Play superhero with this awesome Kick-Ass gear

The hard-core comic kicks ass on the big screen.

It can sometimes be a little tough relating to movie superheroes. Wolverine’s got that perfect Men’s Health bod, Tony Stark has a genius IQ and Bruce Wayne, where do we start? The swanky penthouse? The Batmobile? His own personal butler to fix him a grilled cheese sandwich in the middle of the night if he so wishes (though we doubt he’s one for the midnight munchies). And while we know that when you’re an alien from the planet Krypton or bitten by a radioactive spider, you’re not supposed to be totally relatable and normal, wouldn’t it make a nice change if they could be just a little less impressive and special?

Perhaps get cramp in their leg when climbing up walls or get their nose bent out of shape in a fistfight. Well, that’s exactly what we get from the latest crimefighter on the block – Kick-Ass (played by Brit rising star, Aaron Johnson) from the movie of the same name. He’s just your typical teenage boy, not stacked like a muscle mountain, top of the class with smarts to burn or gifted with an enviable trust fund – just y’know, average. And while the rest of the world knows him as the unassuming Dave Lizewski, he decides he can be so much more thanks to a homemade costume and modified night sticks. Dave no more, he’s now the green and gold-clad Kick-Ass.

And he’s not the only one out there kicking ass and taking names as while on his vigilante adventures he meets father and daughter team, Damon McCready aka Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage, finally giving the kiddie-friendly flicks a break to bust out and do something a bit older and cooler) and Mindy McCready aka Hit Girl (13-year-old Chloë Moretz in what’s bound to be a star-making role). There’s also Chris D’Amico/ Red Mist (Christopher Mintz-Plasse better known as McLovin) who was so inspired by Kick-Ass that he too took to the ol’ superhero gig and together the unlikely gang look to bring down a local crime syndicate fronted by Mark Strong.

Based on the popular Marvel comic book series of the same name by Mark Millar (Wanted) and John Romita Jr, Kick-Ass was grabbing headlines and causing outrage way before getting anywhere near cinemas. Critics took a dislike to its hard-core violence and full-on swearing, particularly Hit Girl’s mid-fight invitation, “Okay you c**ts, let’s see what you can do now.” And it’s the presence of the pint-sized assassin that has caused all the fuss with parents groups threatening to protest and every interview with anyone involved in the production, be it the stars, the director or the screenwriters, defending it.

Maybe this kind of media storm is a great promotional platform, letting people know about a movie that might have passed them by. Maybe it genuinely has offended some people (just don’t see it!) and maybe it risks losing its core audience of comic book lovers with all this talk and debate. However it goes down, we’re firmly in Camp Kick-Ass and to show our support for the underground vigilantes we’ve found some fantastic KA merch. For UK readers, there are some awesome French Connection graphic tees available to pre-order and for those in the US, check out the Making Of Movie book and other cool gear. All totally Kick-Ass.