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View Full Version : The Boys #46 Full Recap and Review - including FREE pics of Maeve's NAKED breasts!



Boris
09-02-2010, 11:10 PM
And the show goes on.
As a special end-of-summer offer, I've decided to take turns providing Full Recaps and Reviews™.

Yes, it's worse than you think: I'm starting to like writing them.



Anyway, let's go. Mind the usual MAJOR SPOILERS alert.


We were left with Hughie, shocked with the revelation of his girlfriend's true job, fatally running into Butcher, in what seemed to be a crucial, long waited showdown.

Will Hughie confess the horrible secret to his cruel, vengeful, prone to anger boss?
Will said boss extract bloody vengeance from his treacherous, incompetent, clumsy servant?

Aaaw, what were we thinking?

Billy couldn't care less. He already knows all, and more.
Instead, he's thinking of the implications. Is Annie a spy for the Seven? Has Hughie carelessly told her something about the Boys?

Hughie, being conceived to be the comic relief of the series, suddenly freaks out, fearing Billy will kill him for being a traitor (which is precisely what Billy wanted to do a couple months ago, but let's not talk about that). Even Billy realizes this is totally moronic, and joins us in a burst of laughter, jokingly telling Hughie to grow a spine.

I wish to say I'm particularly happy with Butcher's attitude in this arc. It's a badly needed change of tone, from the Dumb Paranoid With A Bloodlust of the later issues to the Smart Paranoid With A Brain of Believe. Ok, he's still a slimy, heartless bastard, but at least he's behaving with a logic. Notice how he suddenly changes from friendly confident to patronizing uncle to inquisitor from hell, and back. It's the old good cop/bad cop game, and he's playing it all by himself. Not bad. Read further for more.


Meanwhile, Homelander and Annie are on a coffe break at Believe.
Without any meaningful reason, Homelander congrats with Annie (yes, you've read it right) for standing up against Vought Guy. Annie notes that it didn't change anything, but nevertheless Homie suggests to make sure he's having a bad time (actually, Homelander's masterplan is trying to make VG die of heartstroke, a task easily accomplished in a couple of centuries). If they can't disobey his orders, they can at least bear a grudge.
Somebody please call dr.Freud, we've a brand new set of complexes to study here.


(Wait. I've had a brainwave. Notice how Hughie's relationship with the Boys matches perfectly Annie's relationship with the Seven: shady hirings, shocking startings, crisis, etc. That's interesting.)

(And what if now Homelander trusts her enough to invite her to join his Doomsday Plan??? Hey, that's two brainwaves in a row! Thank Beer.)


Anyway, there's time for an update call from Frenchie (which is only an excuse to show the Female's grim revenge on the lollipop-stealing kid, that I found hilarious), and then it's time for the serious stuff.

Hughie and Billy are back home, when suddenly a furious MM rushes out of the office. It seems somebody stole his milk flask, forcing him to run to his momma, and leaving our pals all alone. What an unlucky coincidence.

And now, behold!

Hughie is a bit of frustrated. Why didn't anyone know that Annie was Starlight and tell him (don't know what you're talking about, laddie)?
After all, they have cams all over the Seven base.
And who the hell placed those cams in the first place?

After an exchange of looks that will bury Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef in a grave forever, Billy spits it out.

The mole is Maeve.

(Yep, the big secret is over. Isn't Billy a good mate?)

We're told Maeve contacted the Legend out of spite for the Homelander, and the Legend in turn set up a meeting with Billy and Mallory. Long story short, Maeve agreed to place those cameras, if only to cause major embarassments to the Seven (and, beware, all this happened "ten years ago", so it's nothing to do with the 9/11 accident). Official reason for this double cross seems to be a nice set of photos portraying Maeve having wild sex with someone looking as Homelander, who is also prime suspect, that somehow were leaked.

FOR THE DELIGHT OF US ALL, HUGHIE ASKS TO SEE THEM, AND BUTCHER PROVIDES.

(I am sure you were interested)


The Legend buys it, Mallory buys it, but Butcher doesn't. After all, thanks to her there's now plenty of photos, videos and all the rest providing tons of pics and movies showing Maeve drinking herself into stupor and having nasty threesomes, and for all she knows they could go on Youporn live 24/7 (I'm actually surprised Vought American didn't think of a superhero XXX line of merchandise. To hell with comics!). But she doesn't care at all, so the real reason must be something else.

Ok, we'll talk about this later, now comes the best.

After an awful lot of "You're my buddy" "You're one of the team", "it's gonna be alright" speeches, Billy goes out with an excuse, and Hughie is left all alone at the pc.

Just he and the Seven videos.

With a terrible coincidence, the player shows THAT video.

And a sad (or sadistic???) Billy takes a deep meditation about tough love.



It's moments like these that remind me why I love Ennis.

Kamakazi
09-03-2010, 12:25 AM
Oh, the decisions: do I read your Recap before I pick up my Box tomorrow? Or do I wait, read it, and THEN read the Recap? WHAT DO I DO?!?

saidestroyer
09-03-2010, 12:53 AM
It's almost freakin' 1 a.m. in here, and I'm supposed to wake up at 5 a.m. today.
But I just couldn't go to bed before reading the whole thing.

I LOVE THIS SERIES. I can't think of anything better to say.

Oh, yeah. Couple of things: I'll wait 'till the next issue of "Believe" hits the stores, and then I'll read "Highland Laddie", just so I don't spoil myself anything else (like back in the "Herogasm" days).

And this Russ Braun dude is kicking all kind of ass in the art department. I wish Robertson had drawn this arc, but I suppose the Butcher miniseries will be a nice compensation (I hope so!)

MOD NOTE:Had to edit due to language.

saidestroyer
09-03-2010, 12:55 AM
Oh, the decisions: do I read your Recap before I pick up my Box tomorrow? Or do I wait, read it, and THEN read the Recap? WHAT DO I DO?!?

Read the book, then the recap. Don't let Boris spoil it for you :D

Boris
09-03-2010, 08:11 AM
Read the book, then the recap. Don't let Boris spoil it for you :D


Yep, what the hell!


This issue is worth solid gold, both the story and the art.
I don't even miss Darick anymore! :eek:

Kamakazi
09-03-2010, 10:45 AM
This issue is worth solid gold, both the story and the art.
I don't even miss Darick anymore! :eek:

I have to agree on both accounts. The art is better than it's ever been. If anything, Braun's art looks like just a more polished, professional version of Robertson's art. I never stop to think "Hey, this is a different guy". All I think is "Damn, Robertson's gotten a LOT better lately." :D

This may well have been the single best issue of The Boys so far, in terms of how the characters themselves are portrayed. A few of the things I loved:

Annie and Homelander sharing a moment.
I've always said that you can't have "being a Wad" the only motivation for your Bad Guy. To really hate Homelander, we have to have at least a tiny bit of empathy for him. And this issue delivers. For a brief moment, Homelander ceases to be a giant cartoon and becomes what he always should have been- a guy that knows he's completely screwed up, but has no clue whatsoever how to change.

Hughie and Butcher sharing a moment.
I don't want to just repeat what Boris has said, but Boris is right: the whole scene with Hughie and Butcher was pitch-perfect, and nearly makes me forget how poorly this plot had been handled up till now. What I especially like is that Ennis doesn't pretend that his excesses with Butcher's character never existed- he deals with them through Hughie's reactions during the whole "Interview" section.

Plus, it was hilarious. I couldn't stop laughing during the part where Butcher asks Hughie if there's "anything else" he should know: Did Hughie join Team Titanic's gym? Forward all their files to H-Lander.com? Have a Threesome with Jack from Jupiter?

The Female and The Fat Kid sharing a moment.
For someone that didn't even appear in this issue, the Female certainly had one of the best scene. Like I said last time: I would SO buy a Frenchie/Female team-up series.

Homelander's description of Vought Guy.
It appears that Homelander is reaching the same conclusion we did: Vought Guy was specifically engineered by Vought to babysit the Seven. He hasn't reached the conclusion that Vought Guy must therefore be a Supe yet, but Homelander isn't (currently) stupid, so I'm sure he'll eventually figure it out.

Also, the timing between this and Highland Laddie has been perfect so far. Let's hope it stays that way. :D

Chrisnuttall
09-03-2010, 04:42 PM
A good issue. Almost made me forget the trainwreck of Highland Laddie.

Chris

gwiereng
09-03-2010, 11:27 PM
Why doesn't Robertson ever draw more than a couple issues in a row, anyway? On a book like this, I really think it improves the overall feel to have the art be consistent. Steve Dillon didn't crap out on every other story arc in PREACHER. I guess it doesn't really matter overmuch, but for some reason it annoys me a little. Just seems lazy.

Kamakazi
09-07-2010, 09:56 AM
Why doesn't Robertson ever draw more than a couple issues in a row, anyway? On a book like this, I really think it improves the overall feel to have the art be consistent. Steve Dillon didn't crap out on every other story arc in PREACHER. I guess it doesn't really matter overmuch, but for some reason it annoys me a little. Just seems lazy.

I'm not completely sure, but as I understand it, Robertson likes to ink his own work, which more than doubles the time it takes to produce an issue. Also, Steve Dillion is a god among mortals, so it's hard to compare him to anyone else. :)

sproxx
09-07-2010, 01:56 PM
Also, Steve Dillion is a god among mortals, so it's hard to compare him to anyone else. :)

I beg to differ! I know it all comes to to personal tastes in the end, but I wouldn't say Steve Dillon is a genius. His problem is, that all of his characters somehow look alike. That is why the Punisher is just a version of Jesse Custer with more muscles.
But he is an absolute professional, sure enough.

That said, the art in the new boys-issue is gorgeous!

Kamakazi
09-07-2010, 03:28 PM
I beg to differ! I know it all comes to to personal tastes in the end, but I wouldn't say Steve Dillon is a genius. His problem is, that all of his characters somehow look alike. That is why the Punisher is just a version of Jesse Custer with more muscles.
But he is an absolute professional, sure enough.


As is widely known, there's nothing I love better than discussing Steve Dillion. :) The reason why is this: I hated his artwork at first. I really did. I thought it was overly simplistic and "cartoony". But the more of his work I saw, the more I realized that the guy can convey more emotion with a few simple lines than just about anyone else in the business.

Now, I'll admit that he's not always the best choice. For example, he did the Ultimates Annual a few years back, and frankly, it sucked. He's just not very good at doing traditional Superheros. But the best thing about his artwork (IMHO, at least) is that he can instill some humor and humanity even into the vilest of Ennis's plots. I don't think I could have endured some of Preacher without Dillion's artwork buffering the mayhem. In fact, I absolutely HATED the "Saint of Killers" and "Good Old Boys" minis, mainly because the art intensified, rather than mitigated, the excesses of the script.

But I've gone off on a tangent here. :D

saidestroyer
09-07-2010, 10:45 PM
As is widely known, there's nothing I love better than discussing Steve Dillion. :) The reason why is this: I hated his artwork at first. I really did. I thought it was overly simplistic and "cartoony". But the more of his work I saw, the more I realized that the guy can convey more emotion with a few simple lines than just about anyone else in the business.

Same thing happened to me with John McCrea. Now I buy everything the man draws.

Boris
09-14-2010, 07:13 PM
Just a footnote. As I said before, Maeve made the deal with the Boys "ten years ago", a fact that led me to think it had nothing to do with the 9/11 accident, since it would date it back at least a year before.

But I suddenly realized we don't know what year it is currently in the Boys timeline. For all we know it could be 2011, with presidential elections due next year, so the ten years interval would match perfectly.

Any clues?

Kamakazi
09-15-2010, 11:19 AM
Just a footnote. As I said before, Maeve made the deal with the Boys "ten years ago"
Any clues?

Well, I've noticed that when I talk about 9/11, I say "ten years ago", just because it's a round number. That might be it. But it might also be the "Homelander, the Penis Thief" incident that they occasionally refer to. This seems especially likely given that Homelander had a flashback to the photos in this very issue.

I dunno. I'd always assumed that it was The Boys who took the "Penis Thief" photos, and that's what they were using to keep Homelander in line. But I guess it's possible that Vought themselves took the photos.

Boris
09-15-2010, 09:11 PM
Well, I've noticed that when I talk about 9/11, I say "ten years ago", just because it's a round number. That might be it. But it might also be the "Homelander, the Penis Thief" incident that they occasionally refer to. This seems especially likely given that Homelander had a flashback to the photos in this very issue.

I dunno. I'd always assumed that it was The Boys who took the "Penis Thief" photos, and that's what they were using to keep Homelander in line. But I guess it's possible that Vought themselves took the photos.


No, that would make sense, but Vought Guy precised (Superduper #1) the Penis Massacre occurred "nearly twenty years ago", so I presume it's nothing to do with Maeve (as far as we know).

Maeve's real motives is what we're talking about. If she got in contact with the Boys after 9/11, then it's clear it was the Seven and Homelander's tragic fail to upset her. If it happened before, it's entirely another story.

Either way, it doesn't fit.

First, the Legend heard about it "straight from the horse's mouth", aka Maeve's. But then, why does everybody buy her story, and why does Butcher keep thinking about her real motives? Plus, are we really ready to read about a spoiled superbitch repenting for her wrongdoings and wanting to set things right? Expecially since she doesn't look too much repented to me.

On the other hand, if the Boys had bugs in the Seven HQ before 9/11, they would presumably have known what it was about to happen, and so would the CIA and the US government. So, why didn't they intervene? MM was on the Brooklyn Bridge that day, minding his own business, as presumably everybody else. And I will NOT stand Ennis talking about "the government knew, but did nothing" and other 9/11 conspiracy crap.

saidestroyer
09-15-2010, 10:14 PM
Just a footnote. As I said before, Maeve made the deal with the Boys "ten years ago", a fact that led me to think it had nothing to do with the 9/11 accident, since it would date it back at least a year before.

But I suddenly realized we don't know what year it is currently in the Boys timeline. For all we know it could be 2011, with presidential elections due next year, so the ten years interval would match perfectly.

Any clues?

Same thought crossed my mind. Get outta my head, bastich! :D

Chrisnuttall
09-16-2010, 02:13 AM
I think that the aircraft's flight recorder would have recorded much of what happened during the final moments, collaborating her story.

On timing, I suspect that it was all organised very quickly. There might have been no time for the boys to get involved.

Chris

Kamakazi
09-16-2010, 11:11 AM
No, that would make sense, but Vought Guy precised (Superduper #1) the Penis Massacre occurred "nearly twenty years ago", so I presume it's nothing to do with Maeve (as far as we know).

Ah, you are correct sir. I'd forgotten about that. This leaves me more confused than ever. Frankly, I'd just assumed that Maeve was pissed over Homelander slapping her aside and letting the plane crash into the brooklyn bridge, but either there's something else going on, or as you suggested, the Boys are in a slightly different time frame than we are.

Hot_Ch0c0
09-29-2010, 04:07 PM
At least we know for sure Maeve is the mole! :D

I tend to agree with the theory that 9/11 had a major impact on Maeve. The leaked photos could have pissed her off at the time, but it would take more to get her to "almost" go full traitor... Of course she could resent the fact that she was created and "used" her entire life... Or maybe someone leaked the bloody photos of Homelander from 20 years ago to her. She definitely had some sort of faith that Homelander would do something and not abandon the people on the plane... After her own panic, she could have realized just what a complete farce the whole "hero" thing was. Come to think of it, it could be the combination of all of it that fuels her own depression, sarcasm, alcoholism etc. But, she definitely appears to have changed for the worse after 9/11... Homelander noted something about her drinking more heavily and not caring after the last confrontation with the Boys (and Lamplighter's murder). So maybe seeing what happened to Lamplighter (and his "resurrection") was the final straw and completely soured her on Vought American. But, the money is too good and she knows nothing else, so she goes on living with people she despises, drunk and using her boy toys...

VA seems to be the source of the Homelander penis massacre photos and somehow they got leaked to the Boys, or the Boys aquired them themselves. There was some comment that VA Guy said when he showed them to his new assistant that Vogelbaum mentioned monitoring Homelander's psychotic issues - Probably partially as a result of that incident or similar things in the past... In fact, those type of things may have led VA Guy to conclude superheros are a bad investment for the company and need to be eliminated.

VA Guy continues to be an enigma... his heart rate doesn't change?! He NEVER gets excited, surprised or scared enough for it to change, or is it incapable of being altered?... Genetically develop him to take away the physical reactions of stress, so he can always think clearly.... hmmmm

I liked this issue, and I really want to know what Homelander is going to say in his whole "The VA agenda is to get Vic the Veep to be president" speech. And I'm interested to see the Butcher/Starlight meeting...