The character called hit girl in kick ass is presented in so many different ways and fashions she can be classed as being a postmodern heroine, because she goes against all of the rules and stereo types that are in the marvel comic books for example, she is not sexualised in any way in her super hero costume. Now I will be moving on to deciding whether she is a pastiche or homage to marvel comic books.
In the film hit girl is portrayed as being a pastiche, this is because she is going against all of the rules that are in the marvel and other super hero / heroine comic books and there is a form of comical yet realistic looking violence in her roles in kick ass, for example when hit girl goes into Frank Domeagoes ground floor entrance to his home and hit girl has a pistol in the door mans mouth, or when big daddy is being tortured she goes around killing in a comical fashion. The rules and conventions that hit girl breaks in kick ass are: foul language, excessive violence, non revealing clothes, has the main role of fighting evil and she is in charge of kick ass and she is not helping out the general public as she if performing revenge with her father. All of these points are taking the piss of what rules and conventions that have been set by the comic book companies and further more there are other characters in the film that are portrayed as being pastiches such as kick ass and red mist. After looking into the conventions that are broken and how they are broken there is a strong suggestion that hit girls is shown to be a pastiche.
Next I will be looking into the few elements of hit girl that seem to be homage. Hit girl has a few references of her as being homage and these elements are showing a tribute to all of the comic books. Although hit girl is mainly pastiche there are elements that suggest she is homage and they are: hit girl is feared by all villains, she stops and prevents crime, she has a hidden identity, and she wears a costume for crime fighting. All of these elements are following the conventions of a comic book and therefore it could be classed as homage (a tribute to the creators of comic books), also there are other elements in the film that suggest homage, such as kick ass saving a man’s life and being the stereotypical super hero, but without the courage and powers of a comic book super hero, so kick ass is mainly a homage, but he has elements of a pastiche.
After looking into both sides of whether hit girl is pastiche or homage, i have came to the conclusion that she is mainly pastiche as there are so many factors that suggest her character is taking the mik of comic books, however there are a few elements that suggest her character is a tribute to comic books.
If Frederic Jameson was to look at hit girl’s character then he would possibly be disgusted and slate hit girl as she is portrayed as being postmodern and Jameson thinks that postmodernism is a load of tosh. He would also claim that hit girl is not postmodern as she is just another super heroine trying to be cocky and clever by making the audience think that she is a referential joke and also different to every other super heroine.
Jean-François Lyotard’s theory of there being a grand narrative could be applied to hit girls character as she is the main character and also there are elements of all three of the sections that his theory shows and they are: science, religion and politics. Hit girl show science by being interested and using the computers that are in her home,
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