The Boys

Today I thought I'd talk about how great Garth Ennis is. I picked up his latest opus The Boys recently and it destroys almost everything else I'm reading right now. The story follows a group of "boys" (and one girl) that basically go after superheroes. Well, go after is putting it lightly - they fuck their shit up! In The Boys, the supes run the show, but sometimes they go over the line and innocent people get hurt or worse.

The first issues introduce us to this quite well. Hughie - the protagonist of the story and basically modeled after Simon Pegg from Shaun of the Dead - is in the park with his girlfriend when a supervillain's body is hurled right into her. Hughie is still holding onto her hands when her body is smashed up against the wall from the villain that collided into her. The superhero responsible, an arrogant fuck named A-Train, goes about it like it was an accident. Meanwhile, this poor girl's body parts are everywhere and Hughie's just lost the love of his life. This incident sets up the rest of the story, as he joins up with a CIA-sponsored group led by Billy The Butcher. Along with Mother's Milk, Frenchie and The Female, The Boys are born (or reborn as it turns out).

What I love about this comic, and pretty much all of Ennis' work that I've read up to this point, is the way he takes the most sacred parts of our culture and tears them to shreds. He did it with religion in Preacher and he does it again with superheroes in The Boys. Nothing is ever good and pure with this guy. Superheroes are basically arrogant, irresponsible, sex-crazed, money-driven assholes. They're living the good life, and can get away with pretty much anything. Rather than being driven by the pursuit of truth, justice and all that bullshit, their motivations are rather base. And the ones that do fight for the sake of helping others are deluding themselves.

My favourite subplot of the series so far involves Annie January aka Starlight, a Christian girl that belonged to a wannabe group of superheroes before being accepted into the ranks of The Seven (a twisted version of the Justice League I'm guessing). But rather than being upstanding individuals like Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, these guys are driven purely by their cocks. Her initiation is basically a gang-rape, she's forced to wear a more revealing costume to please The Seven's corporate sponsors, and is essentially shit on by her fellow capes. Instead of fighting real bad guys or even helping people in disaster situations, she's relegated to cleaning up messes on the Seven's headquarters (think JLA watchtower). It's a humiliating ordeal, and causes her to question her faith and herself.

Ennis is great at tearing down our preconceived notions of what it means to be a superhero. Just because an asshole puts on a cape, doesn't mean he's not an asshole.

The Boys contains most of Ennis' usual dark humour, graphic sex and violence. If you liked Preacher and his run on Punisher, you'll love this book. There's the usual batch of Ennis villains - corporations, politicians, un-checked male ego - but he always finds a way to spin these devices and make them feel fresh. If you thought Wanted was good, read this.