Remember those pre- 9/11 days when films were really good at making us look deeper at our everyday lives? I mean, look at ‘American Beauty’ for Christsakes, “Look Closer” was the tag line of the movie. All in one year, just a few weekends apart, you had ‘The Matrix’, ‘American Beauty’ and that movie that everyone from my generation used to say represented them, ‘Fight Club’. Come on, how many of you had a Tyler Durden quote, in your profile, when you first started using AOL instant messenger?

Sadly, those days are gone now. We have fantasy filled film after fantasy filled film, and we don’t feel bad about being ourselves anymore while watching them. I want some Sadomasochism with my Escapism, God Dammit! “Wait,” you say while reading this, “Isn’t this the comic book guy’s column, that I never comment on, and not the film review column?” And you would be right. I have a segue, though, don’t worry.

The superstar, that has been on every comics related and film related site in the past month, (and that I interviewed for my last two weeks worth of columns) Mark Millar, is a fan of that type of storytelling. He may be in the media now, because he is in the works for setting up a possible re-launch of the SUPERMAN franchise, and that Nicolas Cage has just joined the cast for the movie, based on his book KICK ASS, but Mark Millar has had a place in my heart and in the heart of many a geek, based purely on his comic book work. Millar gets what it is to be a comic fan and he makes us fans both proud and ashamed at the same time.

KICK ASS, which Millar recommend I review for this column, is the perfect example of such a story. Here is the synopsis of this limited series, which I stole from the beginning of the fourth issue:

“Dave Lizewski wasn’t the class jock or the class geek. He wasn’t the class clown or a class genius or anything… but he was a comic fan. One day, he put on a superhero costume-and got his ass kicked. That didn’t stop him, though. And the next time he put on the costume…he saved some guys life.”

KICK ASS takes the hypothetical fantasy that all of us comic dorks have- ‘what would it be like to be a superhero and fight crime?’ And answers it with, ‘Pretty brutal and embarrassing.’ The life of the main character, Dave, has been pretty embarrassing and people have been brutal (although with their honesty and not physical aggression) to him. In the first issue, he waits outside of the local gym, for a chance encounter with Katie, the girl he has a crush on. He lays the line on her that he didn’t know she went to the gym, and her bitter response is that she saw him when her dad dropped her off at the gym, and that the guy at the door has been watching him, standing outside for the past three hours. Ouch.

Dave’s superhero costume is a wet suit he bought off E-bay. He gets an almost erotic like thrill, when he wears it underneath his clothes, during school. He is pathetic, but that is why you love him. Like so many other losers who become instant celebrities, Dave, now calling himself KICK ASS, has footage of his exploits all over the internet. It is all spawning from his second fight, which was videotaped by someone using their cell phone.

The book is beautiful to look at, as well. John Romita Jr, whose father is a comic book icon, shows off his amazing pencils within every issue. It is more of a treat to see his work in KICK ASS, as opposed to his regular Marvel comics, because Mark Millar’s scripts force him to have to draw the most deranged things. Take the beginning of issue four for example. A little girl, wearing a costume similar to Robin’s, shoves a katana blade through the head of a gang banger, on the first page. She then proceeds to slice off the arms of another thug, the legs of his friend, and sticks two swords though the prostitute, the unfortunate criminals hired.

Wall to wall violence. Self deprecating jokes abound. Whether you like comics or not, KICK ASS is worth picking up.