The Boys Book 5: Herogasm (#1-6) NSFW

NSFW:  Contains an image of a naked woman's boobs.

"Let's Fuck!" - The Homelander.

In a world very much like ours artificially created superheroes have been around since world war 2.  They mostly function as part of the corrupt business empire of US corporation Vought-American.  Very little superheroing is done by them, they exist mainly to rake in money via comics and other merchandise.  However they need policing and The Boys - meek Scotsman Hughie, New Yorker "Mother's Milk", "Frenchie" the Frenchmen, the Japanese "The Female" and led by foul mouthed Englishman Billy Butcher - are the powered up individuals keeping an eye on them backed by the CIA.  This volume is the first of three spin-off miniseries drawn by long time Ennis collaborator, John McCrae.  This mini is a parody of a "Crisis Crossover" event that brings all the heroes together for a common cause, however in this world that common cause is a massive orgy.  So warning, you'll be seeing a lot of titties in the images I've picked.  Annie "Starlight" January is attending as part of the team she belongs to which is the most powerful, The Seven.  She is dating Hughie, but crucially neither of them know what the other does for a living in reality.  As well as the mass orgy, we get filled in on just what happened in the Whitehouse during the events of 9/11 when The original Seven were allowed to try and bring down the last plane (after the others had been shot down) and failed horribly.

HEROGASM -  The story begins with The Homelander teling the assembled press that "The Battle Of Marith'Rai" has entered the solar system and claimed the lives of the G-Men in a pre-emptive strike.   Most of the rest of the supes are gathered to go into space and take on the threat.  In fact where they are actually going is an island full of male and female prostitutes so they can have a massive orgy with them and each other.

Stillwell is travlling to the island himself and being told to tell the Homelander about the next phase in Vought's plan for superpowered defence.  He also has to keep an eye on Vice President, Vic The Veep. Stillwell's calm facade cracks a bit when he says he has such a hard time dealing with "that man."  But has to suck up.

Starlight has never been to Herogasm before, so Queen Maeve fills her in on the fact it's a yearly event designed to let them relax and blow off steam.  She then tells Starlight to run along before people think they are friends (actually Queen Maeve has slowly been warming to Starlight the more she stands up for herself).

I don't think the Homelander's sexuality can be labelled, he uses sex as a weapon of power whether his victims be male or female.

We then join The Homelander and Soldier Boy in bed together (Soldier Boy is basically Captain America and the team he leads "Payback" is the Avengers).  The Homelander tells him he wasn't quite good enough to make it into The Seven.  Soldier Boy is something of a dimwit, allowing himself to be screwed by The Homelander in the hope of getting a place in The Seven is the least of the indignities Ennis will inflict on him  (Ennis says of Captain America that he finds him "borderline offensive, because to me the reality of World War II was very human people, ordinary flesh-and-blood guys who slogged it out in miserable, flooded foxholes. So adding some fantasy superhero narrative, that has always annoyed me a little bit.").  Soldier Boy then asks if there is anything gay about what they did.  Of course not, assures The Homelander and Soldier Boy leaves.

The Homelander: "Jesus Christ Almighty.  I could do anything.  I could do anything."

So let's take a brief diversion and talk about The Homelander and Superman.  Garth Ennis has gone on record and indeed wrote an issue of Hitman that were very appreciative of The Man Of Steel, so why the insulting parody?  Well, I sort of see The Homelander as another tribute to Superman, because although he has similar powers and occupies a similar position in the supe hierchy as Superman does in the DCU, everything about him is opposite to Superman.  Even his cover story, which is similar to Superman's is a fake.   Superman was raised by loving parents, with humane, middle American values and has a purpose in life which is contantly defending his adoptive home planet which he loves from threats inside and out. 

The Homelander's naked flying time.

The Homelander was strapped to a bomb for the first eighteen years of his life and raised by a corrupt and incompetant multi-national company.  There was no love in his life, just brain washing and coercion.  And because Vought keep him in a lifestyle of luxury, he has nothing to do, nothing to strive for, simply to exist to sell merchandise and do the bidding of his corporate paymasters. He doesn't even have a secret identity to mix among the non-supes. Is it any wonder he is the way he is, that he turned out to be a sociopath? 

No, I belive The Homelander pays respect to Superman by being everything he is not as well as a dark reflection on what might have happened to baby Kal-El if he hadn't been adopted by loving and caring parents. And that's how I square the circle of Ennis's liking of Superman and his creating the very superficially similar Homelander (Ennis has also expressed a liking for Wonder Woman as well, which helps explain the subtle positive character development Queen Maeve goes through as the series unfolds).  Anyway, back to the story.

Relationships based on lies are the bestest.

Back with Starlight, she is on the phone to Hughie saying she is at a conference while he says he is still on an insurance investigation.  The Boy's themselves are actually on the island and Hughie joins Billy in looking through binoculars at Vic The Veep arriving on the island and Billy tells Hughie they are looking at who they're after.

The Homelander, stark naked.  Flies up into the sky and using his laser, heat vision brings down a commercial airliner.  Stillwell meanwhile meets a man called Godfrey who is Vought's man taking care of Vic the Veep.  He says that only four of Vic's security detail are Vought men.  Dakota Bob - The President - has been taking more of an interest in who applies for Secret Service positions and Vought men keep getting knocked back.

The Homelander turns up, somewhat surprised to see Stillwell there.  They talk and Stillwell says they need Vic in the right mood because they are going to tell him that he will be President within the year, and The Homelander realises they are planning to get rid of Dakota Bob, and get Vic in that way as Vic would never win an election. 

"Payback" who'll I'll be talking about more in the next volume.

Payback then turn up and Stillwell says there is something they can do for him to remedy always being thought of as second best to The Seven.  He wants them to go after The Boys.  Who that night, are moving into position to kidnap the person they have their eyes on and we are shown Vic The Veep again in a pool with some naked women and surrounded by his security detail.

Mother's Milk then tosses a supe called Doofer who looks like the Fantastic Four's The Thing, into the pool with Vic The Veep in it.  General panic ensues and Frenchie phones Hughie who is in the sewer, to say they have "him".  Hughie is then grabbed by Black Noir, who sticks out his thumb, pulls down Hughie's trousers, does.. something to him, then runs off leaving a debagged Hughie on the floor.

I hope he washed that thumb afterwards!

Things have calmed down outside.  The Homelander puts Doofer's death plunge down to being high on drugs.  Billy goes looking for Hughie who is in shock and doesn't respond to Billy's calls.  In the drugs lounge, Jack From Jupiter and A-Train discuss things.  Summing up the general supe attitude as:

Jack From Jupiter: "Now I know we seem pretty fucked up - and we are - but we're just kids in a candy store.  Look at the shit we get up to and really, you can sum it up in three words: Hey, wouldn't you?"

He then goes onto say that Stilwell scares the hell out of him, and so has stopped thinking about all the things he has probably down.  Speaking of Stillwell, Godfrey comes up to him and notify's him of the downed airliner.  Godfrey has a record of the last thing the Captain said which mentions "a (pause) naked..."  Stillwell says to leave it with him.

Hughie finally snaps out of his daze and panics, thinking The Boys have been compromised.  He arrives back at where they are based on the island to find everything is OK.  He tells Billy he hit his head which is why he didn't respond and mumbles "I don't understand" when he realises Black Noir did nothing to blow their cover.  Billy then introduces him to the object of the exercise, the man they were targetting is one of Vic The Veep's Secret Service bodyguards, Agent Michael Lucero.

A somewhat rumpled Lucero.

Billy unties Lucero who wants to know why they didn't just find him in Washingtob DC.  Billy says he doesn't like doing business there and that Herogasm would be the perfect cover.  They picked up Lucero because he had started to put out feelers for someone to talk to reagrding the Vought infiltration of the Whitehouse.  Lucero says the Secret Service means everything to him and he would gladly go out "taking a bullet for the leader of the free world."  But sadly for him, he got assigned Vic The Veep.

Lucero: "You tell yourself it's about the office of the vice president, not the man himself.  You do your job."

But one day he had to guard Vic while he was in a brothel and Vic came out naked and made Lucero put a condom on him.  Stillwell and Godfrey meanwhile, discuss Vic and why he was chosen.  His grandfather and father were both Vought men, and Vought see him as a blank CPU which they can input data onto.

Back with The Boys, Lucero starts telling them what happened on 9/11.  We get a flashback showing President "Dakota" Bob ordering the shooting down of the first two planes.  Lucero says the President cancelled a trip to Florida when intel started coming through that an attack was being planned.  Lucero believes Vought had wanted Bob out of the way so Vic could allow The Seven to stop the attack.

Vic The Veep brains Dakota Bob.

Everyone had their eyes on the radar tracking the final plane, but before it is shot down, he is suddenly knocked out.  Everyone turns to see him lying on the floor, bleeding from his head, with a fire extinguisher next to him and Vic standing over him.  Vic repeats the same few words over and over.

Vic: "Tell NORAD to order weapons hold."

The last pilot is called back, much to his distress, and a huge fight breaks out in the room  over what just happened. How well The Seven dealt with that last plane is detailed in Book Three, although basically it missed the Twin Towers and hit The Brooklyn Bridge instead.  Ever since then it has been open warfare between the President and Vice President, Lucero says he's kept his head down, learning and waiting ever since.  The issue winds up with Stillwell tell Vic he will be president within the year and he will implement Vought policies.  Vic barely reacts to the news.

The Boys let Lucero go, while in a bar and attractive woman starts chatting Stillwell up.  The supes are all gathered for their annual award ceremony, "The Supies."  Starlight and a bored Queen Maeve watch The Homelander mingle, with everyone laughing sycophantically at his jokes.  Lucero is in the bathroom with a trusted fellow agent called Dubisher.  He tells him he might have done something to "fix" the problems with the security detail.

Queen Maeve has no time for The Homelander.

The Supies continue as does the woman conversing with Stillwell.  Finally Stillwell cuts the crap and asks her "who was it paid you to keep me occupied this evening?"  The Homelander, accepts his "greatest hero" trophy and starts to make a speech.  He tells them he did something the morning after they first arrived and before he tells them what he did, he wants to tell them why:

The Homelander: "I did it because I could.  Becuase there was nothing stoping me. Because there is very little that can stop me."

He goes on to say that it opens up possibilities for each and every one of them.  Before he can elaborate however, Stillwell shows up.  The Homelander trails off, then thanks them again for his award and leaves the stage.  Backstage in an impotant rage, he smashes his trophy.  Outside Lucero and Dubisher are talking when Lucero suddenly realises Godfrey has ordered a search of the island and this may result in The Boys being found.

Temper, Temper.

The Vought agents are about to tumble The Boys when Lucero and Dubisher order them to put their weapons down.  The Boys then pop up and subdue the Vought agents, the Female crushes their guns and threatens to do the same to their heads if they don't phone Godfrey and tell him everything is OK.  Billy decides to take the Vought agents with them and Lucero and Dubisher cover them on the plane.

Herogasm is over and the supes start flying off.  Suddenly Vic The Veep wanders away from the plane he is on and Godfrey goes chasing after him.  One of the Vought agents tries to make a break for it and is shot by Dubisher, but the other two manage to grapple the gun from him and shoot him in the head.  Another gets a hold of Lucero and in the struggle Lucero kills him but gets shot in the chest. 

Ouch!

The Boy's rush to help, while Lucero manages to get off the plane.  Vic The Veep and Godfrey are close by as well.  The mortally injured Lucero says to Hughie that Dubisher had a wife and two kids, he had one on the way, "you make this fuckin' count, hear me?"  He says he should really kill "the freak." He then shoots Godfrey and collapses and dies.

The two surviving Vought agents start attempting to escape via the plane.  Frenchie hurls The Female onto it as it takes off.  She kills the two agents then rips off a propeller and uses it to float back down to where the others are.  The get on another plane with Lucero's body and Mother's Milk places a flag over it.  Hughie says he can't help becoming suspicious when people start waving flags about, Mother's Milk says he doesn't blame him:

Mother's Milk: "Matter of fact, you might say the more you wave it, the less it means.  Less you think about what it means.  Pretty soon, it don't mean nothin'".

Mission acomplished?

And that brings Herogasm to an end.  Scrape off the shock veneer of all the naked people having sex and you have a pretty interesting story, the explanation of what happened in the Whitehouse on 9/11 continues to build up Vought-American as the sinister villains of the piece, while the other villain, The Homelander, starts to put his own secret plan in action.  As it started with him bringing down a commercial airliner and ruminating on the fact he can do "anything", this plan can onlybe bad news for non-supes.  I'm not sure John McCrea's artwork is the best fit for the series, his art style, so energetic and vital in the Hitman series, seems to lose a lot of it's charm when he tries for a more realistic style.  However it's possible that all that sex and nudity if it was rendered by Darick Robertson's more realistic style, would have been much harder to deal with and it in fact benefited from the distance the more charactured style gave it.  Anyway, with this first mini over, we'll be back with the main series for Payback's attempt on The Boy's lives and then some background on The Boy's themselves...