Garth Ennis - "The Boys"

Tired of the men in tights run of superhero fare crowding out the comic racks lately? No worries, they've lost their luster for me too. With this in mind, when I stumbled across Garth Ennis's ongoing book, "The Boys", I found myself quite happy indeed.

In a near modern day setting, Super Heroes are running rampant. The problem is, most of them have had little to no training. Mass destruction, innocent deaths and general douchery run amok in the ranks of the world's super teams. Enter "The Boys", a group of super powered CIA operatives. The Boys have one job and one job only; to keep the super powers in line. Backed with their own super strength they hammer, pound, intimidate and sometimes kill any super powered human who's gotten too big for his tights. And for us the reader, it's pretty plain old super violent fun with a nice monkey wrench thrown into the super hero formula.

Those of you familiar with Ennis in the past will be happy to know that "The Boys" is much of what you would expect. It's packed full of foul language, sex, over the top violence and some good old fashioned dirty humor. Those who aren't familiar with Ennis need to look no further than old issues of "Preacher" and the current run of "The Punisher" for a primer on what to expect. I myself have grown up to love the darkly sardonic & violent Ennis. "Preacher" is a far stretch from the normal comic formula which makes it a refreshing change, "The Boys" feels like a second go around of the days of Jesse Custer.

I love to see the dark side of the goody two shoes super hero. I love to see an infallible icon made answerable to their wrongs. "The Boys" showcases it quite nicely. The art work can be hit or miss for me from times, but if you haven't guessed by now, Comic books for me are all about the story arc.