Kick-Ass: The New Girl, Vol. 4

Kick-Ass: The New Girl

by Steve Niles (Writer), Marcelo Frusín (Illustrator), Sunny Gho (Colorist)

It's Kick-Ass versus Hit-Girl. Mindy screeches into Albuquerque to kill the Dave imposter who's been running gangs in New Mexico. Old superhero allies become enemies as Hit-Girl sets out to avenge Dave and stop Patience's criminal operations for good. Can Patience survive, hunted by the best assassin in the business? And could she kill a child to save herself?

Collects KICK-ASS VS. HIT-GIRL #1-5

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Crime, Fiction

127 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 19, 2021

About the author

STEVE NILES is one of the writers responsible for bringing horror comics back to prominence, and was recently named by Fangoria magazine as one of it's "13 rising talents who promise to keep us terrified for the next 25 years."

Niles is currently working for the four top American comic publishers - Marvel, DC, Image and Dark Horse. He got his start in the industry when he formed his own publishing company called Arcane Comix, where he published, edited and adapted several comics and anthologies for Eclipse Comics. His adaptations include works by Clive Barker, Richard Matheson and Harlan Ellison.

Steve resides in Los Angeles in his bachelor pad with one cat. While there's no crawlspace, there is a questionable closet in one corner and no one is quite sure what is hidden in there...but we have an idea.

--from the author's website

Reviews

[Jayson · Rating 2 out of 5]

(B-) 70% | Satisfactory
Notes: Speeds downhill, just kill-kill-kill, annihilation-driven, ending bad, may drive you mad: no answers teased are given!

*Progress updates: Preamble ◦ Issues #1-3 ◦ Issues #4-5

[Baba · Rating 3 out of 5]

The whole point of me rereading my Kick-Ass collection was so that I could have context on reading these new-to-me volumes from hereon. However the best thing about rereading was the revisiting of the original series; as this volume was definitely not worth the wait. Our new African-American and female Kick-Ass leads a one caped avenger led war against the gangster factions in Albuquerque spearheaded by the Latinos and the Russians. Nothing new to see here other than the sad loss of the dark humour prevalent in the original franchise. A middling Three Star, 6 out of 12 read for me.

2026 read

[Justplainlucas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just terrible. I was never that crazy about the idea of a new Kick-Ass that took over drug cartels to funnel money for her own personal reasons. Of course, she tries to reason by saying she's doing it to save the city, regardless of how many people died in her wake, friend and foe alike.

This isn't Kick-Ass. It was never Kick-Ass. It was a horrible excuse to gender/race swap an established character and try to ride popularity of the name but failed to sell me on an interesting character and a believable storyline. Bringing in Hit-Girl (and her spin off books weren't very enjoyable in their own right) to try to wrap the New Girl's story was rushed and sloppy with a very unsatisfying ending.

The book is an extremely quick read. I blazed through the five collected issues in less than 20 minutes. There's very, very little dialogue, what is there is banal. One-liners are basic and forgettable. Bad guys lack any sense of intimidation. The dynamic of the New Girl verses Hit-Girl is over before it even begins. What really was the point of all this?

The artwork was also rushed and inconsistent. Some faces are done well, but sometimes they're either lacking detail, ugly, or awkward and goofy. One action scene even manages to have a dismembered hand drawn the opposite way, illustrating the character as having two right hands. Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy. Someone should have caught that. Just a testament to the lack of caring in developing this series.

It ends with a massive "THE END" that takes up an entire page. It's almost like the people working on this book were tired of it enough to exclaim it so. I'm hoping it really is the end, because the New Girl should stay retired.

[Matthew Ward · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rushed and over-the-top action in the worst ways. These characters didn’t feel like the same I’ve gotten to know. Did not enjoy this ending, but glad that it is over. Potentially set up for another Kick-Ass series in the future and we’ll see if that ever happens and if I’ll ever read that one.

[Terry Mcginnis · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid wrap to this series, and the addition of Hit-Girl brings things full circle. I'm ready for the next iteration!

[Robert · Rating 1 out of 5]

Flipped threw in less than a half hour. way Way WAY to many pages of faux gore with zero dialog, and the pages with dialog are just stringer-set-ups for the 'art' pages.

[Anja von "books and phobia" · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mit dem 4.Band der Kick-Ass Frauenpower-Reihe erfüllte man mir nicht nur den Wunsch, einen weiteren Ausflug zu Patience machen zu dürfen, sondern der Reihe auch das Action-geladene Finale zu geben, das sie verdient hat.

Wer die Bände bisher verfolgt hat, der weiß, dass Patience nach ihrem Kriegseinsatz nicht mit ansehen konnte, wie ihre Stadt von Kriminalität, Drogen und Machtmissbrauch immer mehr gekennzeichnet wurde. Nach reichlich Überlegungen entschloss sie sich dazu, allem den Kampf anzusagen und zog dafür in einen Krieg, der sie und auch ihre Familie stark beeinflussen würde. Tja und dies alles fand mit in diesem Band sein Ende. Jedoch auf eine Art, die der Reihe den nötigen Respekt zollte und mich irgendwie auch überraschte.

Die große Überraschung meinerseits war wohl Hit-Girl, welche ich bisher nur aus den Filmen kannte. Ich wusste ja, dass sie von ihrem Vater gut ausgebildet wurde, aber dass in ihr so ein Hass auf kriminelle Handlungen loderte, hätte ich nicht erwartet. Ok teilweise war es auch verständlich, aber dass sie hier Patience nicht einmal Zeit ließ, die ganze Sache zu erklären, machte das mutige Mädchen mit dem etwas zu groß geratenen Gerechtigkeitssinn zur wütenden Killermaschine. Hier galt für mich auch nicht die Tatsache, dass Patience nun mal das gleiche Kostüm wie ihr Freund und Kollege Dave trug. Vielleicht verstehe ich Hit-Girl auch falsch, denn die Original-Kick-Ass-Story, samt der rund um Hit-Girl, habe ich noch nicht gelesen.

Doch zurück zu diesem Band, welcher auch neben dem Zusammentreffen mit Hit-Girl so einiges an Spannung und Emotionen bot. Zum einen war da natürlich Patience´ Kampf gegen die Ungerechtigkeit und zum anderen den, ihre Familie aus alldem herauszuhalten. Beides wurde hier toll unter einem Hut gepackt und wirkte wie aus einem Guss.

Dies galt auch für die Optik, welche mir eindrucksvolle Bilder lieferte, die wahrscheinlich auch ohne die Texte, die Handlung perfekt wiedergegeben hätte. Ja, ich lehne mich hier weit aus dem Fenster, aber schon allein an den Gesichtsausdrücken der Charaktere konnte man stellenweise ablesen, was sie fühlen oder gar was sie vorhaben. Dazu gab es, größtenteils durch Hit-Girl, Action, die sich sehen lassen konnte. Egal ob durch Schläge, Schwerter oder Pistolen, alles wirkte stets wuchtig, zumal man auch die Spuren danach nicht vertuschte. Da sah man eben mal eine Patience, die sich eine Schnittwunde nähte. Doch gerade dadurch wirkte das Ganze eben auch so mächtig.

Fazit:

Auch wenn ich es schade finde, dass diese Reihe nun ein Ende fand, freute ich mich darüber, dass man ihr wenigstens ein Ende gab. Besonders da es eines war, das dem Namen der Reihe würdig war und nicht nur Emotionen, sondern auch pure Action bot. Ich kann nur Danke schön sagen, denn mit Patience lieferte man mir einen Charakter bei dem mir eigentlich nur „WOW“ einfällt.

[Ross · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't usually want to throw a comic across the room, but this was the biggest letdown in comics that I've read in AGES.

Hit-Girl has heard about this pretender Kick-Ass and she's out for her blood. Nobody can take the place of her friend Dave. She's got to take out the faker before she ruins the heroic legacy that the Kick-Ass suit represents. Meanwhile, Patience must deal with an increasing number of deaths all around her and her crew getting the itch to turn her over and take control. Money is the root of all ever and her crew has never been 'good guys'. She'll have to fight for her....right(?) to bring it all down and walk away from all of it.



The final battle is Kick-Ass vs Hit-Girl and only one of them is going to survive...
--------------------
THIS is what I was afraid was going to happen. This feels like they had a checklist before they started writing the series and they just ticked off boxes to keep track of their progress. I get the feeling that you could swap ANY character into the lead role. ANY villain (as we've seen for at least two books) can just get swapped out (and killed) with another.

Bonus: Kick-Ass jumping through a window for a 4th time to complete the BINGO.
Bonus Bonus: The final panel of Patience and her family on their porch, laughing up a storm..

(we've all been played)

[Cagne]

All this 1 vs 6 armed thugs, dodging bullets, gets tiring.

[Jesse A · Rating 2 out of 5]

A pretty weak ending to a pretty good series.

[Jorge Lopez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Story was OK and I really enjoyed the fact that there is no team-up. Hit-Girl is out for blood and there is no reasoning or explaining of why the new Kick-Ass leads the crime in Albuquerque .

Although I have enjoyed previous work of Marcelo Frusin, the art in this one is simply awful. Some panels look like they have been inked by a 12 year old, ignoring little details like shadows, deep perception or noses, specially when it comes to Mindy and background figures.

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hit-Girl comes to town and we get a lot of pages of almost wordless fighting and very little story. I read the whole thing in about 20 minutes. Patience was already on her way to shutting things down and the normal miscommunication occurs when two characters meet. Yawn. This series was a waste of time.

[Rodrigo Vargas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me lo leí en una sentada, temiendo un desenlace muy triste, no obstante fue un comic ligero que junta dos personajes bien desarrollados enfrentandose. Creo que es un buen cierre por el momento para la historia de ambos personajes, veremos que nos depara el futuro de Kick Ass.

[Steven Shinder · Rating 2 out of 5]

That's it? I was so hyped to see these two meet up, and it was a super quick story with their conversations always being, "You're a phony Kick-Ass," "I didn't steal your friend's suit!" They never actually talk to each other. What the heck was this?

[Pat · Rating 2 out of 5]

I generally find Steve Niles to have a unique point of view but this was not good.

[Lukas Holmes · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible.

[Gary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very strange

After following Kick ass for years, it’s a little hard to believe that kick ass could so easily be deceived.

[Jason Scott · Rating 1 out of 5]

obligatory dumb last volume that retcons the series.

[Craig · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's Kick-Ass vs. Hit-Girl! Why is it so dull?

[Jason Henwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good, fitting end to this whole series. After the horrendous Hit Girl books, I hope it stops here.

[Bruno Franco Netto · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's ok, but really not nearly as good as the original kick-ass or its immediate sequels.

[Kinow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finished the series, LOVED IT.

[iamjacsmusings · Rating 2 out of 5]

Less Kick-Ass and more anti-climax.