In Review: Kick-Ass Vs. Hit-Girl #2

Synopsis: Hit-Girl will stop at nothing to destroy the imposter Kick-Ass’s gang activity and prevent her from masquerading as Dave Lizewski. And when Mindy’s violent hunt leads Patience’s gang to turn on her, Kick-Ass will realize that she can’t run forever.

The Story

Picking the story up from where things left off. Hit-Girl has just ridden into town and has already started to take names. Meanwhile, Patience is dealing with the fallout from the gang members that turned against her. Things are looking decidedly dodgy as Patience’s role in cleaning up her hometown as the new Kick-Ass comes under threat from multiple angles.

The Artwork

It seems to me that the artwork in this issue has kicked things up a notch. Marcelo Frusin does some fantastic work on this issue. We get some brilliant panels in this book as the action turns more cinematic. I think the panel where we see Hit-Girl do her twisted version of the knock… knock joke was brilliantly done. In particular, the transition from that to the guy answering getting a sword through his mouth was a slick transition. Moreover, the somewhat brief interrogation followed by more deaths shows how much more ruthless Hit-Girl is when working alone.

Playing counter to that is Kick-Ass following her ex-gang members to try and find where they are keeping the loot. We get an awesome panel in which Kick-Ass does a spot of car surfing.

All of this is beautifully drawn in my opinion. The artist really manages to capture the movement and the frenetic action as everything plays out.

Overall

Steve Niles gives us an awesome issue, which is filled with tension. As revealed by some excellent artwork. I think Niles and Marcelo Frusin work brilliantly together as a team on this issue. Moreover, it is quite evident that they are well-practiced. Especially when you look at the balance between dialogue and descriptive text. The latter of which is not used at all due to Frusin’s artwork being so detailed where it counts. Notably, when a character does have something to say. It has much more impact.

On the whole, this is a brilliant issue and a fantastic example of an artist and writer that are truly in sync with each other. I loved how the writer managed to give us Hit-Girl and Kick-Ass’s parallel stories prior to the meeting on the final page. The build-up is brilliantly executed in my opinion. For instance, the way in which Kick-Ass is eavesdropping on Hit-Girl as she takes out the gang members. It’s all brilliantly done. I can’t wait for the next issue to come round.