Review - The Boys #32 (DE, 2009)
Okay - so I wasn't so kind to the other Ennis title this week. However, The Boys is no post-apocalyptic tale of when everything goes very very wrong. The Boys is a title that rarely gets it wrong, and this current arc, 'The Self-Preservation Society', is incredibly exciting.
The Boys, the small group of CIA-backed, non-costumed super-powered individuals who keep the costumed Heroes in check, are currently, for the first time in the titles run, on the defensive. The Superheroes are fighting back against the perceived arrogance and immunity that The Boys enjoy. So far, the Female has been badly beaten and isout of the picture. This time around, the super team 'Payback' has been despatched (as seen in The Boys: Herogasm #2) to deal with Butcher, Hughie, M.M and Frenchie.
It lives up to expectations - a bruising, bloody, incredibly tense battle, especially when Terror, Billy Butcher's dog, gets involved, and finds himself in peril. Visceral and rousing, this is how to stage a big bloody puch-up. If you read The Boys, and you know what Billy Butcher is capable of, then this issue delivers. This is his show, and the rest of The Boys (those that are functioning) have to step back (or in some cases, get carried away). Carlos Ezquerra does another great job with the panels, handling the bruising fight sequences with aplomb (what do you expect from a man who drew Judge Dredd for years?).
Annie is also in this issue, with a dig at the endless 'origin' iterations that seem popular in Superhero titles. Her outfit is what you might expect Ennis to imagine for her if he was the tailor to the Supes. Which in a way, he is.
Another brilliant issue, with a final panel that *damnit* makes me wish I waited for the trade, so I could read it right now.
2 comments:
A hero is only as good as the bad-guy they're facing. That's the inherent problem with "The Boys" right at the moment. First Ennis completely cops out with The Female's "death", and turns it into just another "oh, they were just BADLY BEATEN" comic cliche, and then he reduces his "#2 Superteam in the world" to a complete joke- just another bunch of losers that Butcher easily dispatches all by himself. There's ZERO excitement or drama in this book, because we know the alleged "good guys" will never, EVER have even the slightest problem beating the, uh, "bad guys". And that's the other problem: The Boys aren't really "good guys". Everyone in this title is scummy, vile, and evil, so it's hard to care who actually wins. I was rooting for Payback to kill a couple of them just so that SOMEONE would pay for being the kind of gigantic douchebag that every single character has been since Issue #1.
I agree that The Female situation seems to be a bit of cop-out. I thought she was not going to survive.
I don't agree that The Boys are scummy or evil though - I think that Ennis (who admits to having a problem with Superheroes and comic books featuring superheroes) clearly draws a line and on one side of the line are the good guys - the boys - and on the other side are the bad guys - the supes. The Superheroes do nothing good at all, they screw up, are self important and only want to satiate there only desires and lusts. I root for The Boys every time, and most of them have a reason to hate the caped ones.
I disagree also that there has been zero excitement in the book - the tension in this episode was palpable.
If you want me to go on one about an Ennis title, this is the wrong one. However, if you want to talk about 'crossed', well, we could be here for a while.
Thanks for commenting, Maven.
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