Boys Will Be Boys

Comic books were once an energetic part of American literature. They inspired numerous serials, TV shows, and eventually films.

Naturally, corporate players saw this as a cash cow. Distraction is the ultimate profit model. Most people would rather live in fantasy worlds than engage brutal reality. When political avenues are closed or privately purchased, grab whatever relevance you can, no matter how irrelevant it is.

There are creators who recognize this while padding their bank accounts. It’s the ultimate capitalist move; go where the market takes you. And the comic book market pretty much runs the world.

Amazon Prime wanted their slice and developed The Boys, based on the dystopian comic created by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson. The Boys is essentially “What if the X-Men or Justice League were shorn of noble intent?” Heroism on the cheap. Whatever it takes to restore a corrupt system, assuming that it can or should be done.

I like the premise. I grew up reading comic books, so any deviation works for me. The darker, the better. Yet I feel that The Boys is Dystopian Lite. Unavoidable, perhaps, but I’m entertained all the same.

Much of it is overwritten. Reinforcing themes punch by punch. A lot of the dialogue is bargain basement Tarantino, stuff that Tarantino moved past ages ago. And there’s the requisite CGI bloodfest, which included Seth Rogen, Will Forte, and Kumail Nanjiani, playing themselves, getting reduced to bloody goo in a pointless scene. I’m sure they found it funny, though why I have no idea.

The main character, Homelander, a Nazi Superman (played to precision by Antony Starr), is Donald Trump wearing an American flag cape, having the ability to fly and kill with heat vision. It’s clearly a parody, but I doubt if Trump would see it that way. He might explore having heat vision implants and flight boots. I wouldn’t be surprised. Among Trump’s many crimes, killing satire must be his worst.