Ennis has his detractors who say he’s shallow and full of hate, and maybe that’s true, but I’m not a hater. I love Garth Ennis. I love his Punisher. I love Hitman. I love the few Spider-Man stories he’s written. I even love Crossed, as sick and demented as it is. So today, I’m paying tribute to one of his best series: The Boys. It’s crude, it’s violent, it’s profane, it’s explicit. It’s everything you’d expect from Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson.
But it also had heart, and the final issue was one of the best “final issues” of all time. But let’s start at the start.
The idea, “regular” people getting juiced up to patrol superheroes owned by big corporations and government entities, was at once familiar and fresh. And the first issue set the stage, and established our entry point through the eyes of Wee Hughie, perfectly…
At once darkly comical and emotionally gut-wrenching. Mourning his loss, Hughie is approached by Butcher.
And then, Butcher explains the thesis of the book.
He’s immediately established as the “moral center” of the book, but he’s off-center. Akilt. He’s neither hero nor antihero. He’s a realist in a world where atheists are right because there’s no God to save us from the powered people, but their wrong because the powered people have the powers of God.
And then of course there are all the colorful members of Butcher’s team. Many represent the most stereotypical, politically incorrect versions of various “types.” And the heroes they are trying to take down…
I’m not sure how dark I want my blog to be. The Boys is an incredibly dark comic. In issues 3 and 4, we learn that the Justice Leagues (or analogs of them, at least) are perverted rapists who essentially jump in female members by, well, jumping them. It’s very graphic.
The thing about other Ennis works like Crossed and The Pro is that he uses shocking images that are more explicit than just about any other non-porn comics out there, but it’s not always clear why he’s doing it. With The Boys, he’s mastered his craft. We understand the need for all this: He’s trying to show a dark underbelly to the brightly colored superheroes we’ve loved since we were kids.
I hope you’ll stick with me on this journey through every issue. You can follow the tag below.
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