Kick-Ass is coming back to comic book store shelves soon — but not the way you remember it. Writer and co-creator Mark Millar has announced that a new Kick-Ass book is coming early next year, and this time, it’s not teenager Dave Lizewski who becomes the “real-world” superhero. Instead, the new Kick-Ass is a new, black female character. Kick-Ass: The New Girl will also be based out of a different city than the original series, with an all-new supporting cast as well.

Kick-Ass: The New Girl will be drawn by series co-creator John Romita Jr. who has committed to work on the book for three years, according to Millar. Also re-launching at the same time will be a new Hit-Girl series, which will be drawn by Rafael Albuquerque. Millar will script the first story arc, and then former Deadpool and Wolverine writer Daniel Way will take over as the regular author. It is unknown if the Hit-Girl of this new series is someone new under the mask as well. Both books are expected to launch in January, and both will be the first monthly, ongoing series from the Millarworld imprint.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Millar has this to say about the change in the character: “Comics is not short of white males aged around 30; that demographic seems pretty well catered for in popular culture. I don’t think many blonde white guys around 30 feel under-represented when they pick up comic or watch a movie. Being older or younger or female or African-American just seems more interesting to me as a writer because this character is quite unique and opens up story possibilities that haven’t been tried in almost eighty years of superhero fiction. This woman has a completely different take on Kick-Ass.”

Although the original Hollywood Reporter story doesn’t name a publisher for these series, all the previous Kiss-Ass comics have been published by Marvel’s ICON imprint for creator-owned titles, and we expect it to be the same here. You can check out promo images for both new series in our gallery below.

Are you as excited as we are for these new incarnations of Kick-Ass and Hit-Girl? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Images: Mark Millar / John Romita Jr. / Rafael Albuquerque