Books: The Boys

People nowadays are familiar with The Boys through the Amazon streaming show, but to me, the definitive version of the story will always be the original comic book series created by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson. Like the show, the comic centers on the titular group of CIA-backed operatives/vigilantes/thugs, who are assigned to "manage" (and sometimes eliminate) the superheroes of the world.

Unlike the show, however (which introduces various characters and conflicts to pad out its running time - Amazon recently renewed it for a fourth season), Garth Ennis's vision for The Boys is spare and uncompromising. The "supes" in the comic are often sadistic, venal, and perverted, and are all sponsored (and secretly created) by the sinister Vought corporation. To beat these enemies, The Boys have to play just as dirty, leading to a finale that feels both tragic and inevitable.

The constant violence and deranged sex in The Boys would be hard to read if it weren't so funny. Ennis's bleak view of American society post-9/11 is leavened by the constant send-ups of DC and Marvel's superheroes, including thinly-veiled parodies of the Justice League, Avengers, and X-Men, along with metacommentary on the comics business itself. If there was a "moral" to the comic, it might be that no matter how awful the world gets, you don't have to let that awfulness get to you.