The Boys Eighteen: A Study in Good Taste

And coming from me, that's about as ironic as Alanis Morissette getting hit by a truck delivering grammatical textbooks while crossing under a WALK sign.

OK, that was quite the stretch for a simile. But it made me laugh. Carrying on...

I really should apologize for this one beforehand, but really, anything that begins initially building from the rock solid foundation that is Garth Ennis' The Boys can only lead thusly. You should kinda know that going into it.

The Boys ---> Cherry Poptart. Really not that difficult of a connection in hindsight. I fully expect a Cherry guest appearance in a future issue.

PS: Garth, Mate? Enough with the hamster. Really.

Most Wanted

Another Wednesday, another week's worth of new comic goodness in my grubby li'l hands! As usual, I'm doing a little write-up on what is my most looked-forward to issue, based simply on the cover, whatever foreknowledge I may have on it (and I tend to shy away from spoilers), and my own strange tastes. I'm also trying not to do back-to-back issues, which eliminated Criminal right off the bat this week. Though that one is really intriguing.

So, instead of a tightly scripted and all-around brilliant piece of taught, almost delicate crime drama, I'm going with a book guaranteed to kick me in the arse:

The Boys #8
Writer: Garth Ennis
Artist: Darick Robertson

Garth Ennis is a writer that can't seem to script anything that isn't over-the-top ... or rather, under-the-gutter in his case. The guy thrives on one-upping himself. Some writers have a style that tends to revolve around a certain emotion or theme: humor, suspense, hate, change, love, redemption, etc.. Ennis seems to use bad taste. And humor. He appeals to that part of you that laughs at Helen Keller jokes. This is not a bad thing (heck, right up my street!), and indeed, when that's understood, it's easy to see where he'd fit in. Stick him on the Punisher? Brilliant! Hellblazer? Genius! Personally, I love for him to write Lobo, Joker, or Ambush Bug.

The Boys is Ennis being Ennis. It's not heady, it really isn't very deep, it's just ... well, fun! It's perfectly suited for him, and I've enjoyed it immensely. Then again, it's my kind of humor.

This issue simply furthers the plot that was set up since the last two issues - basically a Batman-esque character being unable to resist his .. umm urges, I suppose. A murder gets tossed into to the mix which brings him to The Boys' attention. Things build up nicely, and we have fewer *ugg!* moments (I think) than since the series began. There's a few great moments of character development, and a nice ... well, it's not a cliffhanger, per se.. but a great starting point for the next issue.

Most Wanted Panel:
Sorry this one's so short. This week's killing me at work. Oh well, you get what you pay for!

Acquired: Hitman #18

Price: $3.50
Where: The Paperback Place, Boise, ID

This one was on the list just in case I hapen to find it in a cheap bin somewhere, and it's been on the list for a long time. I eventually decided that I'd searched the cheapies long enough and that I should just buy it already. $3.50's not too bad...

Writer: Garth Ennis
Artist: John McCrea

To say this was a serious issue of Hitman would be stretching the truth. To say the least. To also say that this is Ennis at his absurd best would also not quite ring true. Even taking into account that this is issue 4 of a 6-part arc, the plot's all over the place. It jumps from The Demon rising from Hell, to the Hitman having one of those John Constantine stand-offs with his mates, to a bunch of D-listers getting the old team back together, to some spider-demon thingy rampaging the streets of Idaho, to a last page reveal that really isn't anything even halfway surprising. The art's a bit too cartoony for my liking - especally when it has to jump from comedy to suspense to spooky and back again. In another book, I'd probably dig this style, but when you have to deal with Hitman, The Demon, Jason Blood, Hell and all that... it's a bit too goofy to take the parts that are meant to be serious, well, seriously. Quite honestly, this issue only has one thing going for it.

But that one thing ... Holy Screaming Cats, Batman!!:


The Dogwelder. The Freckin' Dogwelder. The Sam-Scratch, Mother-Farkin', Freak Your Ass Out NOW Dogwelder. AAAAGGHH!

The Dogwelder is nine shades of Awesome. There's no way around that... Awwwwsome! I mean, the dude welds dogs to people's faces! Holy Shipdip, Groo! That's fantastic! Brutalizing a woman? Dog to the face! Bank robbery? Dog to the face! Caught littering? Dog to the face! Wrong street at the wrong time? Dog to the Face, baby!

The Dogwelder is easily the best character ever created as the result of a drunken bet between crazy Irish comic guys. As the story goes, The Dogwelder was created from a series of one-upsmanships between Steve Dillon and Garth Ennis building from who could create a dumber sounding super-hero name than "Green Lantern" (sorry, Sally). I believe Dillon came up with "dogwelder," which might have come from drunken association with "spotwelder," (ha! get it?!?) after which Ennis must have conceded. I know I would've.

Unfortunately, this is only The Dogwelder's first appearace, and he just appears long enough to get recruited back into his old team. This, of course, means that I'll be picking up Hitman #19 and #20. I must see some dogwelding in action!

Until then:


Comics are awesome sometimes.