Product Description

From the sick and twisted mind of Garth Ennis, co-creator of "Preacher", and the vicious pencil of Darick Robertson, artist of "Transmetropolitan", comes a darkly hilarious story that will change the way you look at superheroes forever! Hughie goes undercover as Scottish mutant 'Bagpipe' to join the G-Men, a mysterious and huge group of 'supes' led by the shadowy John Godolkin, with a history of internecine conflict which Butcher is all too happy to exploit. Meanwhile, Annie sees even more of the darkness in her own super-team, the Seven...This controversial series continues to explore the dark side of superheroics!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5775 in Books
• Published on: 2009-07-08
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

About the Author
Garth Ennis is the award-winning writer of Hellblazer, Hitman, Punisher, Preacher, Pride and Joy and War Stories. He is much in demand for his hard-edged, wickedly humorous style. Darick Robertson is the critically acclaimed artist and co-creator of Transmetropolitan. He is also the artist on Fury and Punisher (both with Garth Ennis), and the creator of Space Beaver.

Customer Reviews

Still going strong
The Boys continue their path of carnage with the introduction of a new selection of supergroups to torment. Introducing John Godolkin and his G-Men, this volume will leave looking at a certain mutant professor in diffenernt light...

Typical direct and adult writing from Garth Ennis coupled with art to Darick Robertsons usual high standard.

Not as good as others, but strong nonetheless
As a massive fan of both Preacher and Transmetropolitan, I've been following The Boys since it started and have been thrilled with the results. As much as I enjoyed Steve Dillon's artwork (and this TPB includes a pic of Butcher by Dillon which is very nice) there's an amazing quality to Darick's drawing which is the icing on the cake for this series.

In We Gotta Go Now, The Boys investigate the G-Men and their subsidiary organisations, headed by the exremely creepy John Godolkin. It largely ignores the wider plot of The Seven, making this quite a self-contained entry, although it does refer to several wider plot strands and doubtless various events in We Gotta Go Now will be important later on.

To be honest, this is not as good as earler TPBs, but it's well worth a look. I found myself liking Butcher less by the end though!

We Gotta Read This Now
"We Gotta Go Now" is Ennis and Robertsons' take on the X-Men and that whole brand of heroes with younger X-Men like X-Factor, etc. "Orphans" get taken in and trained by a creepy benefactor who uses them to profit off and continue the cycle. Then one of them kills themselves and another who is supposed to be dead turns up "alive" and things turn out to be not as they were. The usual debauchery, ultra-violence, and bad taste are in abundance with the added delight of Wee Hughie dressing up as a supe. I'm sure Ennis' note on that page was "make Hughie as gay as you can" and Robertson just ran with it. It's a joy.

"The Boys" is one of the most enjoyable series of recent years and making fun of superheroes is an utterly fun subject, far more enjoyable than Moore's drab and overrated "Watchmen" makes out. I loved Tek Knight (a Batman spoof) from "Get Some" and how that ended showing Ennis and Robertson at their most cheeky (what Tek Knight did to his wimpy, gay sidekick for example, and Ennis/Robertson's solution to Tek Knight's "troubles"). Similarly the brilliantly written and drawn alternate take of 9/11 in "Good for the Soul" which showed a completely overwhelmed superhero team floundering and failing. What a great counterpoint to all the comics in the aftermath of that day where people were asking the likes of Spiderman and Superman "Where were YOU?". Ennis' response is to show how idiotic they are as a creation and how ridiculous a world is that relies on a man wearing underpants on the outside flying about the place.

The whole point of "The Boys" is to make fun of the most popular characters and genre in comics through comics and counter them with a group of psychos who are perversely the heroes. Another way to look at it is to say we don't need superheroes, they're arrogant b*st*rds who cause more damage than they save. But it's mostly just good fun and they always keep that in perspective (the next book is titled "Herogasm").

It's clear Ennis and Robertson are having a ball with this series and it's a pleasure to read each book. The writing is snappy and the plot coming thick, fast and edgy. Robertson's always been a maverick artist with his work adding to much of the appeal of "Transmetropolitan" and "The Boys" continues to show his work as good as ever.

Catch these books as they come out, it shows two artists at the top of their game, never better.