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quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
Cubicle-dwelling Wesley Gibson thought he was the same as everyone else. Wesley’s life changes the day he discovers he is the son of ‘The Killer’, a member of an underground fraternity of supervillains who have secretly been running the world since 1986.
Brought into the fraternity after his father is slain, Wesley comes into his own abilities as the new Killer and a veil is lifted from his eyes as he sees the world he never knew was there. In a world where all the superheroes are dead, Wesley joins the villains while trying to unravel the mystery of his father’s murder. Wesley Gibson is a son, a killer, a hero ... and WANTED.
Completely different to the movie, this is a black novel with nihilistic overtones and set in a world where the superheroes lost and the supervillains won.
Inverting the trope of the hero destined for greatness but ignorant of his past, Wesley Gibson is a corporate drone with a girlfriend who has sex with anyone but him, a boss who’s made him her bitch and who takes every piece of crap that life throws at him without a complaint - until the day the Fox, a stunningly beautiful woman arrives to shoot up a sandwich shop and take him away from his life. Wesley discovers that his father was the Killer, a vicious supervillain, and that he’s inherited his father’s killing abilities. With the help of the Fox and the Professor, he rids himself of his conscience and inhibitions to assume his father’s role. However as he sinks deeper into a world of violence and deprivation, questions start to rise as to who was responsible for his father’s murder and Wesley begins to have doubts about the world he’s joined.
There are some wonderfully dark ideas at work here – particularly some of the villains, including Shithead, a supervillain made from the faeces of the 666 worst humans in history and Fuckwit, the cloned Down’s Syndrome brother of a well-known superhero. Millar, Jones and Mounts take obvious glee in their world and there is a lot of violence on show here.
Although lip service is played to Wesley having doubts about his new life, there is little real emotional depth to this novel so if you’re looking for something more sophisticated, this isn’t for you. Despite some nice touches of black humour, the bleakness can be a little wearying at times and I’d have liked to see more about the inter-dimensional element to the storyline.
It’s not a bad read but lacks the complexity to make it a truly great graphic novel. Still, it’s worth checking out and personally, I found it a lot more interesting than the movie adaptation.
The Verdict:
Some great ideas are on show here but it doesn’t have the complexity to make it a great graphic novel. Worth a look if you want to compare it to the movie.
Cubicle-dwelling Wesley Gibson thought he was the same as everyone else. Wesley’s life changes the day he discovers he is the son of ‘The Killer’, a member of an underground fraternity of supervillains who have secretly been running the world since 1986.
Brought into the fraternity after his father is slain, Wesley comes into his own abilities as the new Killer and a veil is lifted from his eyes as he sees the world he never knew was there. In a world where all the superheroes are dead, Wesley joins the villains while trying to unravel the mystery of his father’s murder. Wesley Gibson is a son, a killer, a hero ... and WANTED.
Completely different to the movie, this is a black novel with nihilistic overtones and set in a world where the superheroes lost and the supervillains won.
Inverting the trope of the hero destined for greatness but ignorant of his past, Wesley Gibson is a corporate drone with a girlfriend who has sex with anyone but him, a boss who’s made him her bitch and who takes every piece of crap that life throws at him without a complaint - until the day the Fox, a stunningly beautiful woman arrives to shoot up a sandwich shop and take him away from his life. Wesley discovers that his father was the Killer, a vicious supervillain, and that he’s inherited his father’s killing abilities. With the help of the Fox and the Professor, he rids himself of his conscience and inhibitions to assume his father’s role. However as he sinks deeper into a world of violence and deprivation, questions start to rise as to who was responsible for his father’s murder and Wesley begins to have doubts about the world he’s joined.
There are some wonderfully dark ideas at work here – particularly some of the villains, including Shithead, a supervillain made from the faeces of the 666 worst humans in history and Fuckwit, the cloned Down’s Syndrome brother of a well-known superhero. Millar, Jones and Mounts take obvious glee in their world and there is a lot of violence on show here.
Although lip service is played to Wesley having doubts about his new life, there is little real emotional depth to this novel so if you’re looking for something more sophisticated, this isn’t for you. Despite some nice touches of black humour, the bleakness can be a little wearying at times and I’d have liked to see more about the inter-dimensional element to the storyline.
It’s not a bad read but lacks the complexity to make it a truly great graphic novel. Still, it’s worth checking out and personally, I found it a lot more interesting than the movie adaptation.
The Verdict:
Some great ideas are on show here but it doesn’t have the complexity to make it a great graphic novel. Worth a look if you want to compare it to the movie.
