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 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. (Edit: After seeing the movie, it's definitely an improvement over the source material. WATCH IT!)
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