Kick-Ass 2 #1

Overall: We kick off the sequel to Kick-Ass with Kick-Ass... well, getting his ass kicked by Hit-Girl, who has taken it upon herself to train Kick-Ass. After a training session, Hit-Girl returns to her adopted family and is confronted by her adopted father who asks Hit-Girl to cease the hero nonsense, since if anything were to happen to Hit-Girl it would be absolutely devastating to Hit-Girl's adopted mother. In the end, Hit-Girl promises to stop playing hero and that she would break all her ties with the other heroes, including Kick-Ass. As for Kick-Ass, his personal life still sucks, his father broke up with his girlfriend from the first series, and Kick-Ass himself has been unable to attain any of his romantic interests. However, his time as Kick-Ass has been great, as his fighting has improved(thanks in large part to Hit-Girl's training), and he's been meeting several other wannabe heroes. One of these heroes, Doctor Gravity, invites Kick-Ass to a secret underground headquarters(actually a wine cellar at a store), where Kick-Ass meets a bunch of other wannabe heroes who are calling themselves the Justice Forever. This issue ends with the overjoyed Kick-Ass getting an invitation to join Justice Forever.

Well... I've thought about this comic for two days now since I originally read it. After I put it down, my first instinct was that it was a perfect comic, deserving of a perfect score. But I've already given out two perfect scores lately, and I was loathe to hand out another perfect score. So I read this issue again, looking for any excuse to drop the score down to a 9 1/2. And you know what? I couldn't find a damn thing to complain about! THIS is the way to kick off a sequel to a story as well received as the original Kick-Ass. Mark Millar(writer)and John Romita Jr.(pencils)haven't missed a single beat from the first Kick-Ass series. Not at all. This story picked up so seamlessly from the end of the original series that it made reading it a real treat. It had everything the original had, fun characters, over the top action, crazy violence, ultra profane dialogue, everything that made Kick-Ass so popular is present here. Totally awesome stuff here. If you enjoyed the original Kick-Ass even a little, you owe it to yourself to buy and read the sequel.

Score: 10 out of 10.I sure wish I had a gravity pole...