Kick-Ass 2, too violent?

    Personally, I really love Mark Millar's work, my favorite being Old Man Logan, and will go out of my way to get any book he writes, but as I've been reading his new Kick-Ass series, I become less and less sure if I should read it. It's rather scary actually. So for anyone who isn't caught up with the series, Kick-Ass has met with a group of followers and is on a team of super heroes. At first everything's fine, and they look like total badasses, until Red Mist, his enemy from the original series, returns, and kills their leader. Now calling himself "The Mother$%&*er," Red Mist calls a war out on Kick-Ass, sending his gang after innocent civilians in order to draw him and the team out.

Here's where things get scary. On their way to to Katie's house house, the girl Dave (Kick-Ass' alter ego) had a crush on in the first series, the run into some TM and his gang run into some kids playing outside. You'd think they'd just play it cool for once, and offer them candy if they go inside or something, right? Nope. They shoot the kids, and then proceed to kill everyone else in the town. Once they reach Katie's house, they proceed to rape, and beat her, in order to send a message to Dave. What the hell Mark!?

    I got over it soon enough though. Not the sickest thing I've ever seen, or even thought of, but then comes issue five. Between the events leading up to this moment, Dave's father was accused of being Kick-Ass, after the police tracked Kick-Asses IP address to their house. Dave's father having recently found out his son was Kick-Ass took the fall for everything in order to protect him. In the latest issue, issue number five, Dave is terrified of what may happened to him in jail, but he assures his son that his father can surely hold his own. Few hours later, Dave's father is found beaten and hung on a noose, with his penis possibly chopped off. You can imagine Dave's reaction.

   How could it go any worse? TM and his crew ambush the funeral, despite promising a cease-fire, (I guess they'd use the excuse that they only meant until Dave's father was put under.) and bomb the place, nearly killing Dave and Mindy, who narrowly escapes, and is ready to come out of retirement and kick some ass.

   Originally I got into this series due to how comedic some of the moments were, and of course, Mark Millar wrote it, but then he throws in all this chaos, and it makes you wonder. "Should I really be enjoying this?" All these sick moments, and also seeing John Romita's make up this crazy world, after originally thinking his work was more cartoony. This is so not a cartoon. I still praise Mark for not being afraid to go to extra lengths to tell a story, but I wonder how much of this was really necessary.