some_okie_dude27's review against another edition
Ennis 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.
crookedtreehouse's review against another edition
4.0
The idea of writer Garth Ennis sending the characters from The Boys to interact with a team made up of developmentaly disabled superheroes should set off alarm bells for anyone who prefers to stay away from schlocky comics. And while I certainly wouldn't call this collection subtle, Ennis has definitely reigned himself in. Not entirely, but a fair amount.
There's still the infantilization of one of the heroes, Tourette's used as a humor device (but mainly to point out another character being awful, I don't think you're meant to laugh at the character, just be angry at the character who laughs at him), and of course a potential rape scene, because Ennis.
While the surface story at the heart of this volume is Hughie conducting surveillance on a parody of DC's Legion Of Superheroes, this book is mainly about trust between The Boys, and trust between Hughie and Starlight. And, in that regards, this is a five star book. It's easy to see where every character is coming from, as they are all upset about being decieved while also deceiving the people they're angry at.
We also have the Believe festival from the TV show, even though this takes place much much later in the story. Like much of the transition between media, the TV version is much more affecting and well plotted. We don't need the joke about the main religious hero having a bunch of young sidekicks, and The Homelander pointing out that there's blood on their seats when they get up. We didn't need The Female getting revenge on a child by peeing on his lolapalooza. The only thing that's in the story that could have been interesting in the TV show is what The Homelander does to the Christians who win a chance to fly with him.
This volume and volume two are by far my favorites of the series, but this is the one I would recommend to more people, as you don't have to endure As Much of the hate speech (there's still some in this volume; massively toned down so that it's only the absolute worst characters saying it, but it's there).
There's still the infantilization of one of the heroes, Tourette's used as a humor device (but mainly to point out another character being awful, I don't think you're meant to laugh at the character, just be angry at the character who laughs at him), and of course a potential rape scene, because Ennis.
While the surface story at the heart of this volume is Hughie conducting surveillance on a parody of DC's Legion Of Superheroes, this book is mainly about trust between The Boys, and trust between Hughie and Starlight. And, in that regards, this is a five star book. It's easy to see where every character is coming from, as they are all upset about being decieved while also deceiving the people they're angry at.
We also have the Believe festival from the TV show, even though this takes place much much later in the story. Like much of the transition between media, the TV version is much more affecting and well plotted. We don't need the joke about the main religious hero having a bunch of young sidekicks, and The Homelander pointing out that there's blood on their seats when they get up. We didn't need The Female getting revenge on a child by peeing on his lolapalooza. The only thing that's in the story that could have been interesting in the TV show is what The Homelander does to the Christians who win a chance to fly with him.
This volume and volume two are by far my favorites of the series, but this is the one I would recommend to more people, as you don't have to endure As Much of the hate speech (there's still some in this volume; massively toned down so that it's only the absolute worst characters saying it, but it's there).
ria_mhrj's review against another edition
4.0
Wow, I got so angry when reading this volume! Always a good sign when you are shouting at characters as if they are real people. Some monumental stupidity featured in this volume but I continue to love it when Frenchie is on the page. I'm very curious as to what will happen next for The Boys.
littlemustard's review
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
luana420's review against another edition
1.0
A symbolic one-star because of my feelings of absolute raging hatred towards nice guy protagonist Wee Hughie by the time this volume ended.
The plot continues apace, with intrigue on the side of Vought-American rising to an admirable boiling point as regards Homelander's instability and resentment. The arc with the faux Legion of Doom is equal parts charming (their cluelessness) and tense (the truly horrifying not-Metamorpho they suddenly have to contend with). The art by Russ Braun is actually more pleasing to me than Darick Robertson's, so all in all, if you are not me and you had been enjoying The Boys up until now, you'll most likely keep enjoying it with this volume as well.
HOWEVER
When Hughie finds out what Annie had to do to join the Seven, he unleashes a tirade of misogynist invective before walking out on her in a huff. Now, the book suddenly invokes the voice of an omniscient narrator (a new stylistic trick that hadn't been done before at all) to tell us that "Hughie knew how wrong he was but he couldn't help himself" (paraphrased) seeing as how one of the men Annie serviced was A-Train, the notFlash who accidentally killed Hughie's fiancée.
Unless Hughie gets utterly fucking demolished in the next volume, and my boy Ennis assures us that he is wrong for being angry at any part of that situation that DOESN'T involve Annie blowing Robin's killer and him having an emotional response to that (and even then how the fuck was she gonna know), this series and indeed Ennis as a writer will get some serious fucking moral caveats in my mental registry.
I hope I don't have to put you in the Shane Black drawer, Garthy!
The plot continues apace, with intrigue on the side of Vought-American rising to an admirable boiling point as regards Homelander's instability and resentment. The arc with the faux Legion of Doom is equal parts charming (their cluelessness) and tense (the truly horrifying not-Metamorpho they suddenly have to contend with). The art by Russ Braun is actually more pleasing to me than Darick Robertson's, so all in all, if you are not me and you had been enjoying The Boys up until now, you'll most likely keep enjoying it with this volume as well.
HOWEVER
When Hughie finds out what Annie had to do to join the Seven, he unleashes a tirade of misogynist invective before walking out on her in a huff. Now, the book suddenly invokes the voice of an omniscient narrator (a new stylistic trick that hadn't been done before at all) to tell us that "Hughie knew how wrong he was but he couldn't help himself" (paraphrased) seeing as how one of the men Annie serviced was A-Train, the notFlash who accidentally killed Hughie's fiancée.
Unless Hughie gets utterly fucking demolished in the next volume, and my boy Ennis assures us that he is wrong for being angry at any part of that situation that DOESN'T involve Annie blowing Robin's killer and him having an emotional response to that (and even then how the fuck was she gonna know), this series and indeed Ennis as a writer will get some serious fucking moral caveats in my mental registry.
I hope I don't have to put you in the Shane Black drawer, Garthy!
rocketbebop's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5