Wanted is definitely not for everyone. There's a ton of violence (murder, rape, and more murder), and all of the characters are amoral. But, really, what do you expect in a story about super villains?

The story line was definitely different. It was both interesting and repulsive, but apparently the interesting side won because I finished this. And I will likely always remember it, too.

The character of Wesley...well, I couldn't stop thinking that he looked like Eminem, which was rather amusing. Other than that, it was hard to feel much of anything for him except revulsion. The same goes for the other characters (except Doll-Master, whom I liked). ( )

Millar wrote his crude, violent anti-hero romp twenty years too late. While grittiness is still prized in 'grown up' comics, Millar has apparently mistaken 'mature content' for 'maturity'. Of course, he's not the first to fall into this trap. We've all seen television, movies, and books that place a premium on sex and blood, but presented with all the sophistication of a sniggering teen.

Millar does not have the wit to present these issues seriously, nor are his plotting or characterization strong enough to save this book. Millar decided to base his assassin anti-hero on rapper Eminem, which is a cute enough idea, but it also gives us a good sense of Millar's sophistication. While many enjoy Eminem for his catchy, highly-produced songs and natural affinity for scansion and rhythm, only frat boys and OG wannabes find him an able role model.

Millar seems to take the rapper's message of misanthropic misogyny at face value, instead of laughing at Eminem's battle-rap fronting. This is even more inexplicable because Eminem himself often makes light of the 'hard' persona inherited from gangster rappers. It's not hard to imagine Millar putting on a mix of Marshall's most lewd, angry odes to wife killing each time he sat down to plot out this series.

Unfortunately, Millar is not the master of language that Eminem is, and so his attempts at humor, gangsta badassery, chauvinism, and romance tend to fall quite flat. His 'jokes' are especially cringe-worthy.

Perhaps if Millar had come out with his ode to unsympathetic violence in the mid eighties, when Alan Moore, Frank Miller, and Scarface were still fresh, he might not have come off as so out of touch. Perhaps if he had somehow updated his vision to include some sympathy and humanity, he could have been forgiven. Unfortunately, he was too busy placing lit cigars and whiskey shots before his shrine to Snake Pliskin to think about what he was writing.

However, all of this pales in comparison to Millar's twist ending. It's clear that Millar wishes he was Alan Moore, who inspired Millar to become a writer in the first place. Unfortunately, Millar realizes he is no Alan Moore, so now he's leapt onto Frank Miller's coattails instead. After 'Sin City', '300', and 'The Spirit', what comic creator is bigger than Frank Miller? Well, still Alan Moore.

Perhaps Mark Millar was tired of people mistaking him for Frank and asking "oh, so you're that guy famous for the violent, sexist comics" and so figured after writing Wanted, he could respond "why yes, I am a famous misogynist comic author named Millar" and then count on the resulting confusion to help his comic sales and autograph lines at Comic Con.

In any case, he threw most of that accidental good press out of the window when he decided that maybe he should try to be Grant Morrison, too. Millar completes his Magnum Opus by breaking the fourth wall for the sole purpose of insulting his fans for having shitty jobs, no luck with women, and for needing to buy comic books to pretend that their lives have meaning. While a bold move, I'm not sure that confronting his escapist readers with the sad reality of comic book fandom is the best way to make them, say, buy more comics.

So, Millar comes frat boy full circle. Trying to be 'hard'? Check. Rampant Misogyny? Check. Idolizing Eminem? Check. Trying to bolster your self esteem by telling dorks that they will never have the sort of money and women you have? Check.

Maybe Millar wants to start a rap career, but feels he won't be taken seriously if his main fanbase can't decide whether to spend their money on his CD's or on hand-painted, individually numbered acrylic statuettes of Vampirella making out with Dawn (the one with the reversed logo sent only to the Belgian market).

In any case, he ought to have lost some fans here, both amongst the discerning and the escapists. ( )

Now that was a fun and quick read. Really left me wanting more. I have a soft spot for the very anti-superhero stories such as this and The Boys ( )

I found this to be an unrealistic and easy, if dark and violence, graphic novel. That's not to say I didn't like it -- because I did. I just happened to have the luxury of seeing the movie version first. Luckily for everyone involved, the movie version is unlike the graphic novel in all but name and characters (and even then it's not quite that similar). The plots are sort of vaguely similar at the beginning and parts of the ending, but otherwise, the graphic novel takes a much darker twist. Which is good, because if this had been the movie? I would have hated it. That being said, I quite liked the book. It's a dark tale, following the life of our anti-hero (or hero, depending on how you want to look at it), Wesley Gibson. The story is high on violence, the art is beautiful (if occasionally kind of gross) and while the writing isn't as eloquent as, say, something Neil Gaiman wrote, it doesn't matter. It was a highly enjoyable graphic novel, but not for people who are expecting it to be exactly like the movie. ( )

What if the supervillains killed all the superheroes?

You get this series.

But that doesn't mean the DRAMA'S over. Oh hell no ...

And if you don't like the ending? Well, whatever. That's a What If? for you to put in your pipe and SMOKE IT. ( )