The Boys vs Superduper
For those of you who track alternate publisher's versions of the Legion, keep an eye out for "The Boys" #40. Via Will Morgan (reposted here with permission, from a Legion mailing list):
For completists who may not be aware, Dynamite Entertainments' 'The Boys', issue 40, begins a story arc, "The Innocents", which features a thinly-disguised Legion pastiche, much as previous issues have co-starred re-tooled versions of the JLA, Titans, Avengers, X-Men, et al.Having been forewarned, a preview of issue 40 is on the Dynamite site.
Summary for those unfamiliar with the series; 'The Boys' is set in a world where super-heroes have slightly less skill and intelligence than the average reality TV show contestant, coupled with short attention spans and insane lust for fame and power.
Consequently, the collateral damage among civilians in incidents involving 'The Supes' tends to be high, but they are feted by corporations and media moguls, and their worst excesses covered up, for political or financial gains, by the Men In Suits.
The 'Boys' of the title are a covert ops squad who monitor the 'Supes' and take down renegades whenever the body count gets too high or too public.
The Legion-alike team, named 'Superduper', are described in the Boys' files as " C-list, kept around for the nostalgia market. Sci-fi thing with a Peter Pan twist, permanent teenagers from 5000 AD or whatever."
Unlike the other 'Supes' in the Boys' world, Superduper, though inept and not very bright, are also presented as well-intentioned, sweet, and nowhere near as selfish or corrupt as the other metahumans, and for that reason are looked down on as quaint and out of touch.
The seven-member team - Ladyfold, Stool Shadow, Kid Camo, Black Hole, Bobby Badoing, Klanker, and Auntie Sis - includes obvious Bouncing Boy, Phantom Girl and Ferro Lad analogues, plus the newly imported team leader, Malchemical, appears to be a dark version of Element Lad or Chemical King, described by the Boys as; "One o' the all-time worst (f-word) (c-word) in spandex".
Anybody thinking of checking this out should be forewarned that the Boys is a Mature Readers title, with blood, giblets, swearing, nudity, blasphemy, extreme gore & violence, and worst of all, politics.
Whatever the creators have in store for Superduper, it's unlikely to be kind....
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6 comments:
why does garth ennis write superheroes if he HATES SUPERHEROES SO MUCH?
Less a Bouncing Boy analogue than an apparent Herbie Popnecker wannabe. The LSH is clearly the overall meme in play, but but there are a number of different 1950s kid-super archetypes being invoked beyond just that.
Peter - Ennis writes superheroes even though he hates them & their fans because, even though he has made this clear, people still give this hypocrite money. Same with Ellis & Millar. It's sad that people haven't learned to stop supporting their insult-fests yet.
Thanks for the heads-up. I'll add this to my "Reasons to Hate 'The Boys'" list.
right...because always writing superheroes as completely incompetent degenerates isn't at all a reflection of his hatred of them...it just means he secretly likes them and promotes them.
jesus, pull your heads out of your asses.
You do know that The Boys themselves are superheroes, right? Super powers, taking care of the bad guys, that kinda thing.
When ennis wrote superman batman and Wonder Woman they were portrayed as being competent and likeable. Hell spidey and superman were downright touching how they were portrayed
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