Category: Boys
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Ennis brings back a little of the series’s jovial spirit (jovial in a disturbed sense, of course), but not much of it. He splits the issue between the Boys as they recover from the events of the previous issue and the evil company guys. The issue starts with an entirely unexpected, awful moment, but Ennis…
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I think I reread the finish to this issue five times. You want to go through and pick out the people dying so you can enjoy it. Ennis never did find a story for this arc. It’s seven issues to have a brief conversation between Butcher and the evil corporate. The whole G-Men thing is…
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Hughie disobeys orders to try to help the G-Wiz, which doesn’t go well for them. It also doesn’t go well for the reader because Higgins is back on the art and he’s bad. He’s bad when he’s just doing regular scenes (he draws Butcher like a hobbit at one point) and he’s even worse for…
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Yeah, once again… not entirely sure why Ennis is dragging out this arc. Mother’s Milk’s investigation is downright interesting–the G-Men kidnap kids and shoot them up with the compound to turn them into G-kids or whatever–but there’s nothing else in the issue. Butcher and Hughie both have Saint Patrick’s Day adventures. Hughie’s with the G-Wiz…
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I’ll never complain about Robertson being lazy on The Boys again. Actually, I probably will, but I sure do miss him this issue. John Higgins fills in and, while he can handle a lot of the content, he misses the nuance to some of it. He draws Annie like any other bimbo comic book blonde.…
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There have been insightful parodies of Superman and Batman before–Ennis has done them in The Boys–but his take on Professor X is something unexpected. This whole “G-Men” arc is unexpected, but Ennis has an observation about Professor G I didn’t see coming. X-Men keep resurrecting because Professor X is a nut. Obviously, that observation isn’t…
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At first, I was going to concentrate on Ennis using Animal House as the model for his X-Men teenage team knock-off. I haven’t read a teen X-Men book in a while, but I can’t believe Marvel would ever have the stones to do it so honestly. The knockoff scenes are funny enough (and very self-aware),…
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Well, Ennis gets to ripping on Marvel and, wow, does it ever go well for him. He goes for the X-Men, which I didn’t expect. There’s a lot about their popularity and the number of teams and so on. It’s all quite well-done. There’s a definite change in tone (from DC to Marvel)–the Boys have…
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I’m not sure I get the point of Annie having to fend off a rape attempt from one of her teammates. Sure, it makes her closer to Hughie–and the Wonder Woman chick–but Ennis cliffhangs with Butcher finding video of her first assault. It feels more like he’s trying to fill pages, especially since there’s very…
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The Boys has been gross, it’s been mean, it’s been disturbing, but Ennis is at his most relentlessly depressing here. The superhero team tries to stop the last plane on 9/11 to disastrous results. There’s not even humor to the “funny” parts, because it’s just too much. Ennis apparently set out to make an event…
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Ennis continues his recounting of superheroes in Boys world. It goes reasonably well–Butcher gets laugh during his chat with the Superman guy–but Ennis is too obvious with some of the other stuff. He’s got Annie in trouble with one of her teammates, only she doesn’t know it yet. Foreshadowing! Maybe it’s Robertson. His quality is…
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Ennis opens with a war story–well, at least a few pages of one–and it’s nice to see he and Robertson doing it. Ennis’s zeal for the genre (along with his cynicism) play well in The Boys‘s flashback, as the Legend tells Hughie all about the history of superheroes. This issue covers until the Vietnam War…
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It’s a little more traditional issue of The Boys. More traditional because Ennis returns to the series being about Butcher and Hughie, which he’s been moving away from a little. There’s still the other stuff, he just focuses on them for the finish. The cliffhanger resolution is good–Ennis actually paces it over about half the…
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Ennis is a funny, funny man. Even when he’s being cruel, he’s funny. He’s also come up with a good way–maybe–to excuse Hughie for killing that awful teenage superhero again. The teen hero is now a zombie and pitiful, but Ennis figured it out. The issue’s mostly split between Hughie and Annie. She’s spying on…
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Something about the Frenchman this issue makes me wonder if he’s supposed to be some kind of homage to Steve Dillon. Robertson draws him, in his big moment–the Frenchman’s first in the series–with a very Steve Dillon-esque nose. He and the Female get a lot of time this issue. The less nice way of saying…
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Lots of stuff going on here. Some of it is setup, some of it is cleanup. Butcher sees his lady friend from the CIA–the dog does do something hilarious, even if Robertson doesn’t focus on him like he used to–while Annie (the Christian Supergirl stand-in) has a crisis of faith and Hughie gets a secret…
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Ennis doesn’t go for big action in the arc’s finale. He gives Hughie and the Russian guy a little adventure, then goes for humor when bringing in the rest of the team. The Frenchman does get some time, but the Female could have taken the arc off. Ennis just doesn’t have any use for her.…
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For most of this issue, Peter Snejbjerg fills in on the art and it completely changes the tone of the book. It’s most obviously with Hughie, who Snejbjerg gives wide Eisner eyes. The Boys becomes more emotive and a lot more fun. It’s particularly interesting during the dramatic finish, when Hughie’s the only primary cast…
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Ennis continues the quiet approach with the Russia story. Besides a bit of violence–and nowhere near the previous issue’s–there’s not much sensational. The Boys is calming down, with Ennis focusing on how the group operates. I don’t think Mother’s Milk has ever had so much to do and he’s just out asking questions here. The…
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Ennis sends The Boys to Russia, which proves exactly what the series needs. He’s able to emphasize the characters while introducing the new material. Since they’re getting the information at the same time as the reader, the expository stuff is very smooth. Robertson tones down the sensationalism too. The reason for the Russia visit is…
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Robertson really drops the ball this issue. I mean, Ennis still gets some bounce out of it, but Robertson’s art is so lazy I went back to the credits page to make sure it’s him. He’s really loose with his lines, his perspective and his placement. The Female gets lost at the beginning and I…
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Ennis ups the absurdly “adult content” level of the series here, ending the issue on a scene both hilarious and uncomfortable. It sort of hides the fact he’s only got five scenes in the issue. He brings together his two story threads–the Boys and TekKnight–and then abandons the TekKnight one. Instead Hughie gets a scene…
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So the Female and the Frenchman are the comic relief and Mother’s Milk is the revelatory exposition. M.M. does have some character otherwise, but not a lot. The situation works–supporting cast and main cast–but Ennis doesn’t even bother to disguise it. The Female and the Frenchman are just here this issue so readers don’t forget…
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Ennis has worked out his pacing issues. He splits the issue between The Boys figuring out their next case and the Batman analog confessing he’s compulsively raping them (mineral and animal). His first issue away from Wildstorm–and DC–Ennis really seems to enjoy sticking it to DC. The Batman analog is hilarious and rather mean-spirited. Of…
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Lots of talking in Ennis’s finish for this arc. Lots and lots of exposition, particularly from Butcher. It’s not bad talking, there’s just a whole lot of it. Butcher’s a fun character, but Ennis hasn’t made him worth spending time with when he’s just rambling. He’s not funny enough and his friendship of Hughie doesn’t…
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Ennis brings together his two plot threads–Hughie and Annie–at the beginning of the issue. It’s funny how Ennis can write a more sympathetic Christian nincompoop than anyone else. He’s also able to sell their meeting as honest and necessary. It feels right, since the two are just bouncing the same ideas off each other. It’s…
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Yeah, Ennis is definitely writing for the trade. He finishes this issue with a little joke he started in the last one. On the first or second page. It wouldn’t have any context if you were reading it a month apart. This issue continues the split between Starlight and the Seven (the Justice League stand-in,…
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I wonder if Paul Levitz got all upset over this issue of The Boys or if it was something else. Regardless, I’m ahead of myself. But there’s some forced prostitution here and it seems like something someone would get upset about. I love how Ennis effortlessly demonizes superheroes. There’s a real charm to it. The…
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Ennis introduces the rest of the team this issue, but without exactly putting the team together. He juxtaposes these introductions against Butcher trying to recruit Hughie. He also gets The Boys‘s first huge laugh. More accurately, he and Robertson get the first huge laugh. Without Robertson’s art, Butcher’s dog’s face wouldn’t be so perfect. As…
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There’s nothing visually fantastic in this first issue of The Boys. While Garth Ennis does write little asides–mostly from Butcher–deriding the superheroes, it’s Darick Robertson does all the heavy lifting with the visual implications. Robertson’s settings are hyper-realistic and occasionally gleefully mundane. The Boys establishes its reality feel immediately. Ennis splits the issue between Butcher…
The Stop Button 