By now, readers know what to expect from Kick-Ass. The first three issues have concentrated on the character of Dave Lizewski as he develops his own superhero identity (with mixed results) and achieves a degree of notoriety due to the appearance of a video of his crime-fighting antics on youtube. This issue brings us more of that story, incorporating the usual dosage of self-referential comics geek-speak (Millar even sneaks a thinly-veiled reference to his own 1985 comic into this issue) and a highly entertaining subplot that sees Dave pretend to be gay in order to woo his pretty classmate.

However, there's also a sense that Millar is widening his scope here. This issue spends a lot of time elaborating the backstory of the new character that was introduced at the end of last issue - a young female crime-fighter called Hit Girl, who acts as one half of a father-and-daughter superhero team whose slick antics make Kick-Ass look like the meek wannabe that he is. Millar uses these characters to introduce another subplot involving an organised crime family - a development that looks likely to form a big part of this miniseries' conclusion. In doing so, he broadens the horizons of the book, giving what could have been a one-note series a more substantial plot than I expected, and leading us neatly into the second half of the initial 8-issue run with a stronger sense of purpose than previous issues have provided.

If I have any criticism of the book, it's that the more "adult" (I won't say "mature" because the book is anything but) aspects of the story are being played up to such an extent that the title is beginning to verge on self-parody. The old axiom that "less is more" is one that doesn't seem to feature in Millar's writing vocabulary, with this issue ramping up the levels of violence to new heights and peppering the dialogue with as many swear words as the writer can squeeze into his characters' mouths. To be honest, it's all a little excessive, and in a week that has also brought us the highly violent Wolverine #68, I'm starting to feel somewhat desensitised to the explicit blood and gore that is such a feature of Millar's books at the moment. It feels like Kick-Ass is trying a little too hard to shock, and as with Garth Ennis' The Boys (which I dropped some issues ago) I'm finding the violence in this title a little tiresome and unnecessary.

John Romita Jr. continues to make the story look great with his artwork, bringing a satisfying chunkiness to his characters, thanks to his blocky, square style. That's a particular boon for this issue, which is fairly reliant on action scenes that gain a strong sense of tangibility from Romita's linework. I'm actually finding Tom Palmer's inking of Romita's pencils to be a lot more pleasing that Klaus Janson's ink job in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man at the moment, as his thick finishes give Romita's linework a real sense of definition and weight that can sometimes be lost by inkers like Janson who apply a lighter touch. The standout moment for me is a splashpage of Hit-Girl in mid-air that instantly evokes Batman's Robin--especially the Dark Knight Returns version of the character--playing neatly into the relationship between her and Big Daddy that riffs on the Batman and Robin dynamic.

Every reader has a few guilty pleasures in their comics diet, and Kick-Ass continues to be one of mine. Yes, there are some flaws in the book's logic (the fact that Big Daddy and Hit Girl appear to be far more experienced and polished crime-fighters than Kick-Ass doesn't quite jibe with the idea that Dave is meant to have inspired the costumed crime-fighter trend), and the world of the book is becoming further and further removed from reality as the story goes on, but this title is still providing a fairly fun and original take on familiar superhero conventions, and Romita's artwork is always worth a read. I just hope that there's a little less of a reliance on blood and guts to make the book feel exciting and "adult" over the course of the next few issues.

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