The Boys

AUTHOR: Ennis, Garth

ARTIST: Darick Robertson (illustrator); Keith Burns (illustrator); Carlos Ezquerra (illustrator); John Higgins (illustrator); John McCrea (illustrator); Peter Snejbjerg (illustrator); Russ Braun (illustrator); Hector Ezquerra (inker); Matt Jacobs (inker); Rodney Ramos (inker); Tony Aviña (colorist and cover artist); Simon Bowland (letterer); Greg Thompson (letterer)

PUBLISHER: DC Comics (issues 1-6); Dynamite Entertainment (issues 7–72 )

FIRST SERIAL PUBLICATION: 2006–12

FIRST BOOK PUBLICATION: 2007–12

Publication History

Despite his concerns about whether DC Comics would tolerate the series that “out-preachered Preacher”—Preacher (1995–2000) was a series published by DC Comics that was criticized for its excessive sexual and violent themes—author Garth Ennis moved forward with DC Comics’ imprint WildStorm for the launch of his series The Boys. DC Comics canceled the series after the release of issue 6. After the cancellation, Ennis and artist Darick Robertson resumed the series at Dynamite Entertainment with no significant hitches over licensing and rights from DC Comics. The series continued with the same numbering and narrative direction. Ennis and Robertson expressed relief about the creative freedom granted to them by their new publisher, with less editorial interference in postproduction. All twelve trade paperbacks for the series were published by Dynamite Entertainment, including the first volume, which features an introduction by actor Simon Pegg, after whom the main character, Hughie Campbell, was modeled.

Much like Ennis’s other series, and unlike mainstream superhero narratives, The Boys had a specific endpoint toward which Ennis worked, aiming for a series run of seventy-two issues. Indeed, the seventy-second, final issue was published in 2012. However, he continued to build and elaborate on the mythology of the series. In 2009 and 2010, he wrote two six-issue miniseries, The Boys: Herogasm and Highland Laddie, both of which provide significant background to events in the original series and were integrated into numbered volumes with the trade paperbacks.

Plot

From the outset, Ennis executed The Boys as an unabashedly gratuitous critique of the superhero narrative through its use of satire, parody, and hyperbole. Additionally, strong critiques of the concentration of power (particularly within corporations), moral absolutes, and the naïveté of truth and faith feature prominently in the series.

The series follows a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)-formed team, named “The Boys,” whose mission is to reign in the excesses of the superheroes. Over the years, superheroes have been the pawns of a single corporation, Vought-American, that creates, uses, abuses, and manipulates its superheroes through merchandizing, public appearances, false emergencies, and unethical testing to increase its profit margin. The superheroes and their various teams have become increasingly hedonistic, egotistical, and careless about their collateral damage, which includes significant public, private, and physical destruction. The Boys step in when the superheroes become more problem than solution.

The series opens with Hughie Campbell on the cusp of telling his girlfriend that he loves her. Unfortunately, A-Train, a first-league superhero, collides into her so fast that Hughie is left holding just her arms; the rest of her has been smashed into a wall. Hughie is devastated and blindsided by the tragedy, and his disdain for superheroes turns vitriolic. Enter Billy Butcher, the leader of the Boys, who convinces Hughie to join his team to fight superhero corruption, destruction, and decadence.

As Hughie learns about the Boys, Vought-American (the major corporation that controls all the superhero teams), and the true atrocities perpetrated by superheroes, readers are exposed to the particulars of this world’s history: Superheroes emerged from World War II and the creation of a drug known as Compound V. In pure form, the drug develops lifelong inheritable powers for the person who consumes it. However, in the present, Compound V is used in small doses by the Boys and others at times and has even been mixed with various narcotics with usually problematic results.

Vought-American is the corporation that creates, organizes, and manages all the superhero teams. A nameless executive calls all the shots for Vought-American, though the executive continually allows a figurehead to stand as chief executive officer. Its domestic and international schemes have been the reason to deploy the Boys to keep its superheroes in check. Throughout the series, it is responsible for innumerable crimes, including torture, imprisonment, illegal human experiments, mass murder, and terrorist acts.

Over the years, Vought-American has transitioned from a simple (but dysfunctional) arms producer into a multinational conglomerate with innumerable subsidiaries and vested interests, including the production, maintenance, and merchandizing of superpowers and superpower teams. Vought-American and its best team, “The Seven” (which includes A-Train), serve as the series’ major antagonists, against which the Boys, under Butcher’s direction, enact a sometimes overt but mostly covert war, for not only their widespread indiscretions and atrocities but also personal affronts to members of the Boys. Hughie learns from his teammates about a variety of tragedies that were perpetrated by superheroes, including an event on September 11, 2001 (9/11), in which superheroes caused a plane to crash into the Brooklyn Bridge, provoking a military invasion of Muslim countries.

While working for the Boys, Hughie meets and dates Annie January, who also happens to be Starlight, a member of the Seven. Neither realizes that their alter egos are enemies, until Butcher reveals the fact to Hughie while trying to figure out where Hughie’s loyalty lies. Upon discovering this truth, Hughie confronts both Annie and Butcher before departing to his family home in Scotland to debate his next step. Even though he ultimately returns, he and the Boys face further battles and confrontations as the series comes to an end.

Volumes

•The Boys, Volume 1: The Name of the Game (2007). Collects issues 1–6. The death of Hughie’s girlfriend and the arrival of Butcher persuade Hughie to join the Boys. On the group’s first mission, Hughie is coerced into taking Compound V to help defeat the group Teenage Kix, which creates ambiguous feelings in him.

•The Boys, Volume 2: Get Some (2008). Collects issues 7–14. The Legend, an essential contact, sends the Boys to investigate Tek Knight, a superhero with a deadly sexual hang-up. Next, they arrive in Russia to deal with new complications resulting from Vought-American.

•The Boys, Volume 3: Good for the Soul (2008). Collects issues 15–22. This volume provides significant background on Vought-American, Compound V, the real events of 9/11, and the origins of the Boys.

•The Boys, Volume 4: We Gotta Go Now (2009). Collects issues 23–30. The Boys send Hughie in disguise to infiltrate and investigate a suicide by one of the G-Men. The story reveals that the supposed group of orphans and runaways were subject to sexual assault by their leader, John Godolkin.

•The Boys, Volume 5: Herogasm (2009). Collects issues 1–6 of The Boys: Herogasm. At the annual superhero gathering, Herogasm, heroes and villains join together for several days of extreme debauchery and depravity. The Boys manage to infiltrate the event to discover more about the Seven and Vought-American.

•The Boys, Volume 6: The Self-Preservation Society (2010). Collects issues 31–38. The Boys fight Payback, the second best team. They barely survive intact, though Payback is eliminated. This volume also provides the background to Mother’s Milk, Frenchie, and the Female.

•The Boys, Volume 7: The Innocents (2010). Collects issues 39–47. When Malchemical, a sadistic superhero, is assigned to SuperDuper, a band of superheroes with disabilities, the Boys discover the depths of Vought-American’s maliciousness. Butcher manipulates events to determine if Hughie and Annie know they are on opposite sides.

•The Boys, Volume 8: Highland Laddie (2011). Collects issues 1–6 of Highland Laddie. Hughie leaves the Boys to figure out what he wants but becomes mixed up in a drug ring, realizing that one can never actually return home.

•The Boys, Volume 9: The Big Ride (2011). Collects issues 48–59. Butcher recounts the team's first meeting with the Seven while Hughie tracks down the man who founded the Boys.

•The Boys, Volume 10: Butcher, Baker, Candlestickmaker (2012). Collects issues 1–6 of Butcher, Baker, Candlestickmaker. This volume provides more backstory for Butcher, focusing on his relationship with Becky Saunders.

•The Boys, Volume 11: Over the Hill with the Swords of a Thousand Men (2012). Collects issues 60–65. A battle ensues as Homelander organizes an attack against the White House.

•The Boys, Volume 12: The Bloody Doors Off (2012). Collects issues 66–72. Following the battle, the Boys face an internal threat.

Characters

•Hughie Campbell, a.k.a. Wee Hughie, is the main protagonist of the series and is the simplest and sincerest of the characters. He is the common man with whom readers identify, as he questions the motives and actions of the Boys, while clearly condemning and loathing the superheroes. This latter trait comes back to haunt him when he discovers his girlfriend, Annie, is a superhero.

•Billy Butcher, a protagonist, is the British leader of the Boys, but his motivations are often unclear. His sometimes blatant disregard for superheroes and even his own teammates makes him appear as equally appalling as the superheroes he fights. His desire to avenge the destruction of his family at the hands of the Homelander motivates him beyond the parameters of the team.

•Mother’s Milk, a protagonist who proves to be both intelligent and the sanest member of the team, prior to Hughie’s arrival. His family has suffered at the hands of Vought-American, and he seeks to bring down the company. However, he tends to be the voice of reason and restraint within the group and is often needed to keep Butcher from going too far.

•The Frenchman, a protagonist, is a French (or possibly pseudo-French) assassin, whose propensity for violence is only rivaled by the Female of the Species, for whom he acts as mouthpiece and caretaker. Though his skills are most often used for fighting superheroes, he is known to lash out and kill people over mere insults. According to him, he renounced pacifism after his father was unfairly killed in a bicycle duel.

•The Female of the Species, a protagonist, is the silent and violent member of the team. The Frenchman communicates for her. Her behavior results from being exposed to Compound V waste as a baby and becoming a prisoner of Vought-American. At times, she works for organized crime as a hired assassin. Her connection to the world is tenuous but maintained and nourished by the Frenchman, who continuously tries to bring out her humanity.

•Annie January, a.k.a. Starlight, a protagonist, is Hughie’s girlfriend. Upon joining the Seven, she is coerced into performing sex acts on team members, which makes her question the moral integrity of the world. For much of the series, neither she nor Hughie realizes that they are at odds.

•The Legend, a protagonist, is an old man who knows a great deal of information, which he shares with the Boys to help them with their battles. He previously worked for years as a comics writer for Vought-American, redeveloping the actual atrocities of the superheroes into adolescent narratives for mass consumption.

•The Homelander, an antagonist, is the leader of the Seven. He was the first and appears to be the strongest superhero in the world. As the series progresses, he becomes increasingly unstable.

Artistic Style

The artistic style remains consistent throughout the entire series and aligns well with Ennis’s content. The art direction provides clear visual sequences; in addition, the artists use paneling, color patterns, and motifs to establish mood and irony within the series. Though the series does not break any new ground in its artistic style, the artists go to substantial lengths to depict the violence and depravity present in the narrative. Each issue contains affronting images every few pages or so.

Black is the dominate color of the series; it is prominent in the Boys’ uniform (black leather coats) and is the color of choice for gutters and blank space. Even when a white background is presented, the panels usually have thickened black borders beyond normal parameters. The black corresponds well to the dark themes of violence, corruption, and destruction. However, the color is equally apropos as a visual invocation of the dark comedy prominent in the series.

Consistent color schemes are reproduced for certain settings within the series that often mock the events occurring therein. Superhero teams’ headquarters are often depicted utilizing bright colors that produce a clean and sanitized feeling to the environment. This serves in direct contrast to the corrupt, immoral, and often horrific events that occur in these headquarters. In this context, the bright colors of traditional superheroes’ costumes become clear indicators of ineptitude, immorality, and malignancy.

Themes

The series functions as a satire on both the superhero genre and the real world. Many of the superheroes and teams are analogues to the various characters of Marvel Comics and DC Comics. For example, Homelander’s faux origin story parallels Superman’s origin story. (Almost all of Vought-American’s superheroes have fake origin stories to make them more appealing to the public.) He is an orphaned alien sent to Earth and brought up in wholesome America and has superstrength, as well as superior speed and flight, a heat ray, and several other similar powers. Ennis created narratives that purposely mock standard tropes within the more popular series. For instance, the miniseries Herogasm focuses on the superheroes coming together on a resort island for an extended orgy. However, the story fed to the public is that all the superheroes and villains are banding together to fight an epic battle in space, a scenario that is a nod to the often repeated megaevents that both major publishers perform annually.

The series also mocks unhesitatingly the modern political world, particularly actions of the United States. The various connections that the president and vice president have with Vought-American and the decisions, covert actions (including the launching of the Boys), and profiteering have purposeful parallels to the George W. Bush presidential administration. In particular, the series presents fictional parallels to Blackwater, former vice president Dick Cheney, and the co-opting of 9/11 for political empowerment of the Republican base.

Ennis is well known for narratives that are directed toward a mature audience, and this series holds to that standard. Nudity, violence, and ghastly imagery are found throughout. However, much like filmmaker Quentin Tarantino’s work, The Boys’ intentional gratuitousness serves as a commentary on modern culture’s obsessive concern about sex and violence in media, rather than being just a reason to depict such things.

Impact

While some might place The Boys within the context of postmodern superhero narratives first started in the 1980s with Alan Moore’s Watchmen and Frank Miller’s Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, this series seems to go even further in trying to challenge the bastions of the comic elite. The Boys challenges the status quo of superhero narratives and critiques how the genre’s dominant form (the Marvel Comics and DC Comics continuities) rejects authenticity and complexity.

Other series have taken on the narrative point of view of the villain. However, Ennis goes beyond, implying that the good and noble superhero (such as Starlight) is the exception to the rule. Instead, Ennis has inverted the superhero genre, inventing a universe in which superheroes are the villains. Some series that followed the release of The Boys progressed Ennis’s idea; these include Mark Waid’s Irredeemable and Incorruptible, both of which began publication in 2009 and concluded in 2012. Ultimately, Ennis’s series serves as a warning about power in the real world and what happens when performance-enhancing drugs allow for superpowered people.

The legacy of The Boys was further cemented when Amazon began adapting the story for television, releasing the first season of the dark superhero series with the same title on its streaming platform in 2019. Eric Kripke served as showrunner and the main cast included Jack Quaid, Karl Urban, Anthony Starr, and Erin Moriarty. The series quickly became one of the most-watched shows of any of the streaming platforms at that time, and a second season, which also drew in a large amount of viewers, aired in 2020 and earned five Emmy nominations. The show's third season, which premiered in 2022, earned wide critical praise in addition to becoming one of the most-streamed series of the year up to that point.

Bibliography

Dyer, Ben. Supervillains and Philosophy. Chicago: Open Court, 2009.

Ennis, Garth, and Steve Dillon. Preacher (1995–2000).

Knight, Rosie. "'The Boys' Showrunner Eric Kripke on Adapting the Controversial Comic in the #MeToo Era." The Hollywood Reporter, 26 July 2019, www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/amazons-boys-eric-kripke-interview-1220203. Accessed 14 Oct. 2020.

Mangan, Lucy. "The Boys Series Three Review—Still Hilarious, Ultraviolent and Brilliant." The Guardian, 3 June 2022, www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/jun/03/the-boys-series-three-review-still-hilarious-ultraviolent-and-brilliant. Accessed 5 Aug. 2022.

Reynolds, Richard. Super Heroes: A Modern Mythology. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1994.

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Wolk, Douglas. Reading Comics: How Graphic Novels Work and What They Mean. Cambridge, Mass.: Da Capo Press, 2007.