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The Boys (Trade Paperbacks) #6
The Boys, Volume 6: The Self-Preservation Society
The sixth Dynamite collection of Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson's The Boys is here, with The Boys, Vol. 6: Self-Preservation Society! You can only maim and murder so many superheroes before someone decides to do something about it, and in The Boys' case that means Payback - a superteam of unimaginable power, second only to the mighty Seven. Pulping teenage supes is one thing, but how will our heroes fare against Soldier Boy, Mind-Droid, Swatto, the Crimson Countess, and the Nazi juggernaut known as Stormfront? Blood flies and bones shatter, as Butcher and company meet fire with fire. And in the origin tales of Mother's Milk, the Frenchman and the Female, Hughie learns of the strange paths by which this disparate trio came to join The Boys. From tragedy in Harlem to the slaughter on the Brooklyn Bridge, from the festival of Les Saints De Haw-Haw to the horror lurking under Tokyo, this is a journey of discovery like no other - with only the flickering lamp of insanity to light the way. The Boys, Vol. 6: Self-Preservation Society collects issues 31-38 of the New York Times Best-Selling series by Garth Ennis, Darick Robertson and Judge Dredd co-creator, Carlos Ezquerra, and features all of the covers by Robertson!
200 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2010
126 people are currently reading
991 people want to read
About the author
Garth Ennis
2,625 books3,172 followersEnnis began his comic-writing career in 1989 with the series Troubled Souls. Appearing in the short-lived but critically-acclaimed British anthology Crisis and illustrated by McCrea, it told the story of a young, apolitical Protestant man caught up by fate in the violence of the Irish 'Troubles'. It spawned a sequel, For a Few Troubles More, a broad Belfast-based comedy featuring two supporting characters from Troubled Souls, Dougie and Ivor, who would later get their own American comics series, Dicks, from Caliber in 1997, and several follow-ups from Avatar.
Another series for Crisis was True Faith, a religious satire inspired by his schooldays, this time drawn by Warren Pleece. Ennis shortly after began to write for Crisis' parent publication, 2000 AD. He quickly graduated on to the title's flagship character, Judge Dredd, taking over from original creator John Wagner for a period of several years.
Ennis' first work on an American comic came in 1991 when he took over DC Comics's horror title Hellblazer, which he wrote until 1994, and for which he currently holds the title for most issues written. Steve Dillon became the regular artist during the second half of Ennis's run.
Ennis' landmark work to date is the 66-issue epic Preacher, which he co-created with artist Steve Dillon. Running from 1995 to 2000, it was a tale of a preacher with supernatural powers, searching (literally) for God who has abandoned his creation.
While Preacher was running, Ennis began a series set in the DC universe called Hitman. Despite being lower profile than Preacher, Hitman ran for 60 issues (plus specials) from 1996 to 2001, veering wildly from violent action to humour to an examination of male friendship under fire.
Other comic projects Ennis wrote during this time period include Goddess, Bloody Mary, Unknown Soldier, and Pride & Joy, all for DC/Vertigo, as well as origin stories for The Darkness for Image Comics and Shadowman for Valiant Comics.
After the end of Hitman, Ennis was lured to Marvel Comics with the promise from Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada that he could write The Punisher as long as he cared to. Instead of largely comical tone of these issues, he decided to make a much more serious series, re-launched under Marvel's MAX imprint.
In 2001 he briefly returned to UK comics to write the epic Helter Skelter for Judge Dredd.
Other comics Ennis has written include War Story (with various artists) for DC; The Pro for Image Comics; The Authority for Wildstorm; Just a Pilgrim for Black Bull Press, and 303, Chronicles of Wormwood (a six issue mini-series about the Antichrist), and a western comic book, Streets of Glory for Avatar Press.
In 2008 Ennis ended his five-year run on Punisher MAX to debut a new Marvel title, War Is Hell: The First Flight of the Phantom Eagle.
In June 2008, at Wizard World, Philadelphia, Ennis announced several new projects, including a metaseries of war comics called Battlefields from Dynamite made up of mini-series including Night Witches, Dear Billy and Tankies, another Chronicles of Wormwood mini-series and Crossed both at Avatar, a six-issue miniseries about Butcher (from The Boys) and a Punisher project reuniting him with artist Steve Dillon (subsequently specified to be a weekly mini-series entitled Punisher: War Zone, to be released concurrently with the film of the same name).
Taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garth_Ennis
Another series for Crisis was True Faith, a religious satire inspired by his schooldays, this time drawn by Warren Pleece. Ennis shortly after began to write for Crisis' parent publication, 2000 AD. He quickly graduated on to the title's flagship character, Judge Dredd, taking over from original creator John Wagner for a period of several years.
Ennis' first work on an American comic came in 1991 when he took over DC Comics's horror title Hellblazer, which he wrote until 1994, and for which he currently holds the title for most issues written. Steve Dillon became the regular artist during the second half of Ennis's run.
Ennis' landmark work to date is the 66-issue epic Preacher, which he co-created with artist Steve Dillon. Running from 1995 to 2000, it was a tale of a preacher with supernatural powers, searching (literally) for God who has abandoned his creation.
While Preacher was running, Ennis began a series set in the DC universe called Hitman. Despite being lower profile than Preacher, Hitman ran for 60 issues (plus specials) from 1996 to 2001, veering wildly from violent action to humour to an examination of male friendship under fire.
Other comic projects Ennis wrote during this time period include Goddess, Bloody Mary, Unknown Soldier, and Pride & Joy, all for DC/Vertigo, as well as origin stories for The Darkness for Image Comics and Shadowman for Valiant Comics.
After the end of Hitman, Ennis was lured to Marvel Comics with the promise from Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada that he could write The Punisher as long as he cared to. Instead of largely comical tone of these issues, he decided to make a much more serious series, re-launched under Marvel's MAX imprint.
In 2001 he briefly returned to UK comics to write the epic Helter Skelter for Judge Dredd.
Other comics Ennis has written include War Story (with various artists) for DC; The Pro for Image Comics; The Authority for Wildstorm; Just a Pilgrim for Black Bull Press, and 303, Chronicles of Wormwood (a six issue mini-series about the Antichrist), and a western comic book, Streets of Glory for Avatar Press.
In 2008 Ennis ended his five-year run on Punisher MAX to debut a new Marvel title, War Is Hell: The First Flight of the Phantom Eagle.
In June 2008, at Wizard World, Philadelphia, Ennis announced several new projects, including a metaseries of war comics called Battlefields from Dynamite made up of mini-series including Night Witches, Dear Billy and Tankies, another Chronicles of Wormwood mini-series and Crossed both at Avatar, a six-issue miniseries about Butcher (from The Boys) and a Punisher project reuniting him with artist Steve Dillon (subsequently specified to be a weekly mini-series entitled Punisher: War Zone, to be released concurrently with the film of the same name).
Taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garth_Ennis
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September 17, 2025
Both Vought American (corporate overmasters of licensed super beings) and the Homelander himself have had enough of The Boys, so one of the top super powered teams in the world is sent after them. The result is. UTTER CARNAGE! After reading this battle between a group of super powered beings you'll never take Marvel or D.C. serious again. Ennis and Robertson almost lovingly create ultra violence on the page alongside a number of escalating levels of dark humour.
All that not apparently being just the warm up, the creative team keep up the momentum in the second half of the volume with some unsettling almost horrific origin stories of the The Boys' team members. LOVE IT! Five Star, 10 out of effing 12. Boom!
2019 and 2017 read
All that not apparently being just the warm up, the creative team keep up the momentum in the second half of the volume with some unsettling almost horrific origin stories of the The Boys' team members. LOVE IT! Five Star, 10 out of effing 12. Boom!
2019 and 2017 read
August 4, 2019
The Boys are back and still kicking ass.
Seriously. They're just beating the shit out of everyone.
Just when you think you're tired of Nazi bad guys, Ennis creates a douchebag racist enough to make it fun to watch as Butcher pokes his eye out. And really, isn't that what we all want out of our comics?
You've got the ongoing story that's happening between the supes, Vought, and the Boys, which was very good. And then you've also got a few of the origin stories tossed in.
Granted, some of the stories they told Hughie about their beginnings may or may not be 100% steeped in reality.
Frenchie's story was probably my favorite.
A joust to the death with a crusty baguette?
That was just...wow. <--super emotional, man.
But seriously? How the hell does Ennis come up with this shit? And I'm really hoping this makes its way into the tv series.
Because come the fuck on - that's hilarious!
Looking forward to the next volume, The Innocents.
Seriously. They're just beating the shit out of everyone.
Just when you think you're tired of Nazi bad guys, Ennis creates a douchebag racist enough to make it fun to watch as Butcher pokes his eye out. And really, isn't that what we all want out of our comics?
You've got the ongoing story that's happening between the supes, Vought, and the Boys, which was very good. And then you've also got a few of the origin stories tossed in.
Granted, some of the stories they told Hughie about their beginnings may or may not be 100% steeped in reality.
Frenchie's story was probably my favorite.
A joust to the death with a crusty baguette?
That was just...wow. <--super emotional, man.
But seriously? How the hell does Ennis come up with this shit? And I'm really hoping this makes its way into the tv series.
Because come the fuck on - that's hilarious!
Looking forward to the next volume, The Innocents.
September 8, 2021
More than three years ago I stopped reading this series, which is a send-up of superhero-comics, where a bunch of guys get to police the arrogant, out-of-control supes. I just thought the last one, Herogasm, was a bit of spinning its wheels, and I had by then gotten the point about super macho misogynist idiot superhero comics, as Ennis sees them. But for some reason I this evening decided to pick up volume six and I liked it a bit better. I like Butcher and the gang: Wee Hughie, The Female, Mother's Milk, The Frenchman, Maybe a break was what was called for. I mean, it's still the same point, and the hyper-violent reaction to all these jerks is the same (and insane) but the storytelling is a little better in this one than the last.
This one seems to take on the Avengers, maybe. Some similarities. These guys are called Payback. But they're named, as superhero comics need to weirdly name them: Soldier Boy, Mind-Droid, Swatto, the Crimson Countess (we all know that women in superhero comics have historically been morbidly hypersexualized so there's an angry/ludicrous parody of that kind of treatment here of her), and the Nazi juggernaut known as Stormfront. So nothing surprising here on that front, though all the bloodshed gets to Wee Hughie, finally. Why do they have to be so hyper-violent all the time??!
But then we get origin stories to help explain why, in particular about Mother's Milk, The Frenchman and the Female (who we find is the "victim"--and turned now into a kind of avenger herself--of terrible treatment by terrible men). I guess I think this is 3.5 stars, rounded up. maybe the best thing about this is the analogy running through it to WWII. So probably I'll pick up volume seven. I did like the backstories, here, (especially The Female's; a serious ending to a darkly comedy volume).
This one seems to take on the Avengers, maybe. Some similarities. These guys are called Payback. But they're named, as superhero comics need to weirdly name them: Soldier Boy, Mind-Droid, Swatto, the Crimson Countess (we all know that women in superhero comics have historically been morbidly hypersexualized so there's an angry/ludicrous parody of that kind of treatment here of her), and the Nazi juggernaut known as Stormfront. So nothing surprising here on that front, though all the bloodshed gets to Wee Hughie, finally. Why do they have to be so hyper-violent all the time??!
But then we get origin stories to help explain why, in particular about Mother's Milk, The Frenchman and the Female (who we find is the "victim"--and turned now into a kind of avenger herself--of terrible treatment by terrible men). I guess I think this is 3.5 stars, rounded up. maybe the best thing about this is the analogy running through it to WWII. So probably I'll pick up volume seven. I did like the backstories, here, (especially The Female's; a serious ending to a darkly comedy volume).
April 8, 2021
En este volumen se recupera la trama ya que se narra un poco los orígenes de casi todos los integrantes de The Boys, algo lo cual le da soporte a la historia y explica los motivos que les hicieron unirse al grupo.
March 31, 2018
superheroes aren't superheroes, they're superassholes. lather, rinse, repeat. this time out it is The Avengers that are parodied and torn to bloody bits, with the most sadistic treatment provided to the women of course. rinse, repeat. Homelander gets agitated; Starlight doesn't like her work life; a nazi superhero(villain) loses an eye; Hughie gets sick over all of the violence. repeat. i feel like i've read this before and it tastes rather like backwash.
includes a lengthy backstory for Mother's Milk (tedious), and shorter ones for The Female (predictable) and Frenchie (surprisingly entertaining and funny! and so a 2nd star).
includes a lengthy backstory for Mother's Milk (tedious), and shorter ones for The Female (predictable) and Frenchie (surprisingly entertaining and funny! and so a 2nd star).
December 22, 2012
You could make an argument for the fact that the true focus of this story *is* the characters. Their relationships and how they change and grow.
This is especially true of the relationship between Wee Hughie and Butcher. You could argue that the entire story is about the two of them. About their relationship.
Though personally, my *favorite* relationship was probably between the Frenchman and the Female.
(Continued in book 7.)
This is especially true of the relationship between Wee Hughie and Butcher. You could argue that the entire story is about the two of them. About their relationship.
Though personally, my *favorite* relationship was probably between the Frenchman and the Female.
(Continued in book 7.)
September 20, 2011
The Self Preservation Society is a triumphant return to the level of storytelling found in "The Name of the Game" and "Good for the Soul" after the misfire that was "Herogasm". Vought American decide to do something about The Boys and send their second best supes out to sort them out. Leading them is a Nazi superhero called Stormfront who takes out The Female and Mother's Milk leaving it up to Butcher to sort it out. A great character from earlier in the series shows up in the finale and it's suggested that there's something about Butcher's past that's of particular interest to Vought.
And speaking of pasts, we get the origin stories of Mother's Milk, Frenchie, and The Female. Mother's Milk is the best one as it links the stories of Vought with the tragedy of the Brooklyn Bridge seen in "Good for the Soul" (this universe's version of the Twin Towers). Frenchie's story is great with Ennis throwing in every single French stereotype he can - Frenchie's dad, wearing a black and white striped shirt, a beret, and a string of onions, is killed by a croissant thrown by a villain saying "Hee Haw Hee Haw!". The Female's origin is also a great story that riffs on France's most famous cartoon Gaul and certainly underlines the "female is the strongest of the species" line used previously.
The excellent Carlos Eszquerra contributes art to this book while Darick Robertson makes a welcome return after taking a break with Vol 5. Garth Ennis is as brilliant as always.
The Boys are back and they've never been better.
And speaking of pasts, we get the origin stories of Mother's Milk, Frenchie, and The Female. Mother's Milk is the best one as it links the stories of Vought with the tragedy of the Brooklyn Bridge seen in "Good for the Soul" (this universe's version of the Twin Towers). Frenchie's story is great with Ennis throwing in every single French stereotype he can - Frenchie's dad, wearing a black and white striped shirt, a beret, and a string of onions, is killed by a croissant thrown by a villain saying "Hee Haw Hee Haw!". The Female's origin is also a great story that riffs on France's most famous cartoon Gaul and certainly underlines the "female is the strongest of the species" line used previously.
The excellent Carlos Eszquerra contributes art to this book while Darick Robertson makes a welcome return after taking a break with Vol 5. Garth Ennis is as brilliant as always.
The Boys are back and they've never been better.
June 29, 2014
Wow, talk about taking it up a notch. Just like I'd suspected a couple of books ago, the slow burn and character development they've been doing lately just increases the impact of balls-out action that we get here.
Then we slow down again and get deep inside the origin stories (finally!) of most of The Boys. As fantastically absurd and over the top these stories each are, it's amazing to me how well Ennis weaves in emotional notes that really connect me with these characters. And Robertson evokes those emotions in every turn of the faces he portrays.
Then we slow down again and get deep inside the origin stories (finally!) of most of The Boys. As fantastically absurd and over the top these stories each are, it's amazing to me how well Ennis weaves in emotional notes that really connect me with these characters. And Robertson evokes those emotions in every turn of the faces he portrays.
July 4, 2022
Finally the series is back to the gritty stuff and I couldn't be happier.
This was even more exciting because it's essentially a volume of origin stories so we get to learn a little more about each of the Boys and how they ended up working for Billy Butcher. There are some interesting dynamics playing out amongst the Seven and you can tell things are really starting to heat up.
This issue more than makes up for the pointlessness of the previous issue, adds some much needed characterisation and brings the story back to its roots. An excellent continuation and I'll be moving on to the next soon!
This was even more exciting because it's essentially a volume of origin stories so we get to learn a little more about each of the Boys and how they ended up working for Billy Butcher. There are some interesting dynamics playing out amongst the Seven and you can tell things are really starting to heat up.
This issue more than makes up for the pointlessness of the previous issue, adds some much needed characterisation and brings the story back to its roots. An excellent continuation and I'll be moving on to the next soon!
June 6, 2017
I'm apparently incapable of reading the phrase, "The Self-Preservation Society," without hearing the opening bars of the Kinks' "Village Green Preservation Society" in my head, because my brain runs on music references. And caffeine. And cheap puns. Just one of many crosses that I bear ...
Two story arcs in this volume. First, Vought-American sends a team of supes after the Boys. Could this be the end? Of course not, silly. We get to see Butcher do what he does best. A familiar beard returns. And Hughie learns that you just don't mess with some people's sweets.
Second, it's origin time! Mother's Milk, the Frenchman, and the Female all get their backstories told. Frenchie's is hilarious and wildly implausible, quelle surprise ...
I think this series is headed for some sort of definite end, but it's probably quite a ways off yet. I'm just enjoying the ride for now. And, while I love Darick Robertson's artwork, it made me happy to see Carlos Ezquerra's work in this volume. I first encountered his art on the hallowed pages of 2000AD. Nice to see he's keeping busy. Obviously only a crazy person would start reading this series with volume 6, but recommended anyway.
Two story arcs in this volume. First, Vought-American sends a team of supes after the Boys. Could this be the end? Of course not, silly. We get to see Butcher do what he does best. A familiar beard returns. And Hughie learns that you just don't mess with some people's sweets.
Second, it's origin time! Mother's Milk, the Frenchman, and the Female all get their backstories told. Frenchie's is hilarious and wildly implausible, quelle surprise ...
I think this series is headed for some sort of definite end, but it's probably quite a ways off yet. I'm just enjoying the ride for now. And, while I love Darick Robertson's artwork, it made me happy to see Carlos Ezquerra's work in this volume. I first encountered his art on the hallowed pages of 2000AD. Nice to see he's keeping busy. Obviously only a crazy person would start reading this series with volume 6, but recommended anyway.
April 23, 2023
Volumen bastante interesante donde conocemos los inicios de casi todos los integrantes del grupo excepto de carnicero.
También me ha llamado la atención 2 personajes muy distintos de los de la serie como son Stormfront (que aquí es un hombre!!) y soldier boy que en la serie es la leche de fuerte y aquí parece un mindundi.
Si me llama la atención lo estúpidos que son los super, con esos super poderes y se empeñan en pelear mano a mano con the boys y así les va...
Valoración: 8/10
También me ha llamado la atención 2 personajes muy distintos de los de la serie como son Stormfront (que aquí es un hombre!!) y soldier boy que en la serie es la leche de fuerte y aquí parece un mindundi.
Si me llama la atención lo estúpidos que son los super, con esos super poderes y se empeñan en pelear mano a mano con the boys y así les va...
Valoración: 8/10
May 15, 2016
Another good volume. Back to fun.
July 18, 2022
Bullet Review:
This is what happens when you don’t read emails carefully and realize you didn’t return a comic before the due date and now you spend an hour on a Sunday morning powering through a volume because the latest season of The Boys dropped on Amazon and suddenly people are interested in nearly a 2 decades old comic.
This volume sees our team face off against the second tier supes, Payback. The Homelander doesn’t care about bringing the Seven in line with Vought’s new direction for the superheroes, hinting that he’s not under their thumb so much anymore. And also, LOTS of backstory for MM, Frenchie and the Female. A decent development though why does the Female’s backstory feel so stereotypical? Just me?
This is what happens when you don’t read emails carefully and realize you didn’t return a comic before the due date and now you spend an hour on a Sunday morning powering through a volume because the latest season of The Boys dropped on Amazon and suddenly people are interested in nearly a 2 decades old comic.
This volume sees our team face off against the second tier supes, Payback. The Homelander doesn’t care about bringing the Seven in line with Vought’s new direction for the superheroes, hinting that he’s not under their thumb so much anymore. And also, LOTS of backstory for MM, Frenchie and the Female. A decent development though why does the Female’s backstory feel so stereotypical? Just me?
January 1, 2021
This one speaks about the stories of boys, pretty interesting.
Read
January 13, 2021Ennis got his start in the mid to late 90s, establishing a reputation as an extremist in the comics community alongside Warren Ellis, though Ennis would become the Grant Morrison to Ellis' Alan Moore, with Ennis sometimes going to extremes without letting his story threads come together in a natural way. Does that mean Ennis is a bad writer? Of course not. He wouldn't be a favorite of mine if that were the case. While The Boys doesn't entirely reach the heights of some of Ennis' finer outings like Preacher or Punisher MAX, The Boys proved itself to be another interesting series in Ennis' catalogue.
Garth Ennis is never one for the easily offended, the copious amounts of sex, violence and mayhem that inhabits this series can test even the most mentally and physically strong of people, as I said earlier Ennis is rather extreme with his content. Though luckily, Ennis does know how to pace himself and provide a good plot to keep you invested unlike some of the other artists and writers from the uber grimdark period of comics (cough cough, Rob Liefeld, cough cough, Frank Miller). Ennis, much like Alan Moore, makes a point to show that if superhumans were to exist in our world, they would bring about an apocalyptic sense of change to the world. Though unfortunately, I'm not quite as sure that Ennis is as thorough in his exploration as Moore was. He never fully goes deeper in his critique of superheroes, which is rather unfortunate. Though unlike Moore, Ennis pulls no punches when taking shots as superheroes, this is unsurprising given his well known disdain for the superhero genre, yet again, I don't find that his satire nearly goes far enough to make a grand point of it all.
While The Boys' satire is admittedly simplistic unlike something that is more nuanced like Watchmen, we see Ennis' reputation for characterization shine through, with Billy Butcher being a standout and even Ennis himself lamenting that he was his favorite character to write. Most of the characters in The Boys are strongly developed and their depth and likability is reminiscent of Preacher, but we also see how they change over time. Wee Hughie in particular changes from a mild mannered normal person into a hardened, but still well intentioned person. The satire of The Boys, while sometimes going overboard and becoming crude, usually does its job, with targets being of corporatism, crony capitalism, and the incompetence of government, in particular the Bush era.
I have often complained about how many modern comics have problems with pacing. But luckily Ennis doesn't have this issue, and I would lobby him alongside Ed Brubaker as having a mastery of pacing, as Ennis knows when he should slow things down and when to let things speed up. It is nice to find someone else to use as an example of how to pace your stories in a way to where you won't lose your audience, and Ennis definitely knows how to keep his audiences attention, for better or worse.
Few problems come through in the series, Ennis's writing teeters in quality near the end, with some unexpected twists coming in that shakes up the story at hold and not in a way that feels natural. Though luckily Ennis manages to make it work as best as he can and manages to wrap his story up in a satisfying way. While Ennis is ruthless in his mockery of the superhero genre and its conventions, some of his edgy, extreme humor doesn't really seem to go anywhere, which is a problem that pervades through much of his work. Though unlike Preacher or Punisher MAX where he manages to tamper it with volumes of excellent story, The Boys sometimes does get brought down by its over the top extremes. The art from Derrick Robertson, while very good and well drawn, I often compare to his extraordinary work on Transmetropolitan, and I found that he hasn't ever surpassed the strange and surreal visuals from that series.
Cruel and crass as The Boys may be, Ennis rarely forgets character motivation or good plotting to keep readers invested, while he may lose some of his steam by the end of the series, The Boys remains a strong and enjoyable outing from Ennis' catalogue.
Garth Ennis is never one for the easily offended, the copious amounts of sex, violence and mayhem that inhabits this series can test even the most mentally and physically strong of people, as I said earlier Ennis is rather extreme with his content. Though luckily, Ennis does know how to pace himself and provide a good plot to keep you invested unlike some of the other artists and writers from the uber grimdark period of comics (cough cough, Rob Liefeld, cough cough, Frank Miller). Ennis, much like Alan Moore, makes a point to show that if superhumans were to exist in our world, they would bring about an apocalyptic sense of change to the world. Though unfortunately, I'm not quite as sure that Ennis is as thorough in his exploration as Moore was. He never fully goes deeper in his critique of superheroes, which is rather unfortunate. Though unlike Moore, Ennis pulls no punches when taking shots as superheroes, this is unsurprising given his well known disdain for the superhero genre, yet again, I don't find that his satire nearly goes far enough to make a grand point of it all.
While The Boys' satire is admittedly simplistic unlike something that is more nuanced like Watchmen, we see Ennis' reputation for characterization shine through, with Billy Butcher being a standout and even Ennis himself lamenting that he was his favorite character to write. Most of the characters in The Boys are strongly developed and their depth and likability is reminiscent of Preacher, but we also see how they change over time. Wee Hughie in particular changes from a mild mannered normal person into a hardened, but still well intentioned person. The satire of The Boys, while sometimes going overboard and becoming crude, usually does its job, with targets being of corporatism, crony capitalism, and the incompetence of government, in particular the Bush era.
I have often complained about how many modern comics have problems with pacing. But luckily Ennis doesn't have this issue, and I would lobby him alongside Ed Brubaker as having a mastery of pacing, as Ennis knows when he should slow things down and when to let things speed up. It is nice to find someone else to use as an example of how to pace your stories in a way to where you won't lose your audience, and Ennis definitely knows how to keep his audiences attention, for better or worse.
Few problems come through in the series, Ennis's writing teeters in quality near the end, with some unexpected twists coming in that shakes up the story at hold and not in a way that feels natural. Though luckily Ennis manages to make it work as best as he can and manages to wrap his story up in a satisfying way. While Ennis is ruthless in his mockery of the superhero genre and its conventions, some of his edgy, extreme humor doesn't really seem to go anywhere, which is a problem that pervades through much of his work. Though unlike Preacher or Punisher MAX where he manages to tamper it with volumes of excellent story, The Boys sometimes does get brought down by its over the top extremes. The art from Derrick Robertson, while very good and well drawn, I often compare to his extraordinary work on Transmetropolitan, and I found that he hasn't ever surpassed the strange and surreal visuals from that series.
Cruel and crass as The Boys may be, Ennis rarely forgets character motivation or good plotting to keep readers invested, while he may lose some of his steam by the end of the series, The Boys remains a strong and enjoyable outing from Ennis' catalogue.
December 14, 2020
I've skipped The Boys, Volume 5: Herogasm (which seems to revolve around a superhero sex retreat) and moved straight onto Vol. 6, 'Self-Preservation Society'. Vol. 5 was a mini-series event from the franchise that doesn't seem to have had much bearing on the storyline in this volume (Hughie only mentions 'Herogasm' once), so I don't think I've missed out on anything by leaping past it. If you're not really up for Vol. 5 either, but not sure if you need to read it for continuities sake - it's all good. Skip away.
This volume (finally!) gives us the origin stories for Mother's Milk, Frenchie and The Female. I've been looking forward to getting into the history of these characters since Vol. 1 (The Boys, Volume 1: The Name of the Game), so I was more than ready for this.
Because this volume follows three separate backstories, it does feel more episodic than previous issues. That's unavoidable, but it didn't have a negative impact on the wider storyline's development in any way - we're still kept up to date with The Seven, the shady shenanigans of Vought-American and there's even a showdown with another of the supe groups, Payback. The outcome is that the main plotline still ticks along nicely, whilst we get some long-awaited insight into three of the main characters from this series. I thought Ennis did a good job of integrating these two different elements, avoiding potential issues that might have cropped up (e.g.: choppy storytelling, etc.).
I can't say much about why I liked the origin stories without heading into spoiler territory, but suffice to say I was satisfied. Frenchie's is the weakest of the three, in my opinion, but Mother's Milk & The Female's were both *chef's kiss*. They could have been longer (hell, both characters could have spin-off series of their own that I would happily read), but I got what I needed from them and feel more connected to their characters as a result.
Wee Hughie's character fell to the background in this one, and I wasn't mad about it. I'm still not that invested in his character and I didn't miss him being the focus of the group, to be honest.
This volume even had a cameo from another of my favourite characters, the immaturely-named-but-bloody-brilliant Love Sausage. I was glad to see him back.
I'm planning to take a break from the series for a little bit, as it can be an intense read. Reflecting on the experience of reading the first few volumes, I'm definitely impressed. The plot line continues to be intriguing, the characters have (for the most part, anyway) seen some strong development and the world is immersive. I'm enjoying my time with 'The Boys', but mumma needs a hiatus.
If you're sleeping on this series, definitely pick it up. Heed the content warnings I (and others) have included in reviews, but if this is languishing on your TBR I'd highly recommend giving it a go.
This volume (finally!) gives us the origin stories for Mother's Milk, Frenchie and The Female. I've been looking forward to getting into the history of these characters since Vol. 1 (The Boys, Volume 1: The Name of the Game), so I was more than ready for this.
Because this volume follows three separate backstories, it does feel more episodic than previous issues. That's unavoidable, but it didn't have a negative impact on the wider storyline's development in any way - we're still kept up to date with The Seven, the shady shenanigans of Vought-American and there's even a showdown with another of the supe groups, Payback. The outcome is that the main plotline still ticks along nicely, whilst we get some long-awaited insight into three of the main characters from this series. I thought Ennis did a good job of integrating these two different elements, avoiding potential issues that might have cropped up (e.g.: choppy storytelling, etc.).
I can't say much about why I liked the origin stories without heading into spoiler territory, but suffice to say I was satisfied. Frenchie's is the weakest of the three, in my opinion, but Mother's Milk & The Female's were both *chef's kiss*. They could have been longer (hell, both characters could have spin-off series of their own that I would happily read), but I got what I needed from them and feel more connected to their characters as a result.
Wee Hughie's character fell to the background in this one, and I wasn't mad about it. I'm still not that invested in his character and I didn't miss him being the focus of the group, to be honest.
This volume even had a cameo from another of my favourite characters, the immaturely-named-but-bloody-brilliant Love Sausage. I was glad to see him back.
I'm planning to take a break from the series for a little bit, as it can be an intense read. Reflecting on the experience of reading the first few volumes, I'm definitely impressed. The plot line continues to be intriguing, the characters have (for the most part, anyway) seen some strong development and the world is immersive. I'm enjoying my time with 'The Boys', but mumma needs a hiatus.
If you're sleeping on this series, definitely pick it up. Heed the content warnings I (and others) have included in reviews, but if this is languishing on your TBR I'd highly recommend giving it a go.
June 29, 2014
Well now, THAT was damn entertaining, and moving. (Somehow a foul mouthed Brit wrote the best tribute comic to 9-11 that I've read). Here it's the Brooklyn Bridge, but the sentiments are the same, beautifully conveyed by Ennis (yes, beautiful and Ennis in the same sentence).
Here we get a closer look inside of Mother's Milk, the Frenchman, and the Female. The Frenchman's is a little silly, but that's OK, MM's is great. There's also a huge throw-down with Payback, the #2 VA team. One of the team is put into a coma, and lets just say, it doesn't bode well for Payback, and things get downright bloody. You could even call it...Butcher-y. You knew he was that bad baaad man.
The taking out of Stormfront (the Nazi leader of Payback) is a shout out to WWII all over again: England (Butcher) barely holds him off until the US (Mother's Milk) arrives to help, then the Free French rise up (Frenchman), but the scales are finally tipped by Mother Russia (Love Sausage, arriving after Huey sent him an emergency call). It's a fun little thing.
Huey seems torn here, which is how MM opening up to him and the others as well (the backstories). Ennis also manages to mock the reboot/re-vamping of characters perfectly here, and a shot or two at the writers who take things too far for 'edgy' and 'dark'. There's a perfect passage about how things need to be so dark, and I think it highlights just what's missing in a lot of the big 2 (esp. DC). Ennis also makes a joke of Green Lantern in less than a page.
This is a marked improvement from Herogasm, moves the story forward by having the characters all grow in some way. Even some of the Supes are given more dimensions.
Very strong work here, glad things are back on track.
Here we get a closer look inside of Mother's Milk, the Frenchman, and the Female. The Frenchman's is a little silly, but that's OK, MM's is great. There's also a huge throw-down with Payback, the #2 VA team. One of the team is put into a coma, and lets just say, it doesn't bode well for Payback, and things get downright bloody. You could even call it...Butcher-y. You knew he was that bad baaad man.
The taking out of Stormfront (the Nazi leader of Payback) is a shout out to WWII all over again: England (Butcher) barely holds him off until the US (Mother's Milk) arrives to help, then the Free French rise up (Frenchman), but the scales are finally tipped by Mother Russia (Love Sausage, arriving after Huey sent him an emergency call). It's a fun little thing.
Huey seems torn here, which is how MM opening up to him and the others as well (the backstories). Ennis also manages to mock the reboot/re-vamping of characters perfectly here, and a shot or two at the writers who take things too far for 'edgy' and 'dark'. There's a perfect passage about how things need to be so dark, and I think it highlights just what's missing in a lot of the big 2 (esp. DC). Ennis also makes a joke of Green Lantern in less than a page.
This is a marked improvement from Herogasm, moves the story forward by having the characters all grow in some way. Even some of the Supes are given more dimensions.
Very strong work here, glad things are back on track.
January 6, 2021
Really liked this volume. We got backstories for Mother’s Milk, The Frenchman and The Female. And wow, I love a good backstory. I thought I liked Frenchie before, but now? Shii now I’ve seen him as a young man, and WOW IM SORRY BUT IM WHIPPED.
The metaphors about WWII or anything in this volume are so well handled and executed.
The friendships between Frenchie and The Female and between Starlight and Queen Maeve are everything. We get to see how Frenchie’s and The Female’s started, and how Starlight’s and Maeve’s is blossoming. Not to mention, we get to see Starlight really stand up for herself and IM LIVING FOR IT.
Also, Butcher’s little quips kill me.
The metaphors about WWII or anything in this volume are so well handled and executed.
The friendships between Frenchie and The Female and between Starlight and Queen Maeve are everything. We get to see how Frenchie’s and The Female’s started, and how Starlight’s and Maeve’s is blossoming. Not to mention, we get to see Starlight really stand up for herself and IM LIVING FOR IT.
Also, Butcher’s little quips kill me.
October 12, 2018
I'm sorry but PR teams who create comics for the supe's and use RAPE as an origin story is a no-go for me. Only Hughie and Marrie were it for me. I even lost every respect I had for Butch, even if the theory i have in mind about him and Homeland is true.
I can't continue this...
I can't continue this...
July 21, 2024
Favourite so far, shows off the brutality of butcher and gives some really needed background on the rest of the boys. Shame frenchies story is shit
July 29, 2019
Just a short review today. This one starts out pretty hard core with the Boys beating on another super team that has been in their sights. Later the Female goes out for one of her hits for the Mob and gets surprised by a Nazi superhero who puts her in a coma during their fight. The Boys go to check her out at the hospital and realize very late that it is a setup for the Nazi and his team to take them out. MM gets hurt really bad and Billy has Hughie get the team out while he deals with the supes, who made the epic mistake of kicking his dog Terror. Let's just say that Billy takes out all of the team except the Nazi, setting up a confrontation with him at a deserted beach house. They take him on, but he is the toughest one they have fought, but they called in some backup, Love Sausage, and put him in the ground.
Another side story is Hughie and Annie's budding romance, it is very sweet, but they still don't know the biggest secret of each other. But the Seven are trying to make her a new back story and dress her up much slutier. She doesn't want to do that and is almost forced to do so until the other woman on the team steps in. Homelander is more detached from everything, still thinking of his plan to take over. The new Vought rep, the replacement of the one killed in the last novel, is noticing that things are not right with the Seven and all. But things get brighter when the Female wakes up because Hughie is going to eat her candy in the hospital, so she breaks his arm.
The main sections of the book are the last 3 chapters so to say. First we start with MM and Hughie at the ruins of the Brooklyn Bridge. MM tells him how he got his powers, the issues his family faced, and how he joined The Boys. You get a lot of the information on how Vought and their shoddy work practices caused V to get into people's bodies without their knowledge. You also get a bunch on how Billy helped him get his daughter back from his drug addicted wife, who was living in a drug den "owned" by the dealer. He and Billy have to fight their way out, with Billy taking a good beating. We also find out that MM was on the Bridge the day the plane hit and tried to save a woman who wound up dying.
The next section is Frenchie's backstory if you can call it that. You can not tell if it is real or something made up in his head. It is pretty much a cliche of every French stereotype and joke. I think the part where he discusses how he was a very blood thirsty soldier in the Foreign Legion is true, and it made him want to stop fighting. But his nemesis steals his girl while he is gone and he will not fight him to get her back. His parents are ashamed and to restore honor his dad jousts in the annual event, where they use stale baguettes as lances. He dies, his mom dies and Frenchie goes back to his violent ways. Then Billy finds him and the rest is history.
Lastly Frenchie tells Hughie the story of The Female. She was in a lab that way trying to make their own V as a baby and crawls away from her mother who never really paid attention to her. She eats some of the waste from the experiments. She instantly gains her powers and the company captures her to test her blood. Sometimes she would escape and kill a lot of them. Usually ripping their faces off. Sometimes she would get outside and try to figure out what was missing in her life. They kept her in a cage naked and treating her like an animal. One day when she is older she escapes into the sewers, and the lab decides to kill her with a SWAT team. They fail and die. Billy shows up with the Boys and uses knock out gas to catch her. When she wakes up she is ready to kill but Frenchie is there. He shows her that he got clothes for her, and a bathroom and open doors for her. And had a table set up with real food. Thus she joins the Boys, but she still needs to kill often to satisfy her urge.,p>Well that was longer than I thought it would be. Another good book in the series. I can't wait to start watching the show soon.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 30, 2019
Truth time: I read volumes 4-12 in a weekend, and here's the weird part: I'll score each one a 3, but overall it's a 4.
How does this work?
I guess I feel like the whole arc was fun to read. It was interesting, weird, pretty transgressive, and you become invested in seeing how it all plays out. And without spoiling a thing, I can say that it has an ending that's satisfactory. Things are wrapped up, which is great.
So, while the individual parts are all a 3 for me, the whole is a 4. Go figure.
How does this work?
I guess I feel like the whole arc was fun to read. It was interesting, weird, pretty transgressive, and you become invested in seeing how it all plays out. And without spoiling a thing, I can say that it has an ending that's satisfactory. Things are wrapped up, which is great.
So, while the individual parts are all a 3 for me, the whole is a 4. Go figure.
January 28, 2022
I know, I know, I was going to take a pause form The Boys for a minute, but the thing is our library has inexplicably decided to only acquire manga now instead of proper graphic novels and I like proper graphic novels, even ones as improper as The Boys, and so here I am, back again…
Book six features Stormfront, the Nazi superpowered evil f*cker who gets just one storyline here and gets to be the protagonist of the entire season 3 of the tv show. Albeit, unrecognizably so with a gender switch up. This, I believe, is an excellent example of the striking differences between the books and the tv show. Not the gender switch up, I don't care about that, but about the dimensionality of the stories that tv show brings. Then again, I can't believe I'm talking about dimensionality of tv in comparison to page, talk about obvious.
The rest of the book are origin stories, at long last. Mother’s Milk spills his, followed by the baguette-fencing distinctly Gallic-flavored tale of Frenchie and concluded by the tragic story of Female. At long last, the wee lad can contextualize the people who so reluctantly works with.
More artist changes. All functional, all within the preestablished parameters, more or less. Terror is looking good. And what more can you really ask for.
This and more at https://advancetheplot.weebly.com/
Book six features Stormfront, the Nazi superpowered evil f*cker who gets just one storyline here and gets to be the protagonist of the entire season 3 of the tv show. Albeit, unrecognizably so with a gender switch up. This, I believe, is an excellent example of the striking differences between the books and the tv show. Not the gender switch up, I don't care about that, but about the dimensionality of the stories that tv show brings. Then again, I can't believe I'm talking about dimensionality of tv in comparison to page, talk about obvious.
The rest of the book are origin stories, at long last. Mother’s Milk spills his, followed by the baguette-fencing distinctly Gallic-flavored tale of Frenchie and concluded by the tragic story of Female. At long last, the wee lad can contextualize the people who so reluctantly works with.
More artist changes. All functional, all within the preestablished parameters, more or less. Terror is looking good. And what more can you really ask for.
This and more at https://advancetheplot.weebly.com/
October 21, 2020
Another violent yet compelling volume. I liked getting more background on the characters! I am definitely hooked.
August 2, 2019
Plot points:
It's interesting that this volume is simultaneously lacking in both the Ennis-esque shock content and Ennis-esque insightfulness that have marked The Boys so far.
It's interesting that this volume is simultaneously lacking in both the Ennis-esque shock content and Ennis-esque insightfulness that have marked The Boys so far.
October 17, 2017
This issue is amazing!
It's the meet and greet issue of The Boys. Little Hugie and the reader get an inside tell from the individuals who make up their small but awesomely powerful group of superhero watchers.
It was emotive. It was gruesomely honest in some cases. In every instance, there was one theme- redemption of some form and shape.
It was by far my favorite.
As I closed the last page, I stared at the cover... and wished I could read it all over again, for the first time.
It's the meet and greet issue of The Boys. Little Hugie and the reader get an inside tell from the individuals who make up their small but awesomely powerful group of superhero watchers.
It was emotive. It was gruesomely honest in some cases. In every instance, there was one theme- redemption of some form and shape.
It was by far my favorite.
As I closed the last page, I stared at the cover... and wished I could read it all over again, for the first time.
February 11, 2021
Stormfront, un súper nazi, y su equipo intentan acabar con carnicero y compañía. No saben con quién se meten...
Una de las historias más sangrientas, que en este cómic ya es decir, que mantiene las virtudes y defectos del resto de la obra de Ennis. De nuevo ni más, ni menos.
Una de las historias más sangrientas, que en este cómic ya es decir, que mantiene las virtudes y defectos del resto de la obra de Ennis. De nuevo ni más, ni menos.
August 31, 2021
2021 reads, #61-72. In preparation for finally watching the Amazon Prime Video adaptation currently being made out of it, I recently had the opportunity to acquire the entire six-year, 72-issue run of Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson's The Boys (broken down at Goodreads into 12 larger graphic novels; this review covers them all, which I'm copying and pasting into each book page), the anti-superhero tale from the creator of legendary '90s Vertigo Generation-X hit Preacher that is now popularly known as "The Darkest Comic Book In History And We're Not Just Buying Into The Hype When We Say That, You Should Do Yourself A Favor And Seriously Take That Warning Legitimately;" and while the original plan had been to read only a few issues of what I was fully expecting to be a mediocre title, whose reputation I assumed had been artificially inflated by a bunch of uncultured nerds who wouldn't know true transgressive literature if it reached up and bit them on the dick, I ended up doing a feverish binge of all 72 issues in a mere 72-hour period this weekend, because the hype turned out to be fully believable in this case, and I kept greedily drinking it all in as fast as I could, partly because I couldn't believe something this relentlessly dark could even exist within the comics industry in any form at all, and kept half-expecting it to disappear in front of my eyes as I was reading it, like some kind of evil magical spell that had finally reached its end.
And indeed, the first thing you'll wonder as you start making your way through it is how this possibly could've started life at "mainstream indie" Wildstorm in the first place, which was just about to go through an acquisition by DC when The Boys was first brought on, which is why Wildstorm unceremoniously dumped The Boys six issues in, although to their credit with the enthusiastic help of the pre-DC staff to get it to a more unknown publisher that would do it right before the acquisition happened, and even giving Robertson a special allowance to his otherwise DC-exclusive contract in order to continue working on it. And this is not just because the title is a particularly sickening example of the Dark Age "superheroes are actually barely disguised Nazi monsters" trope that's been around since literally the early '80s (imagine taking Alan Moore's infamously apocalyptic ending to his early underground hit Miracleman and making that page 1 of issue 1 of The Boys), but it's just as much an indictment if not more so of the corporate psychopaths who own the intellectual property rights to such superheroes, intimating here that if we lived in a world where Time Warner owned not only the story, movie and merchandising rights to caped heroes but the actual real-time life rights of the human beings committing these acts of derring-do, the employees of Time Warner would essentially spend a billion dollars a year attempting to hide the psychopathic crimes such "heroes" would of course start immediately committing, the moment they realize that they have powers that can only be stopped by only a handful of other creatures on the planet, and a fully oiled corporate machine going around cleaning up whatever messes they choose to cause with such powers.
That leads to a world where the violent gangrape initiation ceremony of a new member of the Justice League of America, by this universe's version of Superman, Batman, Aquaman and the Martian Manhunter, is merely chapter one of a sprawling, always worsening look at the depths of the human race's capacity for depravity, as we quickly learn that the "super" powers of this universe are not caused by superior alien DNA or bites from radioactive spiders but rather a single "supersoldier" serum developed by a Nazi scientist in the 1930s, which makes it just a bunch of normal, everyday random people who end up becoming said superheroes in the universe of The Boys (around 200,000 of them now, by most people's estimates, although with the vast majority of them never making their powers publicly known, and the only "famous" superheroes being the ones who have managed to achieve corporate sponsorship); and it turns out that when you give superpowers to a bunch of normal, everyday random people, and not the "paragons of virtue" that DC and Marvel have made sure all their own superheroes over the years have been, those normal, everyday random people almost immediately become corrupt, perverted serial killers upon realizing that no one can stop them besides their equally corrupt, equally perverted superfriends. And this is not to mention creating the very real threat of a future government coup by the main multinational superhero conglomerate, Vought-American (a clear stand-in for real-life baddies Marvel-Disney), if their whims aren't catered to by an increasingly nervous Congress and White House (whose current VP, by the way, is a literally mentally challenged Vought stoolie).
That's led the CIA to quietly putting our titular Boys on the payroll, four equally violent psychopaths (plus our hapless Simon Pegg everyman reader-stand-in character) as a dirty-tricks squad being desperately used by the government as a secret behind-the-scenes check and balance against the growing dictatorial control of Vought-American, while a billion dollars are being spent by V-A at TMZ and TikTok to keep up the public appearance of these caped rapists' Dudley Do-Rite reputations, then eventually (in what many comics fans will consider the most cynical turn of the entire storyline) creating their own version of "Dark Age" comics when the Boys' shenanigans make it too impossible to keep their corporate mouthpieces' various horrific vices out of the public spotlight anymore, deciding to turn the vices into virtues so to not cause even the slightest interruption to the hamburger-selling that's been going on the whole time.
So in this, then, the 72-issue uber-plot going on here is an angry condemnation of the entire superhero comics industry, not just the intellectual premise of turning such Nazi ubermen into toothless rah-rah heroes, but the psychopathic mindset needed among the emotionally stunted man-child comics creators to pull off this premise, the glib incel glee among the industry's Comic Book Guy fans who made such material so popular in the '80s and '90s to begin with, the corporate middlemen who know exactly what kind of Nazi rape-porn twaddle they're peddling but simply don't care, and even you for thinking that a mean-spirited but ultimately toothless satire of the subject somehow counts as an effective antidote. It doesn't, as this series' infamously pessimistic climax proves, and now I'm more curious than ever to see how this ceaselessly piss-fueled indictment of the entire industry ended up getting adapted at the corporate-friendly Amazon, whose own employees are guilty of many of this story's most damning behavior. Certainly you shouldn't take this on unless you're ready for one of the most relentlessly bleak stories you've ever read in your life; but absolutely you should do so if you're ready for such, and big kudos to creators Ennis and Robertson for actually managing to finish it without slitting their own wrists somewhere around issue #54 or so. Do yourself a big favor and go into it with this attitude in mind.
And indeed, the first thing you'll wonder as you start making your way through it is how this possibly could've started life at "mainstream indie" Wildstorm in the first place, which was just about to go through an acquisition by DC when The Boys was first brought on, which is why Wildstorm unceremoniously dumped The Boys six issues in, although to their credit with the enthusiastic help of the pre-DC staff to get it to a more unknown publisher that would do it right before the acquisition happened, and even giving Robertson a special allowance to his otherwise DC-exclusive contract in order to continue working on it. And this is not just because the title is a particularly sickening example of the Dark Age "superheroes are actually barely disguised Nazi monsters" trope that's been around since literally the early '80s (imagine taking Alan Moore's infamously apocalyptic ending to his early underground hit Miracleman and making that page 1 of issue 1 of The Boys), but it's just as much an indictment if not more so of the corporate psychopaths who own the intellectual property rights to such superheroes, intimating here that if we lived in a world where Time Warner owned not only the story, movie and merchandising rights to caped heroes but the actual real-time life rights of the human beings committing these acts of derring-do, the employees of Time Warner would essentially spend a billion dollars a year attempting to hide the psychopathic crimes such "heroes" would of course start immediately committing, the moment they realize that they have powers that can only be stopped by only a handful of other creatures on the planet, and a fully oiled corporate machine going around cleaning up whatever messes they choose to cause with such powers.
That leads to a world where the violent gangrape initiation ceremony of a new member of the Justice League of America, by this universe's version of Superman, Batman, Aquaman and the Martian Manhunter, is merely chapter one of a sprawling, always worsening look at the depths of the human race's capacity for depravity, as we quickly learn that the "super" powers of this universe are not caused by superior alien DNA or bites from radioactive spiders but rather a single "supersoldier" serum developed by a Nazi scientist in the 1930s, which makes it just a bunch of normal, everyday random people who end up becoming said superheroes in the universe of The Boys (around 200,000 of them now, by most people's estimates, although with the vast majority of them never making their powers publicly known, and the only "famous" superheroes being the ones who have managed to achieve corporate sponsorship); and it turns out that when you give superpowers to a bunch of normal, everyday random people, and not the "paragons of virtue" that DC and Marvel have made sure all their own superheroes over the years have been, those normal, everyday random people almost immediately become corrupt, perverted serial killers upon realizing that no one can stop them besides their equally corrupt, equally perverted superfriends. And this is not to mention creating the very real threat of a future government coup by the main multinational superhero conglomerate, Vought-American (a clear stand-in for real-life baddies Marvel-Disney), if their whims aren't catered to by an increasingly nervous Congress and White House (whose current VP, by the way, is a literally mentally challenged Vought stoolie).
That's led the CIA to quietly putting our titular Boys on the payroll, four equally violent psychopaths (plus our hapless Simon Pegg everyman reader-stand-in character) as a dirty-tricks squad being desperately used by the government as a secret behind-the-scenes check and balance against the growing dictatorial control of Vought-American, while a billion dollars are being spent by V-A at TMZ and TikTok to keep up the public appearance of these caped rapists' Dudley Do-Rite reputations, then eventually (in what many comics fans will consider the most cynical turn of the entire storyline) creating their own version of "Dark Age" comics when the Boys' shenanigans make it too impossible to keep their corporate mouthpieces' various horrific vices out of the public spotlight anymore, deciding to turn the vices into virtues so to not cause even the slightest interruption to the hamburger-selling that's been going on the whole time.
So in this, then, the 72-issue uber-plot going on here is an angry condemnation of the entire superhero comics industry, not just the intellectual premise of turning such Nazi ubermen into toothless rah-rah heroes, but the psychopathic mindset needed among the emotionally stunted man-child comics creators to pull off this premise, the glib incel glee among the industry's Comic Book Guy fans who made such material so popular in the '80s and '90s to begin with, the corporate middlemen who know exactly what kind of Nazi rape-porn twaddle they're peddling but simply don't care, and even you for thinking that a mean-spirited but ultimately toothless satire of the subject somehow counts as an effective antidote. It doesn't, as this series' infamously pessimistic climax proves, and now I'm more curious than ever to see how this ceaselessly piss-fueled indictment of the entire industry ended up getting adapted at the corporate-friendly Amazon, whose own employees are guilty of many of this story's most damning behavior. Certainly you shouldn't take this on unless you're ready for one of the most relentlessly bleak stories you've ever read in your life; but absolutely you should do so if you're ready for such, and big kudos to creators Ennis and Robertson for actually managing to finish it without slitting their own wrists somewhere around issue #54 or so. Do yourself a big favor and go into it with this attitude in mind.
September 14, 2021
Vought and Homelander decide to try and get rid of the Boys in a less direct way, by sending another team after them.... which doesn't work out to well at all for the other team.
After the events of the last volume, which tended to lean more towards the explicit and shocking, we get back to Ennis focusing more on building not only the world of the Boys in general, but the characterization of each team member. But before getting to that, we see Homelander and members of Vought sending another, lower tier team after the Boys - with a Nazi superhero named Stormfront as it's leader. It's a bloody and effective way of showing how dangerous the Boys are, especially Butcher. When he let's loose, he really lets loose - almost single handedly dismantling the team all on his own. But they are able to take down Stormfront with the help of their Russian friend from volume two: "Love Sausage", and a mini reenactment of WWII gets played out that feels good on a very primal and visceral level.
But then Ennis shifts gears and focuses on each of the other supporting members of the Boys to tell their origins. And each story, as exaggerated or fabricated as it may be, tells a lot about each character and how they approach their place on the team. It shows their origins and where they came from, how they changed and why, and why it's important to them that the work of the Boys gets done. It's a very enlightening and interesting, and it humanizes the characters so that they aren't just one note, crazy and violent characters. Excellent character work by Ennis.
This is definitely a highlight of the series so far. If you have been reading this far into the run, definitely make it to at least this one, as it really is why the series is so praised nowadays.
After the events of the last volume, which tended to lean more towards the explicit and shocking, we get back to Ennis focusing more on building not only the world of the Boys in general, but the characterization of each team member. But before getting to that, we see Homelander and members of Vought sending another, lower tier team after the Boys - with a Nazi superhero named Stormfront as it's leader. It's a bloody and effective way of showing how dangerous the Boys are, especially Butcher. When he let's loose, he really lets loose - almost single handedly dismantling the team all on his own. But they are able to take down Stormfront with the help of their Russian friend from volume two: "Love Sausage", and a mini reenactment of WWII gets played out that feels good on a very primal and visceral level.
But then Ennis shifts gears and focuses on each of the other supporting members of the Boys to tell their origins. And each story, as exaggerated or fabricated as it may be, tells a lot about each character and how they approach their place on the team. It shows their origins and where they came from, how they changed and why, and why it's important to them that the work of the Boys gets done. It's a very enlightening and interesting, and it humanizes the characters so that they aren't just one note, crazy and violent characters. Excellent character work by Ennis.
This is definitely a highlight of the series so far. If you have been reading this far into the run, definitely make it to at least this one, as it really is why the series is so praised nowadays.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 219 reviews