10 Comics Where You Couldn’t Help But Root For The Villain
5. The Capes - The Boys
Rooting for the comic's bad guys, but for the wrong reasons. One or two honorable exceptions aside, the superheroes of Garth Ennis's The Boys are a loathsome lot; cowardly, perverted, stupid at best, downright evil at their worst. Bad eggs, one and all. And yet, our 'heroes' - Billy Butcher, Wee Hughie and The Boys - are hardly any better.
Indeed, Billy Butcher as written is a vile specimen - a violent, murderous, sexist pig who is in no way better than the heroes he hunts. That he turns out to be the series' ultimate bad guy is no surprise (and a classic Garth Ennis move), but for much of the book we're supposed to find his antics amusing, in a juvenile sort of way. And yet, no. Their super-powered enemies are presented as being so pathetic that we can't help but root for them against the brutal, violent bullying of the Boys.