Comic Corner: 'The Boys'

Garth Ennis, Darick Robertson “The Boys” #1-3
WILDSTORM COMICS (Out of 5)

It wouldn’t be wrong to say that “The Boys” is
what Garth Ennis does best: grotesque set-pieces, needless violence
and human misery played for laughs. Normally all this ““ as
with his seminal work “Preacher” ““ is underscored
with a deep appreciation for the human spirit. However, in the
three issues of “The Boys” released so far, there
hardly seems to be even a flicker. The story is straight from the
late 1990s glut of superhero deconstruction: a grimy group of
government agents tasked with keeping the increasingly careless
superhero community in line, by any means necessary. These
“means” usually involve excessive violence or sexual
violation by dog ““ sometimes both. The first issue introduces
the reader to Wee Hughie, a British bloke who loses his girlfriend
to the careless antics of a corporate speedster. Her death is as
graphic as artist Robertson can make it, and his tenure on Warren
Ellis’ “Transmetropolitan” certainly shows. The
mutilated body of Hughie’s girlfriend smashed against the
wall is expertly detailed. However, the potency of the image of
Hughie still clutching onto his girlfriend’s arms, even when
she’s not connected to them anymore, becomes lost under a
deluge of equally gratuitous violence. Encouragingly, Darick
Robertson’s art is expressive as ever. The defined features
of his characters express fleeting, conflicting emotions in a
single panel. Unfortunately the colorist is hardly up to the task,
often covering Robertson’s clean lines with badly blended
colors, while Ennis’ writing barely gives him anything to
work with other then the demand for more gore. With Brian K.
Vaughan’s “Y: The Last Man” winding to a close, I
was looking forward to a nice, long, plotty 60-issue maxi series
from one of comic’s best writers. But “The Boys”
misses the mark that made “Preacher” such a resounding
work.

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