Plot: That one note can get a little monotonous, especially since fighting Nazis is like shooting fish in a barrel for the average comic book. They're the ur-enemy, so the outcome is a gimmee. Ennis makes for a nastier one than most, though. Unsurprisingly.
What's Been Happening: Vought-American decided to get a little pro-active with the Boys, and came up with a couple of unpleasant scenarios. They got the drop on The Female, putting her in the hospital. And then they sent the second stringers, Payback, after the rest of the Boys. Probably in some sort of bid to protect the first stringers, The Seven. It's hard to understand the motivations of Vought-American, as all we see are suits jockeying for position with each other. They're interchangeable yes-men, colluding with the government (or the military-industrial complex), and the supers.
Outright murders and mayhem took care of most of that fight with Payback, including strangulation, impalement, nose-biting and worse, making the last two issues the equivalent of watching a Freddie vs. Leatherface movie. There's nothing anyone won't do in this series, and the humor of the earlier issues seems all dried up.
Or maybe it's taken the form of this issue's cover, a very cynical parody of one of the most uplifting series of recent years. It's especially grating considering the book is full already of parodies of that character, and if he stands for anything, it's not National Socialist values. It's a maddening cover, about a maddening character, who does at least get what's coming to him.
Well, he gets what came to Kurt Russell in Deathproof, and I don't know if the Boys have any sort of higher ground than the stuntwomen in that movie did. Wee Hughie doesn't know, either: he sits out the execution being sick into his hand, and then his thanks comes in the form of the Female breaking his arm when she wakes up. Which is actually a positive act for her.
The art this issue is fill-in (don't let that Robertson cover fool ya), but Ezquerra gives us his best Steve Dillon sangfroid from start to finish. Ezquerr's got a clear bead on the characters, including the ongoing subplots (which it's hard to believe Ennis is even bothering with given the distracting gorefest, but we get a few panels of: bad jokes from the Russian, subtle rebellion from Starlight, and ongoing corporate politics from the Homelander).
Hughie's not the only one getting tired of it all, however. Maybe it's a good time for an origin tale, as next issue begins a confessional from Mother's Milk. And the Butcher has a few secrets left, too. The only real question that remains, otherwise, is whether Hughie and Annie will survive despite what's happening to them on their respective teams. Especially after they realize which teams those are.
What did you think of this book?
Have your say at the Line of Fire Forum!