Good News For The Boys
Garth Ennis' series that royally rips into superheros, The Boys, appears to be heading to Amazon as a TV series, headed up by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, the same producing pair who are behind the adaptation of Preacher.
After the mess that was the Green Hornet film, I was dubious of Rogen's involvement but after two seasons, the Preacher show works a treat so I'll be interested to see what they do with The Boys.
I wonder if they'll keep the opening line:
Posted on Wednesday, September 13, 2017 Wednesday, September 13, 2017 by GaryPosted in Film/TVTagged Preacher, The Boys.
Previous Previous post: Here We Go Again
Next Next post: Hell(boy) Of A News Day
4 thoughts on "Good News For The Boys"
Mr. Morbid says:
You know, I had high hopes for the Preacher tv series, especially after hearing how Goldberg and Rogan were really going to try to stay as true to the source material as possible without being a retread. I watched a couple episodes, but it really didn't feel anything at all like the comic.
Call me cynical, but I don't the Boys have a better fate, but I could be wrong.
I hope the folks at Amazon understand that the Boys is exactly what you said they were, taking the piss out of superheroes by someone who obviously dislikes them to such a degree as to constantly make them look stupid and inept. Which considering the current popular trend of superhero shows and movies, means that either Amazon is attempting to get ahead of the curve, or don't understand it's a superhero parody, not a legit superhero story, like Marvel or DC.
Series 2 of Preacher was a lot closer than series 1 – the whole search for God, the Grail, Herr Starr (who is brilliant, by the way), the Saint of Killers, are all in there.
One thing Mrs Earth-Prime said that I agree with, was that Jesse in the comics was all about honour and following a code, while in the series he's, frankly, a bit of an arse to a lot of people. Right now you could almost understand if Tulip willingly dumped him for Cassidy.
But, as ever, it's an adaptation, not a translation from one medium to another.
The core concept of The Boys has to be treated faithfully – it simply wouldn't work if the superheroes in the story were treated with the respect and reverence that, for example, the Marvel cinema characters have received. They need to be shown as shallow, venal, horrible people masquerading as heroes in order to allow the audience to identify with Butcher and the Boys who, let's face it, aren't much better than the supes themselves.
Early days, of course, so we'll see what happens.
That's why at least for me, it's good for an occasional laugh, but not something I'd be into on a regular basis for that fact right there on how Ennis portrays them. That's a clearly biased, opinionated POV by Ennis, but thankfully not a universal view held by the rest of the industry, otherwise what's the point of publishing superheroes if you felt that way about them.
Now sure, a good part of why Ennis feels that way is because he, like Ellis to an extent, resent superheroes for taking over the industry as the main, dominant genre. I can understand that to a point. So yeah, then write stories about stuff you like that you know will be published, and go on about your business. Not saying he doesn't have a right to his opinion, because he does, it's just that's all he does is bash the superhero genre, instead adding anything new or creative to it.
Stick to your war stories dude. That's what you do best.
Ennis has never been a fan of superheroes, that much is obvious. I think, with the exception of Superman, any mainstream superhero he's written has had the piss taken out of them in the story. It's not a genre he likes which is why, early on, he was dealing with horror/humour with only tangential superhero dealings. Even Hitman, which started firmly in the DCU, quickly moved aside from the original premise of a hitman who shoots superheroes, and dealt with the mob and the army, things Ennis is much more interested in.
To be fair to the guy, he has pretty much stuck to writing what he likes – there are very few instances of him writing mainstream superheroes in anything other than a comedic setting (where, again, the heroes are usually the butt of the joke). Even his massive run on The Punisher (ignoring the Marvel Knights stuff which, again, took the piss) turned into a crime/vigilante series.
The Boys is Ennis gleefully ripping the superhero genre apart and giving his take on what the world would be like if grown men and women wore spandex and flew about trying to save the day. An argument could be made that doing that is add something new or creative to the genre; you might not like what he's adding, but something's being offered up.
If it gets to a series, I'll certainly give it a look, but I'll keep on buying Justice League and Green Lantern regardless.