Highland Laddie IV: Annie grows balls! (Aaaw...)

[Boris]

And here's your least-beloved reporter from an imaginary location in Scotland, with the exclusive on the latest Boys news!

Shocking hot revelations about the darkest secret nobody could care less for: Starlight Origins!

Well, sit down and enjoy. You wouldn't believe what you read. I will not show the usual SPOILERS alert, because everybody should know.

It is with the craziest enthusiasm that I announce you this was one of the dumbest, most boring issues in the whole Boys series.


We were left last month with our smart boy Hughie walking home and realizing his former Seven blowing True Love is currently meeting his parents.
Anybody with a brain would have called the cops and/or beaten the hell off the unbelievable offender with a baseball bat, but not our icecold Hughie, who in fact is now shown having a nice walk with his heartbreaking ex-girlfiend.
And while our fearless, not to be fuc*ed with, unbreakable superhero helplessly stares into the void, our fragile superheroine feels the urge to tell him the sad story of her life (smart, smart move. Who, indeed, having just been cheated and betrayed by his/her lover, wouldn'd be interested more than ever into hearing his/her motivations?).


Anyway, the staggering, soul-shattering tale of Annie will bring you down to your knees. It seems she permanently blinded out her parents at birth and thus was given into foster care to a family on Vought's paybook. Yeah, nobody could have guessed that.
Even worse, she was, believe it or not, raised to be a superheroine!!!
That's SHOCKING, I always assumed she was a Supergirl cosplayer.

And that's not enough! Vought procedures for raising supes actually involve beauty contests and reality shows auditions, with hysterical mommies supporting their little princesses and all the rest. Oh, the cruelty!!!
If that was supposed to be a satire or something, I could not get it.

Now, the question we all were asking since the beginning of the book.
"WHO THE HELL DOES CARE AT ALL OF THIS SOAP OPERA BULLSHIT?"


Well... Hughie does.

I didn't believe Ennis would have thrown such an evil trick on his beloved fans, but that's what happened. Hughie, tears in his eyes, sad melancholy in his heart, painfully recalls how HE was thrown into this superhero craze.

And now, only now, does he understand the sufferings of her poor, unfortunate soul mate. Sigh...sob... pass me a handkerchief, please.

Let's ease our emotions by switching on Scotland's most evil drug gang, that is currently refining details of the darkest dealing operation ever. Aren't they SCARY EVIL? No.

It just happens that the two idiots from a couple issues ago have some doubts, because, you know, there's all kinds of horror stories about V-laced crack, and they even managed to find some pictures of actual V-stuff victims.

Wait, wait. Horror stories? PICS on the web? Wasn't V-stuff supposed to be a SECRET? Where are Vought Men in Black when you need them?

Apparently, in the Boys world, if you spent five minutes on Google, you would find plenty of news about some junkie turning into the Hulk after a bad trip.

Seriously, can anybody tell me what's happening???


And now, back to our Love Story From Hell supercouple.


In a smashing turn of events that will make all of you ask what's Garth Ennis drinking these days, Annie suddenly starts to behave like Butcher, pressing our pal about *that* video.
How did Hughie really get his hands on that? Do the Seven have hidden cams into their base? And who managed to deliver the bad news to him, given that only he and Annie are supposed to know what's going on?

The issues ends with Annie incomprehensibly challenging Hughie to call her a bitch again. Come on, we all know where this is going, right?


Please, Garth, there's still time for the "it was all a bad dream" ending. :(

[saidestroyer]

Even Annie can bully Hughie, go figer...

[Kamakazi]

If that was supposed to be a satire or something, I could not get it.

Yeah, that's the feeling I had all through it, too: Ennis was trying to write a parody, but I wasn't quite sure what he was parodying. I get that he was making fun of child beauty pageants, but isn't that a little like making fun of Reaganomics, or Thatcherism? It's just not a topic that anyone in the current decade cares about.

The sad thing was: Annie rambling on about her SHOCKING ORIGIN (which, as you pointed out, was the least shocking origin in the history of comics) was actually the good half of the book. Relatively speaking. :) The bad half was the local drug dealers whining about how the drug they're pushing might end up hurting people. Those guys are seriously in the wrong line of work.

As for the ending: I'm just flabbergasted. Is Annie challenging Hughie to a fight? Or is she just saying what the rest of us have known all along: that Hughie doesn't have the balls to stay mad at her?

[Hot_Ch0c0]

saidestroyer: Even Annie can bully Hughie, go figer...


Kamakazi: As for the ending: I'm just flabbergasted. Is Annie challenging Hughie to a fight? Or is she just saying what the rest of us have known all along: that Hughie doesn't have the balls to stay mad at her?


Boris: The issues ends with Annie incomprehensibly challenging Hughie to call her a bitch again. Come on, we all know where this is going, right?

I did think it was interesting to see the whole "Hughie gets traumatized and caves in under stress" theme played out to Annie's advantage... Even SHE realizes that if a person pressures Hughie, he will fall to the ground cowering and give in to whatever that person wants. (which, for her,will be great for their relationship, BTW) What a catch that Hughie is! ;)

I wonder what she will do to him, once he confesses WHERE he got the tape... I think Hughie's fear of Butcher kicked in... "I can't tell her where I got the tape, Butcher will KILL me!" combined with his guilt for lying to her about who he really is plus getting caught with that dumb excuse for how he saw the tape... Hughie had no chance in a confrontation with her...

I agree that the Starlight origin was the best part of this book. It gave a little insight into her issues:

1. She feels guilty about her powers (blinded her parents, the doctor and the midwife)

2. She spent part of her childhood heavily sedated...

3. Her step-parents' love was conditional on her success as a supe... "Be a good lil super heroine or mama and daddy ain't gonna love you"

4. She grew up sheltered and she was given a role to play. She was rewarded for not questioning that role and she bought into it completely until recently...

Her kneepad party at the Seven HQ was probably the beginning of the end of fooling herself...



ps.
Are the "bad guys" in this series supposed to be so stupid that it is comical? These guys are the three stooges of drug dealers... And we all saw Hughie's "friend" (I'm guessing it is Mallory) bump into the head bad guy in the bar, right?!

[Kamakazi]

And we all saw Hughie's "friend" (I'm guessing it is Mallory) bump into the head bad guy in the bar, right?!

Yes, I saw that, but I don't think it's Mallory. The pict they show of Mallory for Issue 50 looks nothing like the guy.

[Boris]

Effectively he doesn't look a bit like Mallory.


More probably, he's Hughie long forgotten real father, who naturally is going to die screaming because Hughie will be busy shagging his revamped love.
His last words to Hughie will be "With great power comes great responsibility and a very profitable line of merchandise". A soul shattered Hughie will thus swear to fight drug dealers, corrupt corporations and bad pub patrons under his refound identity as Bagpipe, with his improbable pals as wonder boys and Annie as the ultra-hot female character.

And this is the Origin issue of the Highland Laddies, brand new title from Dynamite, coming next year.


Ok, ok, I quit pissing. But don't tell me I didn't warn you. :p

[Chrisnuttall]

Ennis just isn't trying any more, is he?

Chris

[saidestroyer]

Stupid idea (my turn!):

The big, fat woman with the garden scissors, is actually Hughie's school girlfriend (the one from the picture Det had).

[Hot_Ch0c0]

Boris Effectively he doesn't look a bit like Mallory.

I'm wondering if it is an issue of artists... Or the fact Hughie's friend wears that hat all the time... Like, Clark Kent can't be Superman, Clark wears glasses! :rolleyes:

Maybe it's the "kinder gentler Mallory"... No longer the hard-boiled military man of years ago?:confused:

Sadly, the reason I want it to be Mallory is because it would make sense...

1. The guy is written without an accent.
2. The guy is obviously there investigating the evil compound V drug dealers
3. The guy is interested in hearing Hughie whine about his life.
4. I want Mallory to come back! :mad: He just doesn't seem to be the type to "quit" a job he has been doing since WWII
5. It would make Highland Laddie actually contribute something significant to the main Boys plotline!! (Hughie breaks up and gets back together with Annie is not a good reason to have a mini-series!!!!!) and Hughie's history could have been told in a single "origin" issue!

But, maybe I should just stop trying to make sense of the senseless! :p