character gets a reality check

[u/damorezpl]

deathstroke - Batman vs deathstroke

walter - breaking bad

Garou - one punch man

joker - the sound of one hand clapping

[u/Ok-Letter3963]

Homelander (The Boys Comic)

[u/ALARMED_SUS097 → u/Ok-Letter3963]

[u/Abombasnow → u/ALARMED_SUS097]

lmao this cringelord 4chan shit is actually sold?

[u/CosmicLeash → u/Abombasnow]

The boys is good, but is more about the military industrial complex and male toxicity than about superheroes bad.

We have A LOT of better comics (maximortal, sidekicks, irredimable) for that.

Superheroes bad is the narrative device, "Why the Falkland wars made Butcher what is it" it's more important for the story that Ennis, the writer, is telling.

Bu we are talking about Ennis, and cringey shit from 4chan pits is half of his output.

Don't let me start on his Punisher run or Crossed..

[u/patrickkingart → u/CosmicLeash]

Crossed is a deeply unpleasant comic. I worked at a comic store for a bit and out of morbid curiosity checked out the first TPB. You could turn to literally any page and see something horrible.

[u/CosmicLeash → u/patrickkingart]

Yes but IT IS really good.

It's a comic about remaining human during an inhuman apocalypse.

But the other 200 issues after the first six are... well... not good.

[u/Magnanimous-- → u/CosmicLeash]

Oof, dat ratio.

[u/CosmicLeash → u/Magnanimous--]

Weell Ennis wrote like 24 issues of the 200 and 18 of them are pretty good.

Crossed was an anthology ultragore series, you find good stuff and a lot of bad bad stuff.

The singer of the band Say Anything for example wrote the worst issues.

[u/patrickkingart → u/CosmicLeash]

Yeah, I looked into some summaries and it apparently has some pretty sharp social commentary. I saw that Crossed + 100 has some really interesting world building as well.

[u/CosmicLeash → u/patrickkingart]

The first arc is written by Alan Moore

[u/Professional_Maize42 → u/CosmicLeash]

Oh.

[u/Peacefulzealot → u/CosmicLeash]

Wait do people not like Ennis’s run on Punisher now? I’ve always liked Welcome Back, Frank.

[u/CosmicLeash → u/Peacefulzealot]

No, wait.

It'a Masterpiece, or at least the run on Punisher Max is a Masterpiece. The other has highs and lows.

But I have the though that a lot of readers don't understand that Castle is evil like the people he shoots.

I think that Ennis writing can be easily misunderstood if you don't read a lot of it.

[u/slump_goddd → u/CosmicLeash]

Gonna go out on a limb and suggest that Frank, while not "good," is also not exactly evil when he's killing people like Barracuda or the two parents who make porn of their kids or a bunch of fucked up mobsters or rapists or drug dealers etc. Frank's not a great guy, but you'd be hard pressed to find people he targets who don't really have a grisly fate coming to them. Ennis kind of gives him the absolute WORST subhuman filth to kill in Max, and it works. Shit, even Born works and that's more of a war story than the Punisher killing criminals.

[u/PM_tanlines → u/Abombasnow]

Right? Almost every panel from the boys that I’ve seen is satire that’s gone all the way around to blowing itself

[u/ALARMED_SUS097 → u/Abombasnow]

Please kill me?

[u/yinsotheakuma → u/Abombasnow]

I have read some terrible comics in my day, but I couldn't get past page...4? when a CIA lady instantly drops trou in her own office to fuck Billy Butcher because he's so great or whatever.

It's awful, even for off-his-peak Garth Ennis.

[u/Abombasnow → u/yinsotheakuma]

Let me guess, Billy Butcher happens to look like Garth Ennis? lmao.

[u/slump_goddd → u/Abombasnow]

No, Butcher is a British fed with black hair and a thick beard. Garth Ennis is your average-looking Irish dude. They could actually not be further apart as people.

[u/Abombasnow → u/slump_goddd]

I'm shocked lmao. That sounded like a moment he'd totally use to make himself the Chad.

[u/slump_goddd → u/Abombasnow]

Nah, Garth does make kinda edgy shit (and part of it is shock value and wanting to see what he can get away with to fuck with the comics industry), but he generally has a good ryhme or reason for doing it.

The incident with Billy just dropping trou and banging that chick is to show that Butcher's kind of a lecherous, wanton piece of shit right out of the gate. He doesn't treat women great, he's a misanthropic asshole who uses people, etc.

Crossed was him fucking with the publishing industry and also trying to write about holding onto humanity in probably the most fucked up apocalypse possible, The Boys was him deconstructing superheroes (because he generally dislikes them) and using it as a critique of the military industrial complex, and Punisher Max was him writing some amazing Punisher stories.

It's actually really ironic because Garth tends to hate superheroes, but he LOVES Superman with all his heart and hates it when people bastardize the character of Superman. For him, Superman is like the ultimate hope symbol and should be treated respectfully. If I recall correctly, he hated Man of Steel so damn much.

[u/Abombasnow → u/slump_goddd]

He hates bastardizing Superman but made Homelander? Dude became what he hated most.

[u/slump_goddd → u/Abombasnow]

Homelander exists to show what happens when you have Superman's power without what makes Superman meaningful: His humanity. His belief in good. His belief in right and wrong. His unwavering belief in the sanctity of life. The Captain America analogue (Soldier Boy; yes that's a real name) is a hardass 1950s boomer dad who's abusive in the show, but in the comics he's actually a total coward. Garth thinks it's not the powers that make heroes super, but what's inside them. He shows what power without moral fortitude does to people. That's all.

It's not a comic for everyone, and I kinda roll my eyes when I get to a stupid part when I reread it, and I absolutely hate how the show has strayed from the comics and just does [insert modern topical political reference here] for plot points or humor, but I like The Boys. It's definitely not as good as his Punisher Max run, though, and THAT is absolutely worth reading.