I'm having very bad luck with comics this year. First "Saga", then "Invincible", and now "The Boys". All of them had interesting stories to tell and maybe if I stuck with it they would've been worth the time eventually, but they each rubbed me the wrong way in one way or another.
With "The Boys", it was the relentless chasing after dark/edgy material that annoyed me. It seemed like every character (except the two innocent newcomers) was introduced with some sort of twisted, selfish, violent sexual act.
I don't necessarily mind dark content...as long as it's serving the story, as long as I care about the characters. The Sandman's "24/7" is *super* dark, but Neil Gaiman took the time to introduce everyone - show us their fears and desires, make us root for (or against) them. I don't care about anyone in "The Boys". They're just a bunch of gross, evil people making each other miserable and we barely get into why they hate each other so much.
I watched a few scenes from the TV adaptation of the story, and it looks like they've refined story quite a lot. Some of the evil comes out more as a slow build, which adds tension. Some characters are made a little more charming, and with a more coherent moral code. I'd rather read that story. ( )

The crassness and shock value has to be satirical right? Its a bit much, and I generally have a pretty high tolerance for that (I enjoyed the heck out of Preacher). If this series finds its comedic voice, it has potential but this collection didn't do it for me. ( )

Not having all the action I would've wanted, this first chapter still manages to introduce its characters and themes flawlessly while starting to give us a taste of The Boys filthy and profane humour. ( )

Garth Ennis can rot in hell. I used to be a huge fan of his in the late 1990's, when I was around 20 years old. This is the first time I've read him since about Y2K, and, well, I grew up and he didn't. He still writes like he's 14 years old. The idea of The Boys is wonderful: people taking down superheroes who treat the world like their playground. But my god, Garth is homophobic as hell. His favorite jokes are the kind involving two men sleeping together. In this book, a superhero is forced to leave a team because he's gay. That's such bullshit. That's not the America we live in anymore. The world has changed, but Garth Ennis hasn't. And when he's not being homophobic, he's being awful towards women and writing terrible sex jokes.

Ennis has talent. I'd never say otherwise. But until he grows up, I won't be reading him again. ( )

I recently watched The Boys on Amazon. It takes the basic idea that if you give a number of average people supernatural powers, a good number of them are going to call all sorts of wrong--even the good guys. So if the good guys are bad, who watches them?

And--before it was a TV show, it was a graphical novel! One absolutely chock full of the same schocking language (Butcher to his dog: fuck 'em), violence (slightly less), and sexual content (much earlier) as the show.

For the most part, they're both good--in the actually terrible sense of the word--but for now I prefer the show. The book feels like it tries to cram in too much too quickly. Almost two full seasons in a single volume. Curious to see what happens though.

How otherwise does it compare? (Potential spoilers, but I tried to avoid them).



I miss the show Huey. He felt more like an everyman in over his head. This one is more of a conspiracy nut.



A point on super powered individuals.



Homelander works, but Annie, I liked a lot better from the show. I think I missed that her name was Annie January. Weird surname.



That's a neat bit of worldbuilding. They don't really explain what happened, but it shows just how screwed up the world has gotten--and people just have to go on living with it.



Oh Annie. So innocent and in for such a rough time. In the show it's only the Deep who forces himself on Annie; in the graphic novel, it's several of them, including Homelander. Again, I think I like the show better here. It's more a slow burn, making each of the characters broken and terrible in their own right.



One of the things that was pushed back and changed in the show. Compound V is still there and similar, but I'm not sure I like how they've done it in the book. Giving the Boys the ability to go hand to hand with supes ... kind of defeats the point.



Oh Butcher. To some extent, he's not that wrong about Americans in general. But it's quite a way to say it. And people are people no matter where you are.



Oy. And people close their eyes to it I bet.

I am still curious where it goes from here though! ( )