The Boys Vol. 5 and 6

Vol.5: Herogasm, Vol. 6: The Self-PreservationSociety

Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, 2009-2010

(April 2013)

This is a pleasure that goes so far through guilty that it loops round the other side and feels almost virtuous. Well, perhaps not, but it’s still excessive, puerile, childish fun. Does a body good every once in a while.

I’m sure this contains all sorts of cutting parodies of various superhero characters, conventions, and stylings. I’m not so far adrift I don’t get some of the broader brushstrokes (The X-Men last time out, the Fantastic Four in Herogasm), but it’s equally clear to there are lots of obvious in-jokes and swipes I have less than no clue about. I’m sure it’d be a different, if not necessarily better, experience if I was more clued-up on the various insider knowledge Ennis takes aim at, but I get enough to enjoy it on my own terms.

Which is basically my way of patting myself on the back for the one vaguely obscure reference I did get. Given all the talk of dark re-imaginings and retcon reboots in the first half of SPS, it should have come as no surprise that that’s exactly what we get in the second. Uderzo did strike me as a curiously un-Japanese name.

Which would make Danger Dogmatix, I guess…