The Boys is about a group of…, well, I almost wrote “regular, old humans,” but “non-super-powered humans” is a better description, who take on the role of watchmen to the super-powered humans of their Earth.  And there needs to be watchmen on this Earth, because the so-called heroes in this universe are little more that super-powered assholes.

The central premise of the book is that super-powered humans, if they existed, would behave as badly as any other human.  That is to say, apparently, that they would entertain children at the local hospital in order to steal drugs while there; would celebrate putting “the Fearsome Foursome back in Riker’s” by heading off to the nearest brothel;  and would require the new recruit to give good head before becoming a full-fledged member of  team.  I’d hate to know what it is that the Fearsome Four do in order to be considered as “villains” on this planet.

Now, I don’t want to sound like a prude.  I didn’t not like the book because of the cynical view it takes, or the fact that it has gratuitous sex and violence.  I did not like the book because it was a) not that well written, and b) not well drawn.

The Boys is a mixture of black comedy, satire and drama.  I don’t think this is an easy mix to pull off well, though Ennis himself abso-fucking-lutely nails it in The Pro, which is maybe why he thought it might work in The Boys.  Unfortunately, for me at least, I found it hard to make the transition from watching the lead Boy fucking his government contact (for some reason) to giving a shit on the next page about the main characters dead girlfriend.

And that fucking is hard to understand.  Throughout the book, there is gratuitous and graphic sex.  Again, I didn’t care about the sex as such, but it was really jarring as it added about, oh, zero percent to the story.  I felt the whole time like I was being treated like a 16 year old nerd, looking for any source of titillation.  Which maybe was the intent.  My friend tells me that these books apparently sell well.

As for the art, I honestly can’t believe that this was the same person that illustrated Transmetropolitan.  Transmetropolitan is an amazing piece of work; this is uneven, to say the least.  And let me get this off my chest:  choosing to base the appearance of the main character of the book on Simon Pegg was an absolute gigantic mistake.  Nothing against Simon Pegg;  but every time I saw that character, it felt like I was reading a comic book adaptation of a movie, rather than an original piece of art.

All in all, The Boys is less than satisfying.  In my opinion, the theme is done much better in The Pro, and I would recommend picking that up instead of this.

So, I think that’s the rule I’m going with, for now.  No reviews of shitty books, UNLESS we read them for the club, which will have all its selections reviewed.

Hypothetically related posts:

1. Planetary, Vol. 1: All Over the World and Other Stories
2. In The Shadow Of No Towers: A First Impression
3. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art

In the future (as now), you can’t live in The City without money, so Spider needs to scare up a job in order to get an apartment and news-feeds so he can write.  He manages to convince an old colleague to hire him to write for his newspaper and starts investigating his first story, The City’s growing transient problem (which is brilliantly not what you think – or is it?).

Transmetropolitan is a fantastic Warren Ellis story – brash, vulgar, anarchic, head-shaking stuff – and Darick Robertson does a great job on the art.  I have come to this party regretfully late (I only picked it up this year) but I am definitely going back to that well for a longer drink.

Hypothetically related posts:

1. Planetary, Vol. 1: All Over the World and Other Stories
2. Planetary, Vol. 2: The Fourth Man
3. Y: The Last Man, Vol. 2: Cycles