
Out of all the reasons why people love comics so much, do you think self-deprecation is a popular one? Do you think that when we read about all the wonderful things these colourful characters are doing, we resent the lives we chose for ourselves? We can use that feeling to motivate us or we can stick our noses further into our comics and let it be enough for us just to dream. This is why WANTED by Mark Millar is such an important book and why it’s more insightful than you think.
Somewhat enjoyable film (that had almost nothing to do with the comic) aside, Wanted is a fabulously random, shocking, hilarious and profound read. You are introduced to Wesley who is so utterly forgettable and dull, that he could die every day and be reborn in the morning and no one would notice. His detestable cowardice rules his life and he constantly complains about the hole he is sitting in that he dug for himself with his shiny new spoon. He makes you want to shake your book violently, with the hopes of knocking some sense into a fictitious character.
Then his world gets turned upside down.
Suffice to say that Wesley was meant to be a character that you relate to but don’t want to admit it. We all go on about the awful things in our lives that we sadly have complete control over regardless of what we say. We could man up and smash a keyboard against the face of those who like to pick on us at work, we could walk away from awful relationships by destroying them like they destroyed us, walk out in a blaze of glory and never look back at the inferno. We fantasize about all of these things not because we think we may actually do them but because its easier than facing our problems when they occur. This is where the extent of Millar’s genius first occurred to me.
Mark Millar has written some amazing books in his career, whether it is his own creation or his spin on already existing characters in alternate universes. His stories almost always have a moral spin to them. Kick Ass was an important lesson in the meaning of heroism and bravado and in turn Wanted is an important lesson in the difference between repression and potential. Does Wesley becoming a bad guy really enable him to be all that he could be? Does he lose sight of exactly why he needed this release in the first place? Why do people need to go from one extreme to another like they’re switching channels? Can’t they simply live their lives being honest with themselves and others? Millar didn’t create a weak character that became strong after being handed the world he thought he deserved, he created a character who fed on his weaknesses until it made him into something untouchable.
The fact that almost all the characters in the comic are modelled after real life celebrities (Wesley is Eminem, Fox is Halle Berry and The killer is Harvey Keitel) just adds to the fantasy that’s been created in the comic, either disconnecting us from relating to the characters or forcing us to admire the characters regardless of their deeds, depending on what your perspective is. J.G jones did an excellent job at creating the characters and the world they live in, making them all larger than life and making sure the world Wesley was thrust into looked as unreal as possible.
At the end of one of the most jarringly gruesome and morally bankrupt rides of your life, you’re left with the decision on whether the protagonist is challenging you to do something with your life and stop being such a pussy, or - in quiet desperation - trying to validate his choices? You ask yourself if the only way to be happy the way you think you deserve to be is to lose all sense of yourself, then how the hell did I get this bad in the first place? Or were you always a terrible person who was only being held back by some flimsy sense of consequence?
This is Mark Millar, F@#$ing you in the a$$!