THE BOYS VOL. 1: THE NAME OF THE GAME (LIMITED EDITION) (Dynamite, 2009; Hardcover)
Collects
The
Boys
Nos. 1-6 (cover dates October, 2006- February, 2007)
Writer:
Garth Ennis
Artist:
Darick Robertson
I
have too many irons in too many fires to keep up with everything
going on in this hobby, case in point being The Boys. Everyone
was raving about this series when it first came out, and I just
shrugged my shoulders and kept on reading whatever I was reading at
the time. This was a birthday present last year, and now I can
finally comment on the book. First of all, I find it lame when thinly
veiled movie pitches like this are made. They “cast” that Shaun
of the Dead dude in a role which, in my opinion, detracts from
the reading experience, not adds to it. I dislike many modern movies,
and when a comic books does it's best to be a storyboard for a modern
style movie, then it already has a strike against it in my book.
That
said, The Boys was still mostly enjoyable. The basic premise
is solid enough: A CIA sponsored team of superhero “police” are
formed to keep the ever expanding and increasingly arrogant and
reckless superhero population in check. There's a bit more to it than
that, but I am not one to give a detailed synopsis in my reviews. You
can go to Wikipedia for that sort of thing.
The
gripe, with S P O I L E R S-
Comics like this are branded as being For Mature Readers, which
typically means that there is excessive violence, gratuitous nudity,
and profanity. Think of it as the R rating for movies. The incident
where they lost me is when the superheroes in The Seven required
Starlight to give them fellatio in order to join the team. I
understand that this was done to show what sleazeballs these guys
are, but Ennis lost me there. That scene wasn't mature, it was
fanboy* pandering crap. (*Term fanboy used in its original,
pejorative sense.)
I
don't hate superheroes. I don't think that superheroes are a tired or
outdated concept that I'm too cool for. This comic book is for those
still reading comic books to say “Yeah, I read them, but I am so
cool that I am totally over superhero comics.” I am out for volume 2. I
will not support this series financially. Consider this a rental. I
may borrow my friend's hardcovers at some point if my curiosity eats
me alive, but I refuse to support this series, even though I enjoyed
it.
The
OCD zone-
This hardcover does have sewn binding, but it is glued flush to the
spine. The paper is extremely thin, bordering on being a coated
tissue paper, so the result is that it does indeed lay flat. It can
be read comfortably with one hand, which is the desired result for
enjoying a book, at least in my OCD world. So yeah, it is a decent
package overall, even if the paper kind of sucks.
I have the first 2 absolutes, but like you said, the whole over the top scenes are keeping me from getting volume 3. The back story is good, but the comic focuses too much on the "fanboy" garbage.
ReplyDeleteToo bad about the paper stock. I was thinking of getting these two HCs and then vol 2 and 3 of the OHCs -- I think instocktrades still has them. Would I be better off with just the trades all around?
ReplyDeleteI like the series; I have read most of it. I mentioned on MMW -- noetichatter -- that I thought it has run its course and could have been 50 issues just as well as 75 + minis, or whatever it ends up being.
Go for the OHCs. No idea how the paper in the trades are, but it certainly can't be any worse. It all really depends on your OCD level's comfort zone.
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