Broken Frontier

Mark Millar’s twisted super-villain opus of depravity finally concludes.

Good news first: Wanted was a lot of fun while it lasted. It delivered a wicked and, more or less, believable (in context of the story), if not repulsive view of the world as if super people actually existed. There was enough fast-paced ultra-violent action to make Michael Bay’s head spin. In Wesley Gibson, Millar showed readers what it almost certainly would be like to be one of the bad guys--take what you want, when you want and from whom you want any time of the day or night without so much as a second thought. Wesley is what Bullseye would be if he hung with a tougher crowd. There was an awful lot to like, including the fantastic artwork of the great J.G. Jones.

Now for the bad news: This issue acted as more of a lemur than a lion. What I mean by that is after all the consistent action, blood and bullets for the first five issues, Millar gives us an overly expository final issue. There are questions being answered in this issue that I never even felt needed answering. The stroll down memory lane with Papa Gibson seemed more like filler than anything else, and the elder’s ending, while strangely poetic, seemed a bit anti-climactic…

But the issue picked back up a little toward the end, and wouldn’t you know it… looks like Millar was treating us to something of a passive-aggressive fable all this time. This is a family-friendly review, so I’ll leave the moral of the story out of it. I’ll just mention that I found it fairly amusing to see in print, which has me questioning my own sanity right now.

As I stated above, Jones is one of the good things about this book. While he may not be the most punctual artist, he is still one of the finest. His detailed artwork is something of a mixture of Bryan Hitch and John Cassaday with a dash of Trevor Hairsine; I always enjoy every page of his. Also contributing to a few flashback sequences this issue is Dick Giordano. Whether by design or not, his pages are reminiscent of Dave Gibbons’ art in Watchmen, which is, of course, a gigantic compliment even to someone who has been in mainstream comics since the 1950s. And as always, Paul Mounts, being one of the industry’s finest colorists, brings the pages alive with his brilliant colors.

Overall, I would deem Wanted a resounding success. I would have rather seen a stronger final issue, but I can’t fault Millar, Jones and Mounts for bringing us along for one of those wild rides we don’t often see in comics. I only wish Millar could see the look on my face as I’m finishing us this review.

-Kert McAfee