Sep 16 2007
The Boys TPB Vol. 1 (Garth Ennis & Darick Robertson)
The Boys Vol. 1: The Name Of The Game
Written by Garth Ennis
Illustrated by Darick Robertson
Covers by Robertson and Avina
DC Comics/Wildstorm & Dynamite Entertainment
Who watches the supers? Butcher, that’s who. Billy Butcher. An English gent employed by the CIA to keep an eye on all the horrible deeds that superheroes do when they are not on camera, or get away with when they are on camera simply because of the recognition. Butcher hates supers. And with a very good personal reason. And when he gets a chance to do some damage, whether it be stomping some superhero or pulling some of darkest humored pranks on them, Butcher and his team, known and feared as The Boys, are the best at what they do.
In the mid-nineties, Garth Ennis produced one of the most startling and blasphemous looks at Christianity with his absolutely perfect Preacher. Now, Ennis sets his eyes on tearing down the dogmatic beliefs in the superhero genre, destroying anything wholesome that can be associated with the term “hero,” and even eliminates the wide diversity of where all these supers originate from with one fell swoop of a word bubble. The first splash page of the first issue should give a hint at exactly what Ennis is going to do to superheroes, as a huge black boot comes smashing down on the already battered skull of a generic masked super, presumably killing him. His pen is a sharp as the words he puts to paper, and if you get too close, he will make you bleed. This is the bus we’ve climbed onto, with that mad Irishman Ennis at the wheel, a half bottle of drank Bushmill’s in his hand with full intentions of finishing it. [Read My Full Review at Geeks Of Doom]
