Mark Millar tends to play the underdog when promoting Kick-Ass, claiming that it doesn't have Marvel's marketing machine behind it.  On the one hand, that's a little bit disingenuous.  It's on the website, it's in the catalogue; that's a pretty big promotional push in its own right, compared with an indie book.  On the other hand, you could say the same thing about Marvel Illustrated: The Iliad, so it's not as though Millar is being completely unreasonable.

Still, he's gone to some lengths to promote Kick-Ass himself, distributing viral videos purporting to feature the lead character.  Sometimes, Millar's self-promotion can grate a little bit, but in this case, I'll give him credit - if nothing else, it's more innovative than just doing another Newsarama interview.

Millar likes his high concepts.  The high concept here is "What if superheroes existed in the real world?", which has been done a thousand times before.  However, it usually involves somebody in the "real world" getting superpowers. 

This book takes a less familiar road (although I'm pretty sure it's not unprecedented).  Dave Lizewski is a normal teenage boy, inspired by comic books to become a superhero and do good.  Unfortunately, he doesn't actually have any powers or abilities.  But that's not going to stop him from putting on a makeshift costume and going on Neighbourhood Watch patrol.

According to Millar, this is not a cynical comic.  By his standards, he's right.  Mind you, it's not as bright and shiny as his Fantastic Four either.  But it's basically a story about a well-meaning kid who decides to go out there and do good.  Millar's Ultimate Defenders were not dissimilar, in concept, and he treated them as a joke - a pathetic bunch of wannabes.  In contrast, Dave is pitched quite emphatically as a good citizen who's going to start some sort of movement.  He's trying to bring something better into the real world, and we're plainly meant to root for him when it goes wrong.

It's also surprisingly light on those self-congratulatory "isn't this a great idea" moments that usually litter Millar's stories, as I mentioned in my Fantastic Four review a couple of weeks ago.  There's still a bit of awkward shorthand, but Millar's suppressed a lot of his writing tics here, and he's better for it.

John Romita draws this issue as well, with a slightly softer quality than I'm used to seeing from him.  He wisely steers clear of drawing Dave as a proper superhero, but makes him makeshift without being entirely ridiculous.  He goes to town as normal with the action scenes, mind you, which seems a little bit at odds with the premise.

Does it work?  Yes, for the most part it does, but there's a little bit of smoke and mirrors going on.  We've got a lead character who decides to go and be a real-life superhero for no terribly obvious reason.  Millar is at pains to stress that the character doesn't have a proper origin story, presumably in order to play up the idea that he's "real."  But that just begs the question: why is a boy who has been so clearly set up as a Normal Teenager, and who has nothing even remotely approaching an "inciting event", suddenly deciding to do something that nobody in the real world has ever been mad enough to attempt?  There's an obvious credibility problem in here, and while Millar and Romita skilfully disguise it, I'm not convinced they've actually answered it.  That's my main reservation here.

Still, I have to admit I rather liked it.  Steve Niles is going a bit overboard with his cover quote ("Kick-Ass is exactly what this industry needs"), but it works.  I'm not quite sure what you do with it as an ongoing series, but it's a good first issue, and I'll give Millar a chance to see where he's going with it.

Rating: B+

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