The Boys

Along with the Umbrella Academy, The Boys is one of the best shows that I have seen this year. We truly live in a golden age of superhero entertainment. With networks like Amazon and Netflix and HBO looking for fresh content, the comic books were a natural source and there are so many great stand alone comic book universes out there.

I just finished the first season of The Boys and that ending was a doozy. Talk about a cliffhanger. So many stories left unfinished with the stakes being raised to impossible levels. I can't wait for Season 2. Today I heard that Netflix might start releasing shows weekly instead of all at once. I hope that Amazon avoids that stupid business model. I was about to watch The Boys at my leisure and when I was in the mood for the story over a couple of weeks and for me it made the experience all that more enjoyable. Good on Karl Urban for once again being a part of a fantastic project. The guy is such a pro that he makes a good show GREAT.

I would be remiss if I didn't draw attention to the performance of Homelander by Antony Starr . He is the dark side of Superman and watching him develop into what he eventually becomes is a great superhero character arc. I loved it all while hating everything that Homelander was about. That is how you know that a show is really something special. Every character here has to make choices and all choices have consequences, good and bad. No one can escape the fallout from those choices.

The rest of the cast is uniformly excellent. Most of the actors were unknown to me and that made it so easy to buy into the world of superfolks that is created here. I hope all of them go on to have great careers.

 

Now I didn't read the comic first and I understand there are changes as there always are when these kind of stories get adapted for live action. It will be interesting to see if the reverse differences bother me. Will I hate the comic book Butcher because he doesn't look like Karl Urban? I'll let you know.

You can learn more about the show by clicking the link below. That includes some insane differences between the comic book series and the TV show.

 

https://thewhisp.mommyish.com/entertainment/tv/amazon-prime-the-boys-facts/2/

 

First of all, in the comics, the leader of The Seven, Homelander, eats babies. Yes, Homelander was originally a cannibal who ate babies. Good thing that didn’t make its way onto the show. In the comics, Starlight was also more of a punching bag for the rest of the Seven than a strong woman trying to fight injustices and stand up for what’s right. And Hughie was originally a Scottish conspiracy theorist before he became your average American guy on the show.

 

 

Garth Ennis is a comic book writer best known for Preacher, which was similarly adapted for TV, as well as his work on Marvel’s Punisher. Illustrator Darick Robertson has also worked on both Marvel and DC Comics, such as Wolverine and Justice League. The Boys was first published by DC’s Wildstorm imprint in October 2006, moved to Dynamite Entertainment six months later, and wrapped up after 72 issues in November 2012.

 

 

In the Umbrella Academy the superheroes are mostly good guys while in The Boys the corporate superheroes are mostly bad. Either way, a compelling story was derived from both sets of heroes. Happily each show has been given a second season before the first season even finished airing. The Boys is definitely for the adults but at only eight episodes in Season One you can binge through this one is a weekend. Totally worth your time.

The Boys is set in a universe where superpowered people are recognized as heroes by the general public and owned by powerful corporation Vought International, which ensures that they are aggressively marketed and monetized. Outside of their heroic personas, most are arrogant and corrupt. The series primarily focuses on two groups: the titular Boys, vigilantes looking to keep the corrupted heroes under control, and the Seven, Vought International's premier superhero team. The Boys are led by Billy Butcher, who despises all superpowered people, and the Seven are led by the egotistical and unstable Homelander. As a conflict ensues between the two groups, the series also follows the new members of each team: Hugh "Hughie" Campbell of the Boys, who joins the vigilantes after his girlfriend is killed in a high speed collision by the Seven's A-Train, and Annie January / Starlight of the Seven, a young and hopeful heroine forced to face the truth about the heroes she admires.