3 stars at times4 at othersHoping for 4+ star content in future volumesThis will be a tough one to rate. The story is entertaining and creative. The content is edgy, extreme, and sometimes might make you feel like it has gone a bit to far. I think my Goodreads friend L. McCoy said it best (Click for review): “This book tries a bit too hard with the NSFW content” I don’t mind NSFW content, and I kind of expect it with the more edgy comic publishers (Dynamite, Image, etc.) - in fact, sometimes it

I loved Preacher. Violent boy's own fantasy with a point and a moral heart. So I went into The Boys expecting it to be pretty brutal. And it is. And it's very well done pulp fiction - the heroes are conflicted and unpleasant, the villains are odious and corrupt, and the heroes inflict a world of violent hurt on the villains in superlative fashion. Well done!However, I personally couldn't get over the fact that it's so anti-women. There's exactly one pleasant female in the whole thing, and she di...

What an awesome concept this series is, there's an abundance of superheroes on the planet and not all of them are nice guys, in fact during their rescue missions they occasionally kill an innocent bystander or two. Hughie has found true love, unfortunately it's shattered irreparably when a superhero accidentally takes his girlfriend out while in pursuit of a villain (and that's not for a candlelight dinner). The Scot is approached by Billy Butcher and his dog Terror with an offer to join his tea...

So I'm here because of the television show - it introduced this great series to me. And I can honestly say, I've not seen this level of subversion in a comic since Watchman. And, dare I say this also, it has the potential to be greater than that masterpiece if it develops in the right way. I have a feeling this is going to get real interesting.

UPDATED: Just reread this book, and it's still ultra-violent fun, but it also has issues. No surprises, books like this kind of thrive on being over-the-top crude. I mean the book has an anal hamster joke. They drew it in meticulous detail. So yeah.The part that's interesting (upon reread) is how the book appeals to this sense of superiority within the reader that allows them to simultaneously look down on "heroes" and tradition comic book ideals of heroism while excusing or even justifying the

somewhere in the first third, one character warns another to watch out for the "flood of blood-flecked semen" that he would probably see in his new tenement digs. I read that phrase, cringed, and then realized that at some point I'd probably be shown that image. golly gee, I was right! The Boys is that kind of graphic novel and Ennis & Robertson are that kind of writer & artist. that repulsive image is a pretty good representation of the entire escapade. synopsis: dangerous superheroes live abov...

This was bananas!Its a superhero-mocking for sure and like picks up with Billy butcher and his team of mercenaries and their job: hunting the superheroes and we see the origins of the team in particular of this boy named Hughie and that story I know from the show and its f-ed up and well their mission to take down the heroes like The teenage Kix and we also see something brewing with JL-esque team The Seven and its leader Homelander and what happens when they meet? Its an interesting volume whic...

The first real dive into the world of comic-books. DEAR GOD I LOVE THIS STORY. Superpowered beings doing whatever they want? Yes, please. [it's super adult, super gritty, super mature, super dark, super raw. not for the faint of heart].

In Watchmen, Alan Moore posited the idea that superheroes were actually not quite as perfect, as motivated by a desire for truth, justice and so on and so forth as you might think, creating a frightening world where the most morally responsible character happened to be the one who was most openly psychopathic. In The Authority Vol. 1: Relentless, Warren Ellis took a stab at taking this one stage further and seeing what a world controlled by superheroes might be like, but turned back from exposin...

My friend Max coined a word. "Borfs." Since "nerd" has slowly been drained of most of its negative connotations and become a synonym for "obsessive and knowledgeable" (e.g., "Ask my friend about that band, he's a total music nerd"), we need a new word to describe a particular kind of person. He thought of this word while watching The Matrix, as he was wondering what kind of person thinks good guys wearing dark glasses and leather gunfighting bad guys in suits is cool. Borfs ... that's who.Borfs

Having just finished the recently-released conclusion of this series. I think it's safe to say that this is my favorite work by Garth Ennis to date. The start of the series is quick and sharp. It wastes no time, and brings you into the story without a lot of tedious backstory. (Since this series is 12 trades long, I'm going to spread my thoughts about the story over reviews of several of the books, rather than write one massive rambly review.)

Like Invincible I decided to re-read series I read as a kid to see if I got a better grasp on them. The Boys is one I remember fondly for being over the top and fucking insane. Well guess what? it still is years later. So you got the first few pages showing how superheroes can be pieces of shit. Watch as this poor character has his girlfriend body slammed into a wall and turn into a slush of blood. It's sad, fucked up, and you're like "FUCK THESE GUYS" and it only gets worse from there. Force Bl...

This is a mockumentary on the stereotype of superheroes. In this world they are also assholes, cruel and perverted but the public dont see this side of things. When they need tk be brought into line, The Boys are sent in. It takes awhile for the characters to be introduced, some having more exposure. The story is quite violent, gory and sexual in nature but Ennis tackles it with a tongue in cheek style. The art is great and compliments the gory violent nature. The pacing is quite slow initially

Apparently Garth Ennis hates superheroes and decided to show it in this comic book about a bunch of people dressed in black who cuss a lot and torment lame caricatures of superheroes. This is the kind of weakly-written tripe made for teenagers who still think swearing and explosions of blood are the height of artistic achievement.Oh, oh but wait! The heroes are jerks! In fact they're almost entirely depicted as violent degenerates or greedy elitists who don't care about the people they serve - a...

Pictures of perfection, as you know, make me sick and wicked - Jane AustenPersonally, I like a good hero. I have several books about sweet and noble people doing the right thing that I keep for rainy and depressing days. They cheer me right up. But I also get how stories about goody-two-shoes are sickening, and make you want to force the characters into real situations where they have to admit that they're not perfect.The Boys is a superhero story seen in the dark mirror of The Snow Queen. It is...

In a corporate financed and owned superhero dominated America only two people really stand in their way - one of them is the President of the United States, the other is CIA Black Ops specialist Billy Butcher. This volume introduces Butcher and his team 'The Boys', the major supergroup 'The Seven' and the lay of the political climate. An Ennis' tour de force of dark violence, near-explicit sex and fucking foul language, all underlined with some great dark humour. You might've watched the quite g...

Next to the super-earnest DC comics I've just been slogging through in an effort to branch out of my Marvel-and-indie bias, this Boys book knocks my socks off! Somehow I've forgotten how laugh-out loud funny, vile and imaginative Ennis is - and paired up with the incredible gonzo art from Robertson, this is gold-plated entertainment for me!I'm now frankly embarrassed that I somehow put three Boys volumes on a shelf for two years and haven't been devouring this immediately. Who's been keeping thi...

GODDAMN this is DARK. I fkn LOVED IT.The art is detailed and dark and pulls no punches. It's graphic and 100% Not Safe For Work. (Seriously, if your boss walks past when the nasty is going down, you're gonna get a serious talking-to.)The story itself takes the superhero trope and flips it on its head - these mofos have been doing whatever they like in the name of 'saving the world' but now it's time for Butcher to put together a squad that can keep these a-holes accountable.There is sex, murder,...

Who watches the watchmen, in this comic? The Boys. And the supes are as far as I can tell all stupes, jokes. This is really raunchy, a sort of satirical comedy about superheroes, and pretty funny. A comical bulldog is featured. Sometimes it settles down for a bit from the sex and violence and you get to see a warmer side of a couple of The Boys, but that's really just to give you a breather from the laughs. I was surprised I liked it as much as I did.

Review of all 12 volumes. Simply terrible. It has a somewhat interesting premise, but squanders it almost immediately. For all its claims to be a new type of superhero comic, it adheres to the worst tropes of the genre -- sexual violence against women (and fridging of women) as backdrop and motivation for male characters, gratuitous nudity for nothing more than titillation, repeated use of racial and homophobic slurs to make characters "edgier", etc. Even if you ignore this (and you shouldn't),