10 Comics That Mocked The Reader

Due to its current adaptation into a wildly successful TV show, The Boys has once again fallen into the public eye - and, hopefully, for all the right reasons.

Because while the series is fun for its violence and depravity, it's also successful for its clear mockery of the superhero genre itself. Their version of Batman is sexually depraved, their version of Superman has a god complex five miles long, the X-Men are basically a frat - the list of parodied franchises and characters is literally endless.

But crucially, The Boys takes this one step further, by making these heroes be created by a corporation: Vought-American.

Vought-American is clearly intended as a parallel to comic publishing bastions like DC and Marvel, with their clinical approach to getting media attention and public approval regardless of the cost having further unfortunate similarities to the ways that both companies have behaved in their sordid pasts.

So when Vought state that their target audience have terrible memories, don't care about quality, and are basically stupid idiots they can easily pander to? They're talking about us. And, strangely, it's all the more interesting for these insults.