History
Millarworld – Wanted
Origin
Wesley Gibson was a normal guy with a horrible life. He was a self-proclaimed spineless pussy and an insignificant asshole…who let everyone treat him like a doormat. He had a girl friend who was cheating on him with his best friend and a boring, dead-end job working for a boss he hated and that hated him right back. He never knew that his father was once the best assassin in the world and a member of a group of super villains that secretly ran the planet. (Probably because his father left him when he was eighteen weeks old)….
All that changed the day Fox came into his life and introduced him to a world where he could kill, rape, mutilate and steal anything or anyone he wanted.
One day, while Wesley was buying his favorite kind of sandwich, (the only thing that set him across from the rest was his taste for fine deli food (in his opinion)) a woman who would change him forever walked up behind him. She told him to cancel his order and when Wesley questioned her she took out a pair of guns and mowed down everyone in the building save him. After that she threw him in her car and explained how the world really worked. She told him that as long as you were a member of The Fraternity, you could pretty much do whatever you wanted without any consequences. After a little speech that left Wesley crying in the passenger seat, she took him to the lair told him about his father, a little about
super heroes and villains, and introduced him to Professor Solomon Seltzer. Professor Solomon was a genius and the head of the American family (one of the five groups of super villains). He had employed Wesley’s father, The Killer, as a bodyguard, and was now in charge of passing on what the assassin had left for his son. Wesley had been left millions of dollars, but The Professor explained that to collect, he’d have to let his father’s friends teach him how to be a man. He didn’t understand how he could become a super villain, but before he could agree or disagree a gun was pushed into his hand and he was told to shoot some flies or else he’d be killed. Fearing for his life he fired the gun and, surprising himself, was instinctively able to hit his targets without any effort. As the flies dropped to the ground, Wesley saw that they were missing wings, but the rest of their body was unharmed. It was his first step to becoming the new Killer. After shooting the flies, Wesley is shocked, but is reassured by the Professor that the gun is “the answer to all your problems”.
Wesley’s life didn’t change instantly though. He went back to how he had been before, living with an unfaithful girlfriend and working in a job he couldn’t stand. It took him almost 24 hours to realize how much he hated his life. When he did, he called Fox and asked him what to do. She told him to cuss off everyone he worked with and come outside to where she was waiting, so he did. After that he began his training. He started with target practice using corpses to shoot, not to just improve his aim, but to get him used to flying flesh and bone. Then he moved on to working in a slaughterhouse to get him desensitized. Mixed in with this was regular beatings so he wouldn’t be afraid of getting hurt. From there he moved on to murder. His First kill was the man who had beaten him for weeks, The man punched Wesley so hard that he fell of the chair he was tied on to and used a piece of broken wood from the chair to stab the man through the head. Wesley then moved on to random strangers including killing an innocent woman in the bathtub with a toaster, then people who had annoyed him in the past, followed by celebrities just for fun. He also murdered the man his girlfriend was sleeping with (who was coincidentally his best friend). He then proceeded to leave/dump her warning her not to piss him off if she wanted to live. Once all this had been done, Wesley was inducted into the Fraternity and once he got his father’s old costume, he took the mantle of The Killer.
Mr. Rictus, a Fraternity member, and member of the Council of Five, wanted a more dominant role in their rule over the planet. He had Shithead kill Professor Seltzer and then ordered the death of the Killer and Fox. The Killer and Fox are
ambused at Wesleys apartment by members of the Fraternity who now under the orders of Mr. Rictus. Wesley finds himself surrounded by many thugs with guns and the villain Shithead. Before they can shoot Wesley, Fox passes him his gun on time allowing him to gun them all down in an instant. He turns his attention to Shithead who is not afraid saying that bullets cannot be used to kill him anyway. Wesley simply grins and kills Shithead using nothing but cleansing fluid commenly used to clean toilet bowls. After this, he and Fox suit up to get ready to kill the other members of the Fraternity who are after them.
The next day Fox and Wesley go around the city killing as many supervillains as they can find. Even the super powered villains are found to be helpless as Wesley simply guns them down with single shots to the head. They find themselves overpowered by the villain who had previously stolen Fuckwits powers thus making him invulnerable to bullets. However Wesley calmly explains that the time limit to keep those powers has expired causing him to lose his ability of flight and to die as he hits the ground. Wesley and Fox then head to the Professor’s base in an attempt to reach Mr. Rictus. They slaughter many super villains on their way in until they find themselevs ambushed and surrounded by an army of super villains and Mr. Rictus just as they enter the main room. Wesley panics but Fox assures him that real killer can take them out on his own. The super villains begin to fire and Wesley quickly avoids the attack and flips around shooting and killing all of them instantly. The only one left standing alive is Mr. Rictus who is amazed at Wesleys performance but predicts that Wesley is now out of bullets. Overconfident , Mr. Rictus fires at Wesley but Wesley is able to knock the bullet back using nothing but his knife. The bullet reflects and hits a surprised Mr. Rictus in the neck. As Wesley stands over him triumphant, he asks him who killed his father, to which Mr. Rictus simply replies Lee Harvey Oswald. Wesley then slits his throat, killing him.
Afterwards, Wesley found his father alive, smoking a cigarette in the corner secretly observing the battle the whole time. His dad tells his son that his mother was orginally a super villain just like him but when Wesley was born his mother decided that she never wanted him to be like his father so she encouraged him to never fight and avoid all conflict. His father tells him that all his life he has been secretly keeping track of Wesley and feels guilty that he didn’t stop his mother from turning him into a sissy by constantly making him avoid conflict his whole life. The Killer wanted Wesley to be a man, so he faked his death to make him join the Fraternity. Fearing his old age and decline of his powers he asked Wesley to kill him, explaining that he fears one day he will no longer be able to defend himself and that his enemies will actually manage to suceed in killing him. This is something he cannot accept. He can only accept death at the hands of his own son as he knows that he will carry the mantle of The Killer wisely. Wesley is at first reluctant, thinking his father is joking. When Wesley realizes he’s not joking, he pleads with his father not to make him do this. Wesley’s father tells him to be a man in which Wesley finally agrees with his last word to his father “I love you dad” before pressing the trigger. Tears roll down Wesley’s cheek. After Wesley kills his father he tells Fox that the recent revelations and events have made led him to make the decision of going back to his dull, boring existence. The Fox is shocked at this announcement until he reveals he was joking. Wesley and Fox return to the Fraternity, that is now under their leadership.
Nemesis Reloaded
Wesley returns after 20 years and remains leader of The Fraternity. He recruits Nemesis as part of a big plan for the human race.
Other Media
Movie Adaptation
Wanted (2008)
Wesley appeared in the Wanted film much like he did in the comic with no groundbreaking physical changes, aside from slight ones, such as hair color and no use of the “Killer” costume. Their characterization however was almost night and day. In the comics, Wesley was a racist, a rapist, and after his initial hesitance, a gleeful and wanton murderer of innocent bystanders. In the movie Wesley was portrayed much more sympathetically and came across as a fairly decent guy. He is portrayed by James McAvoy in the film.
While working as an accountant, Wesley is being cheated on by his girlfriend with his best friend (who he works with) has an overbearing boss and is taking a medication to control his panic attacks. While at a store, he is met by a woman called Fox who tells him that his father was an incredible assassin who was recently killed and that the man that killed him is in the store with the both of them. Fox and the assassin start a gunfight in the store which leads to both Fox and Wesley to be pursued by him in a car. After they get away, Wesley recovers and finds himself in a textile mill with a group of assassins called The Fraternity lead by a man named Sloan. Sloan tests Wesley by telling him to shoot the wings off of the flies with his father’s old gun near a trash bin a gunpoint. Wesley panics but manages to accomplish it. Sloan tells him that his father was part of the fraternity, that his panic attacks are actually his ability to enhance his strength speed and reflexes through adrenaline, that his father’s assets have been transfered to Wesley and the man that killed his father is named Cross and asks him to join them. Wesley refuses and leaves.
He wakes up in his apartment thinking last night was a dream. Wesley finds the gun from last night and then checks his bank account and finds he has over three million dollars. He gets to work to be berated by his boss, but finally tells her off, smacks his “friend” with his keyboard across the face and leaves to find Fox there to pick him up. Sloan tells Wesley about the Fraternity and that their targets are determined by the Loom of Fate, which holds binary coding in it. Wesley is soon trained to fight, withstand pain, to curve bullets and to kill.
While retrieving his gun from his apartment, Cross is waiting outside. Wesley chases him down and is shot with a traceable bullet and Wesley’s friend, The Exterminator, is shot and killed by accident. The bullet that hit Wesley was made by a man known as Pekwarsky. Fox and Wesley confront him and helps them to arrange a location that Cross will be. Wesley and Fox find him getting on a train and pursue him. Wesley goes alone on the train while Fox drives along the train’s side. Cross and Wesley engage in a gunfight, their bullets meeting in midair. Fox collides with the train, damaging a train car, causing it to derail and dangle over a river. Wesley nearly falls but cross grabs him. As Cross holds Wesley, Wesley shoots him. Before Cross dies, he tells Wesley that what The Fraternity has told him is a lie and the he is his father. Fox is there to tell him that its true, that his father’s name came up in the Loom of Fate, and so did his name and Fox proceeds to shoot him, but Wesley escapes by plunging into the river below.
Wesley wakes up to Pekwarsky in the old house by his apartment. Pekwarsky tells him that his father has been watching over him his whole life from a distance and didn’t want his son to become an assassin.
It turns out Sloan’s name came up and started manufacturing his own targets and when Cross found out, he left and did everything he could to try to stop the Fraternity from reaching and training him as he was the only person Cross wouldn’t kill. Wesley plans to take down the entire Fraternity with supply of weapons hidden in his home and uses a plan thought up by Exterminator to rig a large mischief of rats with explosives and sets them loose throughout the mill. Wesley fights his way to Sloan and the remaining members of the Fraternity and Fox. Wesley tells the members about Sloan. Sloan reveals that every one in the room has had their names come up on the Loom of Fate and that if they really did believe in the code of the Fraternity, that they should all kill themselves. Fox decides to save Wesley and curves the bullet to kill all the assassins, including herself, but Sloan manages to escape. Wesley leaves the mill and finds that all his money is nearly gone.
Sloan goes to Wesley’s office and faces who he thinks is Wesley but turns out to be a decoy. Sloan realizes its a trap too late and is shot through the head by Wesley from miles away, and the film ends by showing Wesley taking aim and, telling the audience that he is taking back his life and asks, “What the F!@# have you done lately?”
Powers and Abilities
The Killer has no actually defined superpowers, and according to him, his only power is the ability to end life. It is unclear throughout all of the story if this is meant to be an actual superpower, but he does demonstrate an uncanny ability to kill even the most powerful of superbeings with ease. Regardless, he shows prodigious skill in the use of guns (his preferred weapon type) but has proven to be extremely competent and skilled in the use of knives as well and unarmed combat. He also has “perfect” aim, so he has never missed a shot with a gun or a thrown knife. The first time he ever held a gun, he shot the wings off of six flies without even realizing what he was doing. He has shown near-superhuman reflexes allowing him to avoid gunfire, and blocking a bullet with the blade of a knife with enough accuracy to deflect the bullet back to the original shooter. His father stated that these abilities were in his “genes”, which is why he was raised as a pacifist, as his father and mother “knew exactly what would happen when you picked up a knife or fired your first gun”, implying that he always had an innate talent for combat.
In the movie, his talent for killing has been lowered somewhat, but he is shown as being a natural when it comes to combat. In the finale, he singlehandedly lays waste to the Fraternity using controlled explosives to weaken them, then simply sprinting through the building non-stop, killing all his opponents with ease, demonstrating his formidable combat skills. His abilities are shared with most of the Fraternity’s members, and they stem from controlling panic attacks into unleashing copious amounts of adrenaline into the bloodstream, granting increased reflexes, the ability to “zoom in” onto a spot, and temporary bursts of super-strength and speed, as demonstrated by the assassin Mr. X in the opening of the movie.