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Updated Sunday 15 May, 2011 12:18 PM |
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This Day in Alternate History Blog
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The Boys #6
Reviewer: Chris NuttallStory Title: Cherry: Conclusion
"You’re not meant to kill them!" We all knew this was coming. It’s a fairly…routine incident in comic books – the more thoughtful Sandman or Lucifer aside – that superhero teams start brawling in the streets. In this case, a mere five months after we are introduced to The Boys – Billy Butcher, Mother’s Milk, The Frenchman, The Female of the Species and Wee Hughie – they finally get their first on-comic scrap against the bad guys, in this case Teenage Kix. The Kix are a parody of such groups as the Teen Titans, Young Justice, the Young Avengers and whatever stupid group kicked off the Marvel Civil War by destroying a city. In the previous issues, The Boys gathered information on the Kix and used it to blackmail them into forcing one of their number to ‘out’ himself as a gay superhero. With some interference from the Seven, the Kix were tipped off and came after The Boys. What happened next should have been predicable. The Boys kicked major arse. They’re a trained team, with the exception of Wee Hughie, and they destroyed Teenage Kix. While I might have missed the more intellectual nature of Santini’s actions in SW:TA, there can be no denying that the Boys lived up to their fearsome reputation. Butcher doesn’t even seem to have taken it very seriously, remarking at the end of #5 that the Kix were about to get a spanking, and in his later dispassionate response to the tradagy. Something that would have driven Superman into remorse – [spoiler] Wee Hughie accidentally killing the Blarney Cock [/spoiler] – seems not to have shaken Butcher at all, who only remarks that [spoiler] "now they’re going to have one of those f***ing funerals." And they do. [/spoiler] Never mind the fighting, however; the truly important part of the book comes in the discussion between Butcher and Hughie at the end. We are shown why Butcher is the man he is – place your bets here on the question of if he is lying or not – and Hughie’s remorse over what he accidentally is. Butcher uses it to illustrate two points, one declared, one not – the Supes are too dangerous to be allowed to run wild and free, and accidents like what happened right back at the start will continue. In a sense, Wee Hughie has indeed lost his cherry; he has become in truth Butcher’s little brother. Although it is too early to say what will happen between him and Annie – whose new outfit is cheesecake personified – one can guess that it will lead to a major confrontation somewhere down the line. On a different topic, the [spoiler] funeral for Blarney Cock [/spoiler] is a very neat piece of writing and illustration. Not only do we get to see the other superheroes in a major line up – including the Young Americans, who seem to be a goody-two shoes team – but we get some of the political background to the developing situation. Matters only hinted at back in #1 take on some shape and form; politics may yet doom the Boys. Less happy note – ‘Vic the Veep’ may or may not be intended as a parody of Bush, but he looks and sounds appalling. That might have been intentional, but ham-handed political comments slightly spoiled it.. The Kix seem to have forgotten everything bad about [spoiler] Blarney Cock [/spoiler] – their tributes would have brought a tear to my eye had I not known him. [spoiler] Never mind the homophobia, racism and theft; in death he was a man. Not. [/spoiler] The artwork continues to improve, from Hughie’s horrified expression to the shock and horror of the Boys as they discover one of Blarney Cock’s…umm, little secrets. I won’t go into details. Terror the Dog becomes much more likable as he looks just as stunned as his master; the female seems unconcerned by the chaos, but helps Hughie free the hamster. I don’t want to know what it was doing in his pants. Butcher, for the first time, seems to live up to his reputation as a scary dude; his fury at Shout Out – explained later on – gives a whole different side to his personality. Once again, the background are slightly obscured by the action, but they remain great. In conclusion, this story is a fitting end to the first Boys story arc and shows that the series has a future. Wildstorm will probably hate it. Chris Four out of Five.
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