Wanted (Comic Book): Difference between revisions

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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. WasIt was originally a proposed as a reboot for the [[Legion of Doom]], but when it was rejected Mark decided to go [[Darker and Edgier]]
 
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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 guy. Then you remember that ''he'' was the person who engineered the heroic genocide...
** 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|Lawyer Friendly Cameos]]s or [[Affectionate Parodies]]. Started life as a Legion of Doom Reboot as well.
* [[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]], whowhom Mr. Rictus described as essentially being the "scariest man in the world" (and considering what Mr. Rictus is like, that says ''a lot''). After the villains effectively retconned the existence of superheroes, that same guy is now an expy of [[Adam West]], and is an actor who portrays a superhero in [[Batman (TV series)|a campy TV show]].
** [[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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** [[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 witnessesswitnesses and just walk away.
* [[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, {{spoiler|Wesley and The Fox}} go on one of these after Mr. Rictus tries to kill them.
* [[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.
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* [[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]] / [[Fridge Horror]] - It gets really damned screwed-up when you realize that ''any'' child '''would love having Wesley's dad'''. WhicWhich would you prefer; a mother who did everything she could to make you an [[Extreme Doormat]], or a father who did everything he could to make you [[The Ace]](at least as he saw it)? If Wesley's mom wanted to protect the world from her would-be supervillain offspring, why didn't she just get an abortion? The Original Killer was a [[Complete Monster]] - [[Unfortunate Implications|except that he was a great dad.]]
* [[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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