Kick Ass #2
April 6th, 2008 by Martin
I just caught up on Kick-Ass. This comic should be called Ass Kicked, based on how often the main character gets beat up. I didn’t really think either issue was particularly awesome, but on the other hand, I was compelled to keep reading. I have to admit that I don’t particularly empathize with the main character or anything, but I do think it’s an interesting premise.
Jason clued us in to the controversy about the use of gay labels used in a negative context, unfortunately AFTER I’d already purchased these issues. Basically, my take on it was that if “bad guys” had used the terms demeaningly, then you could at least have that as an excuse, but it’s the main character who calls some spray painters “homos”, (and then proceeds to get beat up by them, which was not, I didn’t think, supposed to feel vindicating in the context of the book). This slander doesn’t appear again in the second issue, but, in protest, I will not be buying any more Kick-Ass issues.
April 6th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
Well Done, Marty, for taking a stand on the issue by not only deciding to protest the book by not giving them your money but by also putting it out there in a public forum so others (of our understandably small audience) will know that this affects people. No one will ever know what is not acceptable if people don’t speak up.
April 6th, 2008 at 5:16 pm
I went back to read my review of the first issue, and I stand by what I said. The first issue was awesome. Interesting that I didn’t bring up the language in it, though. I remember feeling a twinge at it when I read it, but didn’t think more about it than, “How tiresome, Millar is lazy in his writing”. The second issue didn’t nearly thrill me as much as the first one. I think it’s the South Park syndrome. He didn’t do anything in the second issue that he hadn’t already done in the first. And while he didn’t drop any homos this time, he did use “retard”. So the combination of nothing special about the second issue, and having to read the dialogue, makes me not want to continue with it. I posted in a forum about this, saying that while Millar’s dialogue may be accurate in regards to how typical 16yos speak, there’s a reason that I don’t hang around typical 16yos.