Guilty pleasure...or maybe sick obsession is a better explanation. As with all Garth Ennis books, I cannot with good conscience recommend them to anyone.

Va subiendo de nivel. Le voy pillando el estilo de los comics, tienen su propia forma de apreciarlos pero voy en buen camino, quiero seguir

The military industrial complex, Christianity, 9/11, and Stan Lee get dragged into this bleak take on superheroes. Funny at times, exhausting at others.

OK, the series is up and running and has so many interesting things happening. Lots of proof that laying a good ground for a story pays of big time. I still think that there are problems with some of the basic premise things, I want sex to be less of an obsession for example, but this in minor stuff. So much of what's going on in these books is interesting and challenging. The blood and gore stuff gets a bit tedious, but that's kind of the point. The anger about so many things is more important and the depth of betrayal and evil is much more interesting as the series goes on. I want more about "the female" though...

Third installment of The Boys - some secrets revealed

I feel like this volume finally explored some missing backstory on a number of characters - still have lots of questions, but finally a few answers. I'm enjoying it, but I still think the show is better . . .

Conspiracy theories! This is my first 4 rating for the series and oddly, it has the least action. It’s almost entirely dialogue. Long conversations prevail, and Ennis almost feels like he’s writing a book. We learn the horrible history of Vought, the plots for Starlight and Homelander slowly begin to take shape. And the climactic plane crash scene is genuinely unsettling. All this power uncontrolled, a sense of dread permeates the pages. One might as well be up against an invincible, amoral animal than the military industrial complex. The alternate universe is well-defined, George Bush junior apparently accidentally killed himself with a chainsaw. Tons of dark humor, but less juvenile (for the most part). Some good writing, and Ennis is really laying the foundation for something bigger. The art is beefed up as well, in the middle ground between the purposely ugly early stuff and something more palatable for the average reader. There are moments where it’s really quite impressive. Starting to look like Steve Dillion’s Preacher stuff actually. It’s increasingly hard to compare the series to the show as only once in a while a passing thing is shared, but often represented very differently.

The Boys is an unflinchingly graphic, 12-volume descent into sexual violence, exploding bodies, depravity, broken taboos and bodily fluids that purports to deconstruct the superhero genre with a chaser of black humor. All it really accomplishes, however, is a whole lot of sophomoric commentary on power and politics, stretches of exposition that last for entire issues at a time, unpleasant and inconsistent artwork, and a certain hypocrisy from a creative team which seems to revel in depicting all of the terrible violations it decries.

The story involves a CIA black ops group tasked with monitoring, terrorizing and murdering rogue superheroes in a world where pretty much *all* superheroes are nothing more than fraudulent predators and degenerates. Into this mess enters Wee Hughie, a fellow who loses his girlfriend early on as collateral damage in a super-brawl. Hughie, recruited by the Boys’ leader, Butcher, sees just how sick and dirty the world of supes - and those who oppose them - really is. And pretty soon, what begins as a covert containment program turns into all-out war.

Put together, what could have been a brilliant criticism of a genre that we take for granted instead feels like a three-day lecture by 15-year-old edgelords who really want you to know why their hormonally supercharged worldview ought to be taken seriously by grown-ups. No, we don’t want to hear why you think sexual violence is okay when it is committed by a bulldog. No, we don’t want to see how often you can fit an act of public excretion into your story. No, we don’t want to see how cool your characters in trench coats are. No, we don’t need to actually see somebody eating a dead infant.

One imagines that this entire series is an extended middle finger to the notion of “With great power comes great responsibility.” It often feels like the creators here are angry that superhero comics even exists, and that their fans continue to buy them. We get it - the superhero genre has definitely gotten big enough and overstuffed enough for somebody to take the air out of it. But The Boys ain’t it. This isn’t insightful enough to work as criticism, clever enough to work as parody, funny enough to work as black comedy, or focused enough to work on any of the three previous fronts even if the skill was there for this to succeed.

The Boys is just a chronicle of cynicism, vicious and vile, slapdash and self-indulgent, excessive and egocentric. For those looking to read a different kind of take on the superhero concept, there are plenty better to choose from - Brian Michael Bendis’ POWERS instantly comes to mind - that won’t make you want to disinfect your hands when you’re done.

Another good read. Hughie is learning so much about the Seven and supes.

Volume 3 is gooood to me. Blood and guts and history!

I'm starting to understand why people say the TV show is better than the comics.

The world of The Boys is full of potential that is greatly explored in the TV show. I love all the characters.

That said, in the comics, things are not as good as I would expect. There are some great moments here, one in particular that is also in the TV show but in a different manner. Still, I can't help feeling how underwhelming the comic is in comparison with the show.

One of those rare cases where the original material is worst, I guess.