The Comics:
Man, whenever I post The Boys in the page now it seems to be a trigger. I don't know if Ennis was cancelled by internet folks or what, but tons of random people jump in to say how much they hate Ennis and everything he writes. Funnily enough, in my last post, you could see both people complaining that he is a libertarian and that he is a communist... seems like when they dislike something, they try to make it their political opposition... same people that call Ennis childish...
It really seems that most people get shocked while reading. They get uncomfortable with slurs, violence, sex jokes, etc. It's hard to conceive how fucking sheltered you have to be to lack the emotional maturity to handle that, and get hurt by words instead, but what surprises me the most is that they thought they were going to be reading a Rated G Super Friends comic? One wouldn't go watch a horror movie and then complain there was too much killing and blood, so why would one read a black comedy by Garth Ennis and say there is too much depravity?
My current description for The Boys comic's posts is: "A dark and cynical satire of the superhero genre, exposing the corruption and depravity of powerful people left unchecked.
Another Garth Ennis pitch dark black comedy with a powerful social commentary. Say what you will, The Boys is the best superhero story written after Watchmen."
I'm baiting, but also not baiting, with the last sentence. The Boys is a fantastic and incredibly down-to-earth story. We have powerful people on Earth, they joyride with their super cars, cause accidents and get away with it, use their influence and position of authority to abuse power... if you read too many superhero comics you may think powerful people would form a Justice League or Avenger Initiative, but what they really do is Epstein's Islands. If looking at the real world makes you uncomfortable, perhaps you have to grow up.
Really, the vast majority of comments say it's just sex and violence, a story "written by a 13yo" for "edgelords" and "incels". Meanwhile, the first issue the comics discuss is rape. But it's not rape in the way it's usually perceived by society, as forceful or with threat of violence, but rape using influence. A woman is thrown in the middle of powerful, self-centered, men and is presented with the choice of being raped or kissing goodbye to her career and everything she ever worked for her entire life... Ennis brought this discussion to the comic medium, of all places, way way before #metoo was even a mainstream topic. How men just get away with it, having a whole system built to protect them, and a stupid society that, even now, still thinks it wasn't rape because they didn't threaten her with violence. Starlight had a very conservative upbringing, that both taught her to be ashamed of her sexuality and to just submit and accept that men are like that. Her development shows her breaking free from her indoctrination and understanding how she was being abused - even by the company selling her image. Yeah, Ennis also touches the theme of hypersexualization of heroines in the comic book medium, very pertinent, especially after we had guys like Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld breaking comic sales records in the 90s. She develops her self-esteem, learns how to stand up for herself, and even develops a healthy and positive sexuality on her own terms... how the hell is that a story for "incels"? "Edgelords"? It really seems the average reader is just plain dumb, and all the themes touched goes right over their heads because the imagery used is too graphic for their sheltered minds raised on Christian-approved entertainment.
It seems that most people read The Boys and think it's a "What if superheroes were bad?", but it's a parallel of real-world powerful people: Corporations corrupting the government, poisoning communities with chemicals, military-industrial war machine complex and its billionaire contracts, normal people as acceptable collateral damage for profits. Ennis is not being "edgy"; he is talking about Blackwater, Monsanto, Hollywood, about the real world... the way it's all ignored and reduced to superheroes being killed, I can only assume all the themes are really going over people's head - or they are too damn ignorant to even know what this is about.
Ah, yeah. Ennis takes a big and well deserved shit on the superhero genre as well, making a parody of its most common and generic tropes, because here is the truest of truths: Superhero comics sucks!
If you read my Comics section, I say there I've read a lot of superhero comics when I was a kid. I collected most the Marvel stuff from the 90s, but I wasn't ever really into Avengers and Fantastic Four related stuff, even then I found them boring, as uninteresting god-like characters and perfect beacons of morality (which is even truer for Justice League, and why I never got into DC). I was really into X-Men, a ragtag group with real diverse personalities and dealing with a lot of personal problems, and Spider-Man, a broke ass dude, with an asshole boss, trying to get a girlfriend. From X-Men and Spider-Man I also had tons of stuff from the 80s and 70s I bought for cents at second-hand stores. I'm a well versed in the medium, and of course there are great stories here in there, but the medium itself sucks, it thrives on black and white absolute morals for kids, and endless repeating mind-numbing tropes. After some time reading superhero comics I realized that none of what was happening really mattered, every intense emotional and tipping point by a writter was nullified by another one the next year, every character had died and came back to life, gone bad and forgiven, infinite universes destroyed and recreated, everything is of no consequence at all. Superhero stories are great when written by guys that are there to break conventions, to write novels, to put an end on their stories, but when written by superhero fans you get endless more-of-the-same happening again and again. "The good guys beat the bad guys again. Hurray!", or a pissing contest about which character can hold more exploding suns up their butts: "My character can bench press the sun", "Oh yeah? My character can bench press three hundred and two thousand billions suns", "Oh yeah? My character can hold six zeptabillions black holes on his hand!", "So what, my character can run fourquadrupedzillions the speed of light", "Oh yeah, and my character can destroy the universe", "And my character can destroy 52 of them!"... it's incredible the mediocre childish stuff that pass as "good comics" by people who hate the likes of Ennis...
I've got a bit sidetracked on the rant there, but back at The Boys: Perhaps all the violence and harsh humor isn't for you, doesn't suit your taste, gross you out, or whatever, all good with that, but like I said before: One wouldn't go watch a horror movie and then complain there was too much killing and blood, so why would one read a black comedy by Garth Ennis and say there is too much depravity? Just skip the comics if it's not your thing. I really don't get how it's so controversial.
The TV show:
The same way people so vehemently hate the comics, they also love the show... What!?
I'm really convinced people that hate the comics BUT really love the TV show only does that because how the show portrays their current political adversaries, and for that they ignore the gaping holes in character development. Yeah, all the dumbfucks in the cult that worshipes Homelander are actually the dumbfucks in the cult that worshipes Trump, it's not even subtle.
The show is a complete watered down version of the comics, they diminish the impact of the most important stuff on Vought's background. I really feel like it's avoiding criticizing war-driven economy, government corruption and military contracts after the first season (you can't really pin it down on Trump, but how much money did Biden administration funnel to war that broke off right after his election, and was in a country his family had involvement in shady business?), and instead focus on political marketing, celebrity culture, culture and information war (now, this you can pin on Trump!). But all the shock value, gore violence and crass humor is there... people exploding everywhere, blood bathes left and right, brains falling out while a guy is eating ass, gill rape, bestiality, a baby used as a weapon... what really seems to be different is that the show makes fun of Trump's cult - and the comics doesn't.
If only the Amazon series could decide if Homelander had mommy issues, daddy issues, or if, in fact, he is not attention-seeking at all and wants to give the spotlight to his son; and if the Boys were a methodical and pragmatic group or a disoriented bunch acting illogically on emotions… yeah, the character development and the writing is pretty bad. I really liked first and second season, watered down, but really enjoyable. The third season, however, is a clusterfuck of bad writing.
Stillwell is one of my favorite comic book characters ever. In the show they made him a woman, and that was ok, because Homelander got this hilarious Oedipus Complex going on. But since they killed his plot device in the first season, they had to come up with something else, and out of nowhere, they try to emulate his relationship with the Stillwell from the comics with Edgar, a character he didn't give two fucks about up until that point but now was craving his approval... What? They forgot his drive was the Oedipus Complex!?
Also, his own son is no different from Stillwell's son: Someone competing for attention. But now Homelander wants to give love instead of receiving it? ... What!?
But what really bothers me is how the whole group went full retard in the third season... you have M.M. trying to pick a fight with Soldier Boy, even though he knows he can't do shit, and that Soldier Boy is their best chance against Homelander. Everyone getting mad at Butcher for doing exactly what he has to do, like everybody lost all their resolve and character. In the last fight no one even knew who they were up against, they were just fighting aimless, even fucking Butcher pulled a Starlord out of nowhere and stopped Soldier Boy when he was about to fry all the V from Homelander and Ryan's blood and solve all their fucking problems... What!?!? Is that what they consider way better writing than the comics? This mediocre basic TV writing for mediocre basic TV audiences that can't handle "good" characters acting on logic and objectives instead of emotion and morality? No, just no, that's the opposite of The Boys, what you really consider "better writing" is the swings on Trump.
Conclusion:
A lot of people also talks about Ennis being pessimistic, nihilistic, misanthropic, etc. Pretty weird how the only two genuinely good characters were the ones that prevailed and managed to get a happy ending. The Boys is incredible optimistic lol.
And the lesson learned is that, for next The Boys comics' posts, I'm gong to limit comments to followers only from the start. I don't need other hundreds of shocked vanilla normies swarming in.
... wait a minute, all this buzz just increases my reach. Complain all you want. Dance, monkeys, dance.