The Boys Volume 1 The name of the game
Written by Garth Ennis
Art by Darick Robertson
The Boys is a creator owned series first published by the DC imprint Wildstorm. When it first came out I was not reading many comics and didn't bother to pick it up. Then the series was dropped by Wildstorm.This stirred up a lot of press for the book. And when it was quickly picked up by Dynamite Entertainment ,I went out and bought the first trade. The story is a world were superheroes are real. And there is a team of heroes that are sponsered by the government to keep and eye on the other heroes and make sure they don't get outta control. We start off with Wee Hughie an englishman who looks alot like Simon Peg,he is out enjoying a carnival with his girlfriend when she is accidentlly ran over by a super speed possessing hero who is chasing after a villain. This kills Hughie's girlfriend,and he settles into a deep bout of depression. After a few weeks he is contacted by Billy Butcher,the lead of the BOYS. Butcher has a huge grudge with all the various superheroes,and recruits Hughie to help make sure the heroes stay in line.Hughie agrees to temporarly join the team and meets the other members. Mother's Milk ,who seems to be the most level headed. The Frenchman,a small man who goes into major rages of violence. And The Female,a quiet asian woman who works on the side for various mafia types. This trade reprints the first 6 issues and is mainly about how Hughie decieds to join the team,and his first mission in which they send a warning to a team of super powered teenagers. Turns out this group of teens are sexual deviants and have almost no morals. After a quick fight,The Boys end up beating the shit outta the teens and Hughie accidentlly kills on of the teens. This causes Hughie to have second thoughts about being a member of the team. But thanks to a chance meeting of a cute blonde girl in Central Park ,he agrees to keep working with The Boys. This girl it turns out is the newest member of this universe's version of the JLA. And we see how this JLAish team is also full of some of the most dispicable people. The trade ends with the feeling that eventually The Boys and JLA parody will end up in a huge war. Garth Ennis is one of my fave comic storytellers,ever since I read the first issue of "Preacher" he has been one of the few writers that I will pick up anything he does. And he doesn't dissapoint. The trade is full of the usual Ennis black humor,and of course he street level way with words. Darick Robertson is an artist I hadn't seen much from before,but his art on this title is good. He is able to draw the various scenes of ultra violence ,and even his scenes of plain conversation are eye catching. Overall Boys volume 1 gets a A-.