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The new Tripwire Special is here -- Tripwire being an estimable British comics magazine. The real revelation for me in this ish was a piece about Kick-Ass, a comic I had not previously heard of, but which not only exists but is about to become a movie, very possibly a movie I want to see, for a few different reasons. Reason One, the writer is Mark Millar, the dude responsible for Wanted and some of the best Ultimates work, as well as Red Son, one of my favorite graphic novels of all time (the one about what would happen if Superman had landed in Stalin-era Russia instead of Kansas. Answer: bad things.)

Reason Two: Tripwire describes Kick-Ass as "a little bit like Spider-man set in the real world." Alienated high school kid decides to become a superhero. Never mind that he doesn't have any powers. He makes a costume for himself and goes out and confronts thugs and repeatedly gets the crap beaten out of him. He's joined by some associates, including a little girl called Hit Girl who kills people with swords. You can see a few pages of it here. It is, in its own way, a Watchmen-like demolition of the whole superhero idea: fighting crime is bloodier, harder, stupider and more upsetting than we've been taught to think it would be.

Reason Three, the movie is being directed by Matthew Vaughn, who made the great Layer Cake and the underrated Stardust. (It has Christopher "McLovin'" Mintz-Plasse in it too, as a superhero called Red Mist.) Should be out later this year.

Interestingly, in other post-Watchmen news, Grant Morrison, another great comics writer (All-Star Superman, etc.) is apparently doing a new comic featuring what he calls the "Charlton characters," namely The Question, Peacemaker, Captain Atom and the other B-listers on whom the characters in Watchmen were based. Interesting. Does any man dare to follow where the great Moore hath tread?

And in still other news, a new Wolverine trailer is out. Gambit looks almost cool for once in his life: