By Dante' Maddox

With more and more comics making legitimate movies these days Hollywood is constantly buzzing with one new project after another.

One of those projects has me really excited and that’s Kick-Ass, a book from the Marvel imprint, Icon. The story follows the exploits of one Dave Lizewski and his bid to become a costumed adventurer like the comic book heroes that he reads about, with bloody results. The book covers a lot of themes but overall it takes a real world approach to the idea of vigilantism.

There a numerous reasons why this will work as a movie and reasons why it might be hard to make the silver screen transition. The number one reason in my humble opinion has a lot to do with the level of violence portrayed in the comic.

The high amount of violence would make this a sure fire rated R film. But there is a different kind of violence than in say the new Punisher movie. The main character is more interesting because of what he isn’t more than what he is or what he’s becoming. That makes the violence more disturbing and visceral. Dave Lizewski is literally a 90 pound weakling in a modified wetsuit with a couple of billy clubs as weapons. It will be interesting to see that dynamic explored on the big screen.

Film is also the best way to explore the real life consequences of trying to put on a costume and fight against real criminals without super powers. This should give this project a leg up on titles like the new Watchmen movie that despite having mostly non powered individuals still dabbles in the realm of sci-fi with characters like Dr. Manhattan. The story of Kick-Ass has a firmer root in the ‘real world’ and will translate really well on screen. That’s not to say it’s going to be all pixie stix and cap guns.

One problem that concerns me is the age of some of the cast including the main character. Due to his youth some of the violence might be a little too much. Hell, in issue four we witness a little girl slaughter a room full of people with two swords in the most graphic way possible. Can filmmakers really pull that off without having some nonprofit group blow a gasket? It will be a tough sell when you consider all the foul language she uses on top of her chopping off arms and stabbing people through the head.

The other thing that concerns me is that the comic book story is only four issues in and rumors abound that casting for the film has already begun. Which begs the question, will this movie be even remotely true to the source material, or will it be in the ‘spirit’ of the source material ala Wanted which was also written by Mark Millar by the way?

The good news is the premise will make for a movie unseen before and that can’t be a bad thing. Originality is tough at this point in the game, everything reminds us of something else these days and movies are banking on that familiarity it seems, how refreshing it would be if a movie could market itself as the first big thing instead of a hodge podge of things we’ve already seen before. I can’t say that I’ve read a story like Kick-Ass before and can sure as hell say I’ve never seen a movie with that premise.

At the end of the day I’m just saying that Kick-Ass sounds really promising, and that it seems like a challenge to make but will be a triumph if made properly.