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olichoreno's review against another edition
1.0
This is now a series of 3 issues (counting No. 10) of prequels, where the story refuses to move forward, little has happened since Herogasm, which seems so far the last title to bring significant changes in the plot. Now investigating the past of a guy who is not even among the main characters.
genmegusta's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- 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
4.0
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
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".