The first Kick-Ass was based on, as one might expect, Kick-Ass (AKA Kick-Ass – The Dave Lizewski Years Book One). The second film was based on Hit-Girl and Kick-Ass 2, or The Dave Lizewski Years books two and three, respectively. Who knows, if we ever get a Kick-Ass reboot film, maybe it will directly adapt the comics. But as it stands, the two movies we have do a good job of blending the source material’s grim, ultra-violent sensibilities with a somewhat more marketable Hollywood gloss. In other words, some of the books’ darkest elements and plot beats had to be altered or outright excised. And, given how both films are rather sleek, there were some aspects that had to be excised just to keep the pacing where the filmmakers wanted it.
For the most part, things were kept fairly in line with the source material. Both the source material and the films have a real-world feel (meaning no one has superpowers and when someone is dead, they’re really dead), have a comedic tone, and feature characters with identical or only slightly altered names. But there were a few changes that were substantial and, most would agree, logical. What were those changes? Let’s find out.
1) Red Mist Is Fully Evil in the Comics
There were a few changes to the Red Mist character from source material to movies. For one, his last name was changed from Genovese to D’Amico. But the bigger change came in who he was. In the movies just as in the comics, he goes from the son of a well-known gangster to the grieving son of a well-known gangster to a villain all his own: the Motherf***er.
In the comics he is even more pathetic, even less likable, and goes so far as to gun down several children during the neighborhood attack (in Kick-Ass 2, both in terms of book and movie). Because of Christopher Mintz-Plasse’s presence, the character was naturally given a bit more humor, but even without a comedic actor inhabiting the role they would have had to excise that shooting kids part. The source material gives us a better look into Chris’ head, and it’s all narcissism, lack of empathy, and cruelty. He’s not a kid who feels pressure to impress his gangster father, he’s a weak young man who uses his father’s death at the hands of Hit-Girl to become what he’s always wanted to be: a murderer.
Speaking of the death of Chris’ father, the fate of Frank D’Amico is different from that of John Genovese in the comics. We still get a big battle with Kick-Ass and Hit-Girl vs. all the gangsters and both renditions of the boss still die, but in separate ways. In the comics, Kick-Ass shoots off his genitals, which then gives Hit-Girl enough times to whack him with a cleaver. In the movie, Kick-Ass has a jet pack decked out with big machine guns which he uses to take out the remainder of D’Amico’s men then uses Big Daddy’s bazooka on D’Amico himself. That in and of itself is a departure from the comics. In the source material, Kick-Ass doesn’t really kill people, in the movies he does.
2) The Assault Scene During the Neighborhood Attack
In Kick-Ass 2, the movie, the Motherf***er and his gang go on the aforementioned neighborhood attack. And, like in the source material, they choose that neighborhood because Kick-Ass’ love interest lives there.
But, in the movie, it’s Night B***h, one of Kick-Ass’ fellow heroes whereas in the book it’s Katie Deauxma, who doesn’t even have any interest in Kick-Ass (more on that particular relationship in a bit). But that’s not the only change here, as, in the movie, when the Motherf***er tries to assault Night B***h, he is unable to do so. His impotence is played for laughs. In the comics, however, he is able to assault Katie and does so.
3) Big Daddy’s Origin (& Mindy’s Mom Being Alive)
Nicolas Cage has dabbled in the superhero world throughout the years. And, between him almost being Superman and being Spider-Man Noir, he was Big Daddy. And, in the movie version of Kick-Ass, his Big Daddy is a former cop whose wife was killed by Frank D’Amico and his spent years preparing for revenge, systematically tearing apart D’Amico’s enterprise, and training his daughter, Mindy, to do the same.
In the comics, all of this seems to be the case, too. But it’s all a lie. Big Daddy is just a delusional comic book obsessive who has been selling old issues of comics to fund his whole imagined revenge crusade. Mindy’s mom is still alive and desperate to reconnect with her daughter. He wasn’t even a cop. He was an accountant. It was a smart change to make. Having Big Daddy turn out to be a liar about every aspect of his life to his own daughter wouldn’t have worked with the tone of the film at all. Another change to Big Daddy came in the form of his costume. His garb was the biggest departure from the comics. In the movie he looks like Christian Bale in The Dark Knight whereas in the source material he’s wearing a reddish-brown mask, a red shirt, red pants, and a long black coat.
4) Dave and Katie’s Relationship
Before he became Kraven the Hunter, Aaron Taylor-Johnson was Kick-Ass. And, suffice to say, they’re very different characters. Kraven’s a tough guy and very straightforward, whereas Kick-Ass only wants to be tough and can be a tad dishonest.
In the comics, Dave Lizewski has a crush on Katie, just like in the movies. And, also just like in the movies, he lies about being gay to get closer to Katie. But it’s her reaction that’s quite different. In the first movie she ends up proceeding with their relationship once the truth is made apparent. She only breaks up with him in the second film after coming to the (false) conclusion that Dave is cheating on her with Mindy. In the comics, as soon as he reveals he’s heterosexual, she rebuffs him and has her boyfriend beat him up.
5) Red Mist’s Mom
In the Kick-Ass movies, Yancy Butler’s Angie D’Amico is a background character in the first entry and is killed off early in the second. Specifically, she’s grown to have a tense relationship with her son, got rid of his Red Mist costume, and died when she climbed into a tanning bed and Chris kicked it. She’s basically a non-entity.
In the comics, she’s an important part of both Hit-Girl and the unadapted Kick-Ass 3, especially the latter. After Red Mist has become the Motherf***er and stormed the neighborhood, Angie has become despised by her community. She takes it upon herself to kill her son while he’s incapacitated in the hospital. However, when the time comes, she finds she’s not the only one there to kill Chris and takes out the gunman instead. It is also revealed towards the end of Kick-Ass 3 that she has become friends with Mindy’s mother.
6) Colonel Stars and Stripes’ Dog
There are a couple of big differences when it comes to Jim Carrey’s Colonel Stars and Stripes. For one, he’s actually two different characters in the comics: Colonel Stars and Lieutenant Stripes. It’s Lieutenant Stripes who Angie Genovese kills in Chris’ hospital room.
The film’s Colonel Stars and Stripes is an amalgamation of the two brothers, but he’s mostly Colonel Stars, both in terms of costuming and personality. For instance, both versions of the character are born-again Christians (and former soldiers for Frank Genovese/D’Amico) who lecture the other members of Justice Forever when they let loose with expletives. The death of Colonel Stars is also recreated in Kick-Ass 2. Both versions also have a dog that attacks criminals’ testicles. But it’s in the dog that we find our final difference for this character. Specifically, in the comics, Red Mist and his gang kill Colonel Stars, decapitate him, decapitate his dog, and put his dog’s head where his head used to be. Suffice to say, it’s for the best that detail was left out of the movie. There would have been walkouts in every location it was playing.
7) Hit-Girl Goes to Jail
One of the more bizarre things Kick-Ass 2 did was give Hit-Girl and Kick-Ass a will-they-won’t-they kind of thing. They were friends, then their grief over the loss of their parents made them essentially view one another as siblings. To go from that to even a hint of romance was extremely weird.
But that wasn’t the only big change. Were a Kick-Ass 3 movie to exist and directly follow the comics, one of its big plot points would be Hit-Girl’s imprisonment. But Kick-Ass 2 the movie in no way leads up to that. In the source material, the fight with the Motherf***er and his crew still happens—in Times Square, as opposed to Motherf***er’s HQ with the shark tank—and she still kills Mother Russia (and others) there. But instead of her and Kick-Ass basically just walking away victorious, she distracts the police in the comics, ultimately stealing a police car, crashing it, and getting arrested.
