The Boys: Dear Becky

Ennis (the Preacher series) returns to the world of The Boys, a dark, shock-humored satire of superheroes, as ex–team member Wee Hughie Campbell (still a dead ringer for actor Simon Pegg) discovers a secret diary that threatens his relationship to sweetheart and former hero Annie Kennedy. Contained within are letters by his friend Billy Butcher, to Butcher’s late wife Becky, which detail his vicious vigilante crusade against the careless and egotistical superheroes that plague society, and their leader, Julian Baxter-Pugh. Ennis is a pro at juggling multiple plots and characters, and wraps the current-day travails of Hughie around flashbacks to Butcher’s blood-splattered past. Butcher lost everything and gave in to a life of violence—but can Hughie escape the same trap? Braun picks up from his work on the original series with exaggerated character drawings; the script bombards with cheerfully scatological humor, sordid sex, and extreme gore. The immediate dive into a years-later check-in on Hughie’s life will appeal to fans of the original series and TV show, but first-timers to these characters will likely be baffled start to finish. The unrepentantly vile escapades will sate tastes of dedicated fans of gore-core humor, though others may simply feel stomach-churned. (Mar.)