Five reasons to hate Kick-Ass

Sorry to be a contrarian, folks, but I am anything but excited about Kick-Ass. In fact, I hated just about everything about the comic series it's based on, which I felt totally missed the point of superheroes in its ham-fisted attempt at satirizing the genre and its fans. I feel so strongly about it that I wrote a lengthy essay on the story's many, many failings, which you can read as a guest post at SF Signal. An excerpt:

The problem is that Kick-Ass wants to be a superhero, but his conception of heroism is all wrong. “We only get one life,” he says, “and I wanted mine to be exciting.” He sees the thrills, the violence, but not the underlying sense of moral mission. He says himself that he has no real origin, that “It didn't take a trauma to make you wear a mask... Just the perfect combination of loneliness and despair.” But Spider-Man or Batman's trauma isn’t just a throwaway aspect of their stories; it’s the guiding force behind their every action. A hero who begins with nothing but “loneliness and despair,” not an all-consuming moral imperative to improve the world, is by definition a nihilistic figure. Dave Lizewski is really not a superhero at all—in genre classic terms, he’s Peter Parker after the radioactive spider-bite but before the death of Uncle Ben. His actions aren’t altruistic in the least—he continues putting on the costume because he likes to ride the ego wave that comes from his Youtube fame... In a recent interview Millar stated that Kick-Ass dons his costume “because it's the right thing to do. In a weird way, if you push past all the blood and the swearing, it's quite a moral tale.”  But because the character lacks a complete origin, a reason to think that what he’s doing is the right thing, it’s not a moral tale—in fact, it’s a decidedly amoral one. And without the sense of a moral mission, he’s simply not a superhero. Without murdered parents, Batman wouldn’t be a hero; he’d just be a guy who dresses up and punch people—which is basically what Kick-Ass is. In short, the book simply doesn’t understand the genre it purports to be commenting on. Superheroes work in large part because of the heroic myth at their core. In throwing out this central, defining trait of that myth, Kick-Ass loses any resonance it might have otherwise had.

Read the full essay at SF Signal.

While researching this essay, I learned that Mark Millar, writer of the comic and executive producer of the film, is a Catholic who attends mass every week. Given my interpretation of Kick-Ass as an amoral, nihilistic, Ennisian mess, I don't know what to make of that fact. Any thoughts? Share 'em below.

Comments

[Brian Bennett]

wow... just came across your site because of the sfsignal piece. I use movies/tv in my teaching as a pastor all the time, and find that superheroes are ultra fertile ground because of the moralistic impulse, precisely grounded in some origin story. They are akin to the prophetic call stories. I had been thinking that I would go see Kick-Ass... but I'll probably wait for a while... maybe catch it on DVD.
I'll definitely be checking out more of your stuff.

Peace.

[Elliot]

"Mark Millar, writer of the comic and executive producer of the film, is a Catholic who attends mass every week."

Da fug?!? Really?

Oh, and I think you're largely right about Kick-Ass. Like so many Millar projects it just seemed an exercise in grotesque, utterly gratuitous violence. And saying "motherf*cking c*nt" a lot.

[Tony]

I'd actually say the book isn't so much nihilistic as it's meant to sort of expose the nihilism of some comic fans.

While some of us may love a character for the herosim, others love them for the power.

The best example I can give is 2 policemen who come to my local comic shop.
One is a guy with a Batman tattoo, he always wears a little Batman logo pen in his pocket.
He's a good guy who'se always up for a friendly chat.
While I've never discussed it in depth with him, one gets the idea he's someone who fell in love with the character for the heroism.

Now, there's another cop who, when it was announced the Green Lantern movie was shooting in town, proclaimed his GL fandom, and how he was going to use his position as a cop to tail whoever had the props and basically bribe them for (or have them bribe him with) a GL ring for the set.

See, he's missing the point of heroism, and even his wanting to be a cop is more about the power than any heroism.

To me, Kick-Ass is about those types of fans, the ones who want the power but miss the herosim.

This is also why the book (not sure about the movie) basically ends with him in the same exact place he was before he put on the costume.

[Elliot]

This about sums it up:
http://www.letsbefriendsagain.com/2010/02/02/burning-them-two-at-a-time/

[Antonio]

That's the most dead on review of kick-ass I have read so far.
Having the movie be my first encounter with the world of Kick-Ass, from the starting storyline I expected a deep albeit satirical movie about moral issues as most super hero movies are. I was quite surprised when the main protagonist slowly distanced himself from any moral codex and essentially became a villain.

[Jorge]

As a criticism of the nihilism, the movie and the book would be fine. But that's not the case. The movie is quite gratuitous on every aspect. There's no real mocking, no real critique, nothing. Just a arid movie with plenty of gore. Would fit ok in a double-feature session tho.