Read this previous post to get background on my history with comic books. Suffice to say that I’m not reading a lot of new books right now and there’s only one that’s a monthly must-read for me: The Boys, written by Garth Ennis and (largely) illustrated by Darick Robertson.
The setting of The Boys is a world very similar to this one. Except in that world, there are superheroes. They are not a force for good, or even a benign presence; they are a mixture of violent incompetence and outright malevolence, working on behalf of dark corporate forces.
Our main characters, The Boys, are a super squad, sort of backed by the CIA, whose mission is to oppose superheroes and keeps them in check. (See this video of Ennis and this video interview of Robertson and Ennis.)
This is not the first anti-superhero comic book, obviously. It was back in 1986 when Watchmen questioned the idea of superheroes as a positive force. In fact, more than just suggesting that superheroes might be little more than costumed vigilantes or that civilians might fear or resent super-powered beings, Watchmen proposed that such figures would invariably be co-opted by the authorities or face extinction.
In The Boys, it turns out that the superheroes have secretly been manufactured by a giant military contractor (Vought-American) as the ultimate weapon; the “hero” thing is just a front and their comic book tales are a PR stunt and a revenue source.
The big thing that will keep you from reading this book (published since 2006 and currently up to 45 issues) is the violence and sex. And the foul language. It’s really graphic in terms of sex and violence. Worse than that, it takes a very dim view of humanity.
Although, at the same time, through the characters Hughie and Annie, it’s a bit like Candide, with innocents facing a world of horrors.
Ennis is known for being anti-superhero, although he’s said he finds them simply to be silly. If you look at the way Ennis portrays superheroes in his series Hitman (as seen here) or his one-shot comic The Pro (animated version here), he seems to find them to be either irrelevant to the real issues that mankind faces or a destructive force.
More broadly, Ennis is anti-authoritarian, taking shots at corporations, the government, organized religion. He celebrates the little guy, the common man. He’s best known for his long runs on Hellblazer and Punisher and for his 66-issue epic Preacher.
And yet, despite his feelings on superheroes, The Boys also shows us two competing sides, neither of which is very nice. Just in the last few issues, an air of real danger has been introduced and we can genuinely fear for the lives of Hughie and Annie. While not specifically laid out, the comic (especially the beginning of #45) is presenting the question: “Is everything justifiable in the pursuit of fighting evil?”
For example, the leader of the group, Billy Butcher, hates all “supes” equally. Hughie encounters a C-list team called “Super Duper,” made up of literally childlike innocents. This storyline is referenced in a recent interview:
Newsarama: We’re doing this interview as the SuperDuper/Malchemical storyline is just about to wrap. After many teams filled with, as you might say, right bastards, here’s a team that’s not so bad. Why include the seemingly more optimistic SuperDuper?
Ennis: I’d been thinking about the notion of real superheroes, or perhaps more accurately standard superheroes – the kind you find in 99% of superhero comic books. Develop powers, put on outfit, set out to battle evil. I was wondering where people like that would end up in the real world, and of course the answer is that they’d all be shot to death by criminals or police, or locked up in lunatic asylums. But what if they weren’t? What would a corporation like Vought-American do with such innocents, how would they make money off them?
But the comic also asks if the Butcher is justified in his single-minded violent vendetta against the supes, especially when it’s made clear that many of them are victims (For example, in the storyline “We Gotta Go Now,” the group G-Wiz is made entirely of people who were forcibly abducted as young children.). The Boys are up against horrible people, but does that mean that all their actions are honorable?
Ennis has said that the comic will run 70 issues in total, so by now we’ve past the halfway point and we should shortly be headed into the conclusion in about a year. I’ll be quite interested to see how it all resolves.
(Adam McKay, director of Anchorman, Talladega Nights and The Other Guys, has been signed to direct a film adaptation of The Boys. See coverage here and here. I can’t imagine it won’t suck, but that’s what books are for, right?)
One Response
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Vin The Comic Guy Says:
The Boys should begin as a movie, to be followed by a series filling in the blanks the movie doesn’t cover.
Garth Ennis isn’t the new Alan Moore, he’s the first Garth Ennis. He can really write on a myriad of subjects, and nothing says that more than his initial run on the Punisher.
Garth turns a no-trick pony into a compelling character. You tell me he can’t pen a good tale.