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And that's when Wesley's life gets ''much'' [[Broken Masquerade|more interesting]].
''[[Wanted]]'' is a comic series by [[Mark Millar]] and JG Jones that operates on one simple principle: superheroes really ''do'' exist in our world. Well, at least they did until [[Shout-Out|1986]], [[Crisis on Infinite Earths|when all the supervillains in the world teamed up for the express purpose of defeating every superhero in the world.]] However, getting rid of the superheroes and divvying the world up into sections to make money unencumbered by spandex-clad do-gooders wasn't enough for the supervillains. Did we mention they are ''super''villains? They used magic and technology to alter reality and people's memories, removing the superheroes from all recorded history and recall.
Almost.
You see, this ''still'' wasn't enough (''super''villains, remember). [[To the Pain|So they took the heroes who had survived and gave them meaningless lives, then left most of the heroes' exploits around]]... [[Irony|in comic books.]]
The series has its origins in Millar's childhood, when his older brother convinced the young Mark that Superman and all other superheroes ''had'' existed before Mark was born, but had all been killed by the supervillains. And then Mark grew up and became a comic writer.
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* [[Adorable Evil Minions]]: The Doll-Master uses robot dolls to commit crimes.
* [[Adrenaline Makeover]]: Wesley trades in his jeans/t-shirts/windbreaker style for tailored three-piece suits.
* [[Affably Evil]]: Professor Solomon Setzer seems like a fairly nice guy, and easy to get along with
** The Doll-Master is as evil as the rest of the Fraternity but he loves his family and won't swear in front of children.
* [[Alternate Company Equivalent]]: Wayyyy too many to list here. Suffice to say that pretty much 80% of the characters are either [[Lawyer-Friendly Cameo
* [[Anticlimax Boss]]: Mr. Rictus (and his gang of supervillain cronies, if you take them all together as one boss). The entire fight at the end, basically, was a huge letdown.
* [[A Real Man Is a Killer]]: Wesley seems to believe this, talking up how "macho" he becomes after becoming a villain.
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** [[Badass Army]]: Composed of supervillains
** [[Badass Bookworm]]: Professor Setzer
** [[Badass Decay]]: An in-universe example. Turns out that this universe once had a [[Batman]] [[Expy]],
** [[Badass Normal]]: Wesley<ref> Yes, Wesley's marksmanship abilities are genetic, but aside from that he doesn't have any powers.</ref>
*** Although it's hinted that his powers extend to making mundane implements of death lethal to even [[Nigh Invulnerable]] foes.
** [[Badass Longcoat]]: Mr. Rictus
* [[The Bad Guy Wins|The Bad Guys Win]]: It already happened. Why do you think it's such a [[Crapsack World]]?
* [[Beyond the Impossible]]: Both Wesley and his dad are capable of hitting shots that make the stuff from ''[[Equilibrium]]'' and ''[[Ultraviolet]]'' look tame. Then again, with a codename like "[[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|The Killer]]"...
* [[Beware the Nice Ones]]: After Mr. Rictus [[Slasher Smile|gloatingly informs him]] that his wife and daughters have been raped and murdered, {{spoiler|The Doll-Master orders ''all'' of his dolls}} to kill Rictus' gang. It doesn't work, but give him points for trying.
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* [[Crapsack World]]: Ever wonder why the world seems like it sucks? Because it does, thanks to the villains erasing superheroes.
* [[Creepy Doll]]: The Doll-Master's weapons of choice. Able to fly and loaded with Professor Setzer-designed weapons.
* [[Deconstruction]]: Not just of comic books and super-villains (see below), but to a larger extent, society's glorification of violence. It's a widely-established fact that becoming an action-hero and "manning up" is a power fantasy frequently entertained by adolescents (mainly males). Here, Millar suggests that such dreams are not only unrealistic, but just downright dysfunctional and reprehensible. For example, Wesley mentions several times about how his transition to cold-blooded killer changed his life for the better, but isn't portrayed sympathetically at all. In fact, at this point readers are most likely disgusted by his actions, with his callous murder of innocents, like the {{spoiler|moment where, on a whim, he decides to walk into a police station and kill every male officer and nearly rape the sole female survivor, all because he was bored}}. In fact, towards the end of the comic, as he {{spoiler|enacts his [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]] against Mr. Rictus}}, he confidently states "I am John Wayne, Bruce Lee, Clint Eastwood", among other action heroes. At this point, would you really cheer for him, even if he plays on your power fantasies like a videogame?
* [[Crossover]]: Millar was reluctant to do any crossovers but agreed to do one with the [[Savage Dragon]] since he and Larsen are pals and had worked together in the past.
* [[Defector From Decadence]]: {{spoiler|Wesley's mother was a former supervillain who left the life of villainy after becoming a mother, coddling Wesley to the disgust of his father, who wanted his son to follow his legacy as a Complete Monster.}}
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* [[Evil Parents Want Good Kids]]
* [[Evil Versus Evil]]: The finale, with {{spoiler|Wesley and The Fox}} facing off against Mr. Rictus and his crew.
* [[Expy]]: The Killer (especially the first one) seems inspired by Deathstroke the Terminator. Mr. Rictus has elements of [[The Joker]], but also [[Who Framed Roger Rabbit?|Judge Doom]]. The Fox is blatantly Catwoman. Professor Seltzer is pretty much a Golden Age [[Lex Luthor]].
** Then there are their foes: [[Superman]] is explicitly ''shown'' as a paraplegic, [[Batman]] is alluded to several times - as the Detective - before his post-1986 persona {{spoiler|who basically Adam West, along with Dick Grayson who has turned into Burt Ward, are placed in a death trap by Mr. Rictus and fed to an octopus.}} It's a bit of a [[Tear Jerker]] when {{spoiler|Mr. Rictus points out that the fat, pleading slob with the hood over his head was once the scariest man in the world.}}
** In a twist, the comic book heroes and villains Wanted's are based on are implied to be expies Wanted's "real life" versions, the comic book versions all that remain of humanity's knowledge of them after reality was edited.
** An alternative interpretation on who the original Killer might be? Check out his boots in the first scene as he chases after the assasins. Boots with intricate webbed detailing, walking on walls, crazy reflexes, unerring aim ... does anyone else think of a middle-aged, bisexual, gun-toting Peter Parker?
* [[Five-Bad Band]]: For both Rictus and Seltzer's gangs
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** [[The Brute]]: {{spoiler|Sucker}}
** [[Dark Chick]]: Deadly Nightshade
** [[Big Bad]]: Professor Solomon Seltzer
** [[The Dragon]]/{{spoiler|[[Dragon Ascendant]]}}: The Killer
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** It's even possible that {{spoiler|Villains on both sides dying until Wesley gets North and South America}} was part of the plan. {{spoiler|Consider that Wesley's father appears not a moment after Wesley kills Rictus. Shit, there's wanting the best for your son, and then there's turning him into the ''ruler of two continents.''}}
* [[Genocide Backfire]]: Mr. Rictus, bored silly after years without a decent opponent, attempts to deliberately invoke this trope by slaughtering a young boy's parents in front of him, in the hopes that he will eventually come looking for revenge.
* [["Get Out of Jail Free" Card]]: All Fraternity members wear pins bearing the Fraternity symbol, or drive cars with it on the licence plate. This allows them to commit ''any'' crime, in ''full view'' of police and ''dozens'' of
* [[Gollum Made Me Do It]]: Johnny Two Dicks is [[Composite Character]] of Two-Face and Scarface who is a meek bystander who is controlled by his evil side... [[Refuge in Audacity|who talks through Johnny's penis.]] Yes, really.
* [[Guns Akimbo]]: Both Wesley and The Fox are fond of this one.
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* [[Hell-Bent for Leather]]: Wesley's costume, a black leather full bodysuit with several guns and knives attached.
* [[Here There Were Dragons]]: The whole point of the story in regards to Silver Age superheroics.
* [[Hypocrite]]: By the time the Fox says Rictus is shooting babies on cribs, she has already collaborated with the horrific murder of several people on-screen and even more off-screen to the point her arguments comes empty.
* [[Hollywood Atheist]]: Mr. Rictus, who turned evil because he found out there was no afterlife, and decided to just do whatever the hell he wanted for the rest of his life. [[Complete Monster|And it turns out he wants to do some evil, evil shit.]]
* [[I'm a Humanitarian]]: Mr. Rictus is seen eating someone.
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* [[The Reveal]]: Several, though perhaps the most jarring is Wesley's dad {{spoiler|being alive, having faked his death in order to jumpstart Wesley's down the path of the supervillain}}.
* [[Rewriting Reality]]
* [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]]: {{spoiler|Wesley}} narrates a very detailed montage of him killing every single person in his life that gave him grief. And later,
* [[Rule of Cool]]: They fly a jet through the portal back to their dimension in the second book. The portal inside of an office building. And all of this is part of a heist to steal a radioactive condom.
* [[Shiny New Australia]]: One of Mr. Rictus' grievances is that, when the villains divvied up the continents, he got stuck with Australia.
* [[Shout-Out]]: The series is stuffed with them. Seriously, there's probably enough to make an entire page.
* [[Scary Shiny Glasses]]: Part of Mr. Rictus ensemble. Red ones at that.
* [[Sliding Scale of Villain Threat]]: Mr. Rictus' idea of running roughshod over the world instead of staying in the shadows is repeatedly shot down by the other Fraternity heads, because if they ''did'' so, heroes from other realities would most likely show up to stop them and The Fraternity would lose everything. Perhaps unsurprisingly, [[Ax Crazy|Rictus doesn't care]].
* [[The Sociopath]]: Mr. Rictus. ''Ohhhh'', boy, Mr. Rictus.
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* [[This Loser Is You]]:
{{quote|{{spoiler|''Wesley:''}} "This is my face while I'm fucking you in the ass."}}
* [[Took a Level
* [[Training
* [[Training Montage]]: Wesley gets used to the training (which uses innocent civilians as targets, eventually) with glee.
* [[Turn Out Like His Father]]: Wesley's dad was watching him as a kid once and saw Wesley getting beat up by some other kids. Upon seeing Wesley not fight back and get rescued by his mom, who praised him for his actions, he realized that she knew, at least on a subconscious level, that if Wesley resorted to violence there'd be no turning back. [[You Can't Fight Fate|And she was right]].
** [[Fridge Brilliance]]
* [[Unwitting Pawn]]. {{spoiler|Wesley}}. And how...
* [[Villain Protagonist]]: {{spoiler|Wesley}}, who upon going evil shaves his head into an Eminem-style crewcut and freely commits murders and rapes just because he can. Not to mention being a misanthropist...
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{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Comic Books of the 2000s]]
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