Wanted
by J.G. Jones, Mark Millar
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Book Reviews of Wanted
Book Review: The worst comic I've ever read
Summary: 1 Stars
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.
Book Review: SKIM SHADY
Summary: 2 Stars
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.
Book Review: This book covers interesting ground; though its not ground-breaking
Summary: 4 Stars
"Wanted" follows the modern tradition of writers attempting to turn the comic book on its ear. Millar takes his shots at shaking the pillars of comic book tradition and de-inventing the super-hero (and super-villain) establishment.
The underlying premise is quite charming: what if all of the world's villains team up against its heroes and win (really win, not comic book win). Its heroes defeated, the world is made to forget that supers ever existed. The villains secretly run the world, free to do whatever they want, and pursue any desire, no matter how base or vulgar.
Wesley Gibson is the underachieving sub-everyman who acts like our Harry Potter, allowing us to see the world behind the world as he is indoctrinated into it. The son of one of the world's greatest villains, Wesley is recruited to take his father's place in the world-wide conspiracy, and undergoes training to become the greatest killer on the planet.
This world is populated with parodies of classic comic book heroes and villains. Most of these characters seem like mean-spirited homages to some of the pillars of super-villaindom (Bizarro, Catwoman, Parasite, Clayface, the Joker, the Riddler, the Red Skull, and an extra-dimensional imp with a name full of consonants which I'm not even going to try to spell). Wesley's evil, but strangely sympathetic, mentor is a diminutive super-genesis of the Lex Luthor/Dr. Sivanna ilk.
No comic book stereotype or staple is spared here. After a while, this book turns into a game of "spot the obscure comic book character reference", which is not totally without humor. The twist here is that without the counter balance of the super-hero, these villains explore depths of depravity and immorality seldom touched on in mainstream comics.
Millar has a touch for giving dialog a mundane and conversational flavor, even in the most surreal environments. There was a distant "Reservoir Dogs" quality to the script, laced in between some tongue-in-cheek comic book talk. There is an excessive amount of profanity, which shocks at first; but as Millar tries to keep up the pressure of vulgarities, it just gets tedious. The book tries to pass off mindless ultra-violence as hip, but it falls a bit short. Were this book any longer, it would seriously risk collapsing under the weight of gore and insanely graphic violence.
Still, the ride was fun. There is a story here, with conflict, character developement, and some incredible super fight scenes at the end. The script was inventive, even buried under heaps of in-your-face offensive dialog. The reveal and ending was a bit weak, but it made no apologies and took no prisoners.
Also, J.G. Jones did a fabulous job at illustrating this story, and makes it fun to look at when you get tired of reading word balloons filled with cussing.
Book Review: An adolescent power trip that ignored interesting potential for shock value
Summary: 1 Stars
A friend of mine who routinely passes very good comics my way recently had me read this. Apparently I had offended him in some way. After I finished it he apologized.
The story here plays out the fantasy of every teenage boy who wasn't popular in middle school. A loser suddenly gets all the power he can dream of and uses it to murder, rape, and say 4 letter words in front of his mother. The entire plot of the book is a poor construction to drive a parade of juvenile brutality and attempts at shock value.
There's an interesting premise that drives the setting of the book: a world where the supervillians won, and reforged the world to be apparently mundane. There's the potential for something truly interesting. But the villians themselves showcase the creativity behind the book far better: a riddler knock-off covered in obscenities, a Bizzaro character named ****-tard, and a clayface made of poop. Instead of developing characters or investigating evil or any one of a dozen things that would make this book work it blows past them to fill another panel with the obnoxious main character happily shooting a pregnant woman.
After reading an entire book filled with almost insultingly juvenile substitutions of substance with pulp and lame attempts at shock the ending tops it all. After suffering through one man's painfully uneventful and dull power trip he actually insults his audience, pushing himself as free spirit and the readers as pitiful sheep. I'm sure it appeals to someone wearing a Rage against the Machine t-shirt spray-painting Che Guevara on stopsigns and thinking they're some misunderstod genius, but to anyone whose passed 8th grade it will come off as a pitiful. If you're someone's grandmother you may be distracted or insulted by the violence, sex, and profanity it's possible you'd take your offense to mean that this book actually had some meaning or message. It doesn't.
I cannot, in any way, understand why there are so many that would defend this or exalt it as worthwile. The most accurate positive statement I can make is "There aren't a lot of comic books out there like this." Which, in my opinion, is a good thing. I've seen a few comparisons to Watchmen and other icons of comic writing. They do both have violence, the problem is that Wanted stops there. There's no character development, no exploration of humanity, or evil, or violence. It's a childish indulgence that I'm suprised merited collection and publication, but I guess someone is willing to buy it.
Bottom Line: If you're old enough to buy this for yourself you shouldn't enjoy it.
Book Review: Far better than expected.
Summary: 5 Stars
I seriously did not know what to expect with this work. I read the other reviews and came to the decision to buy it and review it myself since this book seems to garner such strong reactions.
I personally loved this book. Yes, there are no sympathetic characters in it, but that is done by design so I don't know how that could be a legitimate criticism. It's like blaming a horror movie for being too scary. The premise is simple--What kind of world would result from super-villains winning? Is there morality when society treats a privileged few as above the law?
There's a lot of depth to this work that casual reading just won't bring out. If you're in any way shocked by violence, this is NOT the comic for you. This is about as violent as it gets. And in some respects, reminds me of the movie Natural Born Killers. People protest the violence in that movie as well, even though the violence was absolutely necessary for the story being told. A more modern example would be No Country For Old Men. Same thing.
That doesn't mean I agree with everything this work implies, but it is well done regardless. The main antagonist, for example, becomes so incredibly evil after having a near-death experience where he realized there is no God. I find it a bit offensive that the sudden lack of belief implies instant evil, but the character was a fanatic so the point is dulled a bit.
The comedy in this work is so well done. Really good laughs at the absurdity of several DC and Marvel characters warped into this brutal world. The comedy is dark, but dead-on hilarious. Again, you'll probably need a dark sense of humor to appreciate it, and if you don't, you won't like this book. Without the humor relieving the ever present ruthless violence, it simply would not be an enjoyable read.
And of course the end was genius. I won't spoil it, but it truly was a clever idea and brilliantly executed in a way I've never seen before. Mark Millar, which I already appreciated as a good writer, has climbed up several notches in my eyes. He takes risks that pay off.
So recap:
- Don't like violence, don't buy it.
- Not for kids at all.
- Much deeper than the violence, gross-outs, and sex would suggest.
- Full of dark humor rooted in superhero lore.
- Brilliant ending.