The Boys T.06: Quand Faut Y Aller (2000) - Plot & Excerpts
You get what you expect with The Boys: swearing, extreme violence, nudity. You either like it or you don't and if your reading this far into the series, you've got like it (or be mad).However this seems a bit of a mis-step. After an interesting beginning with characters like Stormfront, it moves into telling some of the characters back stories. While Mother's Milk's story is good, Frenchie's seems very stereotypical, and while the Female has good story, ruined by just ripping off entire dialogue from 'Aliens'. OK we can all quote 'game over man' and all the Colonial Marines stuff, and perhaps giving it a little homage as an in joke but using nearly all the lines from the alien attack scene just seems overkill, moving from funny to groaning. This volume seems more of a set-up to the next with no real plot to carry it. For me not as good as other issues. Despite the serious turn of events that took place in Volume 5 that book was still fun. So I'm not surprised that Volume 6 is sober and serious. Butcher's dark side is starting to show and there is nothing fun about it. For a moment I really thought that he was going to rape the Crimson Countess. It's strange to feel relieved that he "only" snapped her neck with his belt. (If he had raped her I would have dropped this series in a hot second. And I don't want to do that because I love it so much.) And I'm glad that we aren't shown the number he must have does on Soldier Boy; seeing Butcher rip SB's nose off with his teeth gets the message across loud and clear. But it's MM's background story that really sets the somber tone in this volume. His dad's struggle against impossible odds, his brother's fate, his mom's burn-out, the shock of his powers kicking in at the worst possible moment, having to rescue his daughter (who might not even be his) from the most hellish place imaginable...his life thus far has been one uphill struggle. He's a tough man but it worries me that he might not make it. The crowning point of this volume was MM's flashback to being on the Brooklyn Bridge when the planes hit. Yeah yeah it was gross. More than that, though, is how much it says about MM himself and why he fights Supes. He's now my favorite character thanks to this volume.Well, the mood does lighten up for a moment when Frenchie decides it's time to tell Hughie his "story" as well - which in Frenchie's case is suspiciously (and humorously) more of a "story" in the sense of a fabrication than an informative tale. (The town of Franglais. Heh heh heh.) But then it jumps right back to dark with the Female's background. Actually, "nasty" is a better description. This one I did not care for. Not because of the wanton violence (that comes with the series, take it or leave it) but because the mute, excessively-violent little Japanese girl yarn is such a cliche. Why are Asians in comics only ever nerds or psychopaths? At least she isn't wearing a school uniform with her hair up in pigtails.While Hughie's waffling continues to get on my nerves, Starlight just gets better and better. It's about time she lost her shit with somebody. She deserves too. I wouldn't have minded a bit if she had burned out her costume designers' retinas, would you? To say nothing of the tense stand-off between Queen Maeve and Black Noir. I have to come out and say, though: I do not like John McCrea's art. Maybe I wouldn't mind as much except that his fight scenes are awful. Sure they're violent but they also lack any feeling of dynamism and or suspense. Hopefully things will improve with subsequent volumes, especially now that McCrea has temporarily taken over for Darick Robertson. It's just such as huge disappointment to see such lackluster pencils illustrating such an awesome series.This volume dropped into my hands completely by coincidence. (Thanks Troy!) And in truth the criticisms are really minor: I can't wait to get my hands on Volume 7!----Originally, I wanted to keep a running list of my favorite quotes from each volume. But I also don't want to get pantsed by GR for foul language. So for the record I want to say that Butcher's spoof of the Green Lantern origin story knocked me on the floor haw-hawing. Space AIDS! I cried.
What do You think about The Boys T.06: Quand Faut Y Aller (2000)?
This was one of the better volumes in my opinion as the 5th one felt like it'd slightly lost it way and unlike vol 5 this one had some major substance! The Boys will always remain a gritty series so it's not for the light hearted by any shape or form but it was wonderful to see it play out differently...Yes, still all the gore, some sex, lots of swearing as per norm but after vol.5 this one felt like it was right on track, as you're given back stories to all the characters except Butcher (cannot say I'm really that surprised). I am looking forward to taking out the vol. 7 now in hopes it keeps along the right path.
—mycatfishmind
It's ultimately difficult to rate this as anything specific, since there are really a bunch of stories in this as opposed to one unifying arc. The most "important" story, I suppose, was with the superheroes going after The Boys, and that was probably the least interesting for me. The retcon storyline was pretty funny even though it read like a typical argument on Tumblr, but the best by far were the couple of origin stories.I'm still in on this series. It's different, and I guess I've gotten used to the over-the-topness of it.
—jaybe
