Wanted
 | Average Customer Rating: Recommend What if everything in your life was out of your hands and those around you propelled your fate? Your girlfriend left you for your best friend; your boss gave your job to someone better. What if then, after all this, someone gave you back total control? What if he revealed you were the next in line to join a secret society of super-villains that controlled the entire planet? Mark Millar and… Product details and pricing info |
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82 Customer Reviews Posted
- excellent
- Mark Millar taps into our most violent and adolescent inner desires with this awesome story. All the things you've always wanted to do, but were too much of a wuss, or are too taboo to even discuss, are acted out right here. You can live vicariously through the main character, Wesley Gibson, as he acts on every desire you've ever wanted. Very inspirational, the comic really makes me want to stand up and show my middle finger to just about everyone who ticks me off. Of course I don't have to, because Wesley Gibson does it for me.
- 2008-04-28, 1 of 1 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- Every other complaint aside...Wanted isn't entertaining.
- There is something eerily reminiscent in the style of Wanted to the writings of an adolescent school shooter. At one point in the story, the main character brags that while some of the other characters can ride sound waves or walk through walls, he's just good at killing people, and that's fine with him. Swell. From start to finish Wanted is an adolescent power trip for disturbed teenage boys. Anyone else is going to find the graphic novel either dull or silly (at times it is both).
Every page of Wanted is pervaded with a palpable feeling that the writer has seen Fight Club a whole bunch of times, and is determined to bring the super-cool underground sensibilities of that mass-market mega-blockbuster to the pages of comics. Fine. Be prepared for a lot of swears, and even more violence. That wouldn't be a deal-breaker if the story were in any way interesting, but it isn't.
The plot of Wanted revolves around a loser main character who suddenly finds out that the world is run by super-villains, and he is heir to the throne. Murder, rape, and general mayhem ensue. The idea that super-villains have won their war against heroes is a good one, and begs the question, what next? What do super villains do when they win? Apparently they set up a bureaucracy and then make a lot of money. OK. If that's all they wanted, why didn't they just get jobs in the field of finance? If this sounds boring, then guess what? It is! The author tries to liven things up with random murder and rapes, but the attempts feel increasingly forced.
Wanted is a poor, violent, vulgar graphic novel. But worst of all, it is boring. Go read Watchmen or the Sandman books instead. - 2008-04-16, 9 of 13 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- awesome
- this book is a real good one frank is a genius i loved sin city and i liked this one even more i cant wait for the movie to come out
- 2008-04-16, 0 of 2 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- The worst comic I've ever read
- I really enjoyed Mark Millar's work on Ultimate X-Men, so when I heard about "Wanted," I assumed it would be another great trade paperback to pick up. The premise of a young man discovering his father was a supervillain, and following in his footsteps sounded intriguing, as well as more "adult" than the typical superhero stuff that I enjoyed as a kid, but no longer interests me in my late 20s. Unfortunately, it is "too" adult and comes off as sophomoric and self-indulgent, atypical of someone who has produced such great storylines in his other works.
Despite reading all of the negative reviews on Amazon first, I still decided to try the book out and come to my own conclusion. That conclusion is that I should take more advice from Amazon reviewers. "Wanted" is a gimmick. It seems Millar was trying to be "edgy," by trying to shock and repulse the reader as much as possible. The protagonist is an amoral jerk, who trains to become a villain by killing and raping as many people as possible; shooting old men in the head and sniping pregnant women from a distance for fun. The idea here is that he is being trained to be desensitized to violence and compassion, so that he will be a more effective villain. The problem though is that comics are about heroes. How many titles are there dedicated to villains? Few if any that I can recall. This isn't a true crime book. People read comics to escape from reality and root for someone. There's no one to root for here. The main reason that "Wanted" fails is about the protagonist has absolutely no redeeming value as a human being. It is possible for you to create a villain that the audience can identify with. The eponymous character of Dexter - The First Season in the Showtime series and books is a good example. He is a serial killer that has murdered dozens of people, yet he still has faults and is likable. There is nothing likable about a villain who rapes people for fun and then laughs about it.
Lastly, the book just seems to be written for adolescents. Seemingly every other speech balloon is filled with 4-letter words. One of the villains is called "The Puzzler," (a parody of DC's "The Riddler) and has a crossword puzzle-designed costume. Of course, to show how evil he is all of the answers on the puzzle spell out explicit words. Then there's Johnny Two-Dicks, who of course, has two penises for some lame reason. And of course, a villain composed entirely of feces.
If you're 12 years old, you may enjoy "Wanted," although even 12 year olds may find the material too immature for them. While the idea for this story is fairly original, without a sympathetic lead character that the reader can identify with, there is no emotional involvement with the story and I found myself spending the entire time I read it focusing on how much I despised every single character in the book. - 2008-03-24, 12 of 17 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- SKIM SHADY
- Marketed as cutting edge, sold by word of mouth as THE BEST BOOK YOU'RE NOT READING and being made into a single weekend only box office "hit", WANTED is from start to finish everything you love about comics done over by a writer who doesn't seem to love to comics.
Mark Millar is the product of the NEW ORDER of the comics industry, where one writer is given control over dozens of books (as well as high profile epics, events and mini-series) and is employed to churn out saga after saga and keep the sales high. And Millar does this month after month along with a loyal fan base inflating both his ego and bank account, but sadly leaving books like WANTED bankrupt and starved for quality. I wasn't expecting Millar to remake the indsutry or reinvent the wheel with WANTED, but at the very least I was hoping for a novel twist, or take, or departure from the comic "norm" - you know, an idea. Instead Millar offers up a sideways take on the lives and loves of villains who, for once (and for all it would seem), buck the system and do take over the world (for fans of the DCU, think Earth 3, but set outside the four color world). This is a concept ripe for commentary but saldy loses its way in trying so very hard to be "cool".
But, it's as cool as a 15 year old who's take on the concepts of sex and violence are only measured in the extremes. And even then, you're cheated. As ADULT as this series wishes it could be, Millar is stuck working, living and writing in this world, so he has to again and again tone down the subject matter to fit on store shelves. It's not enough to throw in drugs, alternate lifestyles, graphic (but still comic book) violence and mature language and not ever really cross the line. This is a world where evil has won, where darkness turns a profit, where if you belong to THE FRATERNITY (perhaps one of the worst, lackluster and off the cuff names given to a world wide criminal organization ever... seriously, Millar, consult your Ian Fleming next time) you are untouchable and unaccountable for any crime and yet, WANTED must adhere to good taste and fear the censor. For a book that so very much wants to push, it's happy enough with a shove and shurg of an ending (my face is better, by the way).
I was not insulted (and for that, I'm insulted) with the ending, nor even the play by numbers plot, pacing or style of the book - what stopped me cold was simply how simple it all was. How linear, how by the book, how cute more than quirk the whole thing turned out to be. But still, if there is anything to be taken from WANTED it's the one single good line of questioning and it's this... what do you want?
What do you do when you get everything you've always ever wanted? For Millar the answer can be found in any number of four letter words, for you, that'll be your call... as for me, WANTED left me (yes, I'm going to say it) wanting more. - 2008-03-15, 6 of 8 people found this review helpful, Rated:
