Fans of Mark Millar and John Romita Jr’s first ultra-violent kid-superhero romp, Kick-Ass will have something special in store for them at the comic store today. Kick-Ass 2, the second volume of the popular comic arrives in stores today.

In the new story-arc, Hit-Girl is adopted by a cop following the death of her father and is no longer allowed to engage in hero activity. While Hit-Girl lays low, the story’s main villain, Red Mist hires a bad-ass girl from Russia to help him exact revenge for his family’s death at the hands of Kick-Ass and company. He goes online and influences a new bunch of young villains to take up his fight.

Soon enough, gangs from across New York are filming their atrocities and putting them on the internet in an attempt to out-do each other. All in all, it sounds like more of the same ultra-violent and foul-mouthed comic goodness we’ve come to expect from Millar and Romita Jr. And of course, the question now is what about the second flick?

While IMDB already has an entry for the flick, Kick-Ass 2: Balls to the Wall, and is showing a 2012 release, Millar talked with MTV and outlined what would need to happen to make that release on-time.

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Many months ago, I was strolling past the movie theater on one particularly beautiful morning in downtown Burbank when I happened upon one of those annoying movie ticket barkers.  I was about to ignore him when I saw the following letters in big, black type: KICK-ASS. Exuberant, I ran over and as he started to explain what the movie was about, I told him I’d take 6 flyers.

That night at the plushy and sometimes snooty Hollywood Arclight I sat with a few of my very geeky friends in the front row and watched a test print of the most Kick-Ass film of the year.  Below is my review….from a gal’s pov of course.

TO ANYONE WHO HASN’T READ THE COMIC, SPOILERS FOLLOW:

The film begins with a shot of who you think is the lead character.  He is dressed in superhero tights and leaps from a tall building to his death.  The voice-over then aptly tells the audience that this is the real world and crazy men in tights don’t have super powers.

The next opening scenes are extremely reminiscent of the very first Spider-man film. Here’s the thing. I get how in any new comic book movie there is usually a very long and very slow opening arc where some normal guy has something horrible or great happen and he gets turned into a superhero– but it’s been done.  I hear it’s even going to be re-done again in a new Spider-man flick.

I know how Spider-man gets his powers, my mom even knows how Spidey gets his powers, his name implies that maybe a spider was involved.  I don’t need an hour of exposition to get to the good part.

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With the release date of Lionsgate’s Kick-Ass drawing closer and closer, this is the time when the internet community gets treated to a slew of marketing strategies to increase awareness of the film. Much like 2008′s Dark Knight strategy, this plan involves hyping up the protagonist’s arch enemy, The Red Mist.

In the film, the crimson villain is portrayed by Superbad’s McLovin, known in the real world as Christopher Mintz-Plasse. In the books, Mist is a bad-ass, fast car driving, weed smoking, caped crusader who decides to team up with Kick-Ass before eventually showing his true colors.

The film is, of course, based on the current comic by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr. In the book, a local teenager decides to take crime fighting into his own hands and don the title of “Kick-Ass” while he uncovers the true darkness in the city and gets the crap kicked out of him in the process.

The film is set for release on April 16th. You can check out the full, high-res version of the new poster after the jump. Be sure to keep it here for more details and information on the film as it comes our way.

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When we brought you the last bits of information on Matthew Vaughn’s highly anticipated action/comedy Kick-Ass, the film, although one of the highlights of Comic-Con, was still looking for a distributor. Well, fortunately for fans of the comic and new fans excited for the film after viewing the bootleg trailer, its search for a distributor has ended with Lionsgate.

According to Variety, Lionsgate got its first look at the film on July 28th and has picked up domestic rights to it in a deal that’s described in the trade as “big.” This also means Lionsgate plans a wide release for the action/comedy sometime in 2010. As a reminder for those of you just joining us, Kick-Ass is based on a comic written by Mark Millar and drawn by John Romita Jr. and features Nicholas Cage, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Chloe Moretz and Aaron Johnson.

It follows the adventures of teenager Dave Lizewski, a New York City high school student, who takes his interest in comic books as inspiration to become a real-life superhero. When his exploits are recorded by an onlooker with a cell phone and posted to the Internets, he becomes a sensation and is given the moniker Kick-Ass. This is good news. Lionsgate knows how to release films like this. Glad it found a home.