This week on “Versus” – The regular guy vigilante death match! In one corner, we have David lizeski, who is known as Kick-Ass. And in the other corner, we have Casey Jones from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. We thought it would be a great match-up for these 2 characters to go against one another. Both have some decent hand-to-hand combat skills. Both have no super powers. And both like to use weapons. If you have to put the 2 of them into a ring with various weapons, or even no weapons at all, who would you think would be the last one standing? Here’s a little information of each one, and we will let you decide.
Kick-Ass
Kick-Ass (real name David “Dave” Lizewski) is a title character and the protagonist of the Kick-Ass series, published by Marvel Comics under the company’s imprint Icon Comics. The character was created by artist John Romita, Jr. and writer Mark Millar. Prior to the series, Dave Lizewski is a high school student and comic book fan whose dreams inspire him to become a real life superhero, going by the name “Kick-Ass”, with no superpowers or training of any kind. He is portrayed by Aaron Taylor-Johnson in the feature film adaptations Kick-Ass and Kick-Ass 2.
After his first unsuccessful attempt at superheroics ends in being beaten, mugged and hit by a moving car, he has several metal plates and braces surgically implanted within his body during the course of his hospitalization and recovery. This, along with the nerve damage he suffers during the event, provides him with the ability to be almost immune to pain, giving him an edge while fighting. His only weapons are his twin batons that are wrapped in green electrical tape. In the sixth issue of Kick-Ass 2, he upgraded his twin batons by adding barbed wire around them. In the film version of Kick-Ass, he becomes adept at handling firearms. Due to not having fighting experiences in his life, he receives hand-to-hand combat training from Hit-Girl.
Casey Jones
Arnold Bernid “Casey” Jones is a character from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics and all related media. Like the turtles, Casey Jones is a vigilante, and was created as a parody of vigilante characters that were in comics. Casey sometimes has long, dark hair, wears a hockey mask and sometimes cut-off biking gloves, and sometimes carries his weapons in a golf bag over his shoulder.
His weapons include baseball bats, golf clubs, cricket bats, and hockey sticks. In most installments, he becomes a love interest of April O’Neil.
When Jones was young, his father, Arnold Casey Jones Sr., owned an auto shop. A group of Purple Dragon members (led by a young Hun) burned the shop down, killed his father and took his mother and sister hostage. The badly beaten Casey refused to lay down and take Hun’s blows. He attacked Hun with a knife, stabbing him in the neck. Enraged, Hun had beaten him to within an inch of his life. It seemed that the beating he took from Hun as a teenager resulted in several mental and emotional disorders, explaining his often violent and erratic behavior.
It was later revealed by one of the initial creators (Kevin Eastman) that they had intended for Casey to have become a vigilante because he watched too many bad cop shows (like Peter Laird used to), as opposed to the more overused storyline where the hero does so after seeing their family killed in front of them. However, this is semi-retconned when writer Tristan Huw Jones imported his 2003 TV series back-story, in Tales issue #56.
New York City, where Jones is from, was overrun by criminals. Enticed by examples from TV, Casey decided to do something about the crime in the streets. After equipping himself with a hockey mask and various sports clubs, he began his vigilante campaign.
He started his career with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles when he ran into Raphael beating up a pair of muggers. When Raphael let them go, he proceeded to “finish them off” but was stopped by Raphael. The two clashed but eventually helped each other take down additional muggers that appeared after their fight.
With all that said, who do you think would be the last one standing? Would it be Kick-Ass, or Casey Jones? We want you, the readers and listeners, to decide by picking from the poll below. You can also comment below. If you have a recommendation for a future “Versus” segment, let us know. Do you want to hear us talk about this “Versus” or other “Versus” we have done in the past? Well, hop on over to podcastunlimited.com, go to the Archive section. For this one, click on Episode 83. You can listen to us talk about the powers, abilities, and who we think would be the best one to win in our humble, honest opinions.
“In the world I lived in, heroes only existed in comic books. And I guess that’d be okay, if bad guys were make-believe too, but they’re not.”
-The Engineer