story really has.

3. Can’t tell them apart. – I love how Millar shows us another reality of “heroes versus villains” when the police aren’t that supportive of a bunch of vigilantes trying to help and can’t tell them apart because they all look like freaks.  It’s like the genesis of the Kick-Ass concept was Millar sitting around with buddies making fun of superhero comics by saying, “you know what would really happen if Batman jumped off a building?  First, he’d probably die.  Second, even if he survived, they’d lock him up for assault or being insane.”  Superheroes are kinda silly when Millar shines the light on them.

WCBR’s Top Picks

Dean’s Top Picks

Best From The Past Week: The Unwritten #35 – What a great week for comics!  My method for picking a “winner” is to take the stack of comics and separate them into “possible contenders” and “nope”.  This week, the “possible contender” stack was much larger than “nope”.  My runner-up is Saga #1, but I gave the nod to The Unwritten #35 because it is more difficult to provide satisfying answers after ~2.5 years of storytelling than it is to have a gangbusters #1 issue.  I give points for degree of difficulty!  The Unwritten has been a slow-burn of a series that has spun a lot of intricate questions during its run.  Sometimes these types of stories collapse upon themselves, but that looks not to be happening.  All of the answers provided in this issue were satisfying and made sense.  And, in doing that, this issue is also helping The Unwritten to achieve it’s bigger goal of becoming an evergreen title that people still read in trade 10 years later.  You know how these ongoing Vertigo series are: If the finales are mediocre, they kinda diminish what has come before.  Based on this issue, The Unwritten still has a chance to become one of those timeless classics.  Again, Saga #1: very good and I’m sure that Brian K. Vaughn will give us 30+ issues of excellent story, but it hasn’t happened yet.

Most Anticipated: Batman #7 – See, it isn’t all about creator-owned comics with me!  I can get excited about superheroes too….when they’re good.  And the Snyder, Capullo, et al Batman has been so wonderful thus far that it’s my pick this week.  I’ve never read a Snyder comic book that I didn’t like.  I’ve never read a Capullo-illustrated comic that wasn’t insanely attractive.  These two guys are currently batting 1.000 and logic would say that they can’t keep it up…..but they haven’t disappointed yet.  Thus, I’m most excited about Batman #7 in a week that is stacked with interesting comics.  It’s really insane that this pathetically small comic industry is producing so much excellent product.  We comic fans are spoiled.

Other Picks: Dominique Laveau: Voodoo Child #1, Michael Kaluta Sketchbook Series Vol. 1, Rocketeer Adventures 2 #1, Hoax Hunters #0, Prophet #23, Rebel Blood #1, Amazing Spider-Man #682, Kick Ass 2 #7, Super Crooks #1, Hack/Slash #14

Alex’s Top Picks

Best From The Past Week: Fantastic Four #604 – I thought it impossible that something would beat Saga #1, but here we are.  The conclusion of Jonathan Hickman’s 3-year story was nothing less than a perfect, fist-pumping, watery eyed conclusion.  Great, great comics here.

Most Anticipated: Batman #7 – Scott Snyder’s Batman is without a doubt one of the finest books on stands currently.  After a couple of months lost in a maze, getting the crap kicked out of him both mentally and physically, I’m very much looking forward to Bruce, now having escaped, getting his revenge on the Court of Owls.  It’s time for Batman to go back to being the hunter.

Other Picks: Justice League #7, Wonder Woman #7, Invincible Iron Man #514, Uncanny X-Men #9, Wolverine #303