Kick-Ass Is Coming Back — As A Black Woman

After a short hiatus that left a hole in all our hearts, Mark Millar is bringing back his hit comic book series Kick-Ass — but with a twist. Main character Dave Lizewski is out of the picture: Kick-Ass is coming back with a black woman in the lead role. That's not the only change, either: the new Kick-Ass monthly series will no longer be set in New York, and it will feature an entirely new supporting cast. It's a big change — but behind the iconic green-and-yellow mask, the new Kick-Ass will be every bit as, well, kick-ass as her predecessor.

Creator Mark Millar decided to rebrand his superhero due to his understanding that comic books are "not short of white males aged around 30" — which is extremely true. "I don’t think many blond white guys around 30 feel under-represented when they pick up comic or watch a movie," said Millar — and so he's opting instead to center his popular comic book series around an African-American woman. He hinted that she might be "older or younger" than Dave Lizewski — but for the details, we're going to have to wait and see.

It's very refreshing to see a white creator acknowledge the under-representation of women of color in comic books, though I can't help but wish these creators would step back to allow artists and writers of color to represent themselves . The new Kick-Ass will join ranks with the rebooted Spider-Man, in which the spider suit was donned by mixed-race teenager Miles Morales, and the latest Thor series in which the God of Thunder was portrayed as a woman. These were certainly great and uplifting changes to see — but in both of those cases as well, the creators were white men. I'm looking forward to seeing the popular character of Kick-Ass as a black woman, which will prove to Kick-Ass's already-devoted audience that a black woman can be every bit as awesome as the white man they first met — but I'm really excited to see a black woman superhero who was actually created by a black woman.

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