How’s this for a bloody good deal? Humble Bundle is currently offering a collection that’ll get you the complete run of Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson’s comic series The Boys, for just under $27.
The Boys takes place in a world where superheroes are the biggest celebrities in the world and are at best, huge assholes, and at worst complete and utter sociopaths. The series follows a secret CIA group known as The Boys, whose job is to take care of these reckless supes and deal with them by any means necessary.
If you like the TV adaptation that started back in 2019 but haven’t read the comic, there are a lot of differences between them, so watching and reading it feels like two separate experiences. There are some obvious overlapping characters, themes and story beats, but the TV show is more of an “inspired by” take, instead of a direct adaptation.
Some of those differences come down to their respective satire reflecting different decades – the comic was published from 2006 to 2012 – and some of it comes down to sanding down some of the rougher edges of the original comic and refining the comic’s ideas for the adaptation (personally, I like the TV show more than the comic).
The Boys comic is about as subtle as a sledgehammer to the skull with its criticism of superheroes, the corruption of power and the concept of celebrity. In fact, the TV show tones down a lot of the comics’ graphic moments and takes on dark subject matters. This might seem surprising considering the last season of The Boys saw a shrunken superhero expanding inside another man’s dingus and causing them to explode into a shower of gore – but nonetheless, the TV adaptation is the more subtle version of the two.
But, hey, $27 for digital copies of the full run of The Boys, plus the short sequel Dear Becky, is some pretty solid value. You’ll also get a few volumes from the Project Superpowers series and its various spin-offs. These comics are a modern re-imagining of a few different Golden Age superheroes, and could not be further from The Boys when it comes to subject matter and tone.
What do you get in The Boys and Project Superpowers Humble Bundle?
Here’s what the basic $1.47 bundle will get you:
- The Boys, Vol. 1-2
- Black Terror, Vol. 1
- Project Superpowers, Vol. 1
- Project Superpowers X-Mas Carol
Here’s what you’ll also get if you pay $14.74:
- The Boys, Vol. 3-7
- The Black Terror, Vol. 2
- The Owl
- Project Superpowers Chapter 2, Vol. 2
And here’s what you get when you pay at least $26.53:
- The Boys, Vol. 8-12
- The Boys: Dear Becky
- The Black Terror, Vol. 3
- The Death-Defying Devil
- Meet the Bad Guys
- Masquerade
- Project Superpowers Chapter 2, Vol.1
- Project Superpowers Chapter 2, Vol. 2
The Boys and Project Superpowers Humble Bundle is available here.
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