Oh, Hit-Girl. The most adorable murderess you'll ever meet is at it again. She's literally tumbled into a bad situation at the beginning of this issue, with villains everywhere and the element of surprise ruined. Somehow though, she still manages to clear the room and save the innocent--and in this case, sexy, naked female--bystanders. All before racing home to play the innocent school girl again. Only this time Marcus isn't falling for it. He's on to her and intent on keeping her safe and at home from here on in.

It's another foul mouthed chapter in our teeny heroine's story, but it simply didn't entertain me as much as I thought it would. Kick-Ass and Hit-Girl are ultra-violent modern interpretations of the superhero concept. Real people training to take down gangs and murderers, with no qualms about using violence to do so. As much as it's meant to feel like a current, real world universe, the over-use of pop culture references seemed more obvious than usual in this issue. Every other page has a quip about a movie, fictional character or another Millar World title. While they did make me giggle as I read it, it brought me out of the story and made me feel like I was listening to a pack of teenagers trying to one up each other's nerd knowledge. Which may have been the point but doesn't quite work for me.

It's still an enjoyable series that I'll read to its conclusion, but I worry that the more pop culture quips it has, the less timeless it'll be. It's a great take on the superhero genre and the first volume was very iconic. I don't want to see it fall prey to the sequel curse.