After having this referred by a few friends I decided to pick it up but was surprised at some of the negative reviews but decided to check it out anyway and to be honest, I was glad I did. The story is original and completely off-the-freaking-wall with a diverse cast of characters (one character is made entirely out of human crap). Now I will admit, the comic is juvenile and pretty perverse but if you just sit back and take the comic without a bit of seriousness, it's a good time. But if you can't handle a lot of cussing, perverse jokes and the such, then don't read this comic. But if you like a story with completely B.A. characters who don't take crap from anyone and can shoot off a come-back as fast as they kill people in it, then it'll be a good time.

Much happier with the movie than the source material. I do not recommend this graphic novel.

The goal of this book is to be as vulgar, violent, and politically incorrect as possible. And...I love it for this reason. The storyline is a little choppy, but I don't know how else Millar could have done this. You'll have to read it to see what I mean. The art is amazing, the idea is great, and I crack a smile/chuckle on almost every page. Definitely worth reading.

Reviews on this are pretty polar; I liked this with some notable exceptions which I will detail here.

It's a good story with some interesting characters, but the ending left me with a "is that all?" feeling. Having said this, the journey is a lot of fun.

The art is good, with a great many old school touches that I appreciate, but the main characters Wesley and Fox, resemble Eminem and Halle Berry to the point of distraction. Also, their diction is detailed with curse words to the point of ridiculousness. Adult language is great, but some restraint here would have served the book better.

This piece of rubbish has a clever setup which goes nowhere interesting after Wesley turns into a super-villain (early in the book). The setup posits a world where murder, rape, etc. (on any scale) goes unpunished, and the notions of guilt or remorse never arise. This makes a mockery of the idea that this is an 'adult' story, or even 'edgy'.

The artwork is good, there's plenty of violent action, blood, guts, profanity, and dark humour. A cheering adolescent may feel a bit conned however since there's almost no sex.

This book is downright enthralling. When picking up this book(Being new to graphic novels)I didn't know what to expect. From the first chapter,or book, to the next I could not put this novel down. The art is superb, the story is unique, and it gives you the feeling of being in the world with them. I would recommend this novel to anyone who is ready to see the bad guys win, or just tired of the regular everyday spiderman and x-men comics.

Life, apparently, is unfair to Wesley Gibson. Oppressed by his wimmenfolk and talked down to by his various minorities, he dresses like a tool and feels sorry for himself. Then, kazam. He turns out to be a supervillain.

Wesley reacts to his new powers by raping and murdering his way to the top of his supervillain game without a single hesitation. I think there may have a moment or two where he stopped and tried to generate some empathy, but I probably blinked and missed them. Fortunately, he's surrounded by a cast of equally vapid monsters, with nary a bit of depth between them.

Wesley is a dweeb as a mundane human, but as a supervillain he's actually one of the most genuinely unlikeable characters in comic history. I imagine that I've missed the post-modern/ironic twist, but I wasn't going to go rooting through it in this pile of nihilistic fanboy trash.

this is a terrible book.

it's written for teenage boys with rape and murder fantasies. plus, it's not even clever. even the dialog is lame. so much of WANTED just makes no sense. parallel dimensions? villains who rule the world but only wear their costumes underground? lame. boring. forced.

after watching the movie (which sucked too), i really give credit to the screen writers for cleaning up the mess of bad plot lines and rape/murder fantasies in the graphic novel.

i understand what Mark Millar was going for with this book, but he didnt pull it off like alan moore did with Batman: Killing Joke. after reading a book as bad as WANTED, i love alan moore and frank miller even more.

if you want to read a book about the difficult struggle between good vs evil and the areas of gray in between, do yourself a favor and read Watchmen, Batman: Killing Joke, Next Men, and V for Vendetta to name a few.

WANTED sucks.

but i will say one good thing... J.G. Jones did great artwork for the graphic book.

As a kid I loved comics and to me it was more than a hobby. As an adult I find my affinity for them is just as strong. After reading "WANTED" I'm forced to admit that I was disappointed.

As a male, I'm natually drawn to graphic and senseless violence (fictional violence, not the real stuff), which the author/artists do a great job of providing. I would NOT show this book to a child, and TBH I wouldn't show it to a teenager either, but maybe thats just the Liberal-Conservative in me. Anyways..... The artwork is beautiful, as is the binding and dust jacket (which doubles as a poster). The artwork is not the really awesome CGI stuff thats been hitting the market, its the oldfashioned style of comic making.

Those being the positives, here's the negative from my perspective. The story line, is utterly boring. The story does have a well thought out twist which gives u some excitement at the end. The beginning is also pretty cool (seeing a layman become a super villian), but the middle part..... Well... I would have enjoyed it more having read the beginning, then the end, and just browsed the middle.

If your wanting good artwork, showing what few have been able to produce (without censorship), then this is your book. If your looking at the book purely from a story telling aspect.... Continue browsing (might I suggest "Red Son"??).

The book "WANTED" is a lovely book, fantastic graphics and real action story; it's a must particularly after watching the movie
But- nothing is perfect the book binding is very poor, after reading the first 10 pages the papers started to get loose and now I have a wonderful binder with lots of loose leafs
Hisham Bassyouny

Wanted was an amazing read! I will warn though that the content is very graphic and mature; this includes language, violence (gore.), and sexual content. The book is so different from the movie that you will be either pleasantly surprised or horribly shocked because the language and violence is about 10 ten times worse.
I recommend this book for comic book fans who want something more gritty and dark, people who don't like standard happy endings, and fans of the Anti Hero.

If you like Watchmen, Evil Dead (and the sequels), Fight Club (and anything else by Chuck Palahniuk); you will enjoy Wanted (The graphic novel).

I was very pleased with the product and the amount of time it took to arrive.

The trade is introduced by Brian Vaughan, ironically he says "At their worst, superhero stories are just dopey male power fantasies, but at their best, these myths don't just entertain, they work as powerful allegories that help us understand who we are." In my opinion "Wanted" falls firmly in the former category... or it would except 'dopey' implies a level of harmlessness that "Wanted" lacks.

This is the story of a thoroughly unlikable loser who gets the sort of life he couldn't even dream about before by picking up a gun and killing everyone he dislikes or who got in his way. Plus some random by-standards just for the heck of it. It's a book about killing lots of people while looking cool and feeling no remorse. It's a glorification of the sort of thinking that leads to high school shootings.

Reads like a high schooler's creative writing project - "I can include profanity and sex, isn't that cool! So every other word will be a profanity! Yeah!" Unfortunately, the result is sophomoric, predictable, and lacking any sophistication. The art is ok (a poor man's Brent Anderson), but the focus on gory close-ups and leaking brains makes it clear the intended audience is 16 year olds who need a quick read between Halo games. Very disappointing.

I read the individual comics prior to purchasing the hardcover. I found the hardcover to have extras that I would not have gotten in the seperate issues. I enjoyed the hardcover even more the second time I read the story. I would recommend reading it prior to the movie to understand some of the scenes.

I was unsure of this book after reading such mixed reviews on here, but ultimately I decided to see what all the fuss was about. Wanted was an intruging read, and I almost couldn't let myself put it down til I was finished. It is refreshing in that its not your typical superheroes book, and unlike the other "offended" reviewers I couldn't find much that was all that grotesque or out-right blasphemous; it pales in comparison for shock-value to series such as 100 Bullets, Preacher, Punisher, etc. I was put-off by the main characters very distinct resemblence to that of rapper Eminem, it almost took away from the story in that it was very distracting. The story itself moves along swiftly and unlike most people I didn't really guess the big twist towards the end, though once I saw it seemed pretty obvious. I had a lot of questions when I finished, it seems the author didn't quite tidy up and left a few plotholes that could have used better explanation (i.e. how did mister rictus never notice wesley's dad, even though certain villians possessed powers that would easily have allowed them to do so?) and a few other points that slip my mind at the moment. I would recommend to anyone who is open minded and not easily turned off by a little senseless violence and a few derogatory remarks.

By all means this is a must have, This graphic novel took the genre of adult graphic novels to a new level. With an engaging story line, many plot twist, and wonderful character development you won't be able to put this book down until you turn the last page...then you'll want to read it again. Lastly, It's just plain better than the movie.

Beyond bad. Bad story, bad characters, flashy for the sake of being flashy... really bad stuff.
DON'T BUY THIS. IF SOMEONE GIVES IT TO YOU, BURN IT!!!!
*spoiler*
I'm sorry, but if the protagonist goes and rapes and kills for fun, than this is just beyond evil.

After watching the film, which was senseless, I decided to read the comic out of curiosity to check the source material. I was also intrigued by the many negative reviews I read here.

How bad could this thing be, was my question.

The vast majority of the surface story was about Super Villains, but that's not what I'm here to talk about. I'm here to make it clear what the story is really about which is summed up in the last few pages of the book.

The theme of the story is Wage Slavery and the use of Escapist Media to avoid thinking about your boring terminal slave status.

Read more about Wage Slavery here:

[...] (This was edited so just type "wage slave" into Wiki, they have a great page on it.)

Explanation:

The idea is that in a Capitalist system (money, for profit, etc.) you have no power if you don't have large amounts of money. This is by design because the rich then get to own slaves. However, the slaves aren't in the same boat as the old African variety, rather they're tricked into thinking they aren't slaves, thus ensuring they don't rebel.

The trick works like this: you're paid a salary, but you have a bunch of expenses such as rent, credit, school loans, mortgage, health expenses, food, and etc. All of this is subtracted from your salary each month. So, a person making say 50K a year may only end up with a couple of hundred in profit each month, if they do nothing but spend on necessities and have no debts. That means that people making much less will be making no profit and may indeed may make a negative income if they have debt (say student loans) or need to use credit cards to cover unexpected situations.

All of that means that on your job, you MAKE no money or maybe just a little. Certainly, almost no one makes enough money to become a Capitalist who can buy a business, own it all, and employ wages slaves to run it while vacationing. Making no money will working hard and for a long time equals slavery.

It is likely that you, who is reading this, either is a wage slave or will become one. The only "out" I can see is to go on welfare and drop out of society or win the lottery. Another option is to be a Paris Hilton who has accidentally been born into de facto royalty. Being born a certain way and the lottery aren't a choice though.

Book:

The purpose is to show you that you're a wage slave and that the world is in fact run by murderers and rapists. Voltaire said that History is the story of mass murderers and the piles of bodies they leave behind. In Iraq the government had a program of raping women to punish families. In the recent Serbian wars rape and sniper squads were sent out to create terror, and this was in a nice part of Europe. So, guys who have the spirit of the main character actually live.

I would assume that they enjoy what they do and enjoying planning how to rape and murder in a better way so that they can get away with it longer. Thus, the main character is the embodiment of a real type of person. On the flip side, I know people just like Superman, so he's real too, but that's another story.

Escapism:

The last few pages blast the reader for turning their head away from the reality that vicious people run the world. While you're a wage slave you pretend you're not because mentally you're a high level wizard on WoW or you spend a lot of time wishing superheroes were real.

He's saying that you're a coward who will deny his message, say he sucks, and go into denial about the message, etc. His message hurts because it's true.

Meanwhile, those who enjoy the main character are also in denial. They're doing something Freud called Identifying With The Enemy. An example would be, getting beaten up then going and learning how to beat someone up better, or getting molested and then becoming a sex offender yourself. There's something about you which denies your victimhood and embraces and wants to be like the enemy. In this case, you can never be like the Capitalist, rather you will be a wage slave who imagines one day they'll be the master, but you won't.

If society is ever to change and if we're ever going beat the idea that money is real and that one person is worth more than another, then a message like this is important. The book is anything but nihilistic or juvenile fantasy, it is in fact very high level thinking.

This is yet another tale of the painfully average guy who is suddenly given the chance to realize his true destiny through super powers. The difference here is that the main character is to become a 'bad guy', with the potential to be the baddest of the bad guys. It sounds like a good set up for an interesting story, but it disappoints because the only thing the book has to offer is shock value. The main character goes from dead end loser to mass murderer & rapist. There was definite potential for black humor here, but the story never got that clever. The story has lots of brutal killing, the occasional reference to rape for fun, lots of swearing, etc - but if those things aren't original or shocking to you then I think you'll be as bored and as disappointed as I was.

At times the creators of Wanted get a little caught up in what might be their own pretensions. However the story moves along pretty well with enough unadulterated violence to keep it colorful. Obviously this book is meant for a mature crowd but older audiences might not appreciate the cynicism.

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.

What would happen if the bad guys won? What would happen when the last superhero dies and the super villains take over the Earth? It's an intriguing concept that Millar and Jones attempts to utilize in this unique story, however, despite their previous work, they fail miserably on this one. There is very little character development, logic and the comic attempts to be edgy for the sake of being edgy. There is no reason to connect to these characters. No reason to care for them. In the end, you feel nothing for the main character and nothing for the characters that die. The final result just feels juvenile and not poorly thought out.
From my understanding, the movie shies away from much of the source material of the comic. These can only be considered as improvements.

The concept alone gains it 4 stars, but the excessive profanity turns a possibily legendary tale into a juvenile outing worthy of Kevin Smith.

Millar crafts an excellent story and creates well rounded characters out of even the most mundane villains whom he choses to parody. The problem is they all speak like a bunch of teenagers, who just learned to swear and feel that it elevates their "bada**" image to do so. There isn't even any shock value, it's just annoying.

It really is a shame, "Wanted" could have been on par with "Watchmen"(please forgive me), by working adult situations into comic book lore elevating it to real-world status. But again, it comes out like the 13-year-old step-brother of "Watchmen".

That being said, the plot points are engaging and the art is fantastic.

Anyway, Junior High fan boys will most likely hold it in high esteem, but for the rest of us we can remember Ultimates and Civil War as high points in Mark Millar's career.

In the universe of "Wanted", the supervillains all ganged up to pick off the superheroes one by one, and now the supervillains rule the world. Our hero (well...protagonist, anyway) doesn't know anything about this--he's a human dumping ground for everyone else's bad vibes. Then he discovers that his father was the greatest killer in the world, and he's inherited the skills...as well as his father's money and his father's hot girlfriend. He goes to work for the world's nicest criminal mastermind, and when faced up against people who can alter reality and defy physics, villains with staggering physical and psychic powers, he discovers that the greatest power of all is the casual, ruthless willingness to end the lives of others, without pain or pleasure or any human feeling. The message of this graphic novel has obvious appeal for any nerdy sociopath, but its wit, the beautiful execution (pardon the pun) of the art, and the depth that Millar and Jones gave to the world of "Wanted" should make it appeal to any comic reader with a dark side...and with the imminent release of the movie, it will likely appeal to any moviegoer with a dark side, too. (And, in the comic, anyway, the Down's Syndrome take on Bizarro is probably worth the price of admission for Superman fans.)

I won't join the legion of readers that have been expressing their moral disappointment towards this volume. The author is probably happy that he had generated such level of controversy and attention around his product. I did not get the ultimate message, I found the violence senseless and I did not enjoy the comic. This will also prevent me from watching the upcoming movie. However I am pretty sure that the movie producers have reworked the storyline and the carachters in order to please the general public.

The first third of this trade paperback is shallow, pointless, and slow. When the plot and multiverse concepts kick in by the fourth issue, the series reaches its high point (and, wow, there's even a little character development!). But then the ending comes along and ruins it all with a generic, all-too-tidy twist.

It's rather enjoyable, but only when (1) the characters aren't behaving like high society snobs (Mister Rictus is the only true villain here; ironically, everybody else is as "evil" as spoiled preppies, (2) when the story abandons its angst and adopts genuine conflict, and (3) when the dialog doesn't come off as wanna-be gangsta (like a mid-nineties indie rip-off of Pulp Fiction).

I was disappointed, and the writing was a tad amateurish. But it was lowbrow, cheap-o fun.

I liked the art in this, not the best I've seen but still good. The story was good at the beginning and building to be something great but I have to say I was disappointed in the ending, an ending that again was only meant to shock. Most of this novel is filled with vulgar words, situations, and ideas (The Shock of the novel) but in the end the characters never deal with there actions. in the end i felt the writer couldn't close the deal on this story. It was OK at best

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...

Artistically this is very well done; the art is some of the best I've ever seen in a comic medium. It also makes "Sin City" look like a clean comic/movie by comparison. I find it very unlikely the upcoming film adaptation will accurately reflect the grittier moments of this work; they just go too far for most film audiences to accept. I thought the ending was a bit lazy on the part of the authors. While it does fit with the story, I just don't like an ending the purposely goes out of its way to not make any substantial points. Then again expecting points from a story where characters have profanity for names might be a little too much. It was consistent with the rest of the comic, but it missed some great opportunities to make points and insights into life.

The begining of this book starts with an average guy and his boring life. Then when he goes to get his usual sandwich one day he meets a girl named fox and the action never stops. The tempo of this book is somewhere between a coked out dishwasher and a cheetah on speed. The story moves along beautifly, and the end has a great twist. I also love how alot of the characters have similarities to existing dc and marvel characters. Along the same lines the unique characters in this story are classic.

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.

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

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).

There is 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.

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.

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.

I don't know how old Mr. Miller was when he wrote this thing, but if it was over 14, then the book goes from being laughable to just plain pathetic. The whole idea of a cubicle-working, spineless wimp finding a way to stand up in the world by way of flipping the bird and mindless gun-play is juvenile to say the least. I kept waiting for the book to show its hand as satire, but it held on to its disgruntled seventh-grader sincerity to the last page. The art was never a problem, other than the obvious dream-casting of known celebrities, but it's damn near unreadable.

Having run across a reference to the graphic novel I picked this up. The artwork is incredible and the story line is well done. The anti-hero theme is one that's been done before but they managed to make a great new version that's not overly mythical or buried in mysticism or philosophy.

My son saw the movie preview, and thought the book would be something cool to have. I ordered it for him for Christmas and was very disappointed with it. It's contents are vulgar and discusting.I would not recommend this for an adult, let alone a teenager. However, I have had great customer service on my return of this book with Oxworth books.

Jones' art is great and I really sympathize with what the author is doing, but I do not think that Millar's story is focused enough and detailed enough to warrant his harsh conclusion. The set-up of how the office drone becomes the super-villan is far too perfunctory and it becomes entirely lost in the sub-plot of the war among the super-villans. I think that if the book is going to pull-off its about-face ending, the reader needs to be significantly more co-opted by Wesley Gibson's transformation, significantly more sympathetic to him despite his abject degredation. Instead of just dropping hints to the depths of perversity in this world, the story should have shown them off. As it is, Millar is in too much of a rush to shove it all back in the reader's face to set his trap sufficiently. Good idea - poor execution.

This book was so weak. In reading other reviews I have heard others compare this to Watchmen. The only similarity is that they are both comics. This was such a juvenille read packaged as an adult book and why does the main character look like Eminem? I just didn't get what I was supposed to take away from this book. A lot of pointless violence and profanity, no catchy lines you can walk away with. I've lost a lot of respect in millar as a writer. A great subject in incapable hands don't waste your time if your over 14.

This book was so weak. In reading other reviews I have heard others compare this to Watchmen. The only similarity is that they are both comics. This was such a juvenille read packaged as an adult book and why does the main character look like Eminem? I just didn't get what I was supposed to take away from this book. A lot of pointless violence and profanity, no catchy lines you can walk away with. I've lost a lot of respect in millar as a writer. A great subject in incapable hands don't waste your time if your over 14.