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

Marvel 1985 Review

So I Recently read Marvel 1985, and I liked it quite a bit. Mark Millar tends to write stuff that's good. Some of it is fantastic, and then others aren't as much. But I will say that I've only ever had a problem with two books he's written, and that's The Unfunnies which is one of his way earlier works, and Superman: Red Son. Unfunnies I didn't care for at all but Red Son was okay, it just wasn't great. But back to my point, Millar, other than those two books, tends to write stuff that's pretty awesome. So I checked this out on that notion, not really knowing anything more than the basic premise. When I read this I was in a bit of a slump as far as comics go, and i really just couldn't get into anything, and then as soon as I read the first chapter, i breezed through the rest of it in one sitting.

The idea here is that in the year 1985 the "Real" world and the Marvel universe start blending together. So this thirteen year old boy slacker kid who reads comics starts noticing Marvel villains popping up all over his hometown. The rest of the story is basically him trying to convince people he's not crazy, and then him and his dad hanging out and trying to find a way to stop all this crazy shit. If that sounds like a cool idea to you, you'll probably dig this book, if not then maybe you won't. It's not like there's some hidden plot, and twist endings and stuff... it's transparent as far as plot goes, but it is pretty solid throughout. The first few issues are build, and then everything starts really kicking into high gear once you get into the ladder half of the book, especially the last two issues. The dialogue is great throughout and everyone sounds like normal people sound. The way this kid and his dad talk is almost exactly how my dad and I have talked since I was thirteen. And it's even more immersive when the main character is narrating. The way he describes certain characters is probably my favorite part. I will say that the one thing that makes this a little lower on the list as far as things Millar has written, while still being considerably high otherwise, is the fact that the main characters aren't really given a lot to do for a while. Basically while Toby, the main character, is trying to convince people he's right and look for a way to stop it all he's kind of just wandering around and arguing with people. Once the action does kick in it's kind of viewed from a third person perspective. There are some cool moments, just none that made me jump out of my seat. And he keeps making references throughout the book like: "Back then they didn't know just quite what my dad was capable of." And when it's revealed what role he played in it all, i thought it was a little lack luster. Not saying it was bad, just not as big as Toby made it out to be is all. Also, a mister Tommy Lee Edwards did the art, and I have to say that I wasn't really blown away by it. I didn't dislike it, and it never pulled me out of the book, but there was really nothing particularly to praise. Although there were some times when the Marvel characters would be standing in the same panel with the "Real" characters, and he did a good job making it so you could tell them apart, but other than that it was mostly "meh".

I'd definitely recommend reading it, and I'll probably even keep it to throw on the bookshelf and pick up from time to time. If you want to check it out, you can take a look on Amazon over to the right, or your local comic shop works too!


Thanks for reading!
James