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Kick-Ass 3 (2014)

by Mark Millar(Favorite Author)

4.05 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

0785184880 (ISBN13: 9780785184881)

languge

English

genre

Graphic Novels & Comics

publisher

Marvel

review 1: Mark Miller is a hard man to like. Mark Miller must always write work that can only be majorly hated or loved. His work is quite like Frank Miller’s, which by the way is not related to Mark, they just share the same last name. He has written various comics such as Marvel’s Civil War, Wanted and American Jesus, as well as Kick-Ass. Wanted is quite hated by most people, Civil War is quite famous and well liked, and people are divided on Kick-Ass. Well, the comics at least. Everyone I know thinks the first Kick-Ass film is amazing (film is much better than the comic) and everyone is pretty clear on their dislike of Kick-Ass 2 (comic is much better then film).Kick-Ass has the quite famous plot of a boy named Dave who decides he wants to be a superhero, but isn’t re... moreally good at his job, but does it because he wants to make a difference. He also gets help from the psychopathic Hit-Girl, a 12-15 year old who kills and swears by the hundreds, but is somehow likable. He fights against the mob and the Red Mist (who in Kick-Ass 2 (Balls to the Wall) changed his name to the Mother-Fucker), his arch enemy. In Kick-Ass 3, things aren’t going all that well for Kick-Ass. Hit-Girl is in prison, which leaves Kick-Ass to run the Justice Forever team of heroes by himself. Meanwhile, one of the uncles of the Mother Fucker is planning to form a super mob, which would allow him to control from Miami to Florida if I remember correctly. He is also known as the Iceman, due to his solid gold ice pick he uses to kill people, and he plans to use it on Hit-Girl and Kick-Ass. I view Kick-Ass as a guilty pleasure. The similarities to Frank Miller’s work are quite noticeable in this series, with the extreme amounts of violence and language and slight sexism. But if you ignore the slightly one dimensional characters and weird plot points and character choices, you’ll find there is really some heart behind this comic. I really like the characters…most of the time, and I am always shocked with whatever is on the next page, be it the gore, humour or plot twist. But while I do appreciate the art, I don’t really like it. I think the drawings are dry and bland, and while some can say they are realistic in their dark view of the world, it doesn’t jell with me very well. I also have something to say about how the plot moves along.Characters make some weird choices…actually that’s not right; Mark Miller makes some weird choices with the plot and how characters act. Kick-Ass’s only problem with running the Justice Forever team is one guy refuses to listen to him…or do anything. That’s it. In the comic’s defence this plot point does go somewhere but it felt like a tiny problem that Mark made the characters make such a big deal out of. Then there is the whole plot point about how Kick-Ass meets a girl who he really likes, then starts constantly having sex with her. He is too busy getting laid that he no longer fights crime…and actually barely leaves her apartment. This could be fine is Mark did two things. 1) Tone down the sex…A LOT. And 2) make the relationship feel real. The relationship has no feeling to it; you just read the comic and not feel anything for the two. The girl is one dimensional and you don’t really care for her. It just seems that Mark is planning to kill her off, so he didn’t bother to put too much thought into her. Also, because of this plot point, Kick-Ass starts to act like a jerk, and you lose any respect you had for the guy. It’s hard to like a man who only thinks about his smoking hot girlfriend and how he is constantly having sex with her. Those pages just become incredibly hard to read, and could have been done a lot better. Also, I’d like to point out that his friends complain about he is spending all his time with her, but those characters have so little personality or character. I also only remember one of their names (Marty) and I think that’s because he has the same name as Marty McFly in “Back to The Future”. The other one is just completely nameless and dull to me.Now for the sexism. Every female in this comic has large breasts or asses (not counting the Hit-Girl, who I think that if she had large sex appeal Mark might get arrested and two or three mothers of characters.) It’s sort of off putting and weird, I mean, you try to read this realistic world (not counting the blood and guts) and every girl has gigantic boobs. It ruins the illusion. There is no point to it and honestly, I just didn’t like it. Now, for brutality and gore. It’s hard to read Kick-Ass 3 (or really any of the other Kick-Ass comics). People get the living shit kicked out of them on a regular basis, and in the most extremist of ways. The blood is aplenty and the pain is breathtaking. Half of this book is covered in red and limbs, I’ll tell you that.But why is it that I like this comic?Well, because there is a serious message behind this. It may get lost in translation sometimes but it’s still there. Everyone at some point in their life wishes to be a superhero, and Dave asks us why no one has the balls to be a superhero in real life. That message is most present in Kick-ass 1, as the main point of Kick-Ass 2 is that there are consequences to everything (a proper reason why no one ever tried to be a real superhero) and there isn’t a real point to Kick-Ass 2: Hit-Girl besides plot points. Kick-Ass 3 tells us that we don’t need to be in a cape and fighting crime to be a hero, because that is probably going to get you killed in a horrifying way. Giving food and clothing to the food, helping old ladies and blind people cross the street, helping someone find something they lost, by doing these simple things we are helping people, and that’s all heroes do in the end; help people. The everyday good human being is the real hero. Comics allow us to go to a different world where it’s normal for people to fly and perform inhuman feats, and that has changed our view on what a “superhero” is. Kick-Ass shows us that we are all superheros, we don’t need suits, all we need is just a good heart. There is a small child-like wonder to Kick-Ass 3. Mark Miller has spent 5 years writing this series, and he very clearly loves it. He treats it with care and love, in a violent sort of way. He seems to really care about comics, which total contradicts the speech at the end of Wanted where he calls all comics and comic readers’ losers and pathetic wastes of space. He gives respect to plenty of comic series in Kick-Ass, be it Superman, anything by Marvel or Batman, particularly the famous and great Batman: Year One by Frank Miller.That’s why I love Kick-Ass. It has some large flaws, but when you love a loser and a psychopathic little girl as much as you do reading this, you know it’s doing something right. In the end though, it doesn’t matter if it’s stupid at times or offensive in a small way, it’s just good old fashion fun. Yes it may be mindless and not everyone’s cup of tea, but sometimes I just don’t want to read something that requires great intelligence and is super serious or hard to read. Kick-Ass is just that. I don’t need to pay super great attention and I can pick it up and put it back down. It may not be one of the best comics out there, but it’s far from the worst.I like it, just the way it is. If that makes you hate me, fine. I’ll defend Kick-Ass’s honour, as there is a point to it. I’d say that Kick-Ass is important for just telling a modern realistic superhero story, as well as giving us a great movie.I still don’t forgive Mark Miller for his insults to comics and comic readers in Wanted though.
review 2: Totally satisfying end (and yes, it's an END) to the Kick-Ass saga. I have to say, the ending surprised me, but I think it was a good surprise. As usual, there's plenty of violence, but I think the strength lies in the geeky comic / film references in the dialogue and the fact that Millar does not pull punches when it comes to offending people. The second half felt a bit rushed, as if suddenly they realized it was time to wrap it all up. Hit-Girl's story reminded me of Iron Man 3 where you spend most of the film waiting for the moment when he dons the costume again. For the final installment I was hoping for more Hit-Girl ass-kickery and more Kick-Ass / Hit-Girl teaming, but I did appreciate the way their relationship ended.Justice Forever. less

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