| Wanted | |
|---|---|
 Cover of theWantedtrade paperback. Artwork byJ. G. Jones | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Top Cow Productions |
| Schedule | Irregular |
| Format | Limited series |
| Genre | |
| Publication date | December2003 – February2005 |
| No. of issues | 6 |
| Main character(s) | Wesley F. Gibson / The Killer II The Fox |
| Creative team | |
| Written by | Mark Millar |
| Artist | J. G. Jones |
| Letterers |
|
| Colorist | Paul Mounts |
| Editors |
|
| Collected editions | |
| Hardcover | ISBN 1-58240-480-1 |
| Softcover | ISBN 1-58240-497-6 |
| Wanted &Big Game | ISBN 1-5067-4441-9 |
Wanted is acomic booklimited series created by writerMark Millar and artistJ. G. Jones. It was published byTop Cow in 2003 and 2004 as part ofMillarworld.[1] It features anamoral protagonist Wesley F. Gibson who discovers he is the heir to a career as asupervillainassassin in a world where such villains, The Fraternity, have secretly taken control of the planet and wiped all memories of its heroes (implied to be those of theDC Universe) from it.The Sunday Times dubbed the title "theWatchmen for super-villains."[2]
Afilm adaptation, very loosely based on the comic, was released in 2008, to which avideo game sequel followed in 2009. Three crossover sequel comics,Savage Dragon: Wanted!,Nemesis: Reloaded, andBig Game, were released in 2006 and 2023 byImage Comics, seeing Wesley and the Fraternity crossover with the otherMillarworld franchises. In 2024, the series was republished byDark Horse Comics asWanted & Big Game.
As withSuperman: Red Son,[3]Mark Millar has stated that the concept for the series occurred to him when he was a child. In this case, it came to him after his brother told him that there were no superheroes anymore because they had all disappeared after a great war with their respective supervillains.[4]
Wesley F. Gibson is a loser cubicle rat who is abused by almost everyone in his life, including his boss, a local gang, his unfaithful girlfriend, and his best friend with whom his girlfriend is having an affair. Wesley was raised by his pacifist mother after they were abandoned by his father, causing him to grow up into a wimp. All this changes when he is visited by the Fox, an assassin who shoots everyone in a sandwich shop before revealing herself to be a member of the Fraternity, a powerful organization of supervillains that rules the world. So long as they maintain secrecy, they are able to commit any crime without any consequences. The Fraternity wishes to recruit Wesley to replace his father, a supervillain known as the Killer, who was killed by an unknown assassin.
The Fox introduces Wesley to Professor Solomon Selzer, a brilliant mad scientist and leader of the North and South American chapter of the Fraternity. The Professor helps Wesley realize his powers by provoking him into shooting the wings off flies. The Professor explains that a long time ago, the world (identified offscreen as a variation of theDC Universe) was overrun by both superheroes and supervillains. Tired of being repeatedly defeated and jailed, the supervillains joined together and staged a revolution that Wesley's father was a part of. After a long, bloody war, the superheroes were defeated. Using magic and advanced technology, the newly formed Fraternity was able to erase the world's memories of superheroes and supervillains. All that remained were faint, inaccurate memories, which were the cause of superherocomic books and other media. Many of the surviving heroes now believed themselves to be actors who had played superheroes.
The Professor also explains to Wesley that Fox and his father had once worked for Mr. Rictus, who controlled the Australian chapter of the Fraternity. When Rictus visits the Professor's headquarters, Fox implies that she and the Killer left Rictus' chapter because he had been harming children.
The Fraternity begins training Wesley to use his newfound powers. The training focuses on not just his physical skills but on his personality. He is desensitized to violence and eventually learns to enjoy it. He is told to commit random acts of violence before undertaking acts of revenge on anyone who even slightly wronged him. He soon becomes a full-fledged Fraternity member, accompanying them on raids of alternate universes and other missions.
Wesley is assigned to be the Professor's personal bodyguard during a Fraternity convention in which the leaders of the Fraternity's five chapters will meet. The five leaders are the Professor, Mr. Rictus, Adam-One, the Future, and the Emperor. Here, he learns that Rictus and the Future had long wanted to end the Fraternity's policy of secrecy and rule the world openly. The Professor, Adam-One, and the Emperor favored secrecy for supervillains in order to get "the loot without the leg-breaking" and avoid gaining the attention of the larger multiverse, and have always managed to outvote Rictus and the Future. Though it seems that the Emperor is about to switch sides, the Professor subtly manipulates him to vote in favor of secrecy yet again.
After the meeting, the Professor leaves in a limo hoping to pick up a young prostitute. However, his driver is actually being impersonated by Shithead, Rictus's right-hand man, and the Professor is murdered by him. Rictus and Future's factions of the Fraternity begin a revolt against the other three. With most of the Professor's supervillains killed, Wesley and Fox must fight off the rival factions on their own. They manage to kill off many of the rebel supervillains, including the Future. This culminates in an attack on their own headquarters, occupied by Rictus and his gang. Defeating Rictus and deflecting a bullet through his throat, Wesley demands to know who killed his father but Rictus refuses to answer (or is simply unable to) before he dies. A figure steps out of the shadows revealing himself to be Wesley's father, the original Killer. The Killer reveals that he and Fox left Rictus's chapter not because they objected to harming children but because they knew of his planned revolt. The Killer also says that his skills have been deteriorating with age and he does not want to be killed by anyone inferior to him. After Wesley's training, the Killer believes that he is the only one worthy of ending his life and orders Wesley to put a bullet through his head. After shooting his father, Wesley indicates that he wants to return to his former life and stop being a super villain. However, he reveals to Fox shortly after that he was just joking, and they go off to plan another heist. The comic ends with Wesley calling out the audience about their "pathetic" lives, and stating: "This is my face while I'm fucking you in the ass."
The following characters are fraternity members whose chapter affiliations are not specified.
The complete limited series, along with theWanted: Dossier (which includes additional and "behind-the-scenes" material on the series), has been collected ina single volume as both a softcover (ISBN 1-58240-497-6) and a hardcover (ISBN 1-58240-480-1).
On September 26, 2018, the complete series was republished byImage Comics asa single volume as both a softcover (ISBN 978-1-5343-0916-6) and a hardcover (ISBN 978-1-60706-918-8).
On October 1, 2024, the complete series, along with its sequelBig Game, was collected intoa single volume as both a softcover (ISBN 978-1-5067-4441-4) and a hardcover (ISBN 1-5067-4441-9) under the titleWanted & Big Game byDark Horse Comics.[6]
Issue #128 ofErik Larsen'sImage Comics seriesSavage Dragon in 2006, collected as part ofSavage Dragon: Wanted!, serves as a crossover withWanted, set during the events ofWanted, following Wesley F. Gibson and the Fraternity on one of their invasions of other realities with active superheroes (in this case theImage Universe).[7]
In May 2023, it was revealed thatBig Game, a crossover events that united all the Millarworld characters, was actually a sequel toWanted and followed Wesley F. Gibson and the Fraternity teaming up withMatthew Anderson / Nemesis to take down the latest wave of superheroes (in particularThe Ambassadors andThe Night Club) that have popped back up in the world following the actions ofDave Lizewski / Kick-Ass.[8] Wesley F. Gibson and the Fraternity also appear in theMillarworld seriesNemesis,Nemesis: Reloaded,Nemesis: Rogues' Gallery, andNemesis: Forever, about Wesley's protégé Nemesis, the former two series precedingBig Game, and the latter two published after it.
A film very loosely based on the comic was released in June2008. It was directed byTimur Bekmambetov and starredJames McAvoy as Wesley Allan Gibson (his middle name changed from "F."),Angelina Jolie as Fox, andMorgan Freeman as Sloan. The film focuses on a league of self-righteous assassins rather than super-villains. Mark Millar himself hinted at a sequel closer to the plot of the original comic and featuring The Killer's costume.[9]
Sweden-based developer Stillfront AB launched abrowser game based onWanted in April 2008. TheWanted "Fan Immersion Game" was amassively multiplayer online role-playing game where players took the roles of Fraternity hitmen, performing assassination missions, upgrading weapons and ammunition, and creating alliances or rivalries with other players.[10]
A video game sequel to the events of the film,Wanted: Weapons of Fate, was released in March 2009. It was developed byGRIN, and published byWarner Bros. Interactive Entertainment forMicrosoft Windows,PlayStation 3, andXbox 360.[11]
