11 Ways ‘Wanted’ Is Miles Away From Its Darkly Bizarre Comic Book Origins

In 2008 audiences were met with the movie Wanted starring James McAvoy and Angelina Jolie. The story sees frustrated office worker, Wesley Gibson (McAvoy) who soon finds out he is the son of a professional assassin and has inherited his father’s superhuman executing abilities. Needless to say, the story wasn’t mind-blowing, but if you’re in the mood for a good ol’ action flick, accompanied with plenty of violence and pretty impressive visuals, it’s worth a watch.

However, when taking a look at Mark Millar’s Comic Book counterpart that inspired the movie, it’s fair to say the film is a far cry from its literary origins. Aside from the opening scene of Wesley being frustrated with his lifestyle, some characters’ names and the overall assassination angle, there’s very little resemblance at all. Set in a world of supervillains, from all walks of life, the Millarworld series touches on much more bizarre and darker territory as it follows the perspective of a Wesley Gibson who has a much more twisted moral compass.

From superheroes that you’ll definitely recognise to having a character that makes the evilest villains in history look like they belong on Saturday morning television – not to mention a criminal composed entirely of excrement – we will be taking a look at elements from the comic that they chose, for one reason or another, to leave out of the movie.

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An Evil Genius/Scientist Recruits Wesley

Here we have a character that didn’t make it to the screen, The Professor AKA Solomon Seltzer. After starting to talk whilst still in the womb, solving maths problems before he could walk and becoming a billionaire by age ten, The Professor is considered to be one of the smartest minds in existence.

Although Seltzer initially seems like the kind of eccentric scientist you’d find in a kids cartoon, he’s not to be messed with. As well as recruiting Wesley into a life of horrendous crime and supplying him with fatal gadgets, Seltzer runs the North and South American sections of the Fraternity. He is also responsible for ridding the world of superheroes, so don’t be fooled by his cheery Doc Brown appearance.

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Supervillains Run The World

This Fraternity stems much further than that of a small group of assassins and they’re not just humans with quick reflexes either, they’re a massive organisation consisting of supervillains. So, set in a world where both supervillains and superheroes exist(ed), you have beings with all types of abilities, flight, super strength, invisibility, there are even aliens!

However, the Fraternity ends up (more or less) taking over the world. The reason as to how this came about is when one of the smarter characters (Professor Solomon Seltzer) hypothesized that there were about twenty-two supervillains for each hero. Rather than focusing on their own, individual crimes, he suggested teaming up and combining their efforts to take out all of the heroes. . . And it worked!

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The First Ever Supervillains Were Completely Naked

Although in the comic there are characters with a variety of different abilities, the first-ever supervillains were ordinary jewel thieves… Oh, and they were completely naked.

Back in what was known as the golden age of the 1930s, a group of individuals aptly named the Bare-Ass Syndicate would pull off heists in nothing but their birthday suits. Why? Apparently, due to them being exposed for the whole world to see, the tellers would be so distracted by the robber’s equipment, that they were never able to give an accurate description to the authorities. And as for why superheroes never put a stop to them, the last thing they wanted to do during their day to day crime-stopping, was get into a brawl with a group of large naked men whilst certain “things” were swinging all over the place.

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Superheroes Were Taken Out Of The Picture In Quite A Brutal Fashion

After fighting earth’s mightiest heroes in a battle – that lasted roughly three months – the supervillains were victorious. However, they didn’t just imprison or execute their heroic foes. . . far from it. Instead, they used alien technology to erase the entire world’s (including heroes themselves) memories of the super do-gooders having ever existed.

Not only that, but some of these ex-heroes seem slightly familiar. They reference a warrior princess who is now a menopausal drunk and even feed what seems to be the dynamic duo to a giant robot octopus. However, it probably reaches its darkest depths when we see an elderly wheelchair-bound man with a certain infamous quiff, accompanied by the following narration:

According to the newspapers, he needs someone to help him defecate now and spends his long, dull days staring into space, trying to remember where it all went wrong.

And just in case that wasn’t on the nose enough, we get a final eerie panel of an iconic red cape being kept as a trophy in a villain’s lab.

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It Acknowledges Other Comic Book Properties

A big aspect of Wanted’s literary version is that it follows a band of supervillains that collect trophies of their fallen victims, namely superheroes. As well as this we’re also met with numerous super-characters from both sides of the law and a bunch of history that goes with them.

However, although Wanted is an original property, there were a few nods to the bigger Comic Book franchises out there. Familiar looking characters in the background, an assassin wearing a certain web-crawler’s boots, mentioning magic rings, men of steel and crisis battles. Some of the references may have been subtle but those with a keen eye know exactly what they did there.

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Wesley Isn’t A Nice Guy

The movie Wesley (James McAvoy) and the comic book Wesley pretty much start out the same way: A miserable office worker who wants more out of life. The difference is when the movie Wesley is recruited into the Fraternity, he believes he is using his abilities for good. Comic Book Wesley (sporting a look that closely resembles Eminem) on the other hand is under no illusion that what he’s doing is just outright evil.

Seeing as the literary Fraternity has alien technology which allows them to erase anyone’s memory at any given time, they pretty much can get away with anything. And this is precisely what Wesley does, whether it be having relations with people against their will or executing people just out of boredom, this Wesley definitely has a more twisted moral compass.

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There’s A Multiverse

The main world in which the story is set is not too dissimilar to our own, with superheroes merely being portrayed as actors on screen or characters in a Comic Book. The only difference is, all the while, supervillains are operating in secret unbeknownst to the general public.

However, given the technology they possess and their unquenchable thirst for crime and various types of loot, the villains will travel to alternate dimensions in order to acquire certain things that aren’t available in their universe.

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Everyone Gets It On With Everyone

The villains that make up this universe aren’t the kind you’d generally find in a Saturday morning cartoon or just weapons of fate either. They do incorporate some values for a stereotypical villain, the costumes, the looting, the executing of innocent people etc. However, there is one particular extracurricular activity that these baddies like more than anything else, they like to get it on as much as humanly possible.

From car (or rat-mobile in this case) key parties to changing their sexuality just to add some variety, there isn’t much these lawbreakers won’t sleep with… And it isn’t always consensual.

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Mr Rictus Makes Sloan Look Like Mr Rogers

The movie sees Sloan (Morgan Freeman) incorporate elements of Wesley’s friend and recruiter, The Professor, but unlike The Professor, Sloan turns out to be the main villain. In the comic, however, a member of the Fraternity known as Mr Rictus is the main antagonist but was removed from the movie entirely. . . and it’s easy to see why.

Originally a devoted Christian, Rictus turned to a life of crime after a severe industrial accident. However, it wasn’t being horribly disfigured that drove him insane, it was the fact that for a brief moment, he had kicked the bucket and realised there was nothing on the other side.

After finding out there was no afterlife – and now looking like something from your worst nightmare – he realised he could do the most horrendous things known to man, without consequence. Execution, cannibalism, crimes against nature, women and children alike, this psycho has done it all, and furthermore, he enjoys it.

I don’t f*ck goats Mister Gibson. I make love to them. – Mr Rictus

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There Are Numerous Bizarre Characters Including A Faecal Foe Aptly Named Sh*t-Head

Along with the numerous superpowers in the literary version, you also have the more bizarre abilities. This includes a mentally disabled chap with super strength who does the opposite of anything he is asked and a criminal named Johnny Two-D*cks – known as such because of the thirteen-inch mastermind he’s packin’ in his shorts.

However, the individual that probably sticks (bad choice of words) with readers the most, is the gargantuan mass of faeces known as Sh*t-Head. One hundred percent excrement, Sh*t-Head is a combination of the six hundred and sixty-six most evil people who have ever walked the earth’s, “number twos”.

There’s a little Hitler in there, a touch of Ed Gein, a half a pound of Jeffrey Dahmer – The Professor

He can make himself as hard as constipation, as soft as diarrhoea and can even shapeshift to fool unsuspecting bystanders… Although the smell will probably give him away.

If you ever have an unfortunate encounter with this furious faecal foe, oh well, sh*t happens.

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Wesley Knows It’s His Dad When He Shoots Him

When Wesley (James McAvoy) shoots his dad on screen, he is unaware that it’s his old man. The only similarity the comic shares with this relationship is that Wesley does indeed think his father was wiped out by an assassin for the first 2/3’s of the story.

However, when reunited with his dear old dad in the Mark Millar version, Wesley is well aware of who he is. Not only that but his dad – from fear of being taken out by someone who isn’t “worthy” – hands Wesley a gun and asks to be put out of his misery.

After a lot of kicking and screaming, Wesley fulfils his father’s last wishes and plugs him in the back of the head. Don’t you just love family reunions?

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