Kick-Ass #3

History

Kick-Ass was conceived by writer Mark Millar, who has described the premise as rooted in a semi-autobiographical teenage obsession with the idea of actually becoming a superhero — an idea he began scripting in 2007. John Romita Jr., who had previously teamed with Millar on Wolverine: Enemy of the State for Marvel, joined the project and grounded the visual world in the Queens, New York neighborhoods of his own upbringing. The series was published through Marvel's creator-owned Icon imprint, and the comic and the film were developed in parallel: director Matthew Vaughn and co-writer Jane Goldman were already adapting the story as each issue shipped, with Millar's own editorial note inside issue #3 referencing an imminent official film announcement. An innovative guerrilla-marketing campaign — including a viral 'caught on tape' YouTube video and a Myspace page maintained in-character as Dave Lizewski — preceded and accompanied the series, making the book a word-of-mouth phenomenon before issue #3 landed on shelves.

Trivia · 8 facts

• First appearance of Hit-Girl (Mindy McCready), who rescues Kick-Ass from a gang by intervening with a sword — the character's debut is confirmed across the Grand Comics Database, Wikipedia, and the Marvel Fandom wiki.
• Published by Marvel Comics under the creator-owned Icon imprint; written by Mark Millar, penciled by John Romita Jr., inked by Tom Palmer, colored by Dean White, and lettered by Chris Eliopoulos.
• On-sale date: June 4, 2008; cover date: July 2008 (per the Marvel Fandom series index).
• Issue #3 is the third of eight issues in the original Kick-Ass (Vol. 1) limited series, which ran from February 2008 to March 2010 and was later retitled Kick-Ass: The Dave Lizewski Years — Book One.
• Millar included an editorial note inside the issue referencing an impending official announcement of the film adaptation and its planned 2009 release date, documenting the uniquely parallel comic-and-film development process.
• Hit-Girl was originally intended by Millar to be a co-lead of the series alongside Big Daddy; he later shifted focus to Dave Lizewski as a more grounded protagonist, describing Hit-Girl and Big Daddy as 'too cartoonish' to anchor the book alone.
• The series was later republished by Image Comics with new covers and the retitled Dave Lizewski Years branding starting in 2018, making the original Icon single issues the only editions of #3 printed under the initial publication run.
• Big Daddy (Damon McCready) does not appear until issue #4; his presence is implied in #3 only through Hit-Girl's rescue, leaving his identity and origin unrevealed at this stage.

Full credits

Key issues in Kick-Ass

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#1 1st appearance — Kick-Ass

Variants (3)