History ComicBook / Wanted

* PlotArmor: Either that, or the Killer and the Fox are the only ones capable of actually hit the target they are shooting at. The Sucker and Shitface, however, are two egregius examples: the former wastes no time talking when he has to use his powers against [[spoiler:the Imp]], but when it's Wesley and the Fox's turn, he [[spoiler:instead takes just enough time gloating to have him reach his limit]]; the latter doesn't take any action against the two and even [[spoiler:lets itself be held at gunpoint (despite bragging about being bulletproof ''after'' the Fox shot it, but Wesley had the bleach ready by then)]], as before, he had a more pragmatic attitude when he killed [[spoiler: the Professor]].

* EmascultedCuckold: This was the initial fate of the protagonist, with his girlfriend cheating on him with his best friend, which is what prompts him to become a misanthrope and turn to a life of crime. When he becomes a supervillain, he cuts up his friend into little pieces before telling his girlfriend that he knows everything and walks off.

* BadassNormal: Wesley. Yes, Wesley's marksmanship abilities are genetic, but aside from that he doesn't seem to have any powers -- although it's hinted that he might have the power to kill anything he wants to, as long as he has access to some kind of weapon.

* SupermanSubstitute: Earth's first superhero. He's implied to actually be Superman until WordOfGod retconned him into being the Utopian from ''ComicBook/JupitersLegacy''.

* {{Cuckold}}: This was the initial fate of the protagonist, which is what prompts him to become a misanthrope and turn to a life of crime. When he becomes a supervillain, he cuts up his friend into little pieces before telling his girlfriend that he knows everything and walks off.

* {{Expy}}: Inverted in-universe. In a twist, the comic book heroes and villains ''Wanted''[='=]s are based on are implied to be expies of ''Wanted''[='=]s "real life" versions, while the comic book versions are all that remain of humanity's knowledge of them after reality was edited. The book apparently started as a pitch for an AlternateUniverse take on DC's ''Secret Society of Super-Villains'', so all the characters can be traced back to Franchise/TheDCU villains in some respects. Some of the background villains towards the end also resemble Marvel villains. You can see recolored versions of the Green Goblin, Hate-Monger, and Kang the Conqueror in Wesley's assault on Rictus's compound.
** The Killer (especially the first one), considering he started off with the "Batman enemies" group and has the power of infallible aim, was inspired by Deadshot. [[http://www.newsarama.com/264-mark-millar-wanted-from-comic-to-film-1.html Millar confirms it here.]]
** The Fox is blatantly ComicBook/{{Catwoman}}.
** Professor Seltzer is pretty much a Golden Age ComicBook/LexLuthor, especially due to being a mad scientist with an alliterative name.
** Franchise/{{Superman}}'s counterpart is not named, but he is explicitly ''shown'' as a paraplegic, like Creator/ChristopherReeve, the actor who played Superman in the Richard Donner films.
** Franchise/{{Batman}} is alluded to several times -- as the Detective -- before his post-1986 persona [[spoiler:who was basically Adam West, along with Dick Grayson who had turned into Burt Ward, are placed in a death trap by Mr. Rictus and fed to an octopus.]] It's a bit tragic 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.]]
** The Emperor is Literature/FuManchu. Given the DC origins of the pitch, he's also Ra's Al Ghul.
** Adam-One is ComicBook/VandalSavage, being a caveman who has become immortal.
** Shithead is very similar to [[Characters/BatmanRoguesGallery Clayface]] in that he's a shape-shifter who resembles a brown being made of mud in his default form.
** Deadly Nightshade is a villainess with power over plants like [[Characters/BatmanRoguesGallery Poison Ivy]].
** Imp is a pastiche of Superman's reality-warping enemy [[Characters/SupermanRoguesGallery Mister Mxyzptlk]].
** Fuckwit is a lot like [[Characters/SupermanRoguesGallery Bizarro]] due to being a dim-witted clone of the aforementioned Superman pastiche.
** The Doll-Master is [[Characters/SupermanRoguesGallery Toyman]], albeit with a [[FamilyValuesVillain slightly different personality]].
** Johnny Two-Dicks is Comicbook/TwoFace combined with [[Characters/BatmanRoguesGallery Scarface]].
** Brain Box is a pastiche of ComicBook/{{Brainiac}} in that he is a superintelligent android.
** Sucker is based on [[Characters/SupermanRoguesGallery Parasite]] in that he can drain energy from people and copy the powers of superhuman victims, with a bit of {{ComicBook/Venom}}'s nature as a parasitic alien life form that thrives by bonding to host bodies for good measure.
** The Frightener is a representation of [[Characters/BatmanRoguesGallery Scarecrow]]. He also looks vaguely like a green version of {{ComicBook/Carnage}}.
** The Puzzler is an equivalent of ComicBook/TheRiddler in that he's a puzzle-themed villain.
** The Future is similar to Per Degaton, another fascist time-traveling villain, but with the inversion that he's from the future like Kang the Conqueror at Marvel or the Lord of Time at DC.

* BreakingTheFourthWall: The entire series is [[spoiler:Wesley]] telling you, the reader, all of this after it's happened and giving you a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech for thinking it's just a comic book.

* ComicBookFantasyCasting: Music/{{Eminem}} as Wesley, Creator/HalleBerry as Fox and Creator/TommyLeeJones as The Killer.

* DepravedBisexual: The original Killer occasionally engages in homosexual acts once in a while when he gets bored with women.

* BrotherhoodOfEvil: The Fraternity.

* WhosLaughingNow: Wesley's rampage after he joins The Fraternity partly consists of getting even with everyone who's ver fucked with him.
* WickedToymaker: The Doll-Master who is a CaptainErsatz of Toyman (with maybe a bit of the Tinkerer of Creator/MarvelComics thrown in). He's a family man who [[FamilyValuesVillain will kill innocents, but won't swear in front of children]].

* YellowPeril: The Emperor, who is an {{Expy}} of Literature/FuManchu and other similar Asian villains.

* VillainWorld: What the Fraternity did to the world after defeating their world's heroes, the only reason most people don't know this is they rule it as a [[TheConspiracy conspiracy]].

* ManOfSteelWomanOfKleenex: The Dossier says that Seltzer forbids Imp's affair with Deadly Nightshade incase he accidentally unmakes reality during the throes of passion. This being a case of Man Of Steel Universe Of Kleenex.

* PrecisionFStrike: Delivered by the Doll Master after Mr. Rictus gloats about [[spoiler:how he and his gang just murdered and raped his wife and children]].
-->'''Doll Master''': Boys i want these ''Motherfuckers dead''

* RealityWarpingIsNotAToy: Imp is having a secret affair with Deadly Nightshade. Seltzer doesn't want him doing this incase he accidentally undoes reality while in the throes of passion.

** At the end of the same meeting, Wesley insults the Joker-esque Mr. Rictus (whom he believes is secretly responsible for his father's death) with "Happy goat-fucking, Mr. Rictus" as the latter is leaving. Rictus responds thus: "I don't fuck goats Mr. Gibson, I make love to them."

* BadassDecay: [[invoked]]Turns out that this universe once had a Franchise/{{Batman}} {{expy}}, who 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 Creator/AdamWest, and is an actor who portrays a superhero in [[Series/{{Batman}} a campy TV show]].

** Mr. Rictus has elements of ComicBook/TheJoker, but visually looks like a mix between [[Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit Judge Doom]] and the ComicBook/RedSkull.

%%* BadassArmy: Composed of supervillains.
%%* BadassBookworm: Professor Seltzer.

* BestialityIsDepraved: Inverted; Mr. Rictus [[CrossesTheLineTwice ''makes love'']] to ''goats''. Plural. As he is part of a group of supervillains, nobody is overly bothered by this.

* BreakingTheFourthWall: The entire series is [[spoiler: Wesley]] telling you, the reader, all of this after it's happened and giving you a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech for thinking it's just a comic book.

* BulletTime: This is shown to be part of the reason [[spoiler: Wesley]] is [[OneManArmy so good at killing people]].

* ContractOnTheHitman: When [[spoiler: Wesley and The Fox]] escape him, Mr. Rictus goes about finding them by the simple expedient of revoking their Fraternity protection and letting their faces and names be plastered all across the news.

** 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 RoaringRampageOfRevenge 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?
** ''Wanted'' explores the entire HerosJourney archetype of storytelling by stuffing it in a blender with ProtagonistJourneyToVillain and hitting ''[[DarkerAndEdgier frappe]].'' Wesley starts out as an [[TheEveryman average]] [[ThisLoserIsYou loser]] before having the CallToAdventure ''[[TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive forced]]'' on him; before the second issue is over, he's a [[{{Jerkass}} horrible, horrible person]], and every person he comes across seems tailor-made to cheer him on in his horribleness and [[EvilMentor mould him into a more competent horrible person]], offering moral support and justifying his actions for him, so that even when [[HeelRealization he has moments of introspection]] the answer is always "you're right, and you deserve all the power". Compare the journey of Wesley Gibson with the journey of a character like Franchise/HarryPotter. Lots of conveniently inherited guardians, assistants, resources, and lucky powers that save the day with bizarre ease. When changed to this context, the insidiousness of the archetype kind of comes to the fore.

* DisproportionateRetribution: The main character gains the resources to do whatever he wanted. As an example, he deals with the frustration of a neighbor being ''too'' cheery with...a bullet to the face.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: In spades. Wesley Gibson: Mass murderer and remorseless rapist? Oh yeah, absolutely. But at least he has a tiny sense of decency when he displays his appreciation of family. Mr. Rictus, on the other hand, commits such heinous atrocities that disgust even Wesley and most of the other villains. Fox mentions this as the reason she moved from Rictus's gang to Seltzer's. Sure, she kills people, but Rictus was shooting babies in cribs for the hell of it. In fact, Mr. Rictus' evil is pretty much the only reason you would cheer for Wesley when he [[spoiler: goes on his killing spree against Rictus]]: the latter is only slightly better than the former when it comes to morality. Just barely.

** Franchise/{{Batman}} is alluded to several times - as the Detective - before his post-1986 persona [[spoiler:who was basically Adam West, along with Dick Grayson who had turned into Burt Ward, are placed in a death trap by Mr. Rictus and fed to an octopus.]] It's a bit tragic 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.]]

* FictionAsCoverUp: The Fraternity altering reality turned the superheroes into actors who played them in movies and [=TV=] shows. Superhero comics and movies are still being made because some people subconsciously remember the heroes.
* ForTheEvulz: Doing evil deeds just because is specifically stated to be Mr. Rictus' entire philosophy. At least he's up front about it.
* FromNobodyToNightmare:

* GambitRoulette: Everything is masterminded by [[spoiler:Wesley's father since he's hated how his mother raised him to be a "pussy" while The Killer still wanted to be a supervillain, so he made Wesley "man up" in his mind to take his place since age is catching up to him.]] 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.'']]

* GollumMadeMeDoIt: Johnny Two Dicks is CompositeCharacter of Two-Face and Scarface who is a meek bystander who is controlled by his evil side... [[RefugeInAudacity who talks through Johnny's penis.]] Yes, really.

* ImAHumanitarian: Mr. Rictus is seen eating someone. The looks on Adam-One and The Emperor's faces suggest it may have been [[spoiler: Seltzer.]] Considering [[NauseaFuel who killed him, and how]], one hopes that corpse was ''thoroughly'' cleaned. It probably wasn't. And he probably doesn't care.

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed;

* PlotArmor: Either that, or the Killer and the Fox are the only ones capable of actually hit the target they are shooting at. The Sucker and Shitface, however, are two egregius examples: the former wastes no time talking when he has to use his powers against [[spoiler: the Imp]], but when it's Wesley and the Fox's turn he [[spoiler: instead takes just enough time gloating to have him reach his limit]]; the latter doesn't take any action against the two and even [[spoiler: let's itself be held at gunpoint (despite bragging about being bulletproof ''after'' the Fox shot it, but Wesley had the bleach ready by then)]], as before, he had a more pragmatic attitude when he killed [[spoiler: the Professor]].

* PowerParasite: This is Sucker's primary superpower (he's a [[Characters/SupermanRoguesGallery Parasite]] expy), but it's limited to a 24 hour timeframe. [[spoiler:After he defects to Mr. Rictus camp and betrays the protagonists he absorbs the Bizarro expy's FlyingBrick abilities, and boasts of his new powers. He's defeated when he forgets the time limit, and falls to his death just as the clock runs out.]]

* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: [[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.

* ShinyNewAustralia: One of Mr. Rictus' grievances is that, when the villains divvied up the continents, he got stuck with Australia.

* UnwittingPawn: [[spoiler: Wesley ends up finding that taking out members of the Fraternity was all according to his father's plan]].

* VillainsNeverLie: Oddly enough, Mr. Rictus doesn't outright lie to Wesley until their final confrontation, and even then it's subtly hinted that he wasn't. He said that Lee Harvey Oswald killed Wesley's father, and [[spoiler:the Killer later mentions that he's "[[WhoShotJFK killed Presidents from Grassy Knolls]]"]].
* VillainousBreakdown: [[spoiler: Wesley]] seems to go off the deep end while talking with The Fox near the end of the series; then he admits he was just messing with her.

* PragmaticVillainy: The stated purpose of The Fraternity is to only do evil deeds that are practical. They've already conquered the world, and all they want is their pleasures. Widespread chaos threatens that. Solomon Seltzer just wants to party and practice MadScience. The Emperor just wants to party and run his empire. Adam-One just wants to party and enjoy his [[LivingForeverIsAwesome eternal life]]. However, the heroic genocide required more firepower than the three of them had, so they had to make alliances and therefore share power with less pragmatic types. The Future just wants to party and [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain slaughter the]] [[ThoseWackyNazis inferior races]]. And Mister Rictus just wants to party ''WhileRomeBurns''.