Hit-Girl #2: It's True: "The Best Just Got Better"

Hit-Girl #2
Writer: Mark Millar
Artist: John Romita Jr.
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July 25, 2012

"Kick-Ass, this is Hit-Girl.  I just drugged Mom and Marcus and I'm heading for the Hit-Car now."

Cue the superhero music; Hit-Girl is back and she hasn't changed a bit!  Well, except (SPOILERS) she's getting bullied at school by "nasty ******* harp[ies]" so she's going undercover as a "normal" school girl with the help of Kick-Ass, in return for teaching him how to be a super-hero.  (end SPOILERS) 

What's great about the last two issues is that I care about both Hit-Girl, the super girl, and Mindy, the school girl.  I was honestly disappointed that I have to wait until next issue to find out how Mindy deals with the bitch squad at school.  I'm also looking forward to seeing more of Hit-Girl teaching Kick-Ass the ropes of being a superhero.  Doing so allows the reader into Mindy's background without flashing back and it keeps the story moving forward.  It's also hilarious when Kick-Ass flubs even the simplest of superhero tasks. 

The art has remained a constant throughout Kick-Ass and into Hit-Girl, which really gives the characters an iconic look.  I'm glad that they haven't decided to change the characters' looks now that there's been a movie; they're remaining faithful to the characters and the story they've created. It's particularly poignant because Hit-Girl looks even younger than she does in Kick-Ass, the film--the reader is both terrified of her and drawn to her. On one page, she's bowed over a book at school, while a student bullies her--a couple pages later, she's standing over the bodies of at least six men she's killed, with the tiniest of smirks on her face.  

I love the plot line so far; Mindy is both vulnerable and invulnerable, she can kill people but she doesn't know how to get along with them, she knows everything about weapons and politics and nothing about girl-speak or pop culture.  Hit-Girl is every girl who has ever been left out of the in-crowd because they didn't watch the latest movies or wear the latest clothes or follow all the hottest celebrities.  Instead, those were the girls who were working on something they really loved, whether it was dance, writing, or being a superhero.  We all take on different masks to cope with the parts of our lives we don't love--Hit-Girl has to learn to do it too.