'Kick-Ass' teasers (Nicolas Cage in a Bat-suit!) totally kick ass

He is not Superman, or Batman, or Spider-Man, but take it from this comic book loving geek: Kick-Ass is one of the great super-heroes in contemporary superhero fiction. Created by writer Mark Millar (Wanted) and legendary artist John Romnita Jr. (son of the even more legendary artist, famed for Spider-Man), Kick-Ass is a hyper-violent, extremely funny meditation on the “What if somebody really tried to be a superhero?” question, as well as a barbed examination of current superhero-saturated pop culture. You get a strong hint of that in the latest teaser posters now hitting the Web for Layer Cake director Matthew Vaughn’s movie adaptation, due in theaters April 16. Yes, that’s Nicolas Cage, rocking a costume meant to evoke a skuzzy, low-fi variation on a certain Dark Knight. His superhero moniker is Big Daddy, and the little lass in purple is his daughter and (exceedingly deadly) sidekick, Hit-Girl, played by Chloe Moretz of Dirty Sexy Money and (500) Days of Summer.

Now, I had the great fortune of seeing this movie earlier this week, and while it’s not my job to review movies here at EW, I can tell you this: Cage’s supporting turn (which slyly nods to a very famous Batman thesp) will amuse and even move you—and you are going to be shocked and awed by the R-rated things Hit-Girl does in this movie. I am still shaking my head in disbelief. To give you a taste of the Cage/Moretz rapport, check out the clip in the Hit Girl link.

One more tease for you: Lost fans will laugh at hard at a joke in the film that refers to the series that should play really well right about the time the movie opens, which is the same time the show is about to end its run.