Suvudu Universe

Kingsman: The Secret Service might be the first Mark Millar-written comic to become a movie that I bother seeing. Kick-Ass looked too violent (and frankly, stupid), while Wanted seemed generic. But Kingsman has Colin Firth in some fine suits, as shown in this trailer.

Unfortunately, the hero, a kid (Taron Egerton) taken under superspy Firth’s wing, is the generic lower-class white guy with unexpected (and unexplained) skills and natural abilities that Millar loves so much. The comic, a six-issue miniseries that ran in 2012, had the benefit of being illustrated by the immortal Dave Gibbons (Watchmen), which raised up the sometimes derivative material. One could probably guess that it was intended from the beginning to be adapted into film, since Matthew Vaughn, director of Kick-Ass and X-Men: First Class, was credited as co-plotter. A tie-in hardcover collection will be out next month, in case you’d like to read ahead, while a paperback edition came out earlier this year.

I suspect the class commentary and the portraits of expectations placed on various types, a very British theme, will be toned down if not missing entirely in the film. I hope the plot, about a young tech billionaire kidnapping celebrities, remains, but it would probably too complicated to handle the likenesses. The James Bond joke that was enabled that way was my favorite part of the comic, though.

Since the trailer was released, Kingsman has been moved back from October 2014 to February 13, 2015. The reason given was “more time to market [the movie] as well as to finish special effects.” Millar shouldn’t worry, though, as he’s got four more comic projects in various stages of movie production.

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