Dynamite on TV: The Boys (Season One)

Of all the comics around that can be adapted for television this series based on The Boys by Garth Ennis (w) and Darick Robertson (a) was a surprise. The first six issues were published by Wildstorm which was by then an imprint of DC Comics and their powers that be decided that the comic was far too controversial for the company that produced Superman and other family friendly publications so dropped it.

Fortunately for both the creators and us readers Dynamite Entertainment picked up the book which went on to tell a story in 72 issues and was a success for this small publisher. Even more so no doubt with Nick Barucci being one of the producers of this show.

Thing about The Boys is it's set in a world where the superheroes are not very nice people and have plenty of vices and commit acts that well the general public don't get to hear or if they do simply hide from the reality of super-powered beings. This comic was both graphically and sensually explicit with Hugie the main character if you like being based on Simon Pegg and having his girlfriend torn apart by an out of control "hero" one of The Seven.

Revenge is the theme of this story as well as control. The heroes are not even what they seem to be. It's been a while since I read the comic (and there were a couple of supporting mini-series including one at the moment taking advantage of the new life afforded by the TV show) but looking at the covers I do recall some of the grittier scenes.

And the monkeys are doing what you think they are in this memorable cover albeit for all the wrong reasons.

The TV series obviously differs from the comic for both artistic and production reasons. Hughie does fall in love but sadly Butcher does not have his pug who ended up pissing on the leg of Homelander a virtually Nazi version of Superman. In fact The Seven mirror the Justice League with The Deep being a rather nasty rapey pastiche of Aquaman. He even talks to fish.

This is a world where the heroes are cheered but behind the scenes there's a conspiracy. I'd recommend the first season to  both comic readers and civilians. In fact although there are 12 trade paperbacks ( and it's available in other formats including digital) I'd recommend the comic as well.

These are NOT comics or programmes for kids. It's nasty, gory, sexually loaded and frankly highly entertaining. There's just 8 episodes. Can't wait for more!