I did, however, recently watch the first two episodes of Superman and Lois. The verdict? I thought they were terrible. Bad, bad dialogue. Good production values, a good cast, maybe a decent story, but really bad dialogue. Sorry to offend fans of the show, but I wasn't into it.
But maybe part of my problem was that I'd already seen the first season of The Boys long before. After you've seen Homelander murder people it's hard to see Superman the same way. I (fucking) loved The Boys, whereas Superman and Lois suffered by comparison.
To be more specific, I watched the first season of The Boys not long after it came out. I was unfamiliar with Garth Ennis' comic series, though I'd read a lot of his work on Preacher, Crossed and various Punisher books. No, what brought me to The Boys was its similarity to a much older comic series, Marshal Law.
In case you're unfamiliar with Marshal Law, and to be fair, many people aren't familiar, he appeared in the late 80s under Marvel's Epic Comics imprint. He was a super-powered policeman operating in a world full of deranged superheroes, in the wake of a Vietnam War-style conflict overseas. The series was written by Pat Mills and drawn by Kevin O'Neill. Both writer and artist were British, and they used Marshal Law as a way of poking fun at American superheroes.
Marshal Law didn't last long at Epic. Mills and O'Neill later took the character to other comic book companies, but he nevertheless remained an obscure character, known only to those versed in the adult-oriented comics from the late 80s and early 90s.
Garth Ennis, by the way, was aware of Marshal Law before he began writing The Boys. But where Marshal Law focuses on a single character, The Boys is centered around a group of anti-supe "terrorists." Where Marshal Law was full of pyrotechnics and adrenaline-fueled sex and gore, The Boys has more of a story. I will always love Marshal Law, but it would have been hard to make a movie or TV show out of the original series.
What the Amazon Prime series adds to this mix is some great writing handed over to some great actors. Jack Quaid (son of Dennis), Karl Urban, Karen Fukuhara and most of all Antony Starr, a kiwi actor who absolutely kills it as Homelander. I don't know where they found half of these people, but they were well chosen. Karl Urban was the only obvious choice, given his work on Dredd.
I think the first season of The Boys has the best moments, and the second season tells a better story. That scene in the first season wherein Homelander is encouraged to breastfeed, the laser-shooting baby in the hospital, and even the way Jack's Quaid's girlfriend is killed in the first episode are all great. I don't know which of these moments were present in the comics, but even if they were present it's not a given that they'd have the same kind of impact in the same kind of way.
The second season? Man, there are so many twists and turns there. Stormfront and her backstory are front and center in the second season, and I veered between hating her and feeling sorry for her. The ending of this season, with the beatdown and the way a major character dies really sets it above the first season. But both seasons are great in different ways.
Going from this kind of show to Superman and Lois isn't easy. Wandavision? Maybe, but Wandavision also isn't on the same level as The Boys. I could still watch and enjoy Wandavision, whereas a helping of Superman and Lois just made me wonder why nobody says "fuck" in that universe, and how such wholesome people (even their "troubled" sons) can stand to be around one another. I get that the caustic humor present in The Boys puts a lot of people - especially religious people - off, but once you've gotten into The Boys it's hard to take Superman and Lois all that seriously.
I will say that doing a spinoff of The Boys is worrying. This kind of move usually indicates a loss of quality. But I'm looking forward to the third season of The Boys just the same. Between now and then I suppose I'll have to tide myself over with The Snyder Cut, provided of course that The Boys hasn't corrupted that for me as well.
Related Entries:
P.S. Here's a thought: what's preventing anyone from including Marshal Law in The Boys universe? He's now owned by his creators, and all they need to is sign off on the inclusion.
