So this is the infamous Wildstorm run that started at all. Written with a heavy Crown tongue, the whole book is brutal violence and innuendos. When that isn't enough it's orgies and blowjobs topped off (pun intended) with impalements and flesh-eating hamsters.
Beyond all these attractions is a story of espionage, vengeance, and the missuse of power common in the U.S. "country" that is openly ran by corporations in this reality as it is in the reality I am writing this review in.
The names for the characters are juvenile, and deaths are treated like a Mortal Kombat game to see who can one up the next. This book is why the Comics Code exists and why Ennis was a shoe-in for the best Punisher run in the history of the character's creation.
After putting this book down, I got a headache. It's a lot to take in when I'm used to my average weekly run of fan service that leaves something to the imagination and villains getting taken down without pools of blood (or blood mixed with pools of semen, in the case of this book), but this was just the shocker I needed.
It's not as eloquent as Miracleman and not as sophisticated as Watchmen, but it's also not as perverse as a Red Sonja or Vampirella book prior to Comicsgate.
The Boys' Wildstorm run notch's up the extremities of the comic book medium while running the underlying theme of just what does it take for a person to sell their soul and how far down the road are they willing to take it?
With characters that I had to learn to love (Hughie is ridiculously indecsive, Terror's owner I wouldn't trust with eyes on the back of my head. And Terror is just ugly), art that was cramped and bloody, and a script that felt built around shock, teenage lingo and nothing more my first foray into The Boys is that you don't have to be so mature to read this, despite it's recommendation.
On the surface, the book is juvenile, but deeper this volume of The Boys is about making deals with devils and just what it takes to hold those deals together.
It's superhero media in general : childish on the surface, but deeper when you get into the story.
And that's the thing about The Boys, I wanted to just stop at The Wildstorm run, get a taste ... but now, I want to go deeper.
The Boys is a rabbit hole filled with a lot of sex and violence, for no reason but just to shock and awe. Take off your grad cap for this one, you wont be needing it to enjoy this ride. A ride that sincerely feels like it caps off at around 13. With a statement like that it's easy to see why Ennis decided to call this "The Boys".
A smutty male empowerment fantasy (like all comics are accused of being) but it tries a little to late to put a reign in on those powers, haha, and this is just the first volume !
If there was ever a personification of low-vibrational reading, The Boys would be it.
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