Kick Ass #2

If you enjoyed the first issue this months book takes it up to 11 (I'll try to keep clichéd movie references to a minimum). We start of by [SPOILERS AHEAD] seeing our hero lying in a hospital bed after he had his arse handed to him in his first superhero encounter last issue. As he lies there the thoughts going through his head aren't unfamiliar to anyone who has woken up on a Sunday morning having flashbacks to the 'hilarious' things they were doing the night before. I imagine this is exactly what would go through most people's heads, 'did anyone see me ', 'oh god I won't do this again', 'what if something even worse happened to me'. Then things do go a bit 'Millar' on us when he starts worrying if he dies and is reincarnated as a spider, slave baby or Chinese peasant – good stuff, Paul Rooney likes. The rehabilitation isn't the usual two panels on crutches then back up and running again either, we see Dave suffer through multiple operations, counciling sessions and guilt trips about how much all this is costing his old man, all of which really adds to the real world vibe that this book has (that's right I said 'vibe', I'm still hip!). At the risk of coming over all touchy feely there was a really touching moment where Dave has an imaginary conversation with his Mother who'd passed away a few years previously (which John Romita nailed by the way – the scene not Dave's Mum). As the reader we're shown all this pain and anguish, the promises to quit the hero business and even a Return of the Jedi style funeral pyre to burn all his comics but all this goes out the window almost immediately after he's healthy again, nice – this is what we want!

Out on patrol again and the suspicious attention any costumed person would generate was perfectly captured by the crowd of young women who start hassling Dave after he emerges from an alleyway wearing his mask. They assume (and we've all been here, come on!) that he's a flasher who's been running around flashing his boaby to all and sundry, they start to chase him and he's forced to make a very un-superhero run for it on foot away from the advancing 'mob'. This is where the shit really hits the fan. He literally runs into someone who is being chased and beaten by a gang of 'street toughs'. He decides that this shit isn't going down on his watch and begins to clean house leading to one of the finest word balloons I've ever read, “There's a guy dressed like a superhero fighting Puerto Ricans outside! It's fucking awesome!”. Some pretty graphic violence ensues and I have to say before reading this title I wasn't the biggest Romita Jr fan, don't get me wrong I'm not saying he's rubbish, he's a comics legend, but his style just isn't to my taste – but this book has totally changed my outlook on his stuff. The figures, the expressions and the body language drawn by JRJr are just superb, I'm personally very much looking forward to an over sized hard cover of this. I feel I must also mention that although I wasn't previously a massive JRJr fan the panel in World War Hulk where She-Hulk punches Hulk square in the face is one of my all time favorites.

So to recap, this book is fucking brilliant.