Broken Frontier

Every year comics fans are bombarded with the summer event where all the heroes in a respective universe have to forge together to defeat the nefarious plans of an overwhelmingly powerful foe.  This year, Garth Ennis’s send up of the superhero genre takes on the annual crisis in this, the first spin-off of The Boys.

Herogasm is a retreat for those loveable and mischievous capes in the Boys universe.  When they need to unwind, they appease the normal people by telling them there is some inconceivable danger in space and proceed to take over Miami for a week.  Once there, all bets are off and instead a crossover brawl, there is a big orgy.

Garth Ennis boasted that The Boys would “out Preacher Preacher.”  That’s a bold statement and one that has seemed to be a bit of a hollow threat to date.  This mini-series is a showcase for Ennis to explore the depravity of the heroes he has created and is possibly the cure for his impotent statement.

Instead of new shock though, the reader is bombarded with lots of sex jokes.  Some are clever, for sure, especially the clever riff on Zatanna, but there is nothing here even remotely as dark or perverse as events in the two most recent issues of Crossed.  Herogasm is just an orgy and Ennis is having fun for sure.  In some respects, it feels like a team version of The Pro.  Maybe readers are just becoming desensitized to these kind of shock jockey antics, but there is hardly anything here that we haven’t seen before.

This does not mean that the book is without merit.  There is the keen satire of the concept in general as well as some solid storytelling.  The inside look at the Homelander’s game playing, Hughie and Annie’s struggles to keep their secrets (and their relationship) intact, and Butcher’s new target are all aspects of what could be an interesting chapter in this saga.

McCrea is the creator that really gets to let loose here.  His handling of the orgy lets him get as explicit as one could imagine a mainstream comic getting.  The reader needs to remember after all that this not Lost Girls.  The hints at more powerful archetypes of superhero lore and his playful personality make the book a better comic than they would be without his pencils.  It’s good to see the Hitman team in action again.

Despite a vague feeling of been there, done that, Herogasm has the potential to be the crest of one of those waves that is the consistency of The Boys.  There is a solid story behind all the tired debauchery... only time (and more issues) will tell if this is indeed a bright spot in the ongoing Boys saga.