A further crossover, Big Game, was published from July to November 2023, following a now mid-20s Mindy as she teams up with Kingsman agent Eggsy Unwin against Wesley Gibson, while Dave is granted superpowers by the Magic Order.

The first volume of the series was adapted into a film directed by Matthew Vaughn and starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson in the title role and Chloë Grace Moretz as Hit-Girl, released in 2010.

Dave Lizewski, an otherwise ordinary New York City high school student, comic book fan, and the child of James Lizewski, a loving single father, and his deceased via brain hemorrhage mother, ponders the absence of costumed vigilantes in the real world while "some Armenian guy" in a superhero outfit leaps from the rooftop of a skyscraper, fails to take flight, and plunges to his death on a car on the street below in front of a crowd of onlookers.

Months earlier, Dave buys a wetsuit from the website eBay, which he wears under his normal clothing, begins exercising, and practices things like walking on roofs, satisfying his ambitions to become a real-life superhero for a time.

He eventually seeks to actually fight crime, with his first attempt leading him to receive a severe beating and stabbing by thugs, followed by his wandering into the street and being hit by a car.

When he saves a man from a beating,[2] an onlooker records the incident and uploads it to YouTube, turning Dave into an overnight sensation dubbed with the name "Kick-Ass".

The first such request he investigates is a man called Eddie Lomas who has been harassing his ex-girlfriend, which leads Kick-Ass to an apartment of violent lowlifes who try to kill him.

[6] At the behest of Big Daddy and Hit-Girl, Kick-Ass accompanies Red Mist to meet the duo at an abandoned warehouse to strategize the takedown of John Genovese.

Tortured, Big Daddy reveals he is not an ex-cop at all but an accountant frustrated with his marriage, who took his daughter and left his empty life to create a new one, financing himself through selling comic books.

As mobsters beat and kill costumed vigilante Silver Beatle for information about the now-retired Kick-Ass and Hit-Girl, Mindy McCready's stepfather, Marcus Williams watches a news broadcast concerning the murder, prompting a response from a spokesman for the real-life superhero movement.

When Kick-Ass arrives at the safe house, Hit-Girl gives him a tour of the facility, explaining that the equipment was purchased with the money she and her father "Big Daddy" had liberated from various pimps and pushers over the years.

Kick-Ass crashes through the window and pummels several gangsters, breaking his hand before Hit-Girl opens fire from beneath a table with an M16 rifle, killing a dozen mobsters.

At school, Mindy learns that Dave will not be able to help her attack a Colombian drug mill that night because of his broken hand that requires two months of recovery.

That night, while Marcus works a double shift, Mindy drugs her mother and sneaks out as Hit-Girl, heading to an abandoned warehouse to single-handedly attack a Colombian heroin cartel run by Leopoldo Urena.

At a warehouse, Mindy tumbles into a room of waiting gunmen, and reveals a digital grenade that she has set on a thirty-second timer; the men attempt to flee, but Hit-Girl shoots them out at the knees.

The next morning, Mindy discusses her near-miss with Dave, and explains her plans to cripple the Genovese criminal empire within the next month by executing eleven more hits and killing each goon in a different manner.

Standing amidst the carnage, Mindy sees a vision of her father, who suggests that she take the opportunity to unleash a massive wave of strategic hits against Ralphie Genovese's operations.

Mindy realizes how fragile her mother has become, and sincerely promises Marcus that it's over and resolves to retire and focus on schoolwork, even as brand new heroes began appearing and Red Mist's "super-crime" video going viral.

Her new step-father Marcus Williams, a former ally of her father Big Daddy, seeks to reintegrate Hit-Girl back into society as a normal girl.

The massacre leads the police (led by Detective Vic Gigante, who secretly works for The Motherfucker as a mob informant) to scapegoat the super-heroes for the deaths.

The Motherfucker then attacks the funeral, detonating a bomb in Kick-Ass's father's coffin and has gunmen open fire upon the crowd of mourners, including Hit-Girl and her family.

Now out of retirement and desiring revenge, Hit-Girl joins Kick-Ass as they raid The Motherfucker's lair and finds out that the villain plans a second massacre in Times Square.

However, Justice Forever refuses to help him free Mindy from prison and Lieutenant Stripes is killed by Chris Genovese's mother Angela while trying to avenge his brother, Colonel Stars.

Corrupt police officer Vic Gigante, having been promoted to captain after arresting Mindy, contacts the Motherfucker's uncle, Don Rocco "Ice-Man" Genovese.

In response, Rocco orders the killing of everyone found in a mask, resulting in the deaths of four Justice Forever members and the kidnapping of Dave's roommate Todd.

Mindy goes to Rocco's meeting in a speedboat, intending to kill all the gang leaders assembled at a boathouse; Dave goes to save Todd in Big Daddy's monster truck.

In a "post-credits scene", Mindy shows up at the house of a bullied kid, Paul McQue, holding Kick-Ass's uniform, announcing that she is now going to train him to be a superhero.

Prior to the debut of the series, a viral campaign featuring a short video of Kick-Ass, the main character of the comic, being "caught on tape" performing a heroic act was uploaded to YouTube and spread around the Internet.

[27] Each issue also singles out specific comic shops, crediting them for taking part in the "home-made effort" to promote the book and encourages readers to support them.

[31][32][33] On February 21 2018, the first issue of a Hit-Girl series from Image Comics was published, with a successive change of writers and artists for each story arc, named as: Frank Quitely, Eduardo Risso, Rafael Albuquerque, Kevin Smith, Daniel Way and Pete Milligan.