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crookedtreehouse's review against another edition
3.0
A frustrating to rate collection. There are three storylines collected in this book: "Proper Preparation And Planning", "Barbary Coast", and "The Big Ride".
"Proper Preparation And Planning" is a three star setup for the final portion of the series. It moves the story forwards by giving us the perspective of a new character, and setting up some new status quos for the regular characters and then sharply undermines all of the changes. While hardly flawless, it's an exciting read, and really has you guessing what will happen yet.
And then Ennis kills all the excitement with another waste-of-time expository story about what a character was like before joining The Boys. The half issue worth of storyline is spread out in the four issue yawning "Barbary Coast" storyline. It's a crime how boring this is. Ennis writes excellent war comics but this flashback is incredibly obvious and also undermines a chunk of the very next volume of the story, which also focuses on Butcher's backstory. It's bad storytelling, and an absolute pacing-killer. One star, and it's because the art is good.
"The Big Ride" puts us back in the present storyline, and ups the stakes for the new character, and then everyone else. There are a ton of incredibly telegraphed story beats. So many that you end up missing a couple, and I, personally, missed the really important and obvious one. I do appreciate when a writer is so transparent with a major plot point that you miss it. I just wish this story had immediately followed "Proper Preparation And Planning" so I could have better appreciated this collection.
There's also a character having a mild breakdown that harkens back to "Get Some". It's slightly clumsy, but it helps refocus Hughie as a sympathetic character out of his element, as opposed to the colossal wanker he's been in the last couple of volumes, regarding his relationship with Starlight.
"Proper Preparation And Planning" is a three star setup for the final portion of the series. It moves the story forwards by giving us the perspective of a new character, and setting up some new status quos for the regular characters and then sharply undermines all of the changes. While hardly flawless, it's an exciting read, and really has you guessing what will happen yet.
And then Ennis kills all the excitement with another waste-of-time expository story about what a character was like before joining The Boys. The half issue worth of storyline is spread out in the four issue yawning "Barbary Coast" storyline. It's a crime how boring this is. Ennis writes excellent war comics but this flashback is incredibly obvious and also undermines a chunk of the very next volume of the story, which also focuses on Butcher's backstory. It's bad storytelling, and an absolute pacing-killer. One star, and it's because the art is good.
"The Big Ride" puts us back in the present storyline, and ups the stakes for the new character, and then everyone else. There are a ton of incredibly telegraphed story beats. So many that you end up missing a couple, and I, personally, missed the really important and obvious one. I do appreciate when a writer is so transparent with a major plot point that you miss it. I just wish this story had immediately followed "Proper Preparation And Planning" so I could have better appreciated this collection.
There's also a character having a mild breakdown that harkens back to "Get Some". It's slightly clumsy, but it helps refocus Hughie as a sympathetic character out of his element, as opposed to the colossal wanker he's been in the last couple of volumes, regarding his relationship with Starlight.
reillykid7's review against another edition
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
stiricide's review against another edition
2.0
Negative here for Butcher's ceaseless and pointless constant purposeful misgendering of trans characters. How does it serve him, other than being a total wanker to everyone, all the time, at all costs? He's so good at doing that effectively, doing in this instance just makes him seem more petty and less calculating than he actually is. The LGBTQ NPCs in this story are just that - they've done nothing to him, they don't deserve or invoke his very specific flavor of ire. Yet they get it, and they tend to get it worse, than the people Butcher has actual issues with.
I can't decide if it feels lazy or cheap, but either way, it's gotten beyond old. (And in 2011, there was really no reason for it.)
I can't decide if it feels lazy or cheap, but either way, it's gotten beyond old. (And in 2011, there was really no reason for it.)
babybabayaga's review against another edition
5.0
I rarely cry over a comic, but when I cried big, fat, sloppy tears. As Hughie said, . I did enjoy seeing some of the backstories of a few of the characters and the endearing interactions between The Frenchman and The Female. It's one of the wordier trades of The Boys, but also one of my favorites.
Spoiler
The Boys came back to find that Terror has been killed,Spoiler
he was such a "good wee dug"luana420's review against another edition
4.0
Garthy I'm sorry to have doubted you, as formerly despicable now humbled Hughie launches into a tirade against misgendering trans people somewhere near the end of this volume.
All of this, and we get a nice little WWII flashback adventure (gotta work those in somehow) featuring notCaptain America crushed by a tank and the amazing line "Wi' great power comes the inevitability of acting like a right fuckin' cunt".
All of this, and we get a nice little WWII flashback adventure (gotta work those in somehow) featuring notCaptain America crushed by a tank and the amazing line "Wi' great power comes the inevitability of acting like a right fuckin' cunt".
rocketbebop's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
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
miriamgpo's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5