Customer Reviews

The Boys Vol. 6: Self-Preservation Society

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Boys is one of my favorite ongoing series, I'm not afraid to admit it. I love the titular heroes, the caped villains, and the "over-the-topness" of it all. I'm also not afraid to admit that with The Boys Volume 5: Herogasm, I started to have my doubts. I've enjoyed Ennis' work on Preacher Vol. 1: Gone to Texas, Punisher MAX, Vol. 1, and up to Volume 4 on The Boys, but Volume 5 was a bit much. Ennis seemed to sacrifice his wonderful characters and fantastic writing for page after page of debauchery.

Don't get me wrong, there's some pretty raunchy stuff in Preacher and earlier volumes of The Boys. However, it was nowhere near as depraved as what we saw in Herogasm. Copious amounts of nudity, sex, drug use, and even some implied rape overshadowed the characters, storytelling, and (in my opinion) affected the overall quality of the story.

I'm happy to say that The Boys Volume 6 SC is a return to everything I love about this series. We start things off with The Boys facing off against Payback, one VA's premier superhero teams. Here's where we get that over-the-top violence I was talking about. We also see what happens when our heroes go up against the big boys, reminding us they have only been dealing with small fry so far. There's a nice nod to Moore's Watchmen from Frenchie, the return of Soviet Superman "Love Sausage", and we get some insight into Butcher's frightening psyche as he takes on the capes single handedly.

But it's the second story arch is what really makes this volume for me. Here, we get the secret origins of MM, Frenchie, and The Female and see how they joined the team. These are tales of heartache and injustice, fleshing out an already fascinating cast of characters. To me, Mother's Milk's was the most interesting. His tale revolves around his family's battle for justice against Vought-American, AND his first hand account of the 9/11 attacks.

Frenchie's is exactly the kind of silliness we've come to expect from the character. Mocking French stereotypes, the story includes lost love, bagette jousting, and a deadly croissant. I'm not entirely sure how much of the story is true (neither is Hughie and Butcher isn't exactly forthcoming) as it is littered with Frenchie's usual fantastical musings. The Female of the Species is another fun story, told through Frenchie, about the origins of the petite teen with an appetite for faces. Several references to the ALIEN films can be found here, and we see how Frenchie was able to tame the murderous woman.

Overall, this is a great book: Huge secrets are revealed, The 7 continue to bicker amongst themselves as trouble among The Supes is brewing, and a major obstacle is dealt with. Fans of The Boys would be foolish to miss this installment in the series, and fans of Ennis' other series should start reading ASAP!

The Self-Preservation Society, the sixth collected volume of The Boys, finds Butcher and his crew up to their usual shenanigans. This time around, the blood and guts fly and flow freely when Butcher, Hughie, and the rest of the crew go toe to toe with the superteam known as Payback, which may in fact be too much for the Boys to handle. From that point forward, Hughie learns the origins and backgrounds of M.M., Frenchie, and the Female; and by the end of it, he may be wishing that he didn't. Garth Ennis' scriptwork remains loaded with pitch black humor and a healthy dose of shocks to boot, and it doesn't disappoint either. The origin of the Female is definitely not what I had thought it would wind up being, but it's worth the price of admission here alone. Ennis' co-creator Darick Robertson doesn't provide nearly enough artwork here as one would hope, but the contributions from Ennis' long time partners Carlos Ezquerra and John McCrea make up for it. All in all, if you haven't had the chance to get to know The Boys, then you've definitely been missing out.

A far more interesting story than 'Herogasm' ('the Boys' volume #5) with a couple of origin stories thrown in for three of the boys (two boys and a female to be precise). It would seem that Ennis has gotten all that pesky forshadowing they were trying to do out of the way and we get to go back to the Boys doing what they do best, namely beating up superheroes. There is plenty of plot, action and amazing artwork to keep you excited and eager for the next installment of 'the Boys'.

*SPOILER ALERT*

There is no spoiler I just always wanted to write that.

I've read other reviews that said that this book was a return to the story without just a gross-out session and they are correct! Phewwww... Because the direction that 'The Boys' was heading in was the toilet. Book 6 takes us back to a world where the super powered teams are again run by an evil corporation which is indifferent to the population at large. Hughie is having a crisis on conscience given the violence that is taking place around him. The back stories of some of the characters are also revealed which also helps a lot to move the stories. I think this is building to something bigger in 'The Boys' universe. The book is still crass, gross and full of nudity and violence but it serves the story instead of just trying for shock value. If you're a fan of 'The Boys' at all, you'll be happy with this book.

"The Boys" continues to satirize and lampoon superhero books while simultaneously providing great characterization, dialogue and plot. Ennis does an amazing job of ratcheting up the tension as The Boys have drawn the ire from the man from Vought. Ennis finally shows what happens when the Supes become the pursuers. The Supes in this book Payback try to eliminate the Boys. But their lack of experience and skill causes them to fall apart, literally in some cases at the hands of team leader Billy Butcher. Ezquerra and McCrea did a good job illustrating the carnage but this arc would really have benefitted from Robertson's artwork. However, he did return to the book to illustrate the second arc in this book. Robertson's love for these characters really shines through and I was very happy that he was able to draw the origins since he is the co-creator. The origins were well done and ranged from heart breaking to the absurd and everything in between. Let's just say that in the hands of Ennis a week old croissant can change the course of a man's life. In its entirety the book is definitely establishing itself as canon for comic book readers.

This book remains as creative, shocking, character-driven, and as daring as ever. However, the origin stories left me a little cold and were so base in some respects that I felt numbed by them. All in all, I felt as if the book was treading water in terms of ongoing narrative. (And some of the art looked rushed.)

That's the thing when comics get collected into trades: sometimes the assemblage helps the flow and sometimes it hinders it.

The Boys get the backstory or origin story deal in this volume. It's hard to tell if Frenchie's is true or not but I suppose I wouldn't expect anything less from him. Butcher does not reveal anything though but he shows he is the main man when he deals with Payback. Boy does he show them a thing or two. I'm looking forward to the next volume.