THE BOYS volume 7 THE INNOCENTS review

THE BOYS Volume 7: THE INNOCENTS graphic novel

Collects #39-47

Writer: Garth Ennis

Art: Darick Robertson, Russ Braun and John McCrea w/ Keith Burns

Published by Titan books and contains very adult material

Review by Stewart Loud

The events that made volume 6 so exciting suddenly seem a little mundane as Garth once again ups the tempo of his massive slap to the collective faces of all Marvel and DC's popular characters, The Boys. While it's still very funny in places, the story has definitely taken a far more serious turn as The Homelander and the rest of the supes begin to look like more of a threat to the world than they already did and Butcher shows more of the unpleasant side of his character after he learns of Hughie's involvement with Starlight.

I'm a little bit embarrassed to admit it but the fact that I'm completely hooked on this series has really caught me by surprise. I started reading it because I'm a massive Garth Ennis fan and although I had no trouble getting into it with it's outrageous humour based on a lot of the super hero comics I read and its “wouldn't be allowed on TV” content, I at first regarded it as just a bit of fun I could read for 20 minutes before bed each night. Lo and behold, Before I know what's happening I'm immersed in another brilliant plot From Garth, chock full of incredible characters and I can't wait to find out what happens next. With a lot of his work I find it's not just the characters you like that keep you coming back for more, it's the characters that are such complete cock suckers that you keep turning the page because you desperately wanna see them get what's coming to them.

Hughie's relationship with a super hero was never going to be smooth sailing forever and pretty much everything you may have been expecting to go wrong with it, goes wrong as Butcher turns out to be a lot more vindictive and manipulative than he was when Hughie first met him. Is Butcher going to turn into another one of the bad guys of the story? Difficult to tell but expect to see sparks fly there. The Homelander moves closer and closer to becoming a complete sociopath as he becomes more convinced that being the most powerful man on the planet, he should be able to get away with doing absolutely anything he wants. Honestly, even I was a bit shocked by one of the truly terrible things he does towards the end of the book. Well done Garth, still making me shout “Fuck off! Really?!!” at the pages of your comics after all these years.

There's a few different artists work in this book and the standard of art is good and solid throughout. Some great emotion in the characters faces during the heated arguments and exchanges of the book as well as some really effective looking scenes above the clouds. I did think some of the art in the previous volume was a little below the standard so far so it was nice to see a return to form.

Ending on a cliff hanger surpassing anything in the series so far, it all looks set to kick right off!

As good as this book is though, if you haven't read any of the series so far, for God's sake don't start here. Read all the previous comics first. Buy, borrow or steal them if you have to and then read this one. For something that is essentially a giant piss take of super hero comics, it's turning out to be a bit on the epic side.

SCORE 9/10

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