If there is one element that often knows how to define the quality of a comic book of any genre, it is always and only the authors: in many American comics the characters manage to survive or not death (editorial) thanks exclusively to the group formed by writer, draftsman and colorist. Among the many names on the contemporary scene, there is one that is often synonymous with violence: mind you, we are not talking about that end in itself, but about violence as a means to tell cutting, stinging, intriguing stories. Let's talk about G, pen already seen on The Punisher, on many original works, and also on this one The Boys, which from July 26 will arrive on Amazon Prime Video (and which has already been renewed for a second season).
We were 5 friends at the bar
The premise of The Boys (the comic) is very simple: the world is full of superheroes, to the point that for the Vought company it is a multi-billion dollar business made up of films, gadgets, public appearances and so on. If the clear idea is that money can stain even the purest of men, then think what it can do to beings with powers that are not pure at all. In this way G describes a superhero society diametrically opposite to the one idealized on the Marvel and DC Comics, inserting orgies, murders, cover-ups, vices and so on. To try to stem this problem we think these The Boys, who (again in the comics) already from the first chapters find themselves having to solve problems with super crazy ones (and these problems tend to always end with murder) .
La Premise of the TV series is the same, simply more diluted: the comic, taken as a medium, allows a faster entry of characters and events that instead an audiovisual work must ration and then serve it to the viewer. For this reason the various characters will begin to meet each other over time, coming to be inserted from time to time. Although this alters the rhythm of the product a little, although the paths traveled between comics and series are different in many ways, many results and focal points remain identical, offering a new perspective to the readers of the original work and, at the same time, a suitable product for TV.
The story is told from two points of view: on the one hand we have Hughie, very normal boy (who in the comic had the appearance of Simon Pegg) who will see his life turned upside down by a series of events, on the other hand we have Starlight, a neophyte superheroine who will collide with the wall of the idyllic illusion of the Seven, supergroup (typical of comics).
A faithful transposition
We could only see the first 3 episodes in the original language, but for now The Boys is a faithful transposition to the original work, but not for the dynamics, but for the concepts: the various characters in fact have their own soul which, in spite of the small variations on the theme, it is very much in tune with that on printed paper. We have therefore Karl Urban as Billy Butcher, group leader, Jack Quaid like Hughie, Tomer Kapon will be the French (called in the Frenchie series), Laz Alonso the gigantic breast milk and finally, icing on the cake, Karen fukuhara like the Female. Although he has not appeared in the first three episodes yet, the extra team member will most likely also be present, Terror, Butcher's dog. On the side of the superheroes instead we find a fantastic Patriot, who wears the face of Antony Starr (and teases a bit 'Superman), the "Wonder Woman" of the series (called Queen Maeve) played by Dominique McElligott, and the dark Black Noir, played by Nathan mitchell (although its face is not yet seen).
There are other heroes alongside this classic trio like A-Train (Jessie Usher) and The Deep (Chace Crawford). All of them are run by Madelyn Stillwell, who runs the company and is played by Elisabeth shue.
There are many references to the world of superheroes: each of them represents stereotypes already seen in comics The Marvel movies e DC, which however become almost parody here, taking on an unprecedented violence. The series, transposing all this, presents some very violent scenes, gore and sometimes on the verge of reality, always leaving an anxious state (bigger depending on how well you know the series). And when the heroes act like spoiled children who want everything without thinking about the consequences, while a handful of weird and violent people try to reduce them (and often kill them), who is on the right side?
