Kick-Ass

The original Kick-Ass series, published by Marvel in 2011, is a single-issue story that took a brutal, satirical look at the idea of a real-life superhero. Written and drawn by the iconic team of Mark Millar and John Romita Jr., this starkly violent and profane tale follows an ordinary teenager who decides to become a costumed vigilante, only to find the reality far more dangerous and messy than the comics he loves. It matters as a defining work of the 2010s that deconstructed superhero tropes with raw, unflinching energy, sparking a franchise that would reshape how readers thought about capes and consequences.