IMAGES COURTESY OF MARVEL COMICS
One of the coolest and ultra-violent comic books on the shelves these days is Kick-Ass, written by Mark Millar with art by John Romita, Jr.
It’s about a 15-year-old comic book fan who just decides one day to become the world’s first real-life superhero/crime fighter. The main character doesn’t have any special powers, just a homemade costume and lots of enthusiasm.
If only that was enough.
With just three issues of the series released, the story is being made into a movie with the help of director Matthew Vaughn.
I guess the book’s violence and its title turned off many of the major studios (wimps!), so Vaughn raised $30 million from private investors and is releasing the movie through his own UK-based production company, Marv Films, which also brought Stardust (2007) and Layer Cake (2004) to the big screen.
The film is already generating buzz with rumors that Christopher Mintz-Plasse, otherwise known as McLovin from Superbad (picture left), will play the so-far-unseen villain known as Red Mist.
Eleven-year-old Chloe Moretz, from Dirty Sexy Money, has already been cast to play the deadly, sword-wielding co-star, who just appeared in issue #3 of the comic.
No word yet on who will be Dave Lizewski, the comic’s lovable and tragic wannabe hero and main character.
The ongoing series Kick-Ass is the latest in Mark Millar’s creator-owned “Millarworld” titles. Previous works include The Unfunnies, Chosen and Wanted.
Though Millar didn’t have much to do with it, a film adaptation of his Wanted series, starring Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman and James McAvoy, was released on June 27. Despite the fact that the movie was different than the comic in many ways, it was extremely entertaining and did surprisingly well at the box office.
It looks like Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman are writing the screenplay for Kick-Ass, and I’m hoping Mark Millar will be heavily involved as well. He’s a great writer who has created some of the best stories in modern comics — The Ultimates, The Ultimates 2, Superman: Red Son, and Marvel’s epic Civil War, just to name a few.
