The Boys is a much-needed knee to the nads for comics, a clamoured-for kick to the clackers of geeky fan boys, a fantastic fist in the face to anyone who takes themselves too seriously. Bloody lighten up, grow some maturity in a test tube if you've already passed puberty, and see this for what it is: Infantile? No, irreverent. Gross? No, gratuitous perhaps, but wonderfully so. The Boys sets up a more realistic world, and in this volume it even absorbs and uses an alternate version September the 11th as an example of why The Boys would exist, to be the counter-weight, the watchdogs, the judge, jury and executioners of pathetic and indulgent superheroes who can achieve nothing in the real world.
Primarily this volume does three things - it deepens the stories of The Boys themselves, by doing past-history hints for some and present involvements for others; it gives us the back story of how superheroes came about and why The Boys are needed; and it sets the ticking bomb that is their probable future confrontation.
The Boys was SO brutal, humorous, and irreverant that DC had to let it go. Hot potatoes! Good for Dynamite for keeping it going. Not Garth Ennis's best work, but certainly some of his funniest, and certainly his best take on superheroes. The involvement of co-creator Darick Robertson is invaluable in creating a real but shocking feel to the work, and who knows how much of the twists, turns and nastiness he's responsible for!
A great series, ONLY for the mature, and always to be taken with a pinch of salt. Though personally I find it even funnier when drunk.