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Kick-Ass
A British-American superhero comic book and movie with the internet as a major plot element.
Summary
Kick-Ass is a British-American comic book and movie series starring Dave Lizewski, a New York City teenager who has dreams of being a superhero. Dave dresses up as "Kick-Ass" and tries to be a superhero. He finds it's not as easy as it seems.
Unlike many superhero-oriented works, Kick-Ass makes the use of an internet a central plot element. Kick-Ass becomes famous after a person who videotaped him defending a man from three thugs uploads the video to YouTube. In order to get in contact with the citizenry, Kick-Ass opens a MySpace so people can contact him. In the film, a comptent superhero, Big Daddy, re-routes Kick-Ass's IP address so evil people cannot find him.
Also, in the film, when mobsters kidnap Kick-Ass and Big Daddy, the mob boss, Frank D'Amico, orders the thugs to set up a digital video camera and tie the heroes to chairs. The mob boss sets up a website, "Kick-Ass Unmasked," which was supposed to be the retirement of Kick-Ass. The news media airs the streaming internet video live, only to find that Kick-Ass and Big Daddy are being tortured. When the media cuts the broadcast, everybody rushes to their computers to watch the rest. This is an attempt to intimidate people into not being superheroes in an internet tough guy manner; it's similar to how narcovideos and beheading videos are IRL attempts to intimidate people. The comic book and film show how the internet has the power to shape and break public reputations, and how it can be used as a tool to intimidate people.
In Kick-Ass 2, the comic book sequel, one of the villains gains a lot of followers via Twitter. Also the police trace IP addresses of the superheroes and supervillains (from their Twitter and Facebook accounts) in an attempt to find their real identities. Since, unlike his friends, Dave does not hide his IP address, the authorities come to arrest him. Dave's father falsely confesses to being Kick-Ass so he gets taken away instead. Red Mist has Dave's father murdered in jail, and Dave receives an image of his father's hanged body on his cell phone. Red Mist then leaks Kick-Ass's real life identity onto Twitter. The joys of modern media!
In the video games the heroes use the fictional social networking site "FaceSpace" instead of MySpace -- the name combines "Facebook" and "MySpace"
Origins
In the comic book Mark Millar and John R. Romita, Jr. did the artwork. In the movie, Matthew Vaughn directed the film, and co-produced the screenplay with Jane Goldman.
Current status
Kick-Ass 2 is ongoing. The film Kick-Ass 2 has not been confirmed yet.
Facts
- The main characters are Kick-Ass, Red Mist, Big Daddy, and Hit-Girl
- Kick Ass (Dave Lizewski) is an ordinary teenage boy in New York City.
- Red Mist (Chris Genovese in the book, Chris D'Amico in the movie) is a super-rich son of a mafia boss who dons the cape.
- Hit-Girl (Mindy McCready in the comics, Mindy Macready in the film) is a young girl raised to be a vicious killer.
- Big Daddy (Damon Macready in the film, no first name in the comics) is Hit Girl's father. In the comics he looks like Frank Castle of The Punisher. In the movie he looks like Batman.
Images
 "In America we say stick like this: Baseball bat!" |
 The bootleg version of Kick-Ass seen on Chinese DVDs |
 Some parts of Kick-Ass can get downright scary! |
Related Pages
External Links
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