Kick Ass 2 lived up to expectations

I do not venture to the cinema so often these days, mainly because films get to DVD so quickly now, so it was a little strange to find myself back there watching Kick Ass 2 so soon after watching Red 2.

There are a lot of similarities between them, and some notable differences too. Both are based on comics (Red much less so) and both feature comic violence and comedy. Red is not Die Hard and Kick Ass is not Batman.

Both sequels copied the mood and style of their originals and, therefore, gave their fans just what they expected and what they wanted.

Whereas Red 2 just reused the characters from Red, Kick Ass 2 continued to retell the story of the comic. That made Kick Ass 2 more like Kick Ass Chapter 2 than a Second Kick Ass as it continued where Kick Ass finished off and took the main characters in some new directions, such as Mindy coming to terms with being an orphan and a teenage girl.

The story is a key part of Kick Ass 2 but I'll not say much about it because that's what spoilers do.

Otherwise it is much the same as Kick Ass with ludicrous violence, none of which feels remotely real, and strong language, though I only spotted one c-bomb and that was in Russian (with a helpful English text translation).

That there is more of a story this time around makes the film more gripping and engaging, there were several threads where I really cared about what happened next.

Jim Carrey is (almost) the only name actor in it, taking this role from Nicholas Cage who died in Kick Ass. Carrey is surprisingly good and un-Carrey-like, a view derived from only seeing him previously in films like The Mask and The Grinch. This Carrey may be a little weird but he is not wacky. There is also a brief spot for Iain Glen, which was a pleasant surprise having seen him on stage earlier this year staring in a Chekhov play.

Hit Girl provides some of the best moments as there is something enchanting and cute watching a young teenage girl cut a team of tough baddies in to shreds (literally).

Kick Ass 2 builds on Kick Ass with skill, flair and a story. That makes II better than I and raises the bar for III.

Hitting the read pile

My read pile of comics has been getting depressingly long while I spend the weeks working in Cardiff and the weekends going to the theatre and doing a few mandatory household chores.

I got the opportunity to attack the problem on a rare Saturday morning off having paid a visit to Ace Comics in Richmond the day before to get all my latest issues.

This is what I read, starting from the bottom and working to the top.

Mark Millar has been on scintillating form in recent years (Fantastic Four, Ultimates, Wanted, Kick-Ass, etc.) and I started off with three of his.

Kick-Ass is probably most famous for putting very rude words in to the mouth of an 11 year old girl who kills lots of people so the end of book 2 comes as a shock and sets up the Hit Girl comic nicely.

I've read The Avengers for more years than is probably sensible and now, like the X-Men, I find I am largely reading it because I have always read it. The current run is competent enough but lacks the excitement of, say, the Englehart years. The Avengers have also spread in to three or more monthly comics but I stick with just the main title.

X-Factor (nothing to do with the tv show!) is completely different. I read this just because it is good. Peter David has been writing it forever and he mixes characterisation and complex plot twists excellently.

I've recently picked-up New Mutants again now that Dan Ablett is writing it. Dan writes more than anybody else I know and he sure knows how to craft a story. That's why I read it.

Iron Man also has several comics to his name, thanks to the films, but I read just the original title that is now steered confidently by Matt Fraction. Here we see Tony Stark the genius at work, rather than just some guy in a powerful suit. Yes, there is fighting but it is not all physical, some of it is political or commercial. It now has the same cool feel it did during the unsurpassed era of David Michelinie and Bob Layton.

The read pile is not any noticeably shorter than it was before but I had a lot of fun digging my way through some of it.

Kick-Ass kicks ass (twice)

Kick-Ass, the comic, was a lot of craftily executed fun combining Mark Millar's fast-paced and irreverent script with John Romita Jr's. bold action style.

The extreme violence might not have been to everybody's taste but at least the covers gave fair warning of what to expect.

The comics was soon followed by the film and now it's on DVD.

The film's genesis in the comic is instantly recognisable and it follows the original plot for most of the way, unlike a previous Millar film, Wanted, that diverged rapidly and greatly. And both films have the advantage of being better than the comics.

Kick Ass the film expands on the original by giving us more of Hit Girl's origin (we already knew how Kick Ass started) and she becomes the star of the film. After all, what's not to like about a ten year girl old executing hordes of mafiosa?

Kick Ass is silly but it knows it is and delights in this as it bounces along effortlessly from one brisk scene stuffed with sharp lines to another. The natural reaction is to enjoy the sheer bravura of the story and appreciate the violence as if it were a Tom and Jerry cartoon. The ending is cute too.

Wanted in multiple forms

Mark Millar is one of the hottest writers in comics today but I managed to miss his Wanted series when it came out in 2003, probably because it was published by one of the smaller companies, Top Cow.

The film Wanted from earlier this year was harder to miss as some of the action shots in the trailer were very clever and it starred Angelina Jolie.

Now the film is available on DVD and the comic has been issued with the same cover art (pictured). I watched the film and then read the comic a few days later.

As with most film adaptations of books and comics, there is a something of a lose relationship between the two plots but I do not mind that as the attributes of the two media are quite different. For example, curving the flight of a bullet works well in the film (because you can see the motion) but would be a pointless effect in a comic.

I see little point in comparing the two as they are so different, instead I prefer to consider each on their own.

The comic is fairly typical Mark Millar with strong confident characters, sub-plots of treachery and intrigue and a fairly relentless pace. While I can appreciate the techniques used, and I enjoy some of his other work a lot (e.g. Ultimates), there is something unsatisfactory about the comic and it lacks substance. I cannot imagine myself ever wanting to read it again.

The film, however, is just fantastic for so may reasons. The plot is more realistic and more subtle, the actions scenes are great but do not dominate the film, and there are some nice comic touches too, such as when a keyboard is smashed into a man's face and the keys (and a tooth) fly off to spell "F#ck you". I will be watching the film again soon.

New creators on Fantastic Four

Fantastic Four has been one of Marvel's flagship comics since the 1960's (alongside Spiderman and The Avengers) and the first 102 episodes were written and drawn by Stan Lee and Jack "King" Kirby who almost single-handedly created the Marvel Universe (a worthy mention also goes to Steve Ditko).

Since then there have been many creative teams on the book and it has had its highs and its lows but all that time it has carried the masthead "The world's greatest comic magazine!".

Now it is trying to justify that claim by bringing on the new creative team of Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch famous for a whole bunch of best-selling comics, notably The Ultimates, which I wrote about earlier.

This has been the weakest of the main Marvel books for some time and after only one issue it's too early to comment on the new direction but I am optimistic.

Captain America is angry

In the main line of Marvel comics, Captain America died recently, but in the Ultimates line he's still in charge of the Ultimates and his anger is directed at Loki, Norse god of mischief.

The second volume of The Ultimates has just ended with issue #13 which was several months after #12 but well worth the wait.

The creative forces behind The Ultimates are Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch which is a guarantee of a good action story.

This is not really a spoiler as if you are into comics you'll have read this by now and if you're not then this won't mean that much, but the highlights of the final episode are the confirmation that Thor really is the god of thunder, Hawkeye killing the Black Widow and Tony Stark's comment, "never underestimate the healing powers of a blonde".

Great stuff.