A decade after Mark Millar and John Romita Jr. launched the Kick-Ass franchise with that first comic book run, they’re rebooting the character in a new Kick-Ass series, with a new character wearing the iconic green costume and boots. That new hero is none other than African-American single mother Patience Lee, and Mark Millar has already taken to social media to let it be known which actress should play Patience in the next Kick-Ass movie:
Kick-Ass 2 was largely considered a failure at the box office, only making $60.8 million worldwide on a $28 million budget – a big drop from the first film’s $96.1 million haul, despite the franchise’s increased exposure, and the added star power of Jim Carrey. That’s all to say: Millar is getting ahead of himself by casting the movie before the comic book has debuted. That said, Tessa Thompson has quickly become a fan-favorite, thanks to her scene-stealing portrayal of Marvel’s Valkyrie in Thor: Ragnarok. In fact, Thompson was so effective, that Marvel is now bringing her version of the character into the Marvel Comics universe. Millar is definitely on the right track with that line of casting. Will Thompson respond? Given Millar and Romita Jr.’s controversial history with Kick-Ass, she may want to see what the comic is all about before nominating herself.
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To that point: according to EW, the first issue of the new Kick-Ass arrives on Valentine’s Day, February 14th. In the first-look report, we learn that Patience Lee is a former veteran as well as a single mother. When asked about what separates Patience from original Kick-Ass Dave Lizewski, here’s what Millar would say:
“The big difference is that she’s immensely capable. I have a lot of fun playing with this in the story because Dave Lizewski was a good-hearted, ordinary loser who came home every night with broken ribs or a black eye and wasn’t especially well-trained. He just had good intentions. Patience is completely different in that she’s just back from Afghanistan and finds her life in a very unusual situation, one in which it makes sense for her to suddenly be dressing up in a green wetsuit and carrying a couple of sticks at night. Their personalities are just completely different, and being in her 30s and a mother gives the whole thing a completely different edge too. This is a military vet as opposed to a bored schoolboy, and she feels more in keeping with the more capable hero archetype of this decade.”
Expanding on that idea of creating different heroes for different eras, Millar explained where he sees the genre now going:
“The ’70s lead was a man in touch with his feelings, the ’80s leads were hard-bodied and one-dimensional, the ’90s leads were animated funnymen, and the noughties leads were nerds. Dave Lizewski perfectly encapsulated the Tobey Maguire/Jesse Eisenberg era of leading men, but Patience is the very capable grownup we admire and want to be in this decade. I hadn’t even realized it until I’d written it, as these things are very subconscious, but the nerdy Dave just feels wrong for now, and the very effective, meticulous Patience just feels right. It would be boring seeing a teenage superhero just screwing up again. Seeing someone who’s really good at this and wearing that costume is actually really exciting and gives the comic a really different flavor, especially where we go with it.”
There’s much more that Millar has to say – to read the full interview, head over to EW. If you want a first look at the new Kick-Ass, check out the gallery of first-look artwork, below!
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As stated, Kick-Ass (2018) #1 will be on store shelves February 14th.
Thor: Ragnarok will soon be available on home video. Other upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe movies include; Black Panther on February 16th, Avengers: Infinity War on May 4th, Ant-Man and the Wasp on July 6th, Captain Marvel on March 8, 2019, the fourth Avengers movie on May 3, 2019, the sequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming on July 5, 2019, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 in 2020.
