One thing that really strikes me as bizarre is how Hughie is apparently really big into conspiracies and UF Os and things like that and that character trait completely disappears within a few issues.
Find the Light in the Dark
Billie Butcher isn\'t just a manipulative sociopath, he is Ennis\'s wet dream for the Punisher upped to eleven. All the super heroes who are infinitely more powerful than him dread even the mention of his name, he moves up and down without being hindered and with complete impunity, and manipulates anyone he wants in any way he wants anytime he wants. Without getting into spoiler territory, the more the story progresses, the worse it gets.
I don\'t disagree with the review but for the sake of fairness the Amazon adaptation diverges a lot and mostly for the better.
"These 'no-nonsense' solutions of yours just don't hold water in a complex world of jet-powered apes and time travel."
I have seen a few episodes of the Amazon adaptation and it seems like it\'s greatly improved in a lot of regards. The capes actually have personalities now. And, y\'know... Karl Urban is just generally great, y\'know?
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A Drunk Review of the First Fifteen Issues
For reference, the first fifteen issues comprises the first two trade paperbacks ("Name of the Game" and "Get Some"), as well as the first issue of the third ("Good for the Soul").
I did not like this book much at all. The art's fine. The line-to-line dialogue is fine. But everything in this book seems to be cannibalized from other, better Garth Ennis books. Oh hey, remember how Hitman had a character whose entire thing was that he was French and a crazy person? We got that. Remember Martin Soap, who was ostensibly an authority figure yet Frank Castle had under his thumb for the entire run? We got a similar character here. You know how Hitman and Kev and Red Team had the whole "killers having drinks" thing? We got that here. Remember how Punisher Max had that "Mother Russia' arc that was ostensibly about Russia yet had seemingly nothing to say about modern Russia? Well now we get that again but this time it has a midget who likes giant dildos.
I think the core of it stems from the main characters not being compelling. Starlight is a fine character (and heck, the fact that Ennis isn't writing yet another Kathryn O'Brien/Trudy/Shaw/whate'er the lady from Crossed was named clone is impressive enough), but Billy Butcher isn't interesting to me, because he's just a manipulative sociopath. To me that's an absence of character, and while that can be strong as an antagonist, as a main character that just leaves a vacuum. And Hughie, while likable, just doesn't make sense to me. Kev and Tommy, other Ennis protags, joined the military and became killers, and the way they're centered in a world of violence and murder makes sense, but Hughie seems not to have a very good reason to be here. A cape accidentally kills his girlfriend and despite his personality he's just signing up for a CIA black ops thing? Um... I don't think it works. He's too meek for the premise, and even early on he recognizes that Billy is manipulating him.
And anything that isn't cannibalized from other, better Garth Ennis books is probably simply plagiarized from Pat Mills and his Marshal Law series. You never noticed how Stan Lee bolded too much dialogue? Well this series might seem insightful.
"Get Some" is okay-sh I guess. It has a few good jokes.
I dunno, it just doesn't work for me, despite my fondness for Ennis's other work.
Also Amazon cancelled "Mozart in the Jungle" in favor of an adaptation of this. Laaaaaaame.