The Boys is a graphic novel written by Garth Ennis and illustrated by Darick Robertson. The story is about a group of CIA backed black-ops team assembled to keep super-heros or “supes”. The team consists of;  ”Butcher” (the leader) a muscular English man with a bulldog named Terror, “The Frenchman” an espresso drinking, crazy man with a penchant for extreme violence, “The Female” (of the species) an Asian (I think) silent, deadly, psychotic freelancer for the mafia, “Mother’s Milk” an African American man nicknamed that because he is the purest and “Wee Hughie” a Scotsman who’s girlfriend was accidentally killed by the superhero “A-Train”. He is a new recruit and is very reluctant in the beginning.

To me there are elements in the book that coincide with the real world. Everyone sees superheroes as good, fighting for what is right and never doing anything unjust and wrong. In book one we see these publicly glorified supes as anything but purely good. In one scene a new recruit, “Starlight”, joins the Big Seven an elite superhero team. She soon finds out she needs to perform sexual acts to join the team. This is just one of the things that takes away from the nice-as-pie image of superheroes. I believe this coincides with the real world because most people would assume a rape/murder was done by some evil homicidal maniac and not your next door neighbor who had a 4.0 and was head of the chess team. We can never judge a book by it’s cover, we can’t assume just because someone has super powers and they aren’t a villain that they are really 100% good, just like in real life.

I really enjoyed the art in this book. The glossiness on the pages was eye pleasing. My favorite characters are “The Frenchman” and “The Female”. Though I may like “The Frenchman” a bit more.  Overall I really enjoyed this book a lot and look forward to reading the other books in the series.

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