Writer: Garth Ennis
Artist: Darick Robertson
Publisher: Dynamite

Two of my favourite comics of all time are the Garth Ennis-written Preacher, and the Darick Robertson-drawn Transmetropolitan. So, naturally when DC announced that Ennis and Robertson would be doing a book for it’s Wildstorm imprint, entitled The Boys, my head somewhat exploded.

The story takes place in present day, and follows The Boys, a team of CIA-type agents led by Billy Butcher, who’s job it is to keep an eye on the superhero community. The Boys are tasked with keeping the “Supes” in line, by any means necessary. Sometimes this means public humiliation, other times, savage beatings. One way or the other, this book promised to “out-Preacher, Preacher” according to Ennis.

When issue #1 hit the stands, I greedily devoured it. Then I was shocked 5 issues later, when DC abruptly canceled the series at issue #6. It seems that the anti-superhero themes of the book weren’t sitting well with the folks at DC, and just like that The Boys were out on their ear. I don’t blame DC for making the move they did. They treated the creators very well, allowing them to retain all the rights for the book, but as a fan, I was crushed.

Enter Dynamite, and a classy move by DC to allow Robertson to continue working on the book in spite of his DC-Exclusive contract. Dynamite picked up The Boys and quickly re-issued the first 6 issues as a trade paperback, and have published every wonderful off-colour, uncomfortably violent issue since, now numbering 17.

The Boys is all the best parts of Preacher meshed with the best parts of Transmetropolitan, and ground to a fine paste underneath an industry that once followed a “comic’s code.” The stories are violent and funny as only Ennis could write them, and Robertson’s art is so wonderfully disturbing and beautiful that it makes the perfect match to Ennis’ brutal writing style. These two manage to create a world that simultaneously makes the reader squirm with disgust, and laugh out loud. And no matter what, it makes you smile.

The Boys also deals with a lot of Superhero cliche’s like superhero resurrection, marketing strategies, and primarily what might become of a person who did develop superpowers, but not the Kal-El-like moral structure to do what’s right with them. Essentially, the theme of the superpowered beings in The Boys is “With great power comes great responsibility… and fame and money and women (and men), and all the trappings of super-celebrity.”

The Boys is a look into the seedy underbelly of Superheroing, and it’s one of the best books on the market!

-JM

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Tags: Ennis, Indie Book, Preacher, Robertson, The Boys, Transmetropolitan

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