Book Review: The Boys Omnibus, Volume 2

Garth Ennis, et.al., The Boys Omnibus, Volume 2. Mount Laurel, NJ: Dynamite Entertainment, 2019. ISBN: 9781524109707.

Genre: graphic novels and comics

Subgenre: superheroes, antiheroes, satire, adapted to television

Format: trade paperback omnibus edition

Source: Hutchins Library, Berea College 

This volume includes issues 15-30 of the series plus the following extras: 

• An introduction by Brian K. Vaughn.
• Garth Ennis' script to The Boys #17.
• Sketches by Darick Robertson and John Higgins. 
• All of the series covers by Darick Robertson.
• All alternate covers by John Cassaday, Jim Lee, and others. 

The story continues from the last volume. Wee Hughie and Annie January's love continues to blossom, and they both remain ignorant of each other's alter ego. Their intimacy does have some humorous moments. Meanwhile, the conflicts continue as plots thicken. A major focus in this arc is the G-Men group, which is Vought-American's most profitable team. By the way, this one is pretty clearly based on the X-Men down to the name of the group based on the leader/owner's name, in this case John Godolkin, who claims he is training orphans to be superheroes. However, in reality he is a kidnapper and a pedophile. His "children" all hate him yet they are also fiercely loyal to him. 

This continues to be an engaging and interesting series. For this particular volume, the pace does slow down quite a bit when Hughie visits The Legend, and The Legend spends time telling Hughie about the origins of the supes, major scandals, and other facts and stories Hughie asks about and/or needs to know for his work with The Boys. While it is interesting, this part of the volume is a lot of text to read, and it does slow the pace down a bit. However, we do learn some things including how incompetent The Seven can really be and why the Brooklyn Bridge was destroyed on 9/11 instead of the Twin Towers. The incompetence of The Seven does bring up a question comic books rarely answer about superheroes: how, if in any way, do they have any training to do what they do? For example, we know how Batman has trained. Wonder Woman is an Amazon warrior, so she has that training. But the universe of The Boys, well, the heroes are not that well trained to do what they are supposed to do if at all. The Boys are CIA operatives, though Hughie is the least trained of them which is why he has to go through his learning curve. There are still plenty of revelations and twists in the stories.  

Overall, this continues to be a solid series. As before, it is gritty, and it is very graphic in terms of violence and sex, so if you are a sensitive reader this is your warning. I am fine with such things, and I am enjoying the series very much for the good writing, good story, and overall the art is good also. I am looking forward to reading the next volume in the series. 

As I noted before, I have not seen the Amazon Prime series, but I would say if you have, you have not read the comics, you probably should. It may add to your appreciation of the television series. As I said in my review of the first volume, these are volumes I would add to my personal collection, and the omnibus editions make good value for libraries with graphic novel collections. 

5 out of 5 stars. 

This quote from Brian K. Vaughan's introduction to the volume caught my eye and explains the comic well: 

"Even though the big liar [Garth Ennis] will claim this is all just supposed to be a bit of subversive fun, I think Garth is really writing a damning examination of America's military industrial complex (or "military-industrial-congressional," as Eisenhower originally wanted to call it)." 

The Legend expands on that topic a bit in one of the moments he is talking to Hughie: 

"All of the senators an' reps whose campaigns they backed. All their own people they got appointed to committees. There's nothin' new about it-- Grumman an' General Motors an' Colt do it to this day-- an' most important of all, I'll say it again: There ain't nothing secret about it." 

As George Carlin would label it, we are talking about the Real Owners. 

This book qualifies for these 2021 Reading Challenges: