Kick-Ass

Locations
Call Number: Adult Graphic Novel / Kick Ass
On Shelf At: Downtown Library

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 1st Floor 4-week checkout	Adult Graphic Novel / Kick Ass	4-week checkout	On Shelf

Contains material originally published 2008-209 in magazine form as Kick-ass #1-8.

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Darker than the film submitted by celesteh on May 15, 2010, 1:15pm I had planned to read Kick-Ass before seeing the film version, but that didn't happen. So after seeing the film about a month ago (and loving it) I just finished this graphic novel today, and there's definitely some differences between this and the film. It is even more violent and bloody, and even darker. Big Daddy's not sporting a goofy Batman outfit here, but instead wielding a chainsaw and looking more like Leatherface in a bulletproof suit. Some differences in the storyline as well, I think I prefer the way things turn out in the book. Such a great series. And plenty of black-hearted humor to go around.

See the movie instead submitted by CasualTim on July 12, 2010, 7:17pm This was a pretty disappointing read for me.

I should say up front: I'm not a graphic novel reader. This review is from the eyes of an outsider, not from a qualified, seasoned veteran of graphic novel consumption. I generally find that I end up jumping from speech or thought bubble to speech or thought bubble, forgetting to look at the pictures. But when I heard the graphic novel version of Kick-Ass might be even more kick-ass than the movie was (and that it featured Hit-Girl more prominently), I was sold. I waited anxiously for the hold to come up. I put forth a great deal of effort to remember to look at all of the pictures. But the GN just doesn't measure up to the excitement of the movie.

Perhaps most disappointing was the art itself. Considering the raving I've heard about the book, I have to assume that it was a stylistic choice by skilled artists, and not a lack of skill, that had every character totally out of physical proportion, every image of action and fighting lacking even the slightest hint of movement, some of the frames providing no clue as to what actually happened between the previous and the next image.

Alright, alright, big heads mean more focus on expression (and I don't complain about the proportions of the Super Mario Brothers), but to have such an action-packed plot and then see Hit-Girl frozen like a wax sculpture in the middle of jumping over a chair... just isn't doing it for this Graphic Novel noob. Though I don't think I'm just whining about the fact that it's a picture. There's a real, defined static quality to much of the art that is less suggestive of motion than is Stonehenge.

I'm also tempted to complain a bit about the dialogue. Even though I recently reviewed New Moon and made exceptions (even compliments?) for its melodramatic, overly-teeny teen dialogue, I have a harder time excusing Kick-Ass for it's attempt at grit or coolness by simply tossing in a swear word every other panel (or sentence... or word). Besides the cursing, some of the dialogue is simply clunky. It's not often, but since the mindless cursing already had me on edge, the preposterous leaps in logic dropped me right over.

But, there is, indeed, one pretty darn good reason you should pick up this book. Flip all the way to the back and take a look at the cover art variant for issue One by McNiven. Wow. How I wish he'd drawn the whole thing...

the film is better submitted by nasuaada on July 26, 2011, 7:20am the movies better