Wanted film vs Wanted comic

August 13th, 2008

I think I only know a couple of people who had read the Wanted comic book before seeing the Wanted movie.   Twitter is full of the conversations between people saying they just saw the movie and were now going to hunt out the comic book.

Of course come to think of it I don’t recall reading anyone’s reactions to having just read the comic after being encouraged to do so after watching the movie, too many bruised brains me thinks.

I’m kind of glad that I didn’t read it prior to the film because up till that point I knew nothing of the comic book and I really wonder if in fact I would have enjoyed the film as much as I did had I read the comics beforehand.

The first part of the film is generally similar to the comic, there are some scenes which parallel.   But then there’s a point in the movie where it all changes after that and two very distinct paths are taken.

The film becomes an assassin betrayed type of flick with a little bit of mysticism thrown in and plays out reasonably well and quite enjoyably.   I mean there are some cool stunts, some fun action sequences and the effects are played out well.

If you aren’t expecting the comic book and you enjoy action films that don’t let the real world drag them down that much then you should check out Wanted as it is a spot of fun.

The comic series on the other hand can only be described as a bit of a mind fuck.   It’s like Fight Club and Watchmen and DC all rolled into one heavy metal series.   It’s graphic, unflinching, completely anti PC and at times deliciously disturbing.

The comic has more of a comic book feel to it as you might expect, super villains instead of assassins, parodies of DC comics characters and a lot more scifi stuff going on.

There is no Minority Report’esque rug weaving (I’m still fuzzy on the whole rug weaving thing but I don’t know, they’re trying something).   They kill people for fun, profit or simply because it’s easier than looking at them.

The comic book has a character who is entirely composed of shit, literally.

Maybe you simply can get away with a lot more in comic books because frankly I don’t know if this would play out very well on the big screen, I can’t imagine the main character being likeable if he followed the same path as his comic book version.   It would be damn impressive, but would be remarkably lucky to come in under a rating that anyone but the good people at the movie review board would get to see it.

So if you are thinking of seeing the movie and reading the comic, do it in that order and you’ll appreciate them both more for it.

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