3. The Red Mist TwistÂ
Without question, one of the best parts of Kick-Ass the movie was Christopher Mintz-Plasse’s portrayal of Red Mist/Chris D’Amico. The son of the aforementioned high-ranking mob boss, Chris just wanted to make his father proud and prove that he can continue in the family business. Chris creates his Red Mist alter ego in order to serve as a spandex Trojan horse, arguing correctly that Kick-Ass would only trust a fellow crime fighter.
Red Mist is one of my favorite parts of the movie, but my least favorite part of the comic, because the fact that Red Mist/Chris is actually the son of a Mafia boss is actually a “twist” in the comic.
It’s somewhat insulting how they handle it: Oh here’s this random comic book nerd who we are taking the time to point out is the son of the mobster, then in the next scene we make sure to point out that he’s overhearing this mafia boardroom meeting but he doesn’t actually say anything? That’s not foreshadowing, that’s telling us we’re stupid and won’t be able to handle any twists, like the lingering shot of the alternative reality device in Repo Men, or the paw prints in Blues Clues.
In the comics, Red Mist is clearly a phony, a Spandex-y whore who just wants his ten minutes of fame. When Red Mist ultimately betrays Kick-Ass, Mist admits that he has jerked off to the idea of this betrayal beforehand, asking if that’s weird.
It’s not so much as it being weird, rather it just being so forced and “edgy.” Dave is immediately made aware of Red Mist’s false heroics, as during his first team-up with Red Mist rushing into a burning building to save a cat, Red Mist instantly asks if Dave sees a back door, so they could just slip out and wait for the fire brigade.
In the movie however, this scene is flipped. Red Mist is trying to lead Kick-Ass into an ambush, but by the time they both arrive in the Mist-mobile, the Mafia-owned Lumber warehouse is aflame. It is now Kick-Ass who must convince himself to follow his costumed partner into the inferno, as in Kick-Ass’ eyes Red Mist is being extremely heroic, unaware that Red Mist is rushing in because his family and “Family” are in there.
It’s a great scene and leads to one of my favorite gun fights in cinema ever, but it also helps solidify Red Mist as an actual hero in Dave’s eyes. When Dave later agrees to help Red Mist out, it actually makes sense, as Mist has already demonstrated his superhero worth. In the comic Dave really has no reason to trust Red Mist, as he displayed his yellow nature in the house fire, and yet, Dave just walks into the most Wile E. Coyote of traps.
Even comic Red Mist remarks on how unlikely it was for Dave not to realize who he was. Red Mist does a perfect homage to the shifty eyed dog  from The Simpsons, and yet Dave asks him to team up with Hit Girl and Big Daddy, which is what Red Mist wanted all along. In the movie, it is Red Mist who convinces Dave to lead him to Big Daddy and Hit Girl, claiming that someone is trying to frame them for the warehouse murders. Dave agrees, as Red Mist inadvertently demonstrated his superhero worth already.
When the betrayal does happen, it occurs in two strikingly similar, yet wholly different ways. In the comic, Mist pulls a gun on Kick-Ass as they open the door to the safe house revealing that the Mafia already got the drop on Big Daddy and Hit Girl, somehow — but more on this later. Hit Girl tries to retaliate, but is taken out the window by a hail of bullets, gunned down by several goombas. In the film, Red Mist gets to actually pull the trigger on the fun-sized assassin, serving as the opening salvo for a Mafioso mob who rushes in afterwards to restrain Kick-Ass and Big Daddy. Chris screams and pleads for them to let Kick-Ass go, as he’s just some comic book dweeb. Even worse, Chris apologizes to Kick-Ass, as the two were actually starting to become friends.
Apologies to a former friend versus “I touch myself to the thought of car batteries hooked up to your junk”: both characters are still antagonists, but the latter is a villain, while the former is the stuff of nemesis. Red Mist planning to betray Dave is evil, sure, but Red Mist being forced to betray Dave to appeal to his father is tragically evil. Much like Lex Luthor and Clark Kent, Dave and Chris could have been the greatest of friends in another world, but in Kick-Ass they are now the antithesis of one another.
Part of the benefit of revealing to us early on that Red Mist is Chris is that we can get a better, more thorough look at the criminal world of Kick-Ass. In the comic, the Mafia is simply a placeholder villain, with little to no personality given to them at all. The Mob Boss is simply the head of the mob. By having one of your main characters be the son of the Mob Boss, however, you’re now forced to humanize your greatest villain.
Well, perhaps not fully humanize, but the movie certainly does make Frank D’Amico hilarious. I don’t know how actor Mark Strong does it, but only he can make me uncontrollably laugh by just ordering an Icee and some tasty cinema treats. The mafia is no longer some evil force to be reckoned with, but rather a group of men who are given personalities, banter, and gallows humor heavy scenes worthy of a Cohen Bros. film. Likewise, there is something grotesquely beautiful about a grown man roundhouse kicking a little girl in the face. While Frank certainly deserves the rocket to the chest at the end of the film, you can’t help but feel some sympathy for Red Mist.
By having these scenes extrapolating on Chris wanting to join the family business and just make his father proud of him, he is seen as a tragic villain as opposed to just some backstabbing spy as his world crumbles around him on account of super-heroics.
Even the little ending warning from Red Mist works better, Chris in a computer chair with weird long-nipple-looking elbow guards just isn’t as intimidating as his orange skull getup.
From the doorman who wishes he had a gun, to Frank breaking out a cocaine activity box straight out of Scarface, the inclusion of these Mafioso scenes are not only entertaining, but also aid in the story’s passing. Someone must have been taking notes, as in the comic sequel to Kick-Ass, Hit Girl, half of the story is devoted to Red Mist purchasing his own Dark Knight training montage straight out of Batman Begins.
