Wanted (comics)

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Cover of the Wanted trade paperback. Artwork by J. G. Jones.

Wanted is a creator-owned comic book miniseries, consisting of six issues written by Mark Millar with art by J. G. Jones and published by Top Cow as part of Millarworld. It features an amoral protagonist who discovers he is the heir to a career as a super-villainous assassin in a world where such villains have secretly taken control of the planet.

The series is very adult in nature, similar to more grown-up 'super-hero' titles such as The Authority. Like the Authority or the Squadron Supreme, several characters are based on DC Comics characters and super-villains (See below). Rumour states^{[citation needed]} that the series was originally supposed to be a revamp of the Secret Society of Super-Villains. The series also bears resemblance to the 1999 films Fight Club and The Matrix as it is about a despondent man in an unfulfilling white-collar job who finds a new lease on life but becomes extremely violent and marked as outside of 'normal' society.

The Sunday Times dubbed the title "the Watchmen for super-villains."^[1]

The complete miniseries, along with the Wanted: Dossier (which includes additional and 'behind-the-scenes' material on the series), has been collected as a graphic novel, available as both a softcover (ISBN 1-58240-497-6) and a hardcover (ISBN 1-58240-480-1).

[edit] Plot

Wesley in action. Artwork by J. G. Jones.

The premise of Wanted is that all the world's super-villains decided to band together in 1986 and use their vast collective powers — including mad science, magic and mind control — to eliminate all the world's superheroes and rewrite reality in their own dark image; prior to this the world was a brighter, more hopeful place (a clear reference to the end of the Silver Age). Superheroes are remembered as fiction (as they are in the real world), and behind the scenes a cabal of the leading super-villains run the entire world.

Mama's boy Wesley Gibson discovers that his recently-assassinated father was a super-criminal called The Killer, and that Wesley has inherited his perfect aim and uncanny skill with any weapon. Wesley enters a new life, and must deal with the most dangerous and evil people in the world — whose ranks now include Wesley himself.

[edit] Characters and their likely antecedents

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The two major characters are:

• The Killer, based on either Deadshot or Bullseye (never misses a shot)
• The Fox, based on Catwoman (animal-based jewel thief, former girlfriend of "The Detective"/Batman)

There are five arch-villains in charge of the world. Two are analogues of specific DC villains, while the other three are pastiches of prototypical comic book arch-villains:

• Professor Solomon Seltzer, based on Dr. Sivana and Lex Luthor (super-intelligent inventor/megalomaniac)
• Mr. Rictus, based on the Joker and Black Mask, with a touch of the Red Skull (sadistic, joke-using murderer)
• The Future, a time-traveling nazist villain in the vein of Kang, Per Degaton, or The Lord of Time (neo-Nazi madman)
• The Emperor, an anachronistic autocrat reminiscent of "sophisticated" villains such as Ra's al Ghul, The Yellow Claw, or Fu Manchu
• Adam-One, a primeval immortal that's a pastiche of Vandal Savage and others, such as the Ultraverse's Rex Mundi (immortal conqueror)

The Professor's gang (based on enemies of Superman) is:

• Brain Box, based on Brainiac (alien intelligence)
• The Imp, based on Mr. Mxyzptlk (hyper-powerful trans-dimensional dwarf)
• Fuckwit, based on Bizarro (imperfect clone of powerful super-hero)
• Sucker, based on Parasite (steals powers)
• Doll-Master, based on Toyman (commands lethal toys)

Mr. Rictus's gang (based on Batman's enemies) is:

• The Avian, based on The Penguin (bird-based villain)
• The Frightener, based on The Scarecrow (uses fear and viruses as weapons); also similar in appearance to Carnage from Marvel Comics
• The Puzzler, based on The Riddler (puzzle-themed villain).
• Shithead, based on Clayface (shape-shifting mud-monster)
• Deadly Nightshade, based on Poison Ivy (plant-based villainess)
• Johnny Two-Dicks, based on Two Face and Ventriloquist (a milquetoast controlled by a nefarious second personality)
• The Mad March Hare, based on The Mad Hatter (Alice in Wonderland-themed madman)

The series also features former heroes, now convinced that they have been ordinary people all their lives. The Superman, Batman & Robin and Wonder Woman counterparts are clear analogues of Christopher Reeve, Adam West & Burt Ward and Lynda Carter. The Superman-like hero is confined to a wheelchair and the Batman & Robin analogues think that they were part of a cheesy television show in which they merely played superheroes (see Batman). The Wonder Woman analogue similarly believes herself to be merely an actress (see Wonder Woman).^[2]

[edit] Film

Main article: Wanted (film)

Timur Bekmambetov will direct a 2008 film adaptation starring James McAvoy and Morgan Freeman. Production is slated to begin in April 2007.

Cover of the first Bomb Queen trade paperback from Image Comics, apparently (if not deliberately) done in a 'Wanted' style.

[edit] Trivia

• The physical appearance of Wesley is based on rapper Eminem.^[3]The Original Killer's face is based on actor Tommy Lee Jones^{[citation needed]}, and The Fox's appearance is clearly modelled after actress Halle Berry.^[4]
• Several of the characters from Wanted appear in Erik Larsen's Savage Dragon #127 and #128.^[5]
• The Wanted covers are particularly distinctive, featuring a single character (often in a clear space) with thick black bars above and below them and text in bold, white letters. This design element is carried across all of the Wanted comics and trade paperbacks. One of the two covers for Savage Dragon #128, was painted by J. G. Jones and designed similarly. Also, a number of comics unrelated to Wanted have featured similar covers in humorous reference.
• 1986, the year that the supervillains took over and made their world "darker and grittier", was likely chosen for its significance to the world of comic books; it marks the publication of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen, and the completion of the 1985-86 Crisis on Infinite Earths series.
• As with Superman: Red Son,^[6] Millar claims that the concept for the series occured to him when he was a child. In this case, it came to him after an incident in which a brother of his told him that there were no superheroes any more because they had all disappeared after a great war with their respective supervillains.^[7]
• Merchandise based on the series includes a Wesley Gibson mini-statue.^[8]

[edit] References