Cathartic

(This is about the Garth Ennis comic book, not the Spider-man meme)

So dear Garth Ennis is getting his comic "The Boys" adapted soon on Amazon Prime.

A story about how a group of five people observe, threaten, or put in line a bunch of "heroes" in world written by a guy who hates superheroes (save for Superman, but even then).

It's a pity then that he has nothing to say about superheroes really critiques them or hits home.

His “heroes” are nothing of the sort. In story they’re a company’s product, they’re more interested in being celebrities than being protectors or avengers. And sleeping around and damaging sex workers/prostitutes while doing so, doing drugs, and basically being depicted as degenerates (so easy targets of ridicule).

If he was talking shit about Youngblood from Image or the Ultimates or any other 90’s or early 20’s shallow superhero reinventions, he’d have something resembling a point.

But he’s parodying (if you can even call it that at this point) the mainstream two.

Despite his love of Superman (which many lads from Britain who take issue with superhero comics in some degree seem to feel), Homelander is one of the nastiest alt versions of Superman you can find in non-DC comics. And personality wise he’s more of an ass than Superboy Prime (how does one do that?) than anything really meaningful as a critique of Superman. Homelander isn’t a critique or damnation of Clark’s occasional babying of other superheroes (like when he went and made a Superman robot army and tried to police the world) or a naïve perfectionist who tries to shame those who don’t “find a way” to stop bad guys without killing them (easy for Superman to do, but when he gives shit to others who had to make a hard choice (cliché phrase, I know), he comes off as a bit of an ass), he’s just a sexual harassing probably rapist bully like 90% of “The Boys” excuse of superheroes.

The nastiness of characters like the Martian Manhunter stand-in or Flash clone (A-Train) doesn’t reflect anything that the characters they’re clearly based off of act like. J’onn doesn’t have a joint made from Wonder Woman’s…fluids (why was this a thing that was put into words on a page), and Jay, Barry, and Wally have never forced a new League or Society member to blow them to make it onto the team, or constantly mock a female teammate like a fucking frat boy. Sure, as worst Wally has at times been a flirt, unwanted by some at times, but its quite a leap to depict him as a rapist piece of shit.

But of course, Ennis doesn’t care about being accurate or saying anything intelligent about why he talks shit about superheroes.

The Boys is just that edgy shit your grade school classmates invent to put down things you like.

“Fuck Naruto or Goku, fucking fruits. Real men dress in black and just punch through people, no dumb blue energy attacks or naming their moves. What kinda poof acts like that?”

“Fuck Solid Snake and Dante! A cardboard box hiding fool and some loser exposing his chest like some sort of metrosexual?! That’s the shit you’re into? Actual cool characters swear, cuss, aren’t PC and use real guns, not bullshit infinite ammo pistols or headbands with infinite ammo. Snake’s probably fucking Octocon, the wanker!”

“Punisher is better than anyone you like, and if you’re not reading stories about Castle you’re a child with your widdle colorful idiots in spandex.”

This is the basic attitude of "The Boys": fuck these things you like, you're stupid for liking them. My edge decrees your interests as shit.

The Boys is a step up from shit like Disaster Movie or Scary Movie(s), but it’s premise is the same: Let’s show the writer’s perspectiveof a subject he feels like mocking, which just shows more of what he is like rather than accurately exposing and ridiculing the subject matter.

TL;DR There are some real things to say about the problems with superhero comics and people’s interest or love for them. Ennis, from what I’ve read (which I’ll admit isn’t a finished reading of the full series) addresses none of them, instead picking the easy path and just making a shock value comic with expies that make Bizarro look like a paragon.

https://old.reddit.com/r/CharacterRant/comments/c4hsbn/my_issue_with_the_boys/