It Grows on You, Like Fungus

It’s vulgar and crude and surprisingly riveting. When reading the first half of the opening trade to Garth Ennis’ renowned answer to anti-heroes, “The Boys,” it’s difficult not to be overcome with revulsion. The protagonist orders his dog to rape another as a way of cheering a potential new recruit up (and he’s one of the good guys), while the local superheroes engage in all sorts of acts of dominance and sexual depravity. العاب قمار روليت Their attitude toward the de-powered masses is nothing to praise, either.

After all, “that arrogance. That &^%$ing disdain that have for us, where our lives mean nothin’ more than a rat’s” is precisely what drove Billy Butcher to reassemble a five-man team of CIA-funded watchmen-watchers known as “The Boys.”

Consisting of issues 1 through 6, the first volume of the series, “The Name of the Game,” primarily serves to introduce the main characters and their super-adversaries.

Billy Butcher is the incredibly crass alpha-dog of the group, and a distinctly difficult character to like. He brutalizes people for fun and degrades others regularly as a way of keeping them in line, but he does a good thing. He wants to prevent the local hero teams from using the world is their careless playground.

Mother’s Milk is his no-nonsense and considerably kinder second-in-command, while the Frenchman is an amiable charmer when calm, and down-right volatile when angered. The Female is the group’s resident psychopath (comparatively): deadly and not one for lively conversation.

The focus on this volume is the recruitment of Wee Hughie, a young, innocent Scottish man whose girlfriend was literally ripped away from him in the crossfire of a battle between supes, as they’re called in Ennis’ opus. As he stood, holding her detached arms in traumatized shock, the costume-clad heroes’ lawyers had already begun to hatch a plan involving him signing away right to sue.

This is where his recruitment comes in. He doesn’t want money. All he truly wants is Robin back.

Butcher is there to offer him the next best thing: a slot on the team and a chance to help prevent these accidents in the future.

Ennis’ literary world is indubitably difficult to read, especially at first. العاب روليت Its characters are crass, vicious and don’t seem to share a decent bone between the lot of them (perhaps with the exception of Hughie and Mother’s Milk). But then, something strange happens. All repulsive shock value is somehow cast to the side and you’re left with nothing but a surprisingly engaging story, almost finding yourself rooting for this admittedly despicable person. العاب ربح

If nothing else, Butcher is the lesser of the evils, and Ennis’ world bears no façade of innocence. It’s gritty and brutal and incredibly harsh.

But it’s entertaining, especially once the truly unique storyline begins.

Darick Robertson’s intensely graphic pencils, while initially disturbing, serve as a curious lifeline by the trade’s end and it’s difficult not to develop a guilty desire to learn more.

“The Name of the Game” may not be an epic masterpiece, but it is certainly a decadent secret.