'Kick-Ass' Is Relaunching With a Black Woman as Its Hero

Mark Millar is reviving the 'Kick-Ass' series with a black woman as its hero.

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Kick-Ass, the comic book series that birthed a pair of R-rated blockbusters, is casting a vote for diversity with its forthcoming relaunch. Series co-creator Mark Millar revealed to the Hollywood Reporter Wednesday that the new Kick-Ass is ditching its nerdy male title character in favor of what he promises will be a "completely different take" on the Kick-Ass story.

"Comics is not short of white males aged around 30; that demographic seems pretty well catered for in popular culture," Millar told THR. "I don't think many blonde white guys around 30 feel under-represented when they pick up a comic or watch a movie. Being older or younger or female or African-American just seems more interesting to me as a writer because this character is quite unique and opens up story possibilities that haven't been tried in almost eighty years of superhero fiction." 

Though Millar didn’t have much to offer as far as plot or additional characters, he did add that he hopes to rebuild Kick-Ass as a James Bond-esque "legacy character" that reinvents itself whenever the time feels right to do so. "Every four volumes or so I want a different person in the mask," Millar said. "Sometimes it might even only last a single volume or even a single issue."

The original Kick-Ass series centered on Dave Lizewski, an otherwise boring AF teenager who takes it upon himself to morph into a makeshift superhero. The only catch? This series is more grounded than, say, X-Men, meaning that all the violence (and citywide damage and what not) has real-life consequences. Hence the film adaptation's well-earned R rating.

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"I really just missed Kick-Ass," Millar said of his decision to revisit the series. "It was a funny book because it was about a guy who had no powers, no gadgets, and wasn't very good and yet it was massive. We had two movies in our first five years, games merchandise, and so on." Perhaps that's Millar's way of saying the relaunched series is setting the stage for Kick-Ass 3?

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