Kick Ass The New Girl

I always feel a bit guilty buying a Mark Millar comic. Partly it's because much of the work I've read from him relies heavily on shock value, and shouldn't I be above such things at my age? And partly it's because shouldn't I be supporting struggling creators and endeavours?  (Says the man who drops a small fortune on Marvel and DC Comics every month, ahem). 

Emotions and reasoning rarely walk hand in hand.

So I did lay down my hard earned cash and purchased this collection. And, unsurprisingly, I enjoyed it quite a bit.

This time around, Kick Ass is an ex-soldier called Patience Lee, who returns home from a tour of Afghanistan to find her life has gone to shit: her husband has left her for a bimbo, she has no child support and two kids to feed. She lands a job as a waitress and tries to get her degree, but it's a losing battle. So she decides to use her rather extensive military training to rob local criminals, dressing up as the hero Kick Ass.

Millar's script follows the safe path of a solid movie pitch. This version is extremely movie/ Netflix friendly, with none of the superhero parody of the first Kick-Ass series, focusing instead on Patience's vigilante actions and its consequences. As movies go, it's inexpensive. In fact, hearing that this may be the focus of the next Kick-Ass movie comes as no surprise to me. Kick-Ass: The New Girl feels to have been written to allay the fears of producers and money-men who quiver at the gazillion dollar budgets of Marvel blockbusters.

But that doesn't mean The New Girl is not an enjoyable comic. Patience is an interesting character in that at no point does she come across as a victim. In fact, she reminds me quite a bit of Jack Reacher in her ability to assess situations and formulate the proper response. This badassery is juxtaposed with scenes of her as a loving mother that oddly don't ring false. Patience is both a mother and mean fucking killing machine, a sort of New Mexico female version of Liam Neeson from the Taken films.

And yes, there is the expected Millar scenes of shock and extreme violence. Eyes don't fare very well in this series. And for a story that relies on a higher degree of realism to add weight to those shocks,I'm not sure just how many punches to the head a human being can take and still function.

My only real complaint with this series, though,  is that it ends rather too quickly. Millar and Romita apparently are not doing the second series, which is unfortunate. It would be interesting to see where Patience goes after the conclusion of this collection, but I'm not sure I want to see anyone else create it.