Mark Millar Offers Details on His New KICK-ASS Comic and Wants Tessa Thompson To Play Her
As you may have heard, comic writer Mark Millar and artist John Romita Jr. are rebooting the Kick-Ass series with a brand new character. That character was revealed to be an African-American single mother and a former veteran named Patience Lee. She will wear the iconic green and yellow costume and if a movie gets made, there's one actress that Millar wants to play the character. That actress is Tessa Thompson, who played Valkyrie in Thor: Ragnarok. You know what? You won't get any complaints from me! I love Tessa Thompson and she would be awesome as the new Kick-Ass!
A lot of fans asking who I'd want as this new Kick-Ass. To be honest, one choice really jumps out and that's @TessaThompson_x. https://t.co/h3llrt75qO
— Mark Millar (@mrmarkmillar) January 17, 2018
I have no idea if a movie will ever get made. Kick-Ass 2 didn't do too well at the box office, but you never know. Anything is possible and this is obviously a very different take on the hero and there's a reason for that.
According to EW, the first issue of the new Kick-Ass series will be released on Valentine's Day, February 14th. Millar talks about the series in an interview with the outlet and when asked what separates Patience from original Kick-Ass character Dave Lizewski, Miller says:
"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."
He goes on to talk about creating different heroes for different eras, explaining:
"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."
He makes some great points here and we see this evolution happening in all forms of entertainment. I'm a huge fan of the Kick-Ass franchise and I'm excited to see where this next iteration of the series goes!
Below you'll find some previous pages from the comic: