|
| Wanted (Assassin's Edition) | 
 enlarge | Authors: Mark Millar, J. G. Jones
Publisher: Top Cow Productions/Image Comics
Category: Book
Buy New: $36.99
New (4) Used (3) Collectible (1) from $35.96
Avg. Customer Rating:  78 reviews
Sales Rank: 145889
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 208
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 10.5 x 6.9 x 0.7
ISBN: 1582409331
Dewey Decimal Number: 741
EAN: 9781582409337
ASIN: 1582409331
Publication Date: April 9, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
The smash limited series by Mark Millar (Civil War, The Ultimates), JG Jones (Final Crisis, 52), and Paul Mounts (The Ultimates) is now available in a deluxe "Director's Cut" hardcover edition! Everyman Wesley Gibson just discovered that his father has been killed and that he is next in line to take his place in a secret fraternity of super villains. And Wesley's life will never be the same! This edition features the complete limited series, plus the Wanted Dossier, excerpts of Millar's script, interviews, and behind-the-scenes developmental art.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 73 more reviews...
 Adolescent Wish Fulfillment November 26, 2007
79 out of 121 found this review helpful
I'm going to get a lot of no help votes here but I've got to say I don't get it. This book is just o.k. as stories go. It's a semi-original idea, although I like the secret society aspects of Planetary better and I'm starting to get bored with multiverses. The execution is just too mean spirited for my tastes. I can see how someone who enjoys Eminem's music might appreciate the black humor, but I'm not in that group. I'm not too familiar with Mark Millar's work but it seems as if he was listening to a lot of Eminem and his contemporaries while writing this book.
I think my biggest problem with it is the lack of a sympathetic character. The idea that freedom for someone who gets dumped on all his life is to pick up a gun and go on a killing spree is an immature notion at best. I'm not opposed to over the top violence but I do believe the violence here, with no moral center, is just senseless. It may just be a generational thing I suppose. Why would you care about an amoral killer? I just didn't feel I had anything invested in Wesley's story. Why should I care if he gets his ten million dollars? Being a super villain in a world without opposition, couldn't he just go get his own ten million dollars somewhere else?
Like an Eminem album there is a lot of anti-PC language. It's not necessarily used in an inflammatory manner but is more in staying with the ugly personalities of the characters. It should be expected in this adult themed book. There is a lot of dark humor, some worked for me some didn't. The final two page rant was interesting and you have to hand it to Millar and Top Cow for publishing a two page insult aimed at the people who spent their hard earned money on the book. That could go either way. I will give Mark Millar this though, if I hadn't borrowed my brother's book, I would have to agree with the last page, that's what I would have felt like if I had paid for Wanted.
In the end I guess it comes down to personal tastes. I love Fight Club, the book and the movie and for some reason I don't see the similarities. At the end of Wanted, I just didn't care.
 A subversive masterpiece certainly not for everyone May 21, 2008
42 out of 49 found this review helpful
It's kind of amazing the type of reactions that Millar and Jones' "Wanted" evokes in people. Some people absolutely despise it. Other people absolutely adore it. I personally think it's wonderful, but I also understand why a bunch of people don't like it. Let me explain.
Upfront, let's say this: This is a book about villains. They're going to do villainous things. They aren't going to hold hands. They aren't going to be nice people. They aren't going to have a change of heart. They aren't going to see the error of their ways. Not because they couldn't, but because they don't care. Many of the criticisms people have leveled at this book take that one thing for granted. They want the protagonist to be a nice guy (he isn't), they want him to do good things (he doesn't), they want the story to have a happy ending (the jury's sort of out on that one). Make no mistake, this is not intended to be mainstream fiction. And to me, that's part of the appeal.
Wanted is the story of Wesley Gibbs, an office drone who's been walked on his entire life. He's been kicked by nearly everyone who could have a chance, and twice on Sundays. His girlfriend is sleeping around on him, his boss is abusive without cause, and Wesley takes it, because he can't envision any other way to live. Until someone comes along and tells him he's the son of the greatest killer who ever lived, and that he's just inherited his legacy. And while he fights it at first, he comes to embrace it, and that's where things start getting complicated.
I don't want to walk you through the book. I don't want to tell you that you should like it, because, frankly, I understand why a lot of people wouldn't like this book. It's violent, it's unsympathetic to, well, everyone, it's remorseless, it's brutal, it's needless cruel... but that's sort of the point. While I see a lot of people in other reviews comparing "Wanted" to "Fight Club" (fair) and "The Matrix" (not really applicable), in many ways, "Wanted" is an extension of some of the ideas presented in a much older book, "The Lord of the Flies." What DOES happen in a society without rules? What would you do if there wasn't a law you had to follow? What would you do if there wasn't anyone to tell you no, or stop you from doing whatever you put your mind to? The easy answer is to say that you'd just go on living your life, but with some improvements, but at the cost of what? The world is about systems. Give yourself a ton of money, money goes down in value, suddenly you have less money than you intended. Don't want to pay a speeding ticket? Now you're breaking laws, just because you can. Millar takes that concept and runs with it about as far as he can, then keeps running past where it was before.
If "Fight Club" wasn't your cup of tea, then steer clear from "Wanted." If you're looking for something with a positive message, steer clear of "Wanted." If you want a story where you agree with the actions of the protagonist, steer clear of "Wanted." It's not a book for kids. It's not a book for people who want a story that holds their hand the whole way. It is, to borrow a phrase, very bad men doing very bad things. Again, I return to my original point -- this is a story about villains.
With all that said, Jones' art is fantastic, the dialog is crisp and leaps off the page, the characters are memorable and the story is a wild roller coaster ride that asks the question "When there are no rules, and the only people who can tell you no are your fellow degenerates, what do you do?" It's uncomfortable, it's vile, it's twisted, it's darker-than-dark... and that's why I love it, and why most of you probably won't...
Just plain awesome April 9, 2005
27 out of 46 found this review helpful
From the twisted mind of Mark Millar (The Ultimates, Chosen, The Authority) comes Wanted: a six issue mini-series from Top Cow that is everything a comic should be. Wesley Gibson is down on his luck young man letting society run his life. He's stuck in a dead end job, lives with his cheating girlfriend, abused by his boss, and generally walked all over. Then one day his life changes forever. Wesley learns that he is the son of the Killer, the greatest super villain of all time, and that his father has died and he has inherited everything. Soon enough, Wesley is trained to be the sadistic killing machine that he was always meant to be, and no longer a slave to society. However, Wesley soon learns that there is trouble brewing in the super villain society, and as the secret of his father's death which involves various conspirators unravels, Wesley learns that maybe the last thing he ever wanted in his life was to be wanted. Drawing numerous comparisons to Fight Club, only more nihlistic (if such a thing is possible), Wanted manages to be one of the most insanely darkly humerous and blood curdingly violent comics since Vertigo's Preacher series, and the stunning art of J.G. Jones gives Wanted a cinematic look that is nothing short of incredible. This handsome hardcover TPB of the mini-series is a must have for comic fans who missed out on the single issues, and even though it may be hard to swallow at times (this is definitely not for the faint of heart), this is blockbuster comic storytelling at it's best.
 A foul, mean-spirited, juvenile, masturbatory mess. December 31, 2005
19 out of 30 found this review helpful
I probably would have loved this book when I was 14. Now I'm all grown-up, I can see it for it is.
In a nutshell, it's a foul-mouthed, nasty, bleak, violent, racist, homophobic piece of gutter-filth. And I'm not some cuddly Christian screaming censorship, either.
The characters are barely sketched, never mind realised. They have literally no depth at all. The plot's single conceit is that the protagonist - an abject loser - must overcome his tendency to be taken advantage of by murdering, raping and stealing his way to the top of the villain tree. The dialogue reads like an extremely poor Tarantino rip-off, the sheer number of F-words seems to be comic-book shorthand for 'edgy'. And the book's final message is literally tacked onto the end.
Its ideas aspire no higher than characters called 'Sh*t-head' - a living amalgamation of the faecal matter from the world's 666 most evil people - and 'F*ckwit', a glyph of a character that manages to be both badly written and horribly offensive. He has Down's Syndrome. That's about as intelligent as it gets. How very inventive of you, Mr Millar.
I stuck with it in the hope of some pay-off. Perhaps it was all an 'ironic' joke? Perhaps it had a really great point to make? Perhaps all that over-laden 'darkness' and unfunny 'black comedy'? No, there is no point.
God knows what Millar was thinking as he wrote it, and God knows what Top Cow/Image were thinking when they published it. You're only going to like this if you think F-words are clever.
Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with darkness or offensive humour, I just happen to like it to be used with intelligence and wit. This mess of a book has neither. It's a faeces-smeared middle finger to taste and good storytelling. Appalling.
98% shock value March 9, 2006
14 out of 17 found this review helpful
Sporting a cover image that is simple yet sure to grab attention on the shelves, Mark Millar and JG Jones' WANTED trade paperback had been on my "to buy" list for some time. I finally plopped down the cash for the book this week with high expectations, as Millar had accomplished the near-impossible several years ago by piquing my interest in the Authority, as well as producing some interesting work with DC's Superman: Red Son and Marvel's Ultimates. After reading WANTED, I have to say that, while the premise is quite fascinating, the story itself was yet another case of shock value substituting for good writing.
WANTED collects issues 1 - 6 of Millar and Jones' series, plus a great pin-up and sketch gallery. Let's get the basics out of the way first: Wesley Gibson is the ultimate loser - he has a dead-end job, a cheating girlfriend, and no backbone. This drudgery is interrupted when Wesley is surprised by the information that he has just inherited the legacy of his deceased deadbeat dad, the rapid-firing supervillain The Killer. He is even more surprised by this information because no one is aware that superhumans even exist! Over the following months, under the tutelage of arch-criminals Professor Solomon Seltzer and The Fox, Wesley learns of the shadowy history of superhumans on Earth and is transformed into a killing machine in the mold of his father, while slowly coming to the realization that things aren't quite what they seem to be. Rumor has it that Millar pitched this idea to DC Comics as a story of the son of either Deathstroke or Deadshot, and I can believe it, as almost every character contained within is an analogue of some DC character (with a few Marvels thrown in for good measure).
Jones' art is excellent - seriously: WOW! It couldn't be better. His skill with faces, physiques, action sequences, and layouts are all on good display here. My favorite aspect of the art, however, is the backgrounds, which often consist of glimpses of thinly-disguised DC and Marvel villains. It's much like the "spot-the-hero game" readers could play with Alan Moore and Gene Ha's Top Ten.
As for the story... it started out quite well; in fact, the first 2 issues really had my attention. But it quickly slides into a mess of blood, guts, cursing, sex, and general amoral behavior, and while this story IS indeed about super-villains, I don't feel that the gruesome details were necessary to make that point. In some ways, these elements undo a lot of what Millar was trying to accomplish by showing Wesley's growth from weakling into warrior. For example, you can have heroes, and you can have anti-heroes, and while villainy may not a noble profession, you can't help but root for Wesley to leave his dreary life behind and accept his destiny. But when the writer then dives so deeply into the nature of that character, to the point that the anti-hero is no longer just a victim of circumstance, but revealed to be a mass murderer, terrorist, thug, thief, elitist, and serial rapist (and what's more: just for the thrill of it), there's nothing left for me to root for. In fact, as I neared the end of the book, I was hoping that it would conclude with Wesley taking a bullet to the brain, as that's the only way I could see this story ending on a high note: you live by the sword, you die by the sword. As for the ending, by the time I reached the final chapter, I realized that Millar had pulled a fast one, where the events depicted in the beginning of the story were not quite as they appeared. While he did leave himself some leeway for this, he took great liberties with the introductory narrative, to where the ending was essentially a cheat, pure and simple. If that was the plan all along, then chapters 2 through 5 seem pretty unnecessary, upon reflection. In spite of all of this, I will give Millar a thumbs up for the way in which he blurs the line between fantasy and reality. The supervillain community has indeed pulled a fast one on the general public, and it's something that could conceivably be based in our own reality, depending on how much you trust in conspiracy theories.
In conclusion, if that rumor involving DC is true, I think they may have missed out on a good thing here. If this story would have been anchored in the DC Universe (even as an Elseworlds), with some tighter editorial control and toning down of the shock value, it might have been much better.
|
|
|
Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| |
