Image Comics 2018
Written by Mark Millar
Pencilled by John Romita Jr
Inked & Coloured by Peter Steigerwald
Lettered by John Workman
Ink Assists by Megan Madrigal
Colour Assists by Beth Sotelo
Patience returns from combat to find her husband gone and her neighbourhood in ruin. By day, she waits tables and goes to college. By night, she pulls on a mask and becomes Kick-Ass—serving justice to local scumbags and taking a cut of their cash. With every bust, her list of enemies gets longer, and the city's worst criminals are out for her blood.
Well when we left the first issue Patience was in the process of taking on a man, his goons and his money and that’s where we pick up here. I like this for various reasons but mainly among them is that it has that sense of timing that we can relate more. If we’d opened up with her having succeeded and not knowing how or why I think it would’ve cheapened things. As it stands it’s pretty essential to the storytelling and her characterisation that we start right where the last issue left off.
I am really enjoying the way that Mark has structured the book and how his ebb & flow through every instance has this whole sense of movement and the time frames all coincide. This is as much a slice of life style of storytelling as it is a case of a woman on a mission. It really is a very nice way to tell the story and honestly it has be harder than it looks from a readers standpoint. I mean very rarely do we get this feeling of following someone’s life so closely and intensely. Which of course also ties into the characterisation that we see and again I think while this may be a sequel it ends up being a lot more stand alone and unique than you might assume.
There is one scene that stands out above the rest this issue and that’s her meeting that young boy. While there are times Mark pulls on the heartstrings rather effectively as he shows Patience reasoning with herself about her choices it’s that young boy that really kind of steals the show and helps to start define who she is when she’s in that costume. Also that have been introduced to various people in her life we haven’t really met a supporting cast, sure her mother watches the kids and she’s got plenty of family around but there is no one that comes close to that supporting character role she can turn to.
The interiors here are rather interesting because while we see John laying out the pencils and using is long time eye for storytelling in the utilisation of page layouts plus how we see the angles and perspective in the panels. However there is a team behind him that is spectacular and I don’t want to say clean up the work but they make distinctly recognisable and yet much more appealing than some other of his recent work. Overall everyone involved in this has effectively made it smooth as silk, full of emotion and feeling and very much something to enjoy the heck out of.
I like that we seem to be seeing a kind of transformation in Patience already. The way the story is as much character driven as it is story driven is done as only Mark can do it. There is little to differentiate between the two either and that we are able to be this fully immersed in her life so quickly and understand the what, how and why she’s doing this makes things more complicated yet interesting. I mean let’s face it robbing from the bad guys and then justifying it like she does well I mean is that morally right, wrong or just what it needs to be?
Kick-Ass is back and quite honestly it may be better than it’s ever been.