The Sword Vol. 4 - Air

The final volume in a thus far mediocre series. I wasn't sold on this all the way for the first three volumes. They would go back and forth between over the top action, and boring dialogue and backstory that I could follow, but didn't know why I was. Well now seeing everything come together how it did, I'm totally down with this story, and I'm glad I stuck with it! 

The last volume ended with the "air bender" chick, Malia, going into times square and promising benevolent intentions and kind of calling Dara out in front of the whole world. Dara rushes to lay the smack down on that woman, and boy is it fun to watch. This book takes it's time letting Dara get to Malia, but does it in an interesting way. All the while giving you Malia's history, which in the previous two books I didn't like, because it kind of tried to make you empathize with them, but in this one it just makes her that much stronger of a villain, which I totally dug. When they finally do throw down, it's just as inventive as it has been thus far, except the Airbending sequences weren't all that awesome. When they say she has power over the element "Air" what they really mean is that she can fly, use telekinesis, and shoot lightning. But in this case I didn't mind reading it, because the action was still top notch. Then right when I thought I knew how shit was going down, I'm thrown another curve ball, and I absolutely love it. Where the Luna Brothers' previous two books, Ultra and Girls, ended in a cliff hanger and almost no epilogue, this story does a great job of wrapping everything up, even if it is kind of a sad ending. 

It sucks seeing the book end right when I decided I liked it and that it was worth the ride to get there, but it's better that than it to keep going and dive back into not as awesome land. I'm glad I kept reading, and if you read the previous three and had faith that these two gentleman would pay off, you'll be glad you stuck with it. Or who knows, if you didn't really like the previous books at all, this one might piss you off more. I always say that a bad ending can spoil a great story, and a great ending can save a bad story, and I think that's exactly what happened here. The end made everything make sense up until now, and I think everyone else should give it a shot too! You can Search Amazon.com for The Sword Vol. 4 - Air or you can just click the box below to check out this book for yourself!

Thanks for reading!
James

Girls Vol. 4 - Extinction

The conclusion of a series that has recently been added to my personal list of favorite comics. Obviously in this volume the characters are dealing with being kicked out of their main base of operations for the series thus far, and the ramifications of all the fucked up stuff they did in the last volume, and trying to bring this situation to a close.

Now in the last volume there were certain characters I fucking hated... like if I had been in this series, I almost certainly would have committed murder, or at the very least been killed for going off on my own. In this volume everything's not so black and white. Now while I wanted to hate the women all throughout this book, because they were all so fucked up to all the men, this is the volume where you get to see these ladies worst fears imagined. Now a lot of crazy shit still goes down, but it's hard to see whose side you're on because they're both very valid. See, the ladies are fucking crazy. They say the men are the problem, and in doing so it drives the men to be just as fucked up. So it turns into a self fulfilling prophecy on these ladies parts, but the guys are still fucked up for letting them be right! All it takes is a little willpower, some self esteem, and a damned conscience, and you're in the clear. But apparently no character in this book has all those things. And that's why I love it so much! All of these characters are humans. Because who knows, I could turn into any one of these characters that I hated and criticized throughout the book as soon as some shit like this goes down. So you'll hate one for a long time, and then right at the end of the book, you'll say "now i see, it all fits together, and I hate you significantly less." And in that respect this book is very similar to LOST. Now I know there are mixed feelings about that show, but it's not a show about answers, it's a show about characters. So if you want to know what the Black Smoke is, or these murderous girls in the case of this book, you're kind of SOL, but if you want to know what makes each of these characters tick, then you're certainly in luck.

The last volume set the bar pretty high for messed up shit that goes down, as far as the characters are concerned, and while this book doesn't raise that bar, it does skirt over it. And by that I mean that there is still quite a bit of depravity, it just doesn't get much worse. Which is a good thing, because I don't think I could stomach too much more from this book. I will say there was one sub-plot/mini sequence where the women survivors were hunting down the men to stop them from reproducing with the girls. Now that's not a huge deal, but the writers found a different way for each of the men to be hanging out with the killer girls... this felt a little forced to me, and I don't think every character needed to be, especially since the pay off is only shown for one or two of those characters. Also the main character Ethan starts to lose his shit a little bit. He starts having these weird dreams/hallucinations/visions, and it's good about making you not sure what's real and not until the end.

That being said I wasn't totally in love with the overall ending. It basically wraps things up all in one issue, and it felt as though it may have been done a bit too quickly, and overall this crazy event had no repercussions on the world as a whole, just a few of these characters in it... I didn't hate it, just didn't love it either. Maybe if they had a few more issues, or even just one more epilogue issue, I would have been alright. But for a series that had me dying to know what was next, the resolution was a tad bit lack luster...

Overall a fantastic series, and I highly recommend every volume. Go check it out, I've never read another story like it, and I can't remember a more original survival story! You can Search Amazon.com for Girls Vol. 4 Extinction, or you can just click the box below and purchase it for yourself!

The Sword Vol. 3 - Earth

So my problem with the last volume, was that it was just so cut and dry. There was not really a whole lot there as far as substance. It was just go here, find bad guy, fight! This one takes that even above and beyond. In the second volume it takes Dara and Zakros two and a half issues to start fighting. In this volume she finds the next guy in one issue... so right after she kills Zakros, Spoiler if you hadn't read vol. 2 yet, she heads to Mexico to find this other douche... it all just seems so easy. There's no build to it, there's not detective work going on to find him, it's just "hey lets walk over here and fight him!" Maybe it's because the writers know that the strong point of this book is the combat, but i can't tell.

There are a few good twists and turns that i didn't really see coming, and i liked the way they played out for the most part. Also there's a lot more back story in this volume, but not on any of the main characters just the villain. Now while these characters are really interesting, and it's cool to see where they came from, and some of the shit that they did in the past, especially when Dara's dad is in those flash backs, but it is kind of a moot point by the end of the volume. I mean This is kind of a big *Spoiler* but does it really make a whole lot of sense to spend six issues building up a character's back story if you're going to murder them at the end of the arc? I dug what i saw, i just don't see why i saw it. It didn't reveal anything about the overall plot, just character development for a dead guy...

But like i said, if you're still reading this it's because of the action. Now while the swordplay in this volume kicks it up a notch, and they keep finding new inventive ways to use it and it's abilities, the "earth bending" we'll call it for lack of a better term, was a bit lack luster at first. See, in the fight with Zakros i wasn't sure what they could do that would top other times I'd seen these kinds of abilities, and they did a great job from the start. Where as here he kind of just throws rocks at her for a while. It was a little uninspiring, but maybe the slow build to the good stuff was to balance out for them finding him so soon. Like you can find the bad guy right away, but we're going to make the fighting kind of lame for a while just so there's still a build. When it gets going there is some cool stuff that he does with the Earth that i kind of had to take my statement back a bit, i just don't know why they didn't start doing the cool stuff a little sooner? Also, my least favorite aspect of the book, the fact that they're fugitives and they're on the run, is kind of ramped up at the end of the book by a kind of plot twist/cliff hanger. It's not a huge shocker when you get to it, I'm just not sure if i like where it's going.

If you read one and two, this one is more of the good stuff from that. But the stuff that those were missing this doesn't give you either... so if you're already liking this then who am i to tell you to stop, but if not then there's nothing that new, yet anyways. Also if you haven't read one and two, you could pick this up if you want. If you don't give a shit about the story, it would almost be easier to just pick up the random issues with combat, because that's really where the book shines. Just pretend it's the Lost Chapters of Avatar or maybe a super distant sequel or something... If you do want to check the book out, you can Search Amazon.com for The Sword Vol. 3 earth, or just click the box below.

Thanks for Reading!
James

Girls Vol. 3 - Survival

So now three quarters of the way into the book, and we still have no idea what the fuck is going on in this town. I mean don't get me wrong, we've got a pretty good idea what's happening, but why or how? Yeah... don't look forward to getting any answers in this volume. If that's something that's important to you, then you're kind of shit out of luck, if not, like me, then this volume was fucking sweet!

The weirdness gets cranked up to maximum volume. I mean shit has been fucked up throughout this whole series, but in this volume, the creepiness, and the pervertedness, and the depravity, and the insanity are all at maximum levels. All the while these survivors are practically ripping each other apart because the tension is so high. I love books like this so much. I don't understand why more Survival Horror stories don't get this really easy formula. It doesn't matter what the "monster" is per say, but what does matter is the mood. And the tone in this book is spot on. I will say that there are a couple of characters who have seemed pretty normal up until now who are kind of pushed to their limits. Not only in what they can take, but what the audience can take as well. There are certain things that happen that you'll want to punch certain characters right in the face, and other times you'll want to just bury them alive. This next bit is kind of a *Spoiler Alert* but I've been waiting to get to this volume, so i can talk about this fucking lady. There's this one lady, and this lady is always in one of these survival stories, but she grows into a character who has the ability to turn all the other ladies, and some of the guys too, into mindless drones doing her fucked up bidding. You can almost never pick her out from the beginning either, because she's always like "oh, don't mind me, I'm totally mild mannered, and am totally not a insane bad guy : )" But then let shit hit the fan a little bit, and she goes into super villain mode! It is absolutely crazy what some of these characters do in this volume, and what other characters let them get away with. I kind of walked the line between loving seeing the depravity of these characters, and really wishing a giant sperm would shoot them with a laser. There was a handful of scenes that i really liked these villainous ladies though, specifically one where they make a pit with sharpened poles and lure the girls in so that they can mow them down with shotguns. Now psychopath ladies or not, that's kind of badass...

I don't know what else to say about this series without giving the best parts away, but i am still digging the shit out of it, and i can't wait to do the review for volume 4. If you liked Volumes 1 & 2, then definitely check this out, because it just keeps getting more and more interesting, and this is my favorite volume yet. If the other two sounded lame, and this one sounds cool, go back and check out the first two, because this one probably won't make any fucking sense without them. Not only that, but now that you know where the story's going, it might be a bit easier to accept the weirdness. If/When you decide to pick up this series, you can Search Amazon.com for The Girls Vol. 3 Survival, or just click the box below.

Thanks for reading!
James

The Sword Vol. 2 - Water Review

Alright, so like before if you haven't read either this or volume 1, you may want be weary of spoilers. It's kind of hard to review a series without giving away a few of the earlier bits. So the last book ended in a decision for Dara to murder her attackers. This seems like the obvious choice, and really isn't that big of a spoiler, but then again her dad did leave them alive for millennia... I'm still hoping they get around to answering that question, because one thing there isn't a whole hell of a lot of in this volume is answers. 

This book is so straight forward, that if you can't follow what's going on here you might need to give up comics, or reading in general. This is six issues of her hunting down this guy Zakros and trying to kill him. They do not deviate from this at all, and that is literally all there is here. There's an awkward scene pretty early on where they get a ride from these people who recognize Dara from the news, and freak out. She then saves them from some attacking Pirates. Now not only is that awfully silly to begin with, but as soon as she's done leaving three more people for dead in the ocean, these people are all of a sudden totally back on her side. It's not too ridiculous, but since this is one fraction of one issue that this scene occurs, it just feels a little rushed and awkward... 

Then they spend some time wandering around this island that Justin led them to because he remembered Dara's dad bring it up in class one time. So I don't want to ruin exactly how it goes down, but there's a pretty sweet scene involving water manipulation and a bathroom. Basically Zakros can manipulate water and all it's forms, so he takes all the water out of all of the plumbing in the bathroom, which is kind of gross, and then freezes it locking them in a room together. And proceeds to beat the piss out of this girl while her friends decide whether or not to rescue her. And while this is a cool scene, i'm starting to doubt the competence of her companions. I get that they're on the run, so they don't really have shit else to do, but they're following this girl around on a vengeance trip. She just heads down to some island in the bahamas on a whim, and then when she gets captured due to her own stupidity, they actually have to sit around and debate whether to run for the fucking hills, or to pick up the super powerful sword and lend a damned hand.

Then there's a pretty cool chance scene that leads up to the end battle. I don't want to ruin it, but the tides get turned pretty quickly, pun intended, and Zakros really is allowed to unleash god's wrath on this girl. Again, i don't want to spoil it, but the combat is easily the best part of this book. And i almost feel like they sat around thinking up these really creative combat scenes and then tied them together with this weak ass story. That being said the last issue or two of this book really makes it worth it, because those scenes are so fucking cool. This would easily be a better movie, or TV show or something than a comic. The actors could convey the kind of emotion i'm just not getting from the book, and these scenes, that while awesome as shit on the page, would be absolutely epic on screen. 

And like i said that's about it. There really isn't a whole lot here. I do have to say that if you read the first six issues and you don't really dig it, at least give it this volume too, because i'm almost positive that the first volume was setup for these cool boss fights. They got the backstory out of the way, and for this whole volume it's barely there, and when it is it's laced very well with the story and action so it's almost not noticeable. This is easily the Luna Brother's weakest book yet, but i'm still enjoying it quite a bit. If you like what you see you can Search Amazon.com for The Sword Vol. 2 Water, or you can click the box below. 

Thanks for reading!

James

Girls Vol. 2 - Emergence Review

    

Alright, so if you haven't read these first two volumes yet, there are probably going to be some spoilers ahead! The book starts right up where the last one left off and some pretty big shit goes down in these first couple of pages. This is so smart on the writers part because they find a way to isolate the characters, and create that non escapable feeling of claustrophobia. Also it eliminates a large quantity of people in the town making the cast of the book large, but not overwhelming. 

For a large part of this book the cast is split into three groups. One is the survivors from the bridge incident who are now hunkered down in the largest house in town and they mostly just sit around and interact with each other.. The other is a group including the Sheriff who head to the north exit to see if they can escape there. The last is the Pickett father and son duo who basically serves as the comic relief.

So the first group of people find out that one of the survivor guys slept with a bunch of these girls, and in turn that Ethan was the first one to do so. Then everyone freaks out and begins to persecute these two dues. Now the one guy who slept with them did it in the road after a shit load of people died and some of the girls even murdered people. That guy's kind of fucked up, and he deserves to be yelled at. Now Ethan on the other hand didn't really do anything wrong... I mean he picked up some girl who was hurt and clothed her and gave her a place to stay for the night. She came on to him and seduced him. There's not really anything wrong with that in my eyes, but maybe i'm a bit bias because i'm a guy, but whatever. But other than that it's kind of like I said, they don't really have a lot to do. The dialogue is great, so I didn't have a problem with it, but I can see someone who is more driven by action being a bit bored until the later half of this book. But regardless of whether you like the action or dialogue more, the climax of this volume is really fucking cool, and i don't want to say more than that, but it's creepy and you're not sure what exactly is going on, or who's going to survive. 

The second group led by Wes, the Sheriff, heads to the north and when they realize they're walled in there too, they begin to search to see how far this wall goes. I'm not really sure why this was done, because they don't really have a lot to do. I mean I didn't have a huge problem with it while I was reading it, it's just in retrospect. I guess it allows tensions back at the house to grow between everyone without a source of authority, but other than that the coolest thing that comes out of it is a fight with a bear... 

These last two characters are insinuated to be kind of villainous, but mostly they come off as incompetent. That being said it is really fun to watch them fuck off and get messed up. I laughed out loud several times during these parts and are the funniest parts in the series thus far. After a while this group meets up with the second and there's a bit of confrontation, but it's resolved pretty quickly. This all builds towards a bit of a conclusion for the book, but it's more a cliff hanger than anything. 

I read right through this volume, and loved almost all of it. The mysteries of this series are so intriguing that I found myself rushing to the end of every chapter. It might not grab everyone this way, but by this volume you should know if it's for you or not. If you like what you see, you can Search Amazon.com for Girls Vol. 2 Emergence, or you can click the box below. 

Thanks for reading

James

The Sword Vol. 1 - Fire Review

Alright, so I've been on a bit of a Luna Brothers kick lately if you couldn't tell. I enjoyed their other books quite a bit, so I figured why not start reading the recently finished "The Sword"? So I went into this without any preconceived notions. I had no idea what this was about, just that it could be hyper violent at times, and I've got to say that so far I've liked what I found. Basically this story is about a girl who is a paraplegic who's family gets attacked and murdered because this group of people thinks that her father is someone who he claims not to be. These three people who attack them apparently have some kind of magic/mutant powers. They leave her for dead, and she discovers this sword deep beneath her house, and it heals her entirely. Well upon discovering that she's alive, these people send a group of people to kidnap her and get their sword back, which they were after in the first place. From this point on things start going downhill for the main character, Dara. She discovers that this sword is some kind of ultimate weapon when she kills all the dudes sent after her, and then runs from the police with ease.

My biggest problem with this book so far is the fact that she tries to turn herself into the police to get their help, and it's awfully predictable to assume that they're not going to help at all, and will instead probably fuck her over at some point. I think it would have been much more fun to have her be assisted by the government, but instead that shit gets all messed up too. It seems like an easy cop out, no pun intended, to have this character be on the run. I have hope that there's some creative stuff done with it later, because if not it might aggravate me. There's also these long scenes at the beginning of every issue that are like two or three pages long where these villains talk to one another. To me these just seem like needless over extended recaps. Why tell the audience what your villains are doing every step of the story? So there are scenes where shit goes down that could go either way, but you know what's going on because you heard the villains' plan. It just seems a little awkward for the reader to be in on what's going on, and the characters be clueless. During the scene or two where you actually get to see the sword in action it does kick a lot of ass. It's very cool watching someone who's not really sure about what they're doing murder several people because of an instrument that's in her hand. It's like any slight movement she makes would end up in slicing right through people, or leaping over buildings. That was by far my favorite part, which is surprising because i'm not usually into that kind of over the top action, but here it's done very well and I can't wait to see more of it!

So in the last chapter of this volume Dara meets up with her friends who she previously abandoned to turn herself in. They're all on the run now with not too much more than this super powerful sword. This dude Justin had her dad's creative writing class a few years before and apparently he told his class of his travels in his previous life as this character Demetrios. He then relays some of these tales to Dara. Now this is basically where the book goes into backstory mode and, i hope, gets it all out of the way. There were four bad guys who each control an element and they used their powers to rule, but to keep each other in check they forged a sword using each of their powers. Demetrios was given this sword by the other three to kill the most powerful one. Afterwards he left the other three alive, but constantly reminding them that he could fuck their day up. My problem with this is that I can't tell whether this is borrowing strongly from The Last Airbender, or whether the writers just chose the not that original route for this story. I'm hoping they do something a little more creative with it in the later books, but they're even called Water, Earth, and Air...

I definitely have to say I'm not sold yet. I can't decide if this is just another version of a story I've seen dozens of times, or whether it's a great reimagining of those stories that's going to top them all. I'm going to keep reading until it gets bad, because the parts I liked I did like a lot. Maybe I just liked Girls better because you have no idea what the fuck is going on from start to finish, where as this seems to be almost holding your hand the whole way through. If you like what you see, and you'd like to check this book out for yourself you can Search Amazon.com for The Sword Vol. 1 Fire, or you can just click the box below.

Thanks for reading
James

Girls Vol. 1 - Conception Review

Alright, I'll start off by saying that the covers on these books make them come off as some kind of softcore porn. They are not. This is a legitimate survival horror story, and a pretty good one too. The story starts out with this sexually frustrated character named Ethan. Well throughout the first part of the book he keeps trying lay the charm on some ladies, and he keeps getting shot down. Hard. Well in the first issue he kind of losses his shit and basically goes off on a chauvinistic rant about how all women are bitches. Now maybe this is a little fucked up to say, but I liked this guy from the get go. Not because he's a woman hater of course, but because he's a real dude with real frustrations. Well on his ride home he finds a naked woman injured in the street. He tries to do the right thing and help her, but she doesn't want to go to a hospital, so he takes her back to his place. Once she's back he makes it clear he has the most honest of intentions, but she kind of seduces him, and they get it on. Well the next day he goes to the police station to get the sheriff to find a solution to this situation. Now all of this is set up for when this book takes a dive into the really creepy and uncanny. And it's kind of hard to go into detail about that stuff, or even really the premise of the book without venturing into spoiler territory. So... When they get back to Ethan's house they find this mystery girl in the bathroom with five or six full grown eggs hatching with exact replicas of her coming out of them. These girls then go on a rampage and start trying to murder all the ladies they come across. 

This story strongly resembles a Zombie story, to me. The only difference being that instead of zombies, you have naked murderous girls. Which to some people might be scarier. There's some seriously weird shit here too. At one point there's a giant sperm at one point, and the way the book ends just adds to the creepy factor. Don't let all that stuff discourage you though. Underneath all of the awkward imagery, is a really interesting story. I read through this volume in under two hours, because I literally could not wait to find out what happened next. I can't explain it, but the way everything is handled made me get really into it, really fast. Now I can say this though, if you don't identify with a character quickly, you might have trouble caring about the shit that happens to these people, because just because I liked the main character doesn't mean you will. That being said i definitely think it's worth at least a glance. 

I definitely enjoyed this volume, and I'm so intrigued to see what happens next. This is definitely a weird book, and probably not one I'd recommend to first time comic readers, but it is definitely a perfect example of how comics aren't just about Superheroes in capes, and zombies and ninjas. It's amazing how something so simple in premise can be so intriguing and satisfying at the same time. If you like what you see, you can Search Amazon.com for Girls vol. 1 conception or you can click the box below.

Ultra - Seven Days Review

Alright, so I've been wanting to read some stuff written by the Luna Brothers for years, and just haven't gotten around to it until now. When I Originally saw this book, the cover is kind of somber and dark, and it's called "Seven Days" and I thought the premise was "What if this super woman only had seven days left to live" upon reading it I discovered that it's actually about her having seven days to find true love. Being a guy, I kind of felt like I'd been duped. I mean it literally starts with these three chicks, that you don't find out are superheroes until a ways into the book, that are kind of smashed that go to see a fortune teller. But once I got passed the idea that I was reading a comic book version of a romantic comedy, and not really that original of one either, I kind of started to dig it. So basically the main character, Ultra, is being coerced by her to friends to go and try to find her true love once they receive their fortunes. I don't really want to spoil how it all plays out, but it does tend to take a few twists and turns that if your girlfriend sat you down and made you watch this as a film, you'd call that shit right out, and then look like a jackass for being wrong. This is done really well, and it keeps you on your toes as to where the plot goes. 

One of my favorite aspects of this comic though, is the actual superhero parts. Basically in this big Metropolis style city, named Spring City, there are these talent agencies basically. One for superheroes, and one for heroines. And these talent agencies work directly for the police. So basically every super hero works as a police officer, and has on duty times, and off duty times, where they can be called to deal with certain situations, or if there's a big deal going on they might form a task force. It's a really streamlined way to handle the situation of what happens when super heroes sleep, when do they sleep, when are they off duty, are they saving people 24/7? all those things are handled with one system, and the best part is, is all of those things are told well, and used in the dialogue. So it's not just exposition at any point where they're saying "this works this way, and this works this way," it's all woven very well. My only beef with this is there is one scene later on in the book, and this is kind of venturing into spoilers, but all of these superheroes are in one spot for an awards show. While I did really like this scene, i don't see why every criminal and super criminal in the city isn't staging the biggest heist ever during that fucking awards show, because they're all busy getting gussied up and then accepting awards and shit. It didn't bug me that bad, but it did make me grin thinking about it. 

Now I'm going to go into full blown spoiler mode for a second, but this story is about her finding her true love. And it doesn't pan out the way it looks like at first. Then in around part six or seven, of eight, there's a sub plot where one of the main character's friends tells her she's gay and in love with her. Now maybe this is just me, but I loved this idea and I wanted them to run with it so bad. I guess it's just the idea of this super powered, cute lesbian couple flying around the city holding hands and whooping ass together, but whatever it was in my brain that clicked, that was the story I really wanted to read at that point, and it gets kind of dropped for something a little more sappy. While I didn't hate where they went with it, I'd be lying if I said I didn't prefer the way it could have gone. 

This is a great book if you want to read a romantic comedy with super hero action mixed in. It's a very "Sex and the City" look at Super Heroines and their interactions with each other. If that sounds cool, then definitely check this out! If not... stay away, because that's what most of the book is. The dialogue is great, but the action is few and far between. I personally liked it quite a bit, and didn't have a problem with it at all. If you like what you see you can Search Amazon.com for Ultra - Seven Days, or you can click on the box below. 

Wanted Review

I know... another Mark Millar book, so sue me. I had been putting this book on the back burner for a while because while I am a huge Millar fan, I've also seen the film. And while saying that the film was terrible might be an overstatement, so is saying it was great. It was really mediocre at best. So a recently made acquaintance urged me to read this book because for a long while it had been his absolute favorite. I'm going to do a synopsis on the way, as spoiler free as I can muster, and give my opinions as we go!

Alright, so this book opens and some dude is narrating his shitty life. His girlfriend's cheating on him with his best friend. His boss is really racist and talks shit to him because she's black and he's white. He gets shit talked to him all the time by these same guys that bully him and stuff. It's all really boring stuff. It's only spiced up by some older guy getting shot and murdered. Shortly later we, the readers, find out that Wesley, the main character, is the only son of this older gentleman who belongs to a league of Super Villains. The main plot point here is that Wesley has to undergo this Super Villain training program in order to inherit all his dads millions of dollars, meanwhile in search of his dad's killer. And since all the heroes were killed off years ago, that the main villain in this story... wait for it... is a super villain. I mean, you know, a really mean super villain who's more dastardly than the rest...

Alright, so my biggest problem with this book is that I really didn't have anyone to relate to. This guy Wesley has absolutely no balls. The reason his life sucks is because he just can't get up and make it better, and I guess the idea here is that he's pushed into such a drastic world change, that he'll have to grow some, but i just don't buy that. I mean if this guy actually had it in him to do these things i feel like he would have done them from the get go. You wife cheats on you, leave her. Your job sucks, quit. Dude's talk shit to you, fuck them up. It's just a really simple equation. This guy is in his mid to late twenties, there's no excuse why his life is so miserable. He has no responsibilities to anyone, yet is still hung up on being everyone's bitch... But, getting past that, even once he's a super villain I just couldn't relate. The way these people operate is like real villains. They do shit with no rhyme or reason. There are scenes where he'll just kill a dozen people and then not even feel remotely bad about it. They rape and murder with no remorse, and I just don't see how a reader is supposed to sympathize with a character that's so psychologically disturbed. If there were another character, maybe Wesley's younger brother who was in a slightly better position in life, and wasn't as cool with being a mass murderer, then I think I could have related to this story so much better. But instead I'm merely watching one fucked up deed fallow the previous until the end. Also if I wanted to be nit picky then I could say that the end was bit anti-climactic, in that there was one really big fight scene in one chapter that is kind of the climax, and the whole last issue is nothing but epilogue, and not awesome epilogue at that... But if I had to pick out one thing that irked me the most, it's probably some of the narration on the last few pages. Now, having read a lot of Mark Millar's work, and having seen him in some interviews and such, I know he tends to be a cocky bastard, saying that in the nicest way of course. But when the last line in your own book, *Kind of a Spoiler I guess* "this book is nothing but a distraction from your terrible lives, and the sad thing is that you're going to put it down and go and buy something else when you're done with it." that's a little messed up. Because to me it feels as though the writer is saying that to the audience since it is breaking the 4th wall a bit. Now I doubt Millar would actually do that, because more readers is always better than less readers, and since I've read a lot of the other stuff I know that's just his kind of flare. Because when you put "This is the best comic ever" on the front of Kick-Ass, it's funny, but here it sounds rude. Now I don't take it personally, and I will continue to read his work, but all I'm saying is that if I had read this before his other books, I might have thought differently and been a bit pissed off...

Now all that being said, it's not a terrible book. It's got a whole lot of awesome fight scenes, a few funny jokes here and there, and it is a really different analog to a lot of mainstream comics. It just wasn't my favorite of his works, and I found it unrelatable at times. Maybe I'm biased because I saw the movie first, because at the time I didn't like it, but honestly now I think I'll like it better. Because for all the comic readers who bitch about stuff being changed in these movies, there's no way they could have done this as a film. They did the best they could adapting it and making it likable to a wide audience, and I probably would have liked the book more if it had done the same thing. But if you're into that kind of thing, if you think Super Villains fucking people up for six issues is cool, and you think characters like "Shit Head" the guy made of shit, are funny, then this book might totally be for you... If you want to check out this book you can Search Amazon.com for Wanted there or you can click the box below. 

Thanks for reading!
Jamesisasupervillain