Stephanie Kay
May 11, 2008, 08:05 pm
<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/covers/dynamite/boys18.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/covers/dynamite/boys18t.jpg" alt="The Boys #18" hspace=10 align=left></a> Reviewer: Stephanie Kay, children_of_paradise@hotmail.co.uk
Story Title: "Good For The Soul", Conclusion
A rite of passage. Garth Ennis style.
Writer: Garth Ennis
Artist: Darick Robertson
Colorist: Tony Avina
Letterer: Simon Bowland
Cover by: Robertson & Avina
The Boys created by: Ennis & Robertson
Published by: Dynamite Entertainment (http://www.dynamiteentertainment.com/hemlines/)
For Mature Readers
Contains Light Spoilers
The Boys is a strange comic to read, and an even stranger one to write about. There is so much extreme content crammed into its pages that it’s hard to actually make (what I would think is) an ‘accurate’ analysis about what the hell is going on half the time. All those labels used by people elsewhere including ‘disturbing’, ‘gratuitous’, ‘misogynistic’, ‘misandronistic’, ‘homophobic’ are absolutely pointless in criticisms of this comic - on some level it really does not give a damn beyond the idea that every person is capable of monstrosity. It’s a throwaway world gone completely mad, and yet worryingly it’s still very similar to our own.
However The Boys is also one of Ennis’ most unsettling pieces of work, with a surprising amount of detail and imagery in it. Yes it has the ‘out-do-Preacher’ crazy content, but what is strange is the mockery lying underneath it. Sometimes it can come across as dark comedy, satirical or playful and other times it’s just comes across as dark. Dark and quite nasty. So not so long ago, I was considering dropping the title, mainly because I was unsure what this comic was aiming to achieve - it felt like it was pandering to those just seeking the outrageous and shocktastic, and in danger of only being mentioned in those discussions which began with ‘do you know what the most f**ked up comic on the mainstream US shelf is?’ Had it gotten a little repetitive? Heaven forbid the day comes when we describe something like The Boys as ‘repetitive’.
But my little quibbles have certainly taken a back seat for the time being, because issues #17 and #18 are probably my favourite thus far. Arguably for the first time in the series, we actually get something resembling a little ‘heart’. A bleeding, gooey and irrepressible heart, but a heart nonetheless.
Issue #18 marks the end of the ‘Good For The Soul’ arc, which has primarily followed Hughie’s developing relationships outside the central team (with Annie and Jamie), and has opened up a more light hearted and comical approach to the comic. Hughie it seems has to finally contend with the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar stage of Hamster-gate. Some things in this comic need to be read to be believed. Oh and he seems a little emotionally sensitive after his sexual encounter with Annie, aww yeah, wasn’t that a memorable ‘first time’.
‘Annie’, known to readers also as ‘Starlight‘, is the battered newbie hero of The Seven who is understandably still very fragile (too) after experiencing blackmail initiated rape, and continual belittling from team-mates. And in a style straight out of Last Tango In Paris Hughie knows nothing of her background and she knows nothing of his. Okay actually we’re in no doubt about Annie/Hughie’s compatibility as a pair, the problem is that the relationship itself could have very volatile ramifications once it’s revealed to everybody else.
Issue #18 does though finalise the transitional period for both characters. What had made Annie a little inaccessible to me as a female reader was the ‘battered wife syndrome’ she’d been clinging to since she joined The Seven. And #18 shows perfectly how the ‘if you can’t beat them join them’ mentality needles its way in if you aren’t careful. Makes you wonder what Queen Maeve was like when she first joined. Annie’s walkover personality is beginning to alter slowly, and though she’s worried about turning into one of ‘them’, she’ll soon be worrying about a helluva lot more.
These past two issues have flawlessly paralleled Annie and Hughie, and how they represent similar facets in their respective groups - both having reservations about the tactics and ideology employed, both being somewhat naïve and innocent, and not aware of the possible grim outcome of their relationship. Robertson’s cover to issue #17 was wonderful in how it effortlessly encapsulated that. At current, it’s nice to appreciate their tentative almost slightly geeky romance - which they both understand is complicated but not knowing the full reasons to ‘why’ it is. They are certainly the most pure hearted in the comic (with the exception of perhaps Mother’s Milk), and you do genuinely root for their wellbeing.
<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/covers/dynamite/boys17.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/covers/dynamite/boys17t.jpg" alt="The Boys #17" hspace=10 align=right></a> The Boys does also present a very acute warping of masculinity, femininity and sexuality through them. It was almost amusing reading reviews of issue #17 where many male readers were so ‘disgusted’ by the morning-after result of Annie and Hughie’s intimate encounter, that you’d think they had just read something more disturbing than The Rape of Nanking. I sense a clear joke being played on them as well as embarrassing our poor couple to the core. The menstrual blood phobia is a slightly odd phenomena but Ennis managed to execute it with an unusual good natured aplomb. And Butcher, Annie doesn’t need a calender - if only you appreciated her stress overload, it would make any cycle irregular.
And what seems paramount to Hughie’s rite of passage is the continued motif of ‘fluid’. As Germaine Greer once said - you aint nothing until you’ve tasted menstrual blood. There’s a thought to ponder on.
This issue plays the fluid analogy up further, as Hughie’s ethics and moral conscience get put through the mincer - the poor guy is so amazingly apologetic to some scumbag quasi-zombie’s unintentional murder, that it brings him to tears. And in what is Robertson and Avina’s most successful sequence this issue, BC responds by urinating all over Hughie’s apartment floor. Nothing though, and I mean nothing, comes between a man and a rescued hamster. Hughie stands his ground, rite of passage completed! Poor Jamie has suffered more than anything else in this comic, and boy that is really saying something. It’s a brilliant yet thoroughly bizarre moment for Hughie, and one that may be mentioned in several end of year comic articles.
There’s a lot of intriguing elements also cropping up concerning the general landscape of The Boys vs. The Seven, and I’m hoping for more insight into The Frenchman and The Female, who still remain the pieces of dynamite in The Boys. For a comic which could have been accused of being constructed on explicit sequence after explicit sequence, The Boys is showing that it’s not just a one-trick pony, and could become extremely multifaceted. This issue in particular was a stellar continuation of the one which came before it, and featured a very insightful development of its Simon Pegg lookalike. Above all else though, it’s an issue of blood, tears, oil and piss. And awesome art.
OVERALL:
http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/cgfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/cgfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/cgfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/cgfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/cgnone.jpg
Story Title: "Good For The Soul", Conclusion
A rite of passage. Garth Ennis style.
Writer: Garth Ennis
Artist: Darick Robertson
Colorist: Tony Avina
Letterer: Simon Bowland
Cover by: Robertson & Avina
The Boys created by: Ennis & Robertson
Published by: Dynamite Entertainment (http://www.dynamiteentertainment.com/hemlines/)
For Mature Readers
Contains Light Spoilers
The Boys is a strange comic to read, and an even stranger one to write about. There is so much extreme content crammed into its pages that it’s hard to actually make (what I would think is) an ‘accurate’ analysis about what the hell is going on half the time. All those labels used by people elsewhere including ‘disturbing’, ‘gratuitous’, ‘misogynistic’, ‘misandronistic’, ‘homophobic’ are absolutely pointless in criticisms of this comic - on some level it really does not give a damn beyond the idea that every person is capable of monstrosity. It’s a throwaway world gone completely mad, and yet worryingly it’s still very similar to our own.
However The Boys is also one of Ennis’ most unsettling pieces of work, with a surprising amount of detail and imagery in it. Yes it has the ‘out-do-Preacher’ crazy content, but what is strange is the mockery lying underneath it. Sometimes it can come across as dark comedy, satirical or playful and other times it’s just comes across as dark. Dark and quite nasty. So not so long ago, I was considering dropping the title, mainly because I was unsure what this comic was aiming to achieve - it felt like it was pandering to those just seeking the outrageous and shocktastic, and in danger of only being mentioned in those discussions which began with ‘do you know what the most f**ked up comic on the mainstream US shelf is?’ Had it gotten a little repetitive? Heaven forbid the day comes when we describe something like The Boys as ‘repetitive’.
But my little quibbles have certainly taken a back seat for the time being, because issues #17 and #18 are probably my favourite thus far. Arguably for the first time in the series, we actually get something resembling a little ‘heart’. A bleeding, gooey and irrepressible heart, but a heart nonetheless.
Issue #18 marks the end of the ‘Good For The Soul’ arc, which has primarily followed Hughie’s developing relationships outside the central team (with Annie and Jamie), and has opened up a more light hearted and comical approach to the comic. Hughie it seems has to finally contend with the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar stage of Hamster-gate. Some things in this comic need to be read to be believed. Oh and he seems a little emotionally sensitive after his sexual encounter with Annie, aww yeah, wasn’t that a memorable ‘first time’.
‘Annie’, known to readers also as ‘Starlight‘, is the battered newbie hero of The Seven who is understandably still very fragile (too) after experiencing blackmail initiated rape, and continual belittling from team-mates. And in a style straight out of Last Tango In Paris Hughie knows nothing of her background and she knows nothing of his. Okay actually we’re in no doubt about Annie/Hughie’s compatibility as a pair, the problem is that the relationship itself could have very volatile ramifications once it’s revealed to everybody else.
Issue #18 does though finalise the transitional period for both characters. What had made Annie a little inaccessible to me as a female reader was the ‘battered wife syndrome’ she’d been clinging to since she joined The Seven. And #18 shows perfectly how the ‘if you can’t beat them join them’ mentality needles its way in if you aren’t careful. Makes you wonder what Queen Maeve was like when she first joined. Annie’s walkover personality is beginning to alter slowly, and though she’s worried about turning into one of ‘them’, she’ll soon be worrying about a helluva lot more.
These past two issues have flawlessly paralleled Annie and Hughie, and how they represent similar facets in their respective groups - both having reservations about the tactics and ideology employed, both being somewhat naïve and innocent, and not aware of the possible grim outcome of their relationship. Robertson’s cover to issue #17 was wonderful in how it effortlessly encapsulated that. At current, it’s nice to appreciate their tentative almost slightly geeky romance - which they both understand is complicated but not knowing the full reasons to ‘why’ it is. They are certainly the most pure hearted in the comic (with the exception of perhaps Mother’s Milk), and you do genuinely root for their wellbeing.
<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/covers/dynamite/boys17.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/covers/dynamite/boys17t.jpg" alt="The Boys #17" hspace=10 align=right></a> The Boys does also present a very acute warping of masculinity, femininity and sexuality through them. It was almost amusing reading reviews of issue #17 where many male readers were so ‘disgusted’ by the morning-after result of Annie and Hughie’s intimate encounter, that you’d think they had just read something more disturbing than The Rape of Nanking. I sense a clear joke being played on them as well as embarrassing our poor couple to the core. The menstrual blood phobia is a slightly odd phenomena but Ennis managed to execute it with an unusual good natured aplomb. And Butcher, Annie doesn’t need a calender - if only you appreciated her stress overload, it would make any cycle irregular.
And what seems paramount to Hughie’s rite of passage is the continued motif of ‘fluid’. As Germaine Greer once said - you aint nothing until you’ve tasted menstrual blood. There’s a thought to ponder on.
This issue plays the fluid analogy up further, as Hughie’s ethics and moral conscience get put through the mincer - the poor guy is so amazingly apologetic to some scumbag quasi-zombie’s unintentional murder, that it brings him to tears. And in what is Robertson and Avina’s most successful sequence this issue, BC responds by urinating all over Hughie’s apartment floor. Nothing though, and I mean nothing, comes between a man and a rescued hamster. Hughie stands his ground, rite of passage completed! Poor Jamie has suffered more than anything else in this comic, and boy that is really saying something. It’s a brilliant yet thoroughly bizarre moment for Hughie, and one that may be mentioned in several end of year comic articles.
There’s a lot of intriguing elements also cropping up concerning the general landscape of The Boys vs. The Seven, and I’m hoping for more insight into The Frenchman and The Female, who still remain the pieces of dynamite in The Boys. For a comic which could have been accused of being constructed on explicit sequence after explicit sequence, The Boys is showing that it’s not just a one-trick pony, and could become extremely multifaceted. This issue in particular was a stellar continuation of the one which came before it, and featured a very insightful development of its Simon Pegg lookalike. Above all else though, it’s an issue of blood, tears, oil and piss. And awesome art.
OVERALL:
http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/cgfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/cgfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/cgfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/cgfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/cgnone.jpg