About a year ago, Wanted exploded its way through skulls and into the collective hearts of American filmgoers. Based on a comic of the same name, the movie jettisoned the original conceit of a superhero slayer and replaced it with an assassins gone amok storyline. Exceeding expectations, Wanted‘s hyper stylization and flippant violence opened the tap to a shower of love from audiences. While this kid appreciated the creative conceits and imaginative action of Wanted, in the end the only shower going on here was the one I felt I needed to take after watching it. Still, Wanted opened the door to the talents of comic writer Mark Millar… which is where all this rambling lets off and our real story begins.

Mark Millar, who’d also written some Superman treatments for DC, was also writing Kick-Bum Kick-Ass— an ongoing, grounded-in-reality comic book series about a comic-loving teen (Dave Lizewski) and his fatalistic, punishing quest for real life super-hero status. Along the way, young Dave (aka the fantastically named Kick-Ass) amasses a copy-cat following and finds himself mixed up with all kinds of identity-hiding, teen angst, debauchery and limb-loosening, arterial severing violence as he seeks to help people through the powers of My Space. Along the way, Kick-Ass makes the acquaintance of a barely pre-teen assassin: Hit-Girl.

Stardust and Layer Cake director Matthew Vaughn liked Kick-Ass so much, his production company funded the project, with Vaughn directing and big name hair piece enthusiast Nicholas Cage starring in a supporting role as Hit-Girl’s Old Man. Kick-Ass is currently slated for release later this year (an “R” rated release, they’ll have you know), and while a few images have been released, Hit-Girl now gets her turn, courtesy of the fantastic Brit film mag site Empire Online.

If anything, you’ll think twice before rolling your eyes at that gaggle of sqealing Hannah Montana tweens giggling their way past you at the mall. Click the image above for embiggenization.