BOOK TITLE: Kick-Ass 3
AUTHOR: Mark Millar
YEAR: 2014
GENRE: Graphic Novel
SUBGENRE: Superhero
GRADE: Pass
Following the events of Kick-Ass 2, Hit-Girl is locked in
solitary confinement while Kick-Ass and his friends try to rebuild what’s left
of their superhero team. New girlfriends, real world priorities, lack of
preparation, freeloading teammates, and dissension among the team all play a
factor in slowing down progress for Kick-Ass and his ambitions of keeping New
York City safe. A team of superheroes is needed now more than ever since mafia
boss Rocco Genovese is back in business and plans on uniting every east coast
gang to form one big mega corporation that also includes corrupt cops. Can
Kick-Ass and his crew get their ducks in a row? Can Hit-Girl escape from prison
and reunite with her friends? These questions won’t get answered without a few
splatters of blood and some broken bones along the way.
It’s been a long time in between reading Kick-Ass 2 and
Kick-Ass 3. I had completely forgotten by then how delightfully brutal Hit-Girl
can be. Even in solitary confinement, she manages to murder everyone who
crosses her, smuggle a bottle of Jack Daniels in her cell, and play with Hello
Kitty cards all in the same day. When she unleashes her litany of tough guy
swear words, she can back up every single one of them and go completely
overboard in the process. Granted, I’m not a big fan of her anti-liberal
remarks, but that’s only a tiny part of Hit-Girl’s overall character. She’s a
badass in every sense of the word. If she can’t slice heads off or smash
genitals into powder, she’ll outsmart her foes with explosives and guns. Lots
and lots of guns. You mess with her, not only are you dead as a doornail, but
you’re going to feel it in the afterlife as well.
The other thing I liked about this graphic novel is
Kick-Ass’s struggles with balancing his superhero life with his personal one.
There are times in the story where he seriously considers settling down with
his new girlfriend and forsaking his superhero persona altogether. He blames
himself and his obsession with Batman for his friends and loved ones being
killed left and right. While capitulation isn’t a desirable trait in a
superhero, it’s certainly an understandable one. It’s all a part of the normal
life versus exciting life debate that goes on not only with fictional
superheroes, but aspects of the real world as well whether it’s the music
industry, Hollywood ,
wrestling, or professional sports. For a graphic novel that loves hardcore
violence, it certainly makes you think a little bit every now and then.
Speaking of hardcore violence, it’s peppered everywhere in
this comic book and I love it to pieces. Splatters of blood, crunching bones,
sloshing organs, you name it, it happens. There’s even one painful scene where
Hit-Girl punches a corrupt cup on the groin so hard that his whole pelvis
explodes. It’s later learned that the poor guy lost sixty pounds since then. I
don’t know how, but it sounds brutal nonetheless. There’s another scene where
Hit-Girl slashes a gangster’s head in half horizontally, which reminds me of
something that would happen in Kill Bill. In fact, if you took Kill Bill,
Hostel, the Saw movies, and Blood
Drive , put them all in a milkshake blender and
watched the red juices overflow, that’s pretty much what Kick-Ass 3 is like. It’s
gruesome as hell, but in a fun and delightfully sadistic way. Would this be
considered a guilty pleasure?
Kick-Ass 3 lives up to the awesome reputation the first two
installments did and wraps up the series in a nice little bundle. The ending is
satisfying, no stone is left unturned, and everybody goes home happy. Well, I
don’t know how happy anybody can truly be after everything Kick-Ass went
through for three graphic novels, but there’s at least a modicum of solace in
his new life. A passing grade goes to this excellent piece of badass violence!
Great work, Mr. Millar!
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