Category: Boys
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And what does Ennis do for the finish? Pretty much exactly what I figured he’d do. There’s nothing really new to it, except maybe some gesture of humanity from the corporate jerk, which makes one wonder why Ennis bothered. Darick Robertson comes back (with assists from Richard P. Clark). It makes sense, since Robertson created…
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For the last regular issue–there’s one more, but this one ends the plot line of the the final arc at least–Ennis does rather well. He doesn’t recover the series, however. He turns in almost a standalone. One wouldn’t have to read the previous thirty or forty issues to still get a good experience. One definitely…
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It’s a fast issue. Hughie gets to meet some mentioned, but never seen characters. Well, let’s just say Ennis should have gone the Vera and Maris route because doing a Lovecraft thing? Not the best scene. He can’t even make it funny when he tries. Ennis resolves two mysteries the series never needed solving. Then…
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I’d say another problem with Ennis’s big twist is how many twists does he really need for this comic book. He’s about to hit seventy issues–I’m not going to do the math, but his readers have dropped north of two hundred bucks on this series (especially since it’s so heavy on continuity–no jumping on late)……
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I don’t think I’ve ever quite read something like what Ennis is doing with The Boys. He’s making the reader feel bad about liking the comic. It’s a crazy thing, full of hostility. There’s also some other stuff. Some good stuff. Well, the one good moment where the Female finally talks. It’s an awesome moment,…
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The biggest surprise this issue–and the issue has three or four surprises, maybe five–has to be Ennis deciding to deport the Boys. Except Mother’s Milk. It’s a throwaway little bit, intended to show how Hughie is becoming more like Butcher, but it’s an unexpected complication. The other surprises? While Ennis hasn’t been foreshadowing them directly,…
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Ennis opens with the most exciting thing in the issue–only he doesn’t intimate there’s not going to be anything else exciting in the issue. He also doesn’t explain the scene. He just lets it play out, then goes back to the fallout from the previous arc. The Boys sort of break up this issue. They…
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And Ennis comes up with a huge surprise reveal–before teasing a surprise in the next issue. He doesn’t go as far with it as he could; he basically does a Brubaker. He reveals something in the characters’ history to change everything they knew and so on. He doesn’t do a full Brubaker though. I was…
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There’s so much talking. Ennis just has Butcher and Hughie standing around talking for what seems like six pages. They’re waiting at the White House for the big showdown, only there’s a secret they don’t realize–Black Noir is up to something and no one knows about it except Mother’s Milk…. And he decides to wait…
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Even though Braun gets loose every other page (or maybe even panel) and Ennis’s big finish for Hughie and A-Train flops, the issue works. Things are finally coming to a close and Ennis is working at a breakneck speed. There are lots of callbacks to better issues, whether it’s the stuff between Frenchie and the…
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I don’t know what’s going on with Braun’s art, but he gets positively cartoony at times this issue. It’s like he’s too enthusiastic with Ennis’s humorous moments, which mostly involve Butcher making a wisecrack. With Ennis trying to wind everything up, he’s dialed certain things back on The Boys. It looks a lot like the…
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The Boys is so far off the rails, it’s hard to even get excited about a decent issue anymore. And this issue’s decent. It’s not good or great, but it’s got a couple funny moments and Ennis doesn’t shortchange Mother’s Milk entirely–just partially. And there’s a funny bit where Ennis makes fun of the Teen…
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Once again, it’s very hard to determine whether Ennis had these plans for The Boys all along or if he rushed things along with contrivances. Because it sure feels like he’s rushing things along. Most of the issue is spent with the President, who’s sort of been a character but not one to run the…
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Ennis ends the series, his summing up of Butcher, with a quote from Unforgiven. He also includes a reference to himself in the comic, apparently when he was trying to get work at the superhero companies back in the eighties. Anyway, ending on a quote from Unforgiven just shows how little Ennis cares about this…
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Mallory shows up–the first time Robertson has drawn him–and the series becomes about what I expected in the second half. Sadly the first half mostly consists of Butcher reading his wife’s diary where she talks about the Homelander attacking her. The diary goes on and on for pages. Not sure why Ennis thinks anyone would…
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I have to give it to Ennis, he does come up with one hectic of a death scene for Butcher’s wife. I always assumed it was something similar to Hughie’s but no. Ennis and Robertson pace that sequence beautifully. The way Ennis gets there though, it has some problems. One of the things Butcher does,…
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Why am I reading this comic? It’s a family drama this issue–oh, wait, Butcher meets the greatest woman in the world and she totally changes his life with her patience and inner beauty. Of course her death would send him over the cliff–she doesn’t die here, it’s way too soon, but I do think Ennis…
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This issue is a bit of a summary nightmare. The opening stuff with the Falklands is okay, though Ennis has covered a lot of the same territory with Born. Butcher turns out to be a natural born killer, which should get him in more trouble than it does–and it might even do so, but Ennis…
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Besides the vaguely obviously device of Butcher narrating his tale to his dead father (in his casket, no less), Garth Ennis does a fairly decent job with this issue. In some ways, leaving Butcher a mystery–instead of giving him Butcher, Baker, Candlestickmaker (way too cute)–would have been better. However, given Ennis opens with Falklands War…
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Ennis can definitely still write great scenes. The Butcher “losing it” scene in this issue–it takes up the last three or so pages, but feels like a lot more–is amazing Ennis writing. Strangely, it comes in an otherwise weak issue. There’s a talk between the Boys and the Seven, just a talk, then Hughie going…
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Most of the “events” this issue are old items hinted at in some bug logs Hughie is reading. There’s a scene where he and Butcher continue investigating the crime, but it actually just confirms the suspicions they’ve had for two issues. It doesn’t develop anything, just confirms. Ennis is really treading water here…. Especially given…
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There sure is a lot of talking this issue. There’s Hughie and Annie talking–they talk a whole lot, all about their relationship’s current status, Hughie working for the Boys, Annie being one of the Seven. Wait, it actually sounds like a bunch of conversations Ennis has been writing for twenty issues or so. Then he’s…
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Ennis brings Hughie and Butcher back together in a criminal investigation. It’s very similar to one of the early Boys arcs. It’s straight investigation with a lot of lurid elements. The only big difference is there’s a little with the evil corporate guys and then something with the Seven. It might be the first time…
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I guess I shouldn’t be surprised Ennis, McCrea and Burns screwed up the finish. Ennis has had problems wrapping up arcs before (though he’s also had some awesome wrap-ups). The real surprise should be reserved for how much everyone screws up, each one of them. Ennis wraps up Mallory’s story, which gets a whole lot…
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Letting Mallory talk so much has an odd effect on The Boys. This issue is another long read, just because there’s so much information; Ennis covers from the end of World War II to 1985 in Mallory’s life. There are also the hints of Butcher’s deceptions, things Ennis and Mallory are both promising to reveal.…
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It’s another war issue and it’s a good one. Burns and McCrea continue to do excellent work; one knows Ennis can handle a good war comic, but the artists stepping up is nice to see. He wasted them on the goofy Boys stuff. Hughie is still listening to Mallory tell his story, only there’s nothing…
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Ennis finally gets to do not just an Invaders story, he also gets to do a war story in The Boys. It’s Mallory’s story, which he’s telling Hughie after Highland Laddie. Oh, and Annie’s around. She and Hughie still aren’t getting along, which is strange because I thought they were after Laddie. It’s a lot…
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First, a technical issue. The company woman who’s decided to get rid of the Boys and the Seven has a computer simulation running with both team’s head shots then an “accuracy” calculation. Except Braun goes for realism, showing the Mac taskbar… and the Photoshop app running. Pretty sure Photoshop doesn’t run military simulations, not even…
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Having Mallory just be some guy doesn’t pay off. Sure, it’s realistic enough, but why hide his face for forty issues. No reason he couldn’t show up. It’s not like he’s Butcher’s dad or Hughie’s or a clone of Frenchie. He’s just some old white guy. Ennis hiding him suggests he was trying to get…
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So it’s all setup for Ennis flashing back to the big first fight between The Seven and The Boys? With Butcher recounting the event to his dog, I’m not sure the Homelander is the only nutty one in the comic. The transition doesn’t go well at all–because Butcher doesn’t usually talk to Terror for this…
The Stop Button 