Mark Millar

OMG! Mark Millar has only one plot for this entire series: one faction of the Magic Order tries to kill off the other members in order to take control of the secret society. That's it. Over and over.

This time its a cabal of greedy magicians who -- in addition to protecting the world from magical threats -- want to be able to use their magic for personal monetary gain, a taboo under the current rules. Cue the bloodbath. But having killed off so many people in the previous volumes, whose show more deaths are we left to care about?

I liked the first volume of this series so much, but I guess Mark Millar did too because all he seems to want to do is keep rewriting it. show less

While the volume (like the previous one) in my eyes frequently suffers from what I feel is a common trait of Millar's work, this being a crassness that feels like it is trying too hard to be edgy and just rings phoney instead, from a plotting perspective this is an adroit weaving of classic X-Men and Marvel elements into an exciting and powerful retelling of the X-Men's origins. In particular, I am very fond of the portrayal of Xavier himself here, perhaps the one character with which the show more added 'edginess' really works, consistently and throughout. show less

Disturbing. (Duh.) I found it a better read than the first book, possibly because Hit-Girl is simply way more interesting than Kick-Ass can ever be. She's completely messed up -- but how do you call her "damaged" when her abilities have rendered her virtually invulnerable? Sure, she takes down a mob boss -- and several dozen of his closest associates -- and, okay, the entire population of death row (she was in the neighborhood, so she figured she'd "save the tax-payer a little cash"). But show more she also conquers the female population of *middle school.* Using pretty much the same skill set.

I guess I'd have to call her my favorite right-wing extremist. show less

They always say that the book is better than the film, but once again I have to starkly disagree… I absolutely love the Kingsman movie franchise for so many reasons, but the graphic novel that they’re based on totally doesn’t live up to the hype! Where the films take the spy genre in a uniquely humorous direction and have a wonderfully emotive cast to bring the characters to life, the book seems quite traditional and flat in comparison. Gone entirely are the moments of sarcastic show more British humour, the almost too ridiculous to be true action sequences, and the perfect visual casting and what we’re left with is a slightly more street style influenced James Bond. As much as I enjoy a good spy novel and the whole saving the world motif, without the small details that make the films so brilliant there’s little to make this story stand out from the masses. Honestly, I’m not even sure how they got from this book to the film, and if I had read the books first I don’t know if I would have bothered to try out the cinematic version… Disappointing material from the graphic novel genre, once again. show less