Book Cover

Come an’ meet the boys.

# Review

This is the comic book series which the show The Boys is based off of. The story follows a group of semi-sanctioned vigilantes hunting down misbehaving superheroes.

Despite how violent and gory the show is, the comic is much more brutal and depicts many scenarios more of a sexual nature, such as a hamster in a place where it should not be. In terms of shock value, the comic book definitely gives the show a run for its money. The story of the comic, however, is not nearly as great as that of the show. The main characters are less compelling, with many of them being largely one-dimensional with only characteristics being how vulgar their language is. There are some interestingly designed supporting characters which haven’t appeared in the show, though. These characters largely appear for short periods, and mostly as fodder for shock value. Overall the writing in The Boys attempts to create meaning through violent shock value and taboo topics like rape. The writing unfortunately comes off as superficial and tactless because the reader becomes desensitized to the constant bombardment of edginess. Also Dear Becky, which was released in 2021 due to the show's success, is a blatant money grab.

The dialogue is very verbose and filled with unnecessarily edgy language and very thick accents. I often find myself trudging through the paragraph-long monologues and struggling to understand what’s written without sounding it out in my head (maybe because I'm not familiar with Irish brogue). The art style, as a parody of the Marvel and DC superhero comics, is actually pretty solid. Maybe I’m biased because I watched the show first, but I think the show is a much more nuanced and balanced telling of the story than the comic.

# Conclusion

A very excessive comic series about superheroes gone bad; the story is unique but the execution is lacking.

# Overall rating: 6.7

What does the rating mean?