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The Boys, Volume 5: Herogasm
(The Boys Collected Volumes #5)
by
Garth Ennis, John McCrea, and Darick Robertson bring another tale from The Boys with The Boys, Vol. 5: Herogasm! An evil so profound it threatens all mankind! The mightiest heroes on the planet uniting to defend us all! A secret crisis of such utter
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Paperback, 144 pages
Published
December 8th 2009
by Dynamite Entertainment
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Start your review of The Boys, Volume 5: Herogasm

This answers the burning question: What do heroes do during these world-ending crossover events?
Pretty much what a lot of fans have suspected.

There's also a bit more about Veep, and the conspiracy surrounding Vought's plans for him.
And while this is still something I'm interested in, I have to say that Ennis is kind of pushing it with the gross-out stuff. There's only so many times you can see cartoons fucking and farting without it losing its edge, you know?
Somehow, I'm thinking moderation i ...more

Pretty much what a lot of fans have suspected.

There's also a bit more about Veep, and the conspiracy surrounding Vought's plans for him.
And while this is still something I'm interested in, I have to say that Ennis is kind of pushing it with the gross-out stuff. There's only so many times you can see cartoons fucking and farting without it losing its edge, you know?
Somehow, I'm thinking moderation i ...more

Question: What is a "Herogasm"?
a) "la petite mort" de la super-héros, évidemment! pour les super-héros, c'est UNE GRAND MORT! partout!!!
b) an annual retreat for the dastardly "super-heroes" of Ennis' pitch-black series The Boys; a place where these villainous jerks get their fuck on.
c) the title of a somewhat amusing miniseries in which Ennis trots out more mildly entertaining riffs on his various themes: Corporations Are Evil, Government Is Corrupt, and Anyone Who Wants To Be A Hero Is Probably ...more
a) "la petite mort" de la super-héros, évidemment! pour les super-héros, c'est UNE GRAND MORT! partout!!!
b) an annual retreat for the dastardly "super-heroes" of Ennis' pitch-black series The Boys; a place where these villainous jerks get their fuck on.
c) the title of a somewhat amusing miniseries in which Ennis trots out more mildly entertaining riffs on his various themes: Corporations Are Evil, Government Is Corrupt, and Anyone Who Wants To Be A Hero Is Probably ...more

I had taken a break after the last volume and am back at it, though not with great enthusiasm, after a summer of reading YA "kick-ass-girl" main characters, given the amount of gratuitous sex in this volume. Yikes. Ultimately it has some purpose, in critiquing the narcissistic superheroes who meet for a self-congratulatory "herogasm" convention and then hold a Supies award ceremony. But by now we get this critique, that they are a self-congratulatory bunch of a-holes, and maybe you could make yo
...more

"Herogasm" is the name of an orgy the supes attend every year when they tell the rest of the world that they're joining forces to fight off a space alien threat far away. They get together on a remote tropical island and it's "Caligula" but more graphic.
There's not much more to the story - Homelander's planning something, Vought American continue their plan for world domination, the Boys find some more backstory to their version of 9/11 that wasn't elaborated on in "Good for the Soul". But it's ...more
There's not much more to the story - Homelander's planning something, Vought American continue their plan for world domination, the Boys find some more backstory to their version of 9/11 that wasn't elaborated on in "Good for the Soul". But it's ...more

As with most good stories, what really makes them enjoyable is the characters.
And this series has that in spades. While they're all painted in broad strokes, they are relate-able and interesting. They come into conflict with each other, argue, and show genuine fondness for each other. Genuinely touching moments abound, making a nice counterpoint to the grim, perverse world the story is set in.
(Continued in book six.) ...more

Mar 07, 2019
Britton
added it
Ennis got his start in the mid to late 90s, establishing a reputation as an extremist in the comics community alongside Warren Ellis, though Ennis would become the Grant Morrison to Ellis' Alan Moore, with Ennis sometimes going to extremes without letting his story threads come together in a natural way. Does that mean Ennis is a bad writer? Of course not. He wouldn't be a favorite of mine if that were the case. While The Boys doesn't entirely reach the heights of some of Ennis' finer outings li
...more

Jun 19, 2011
Arminzerella
rated it
it was ok
Shelves:
violence,
adult-fiction,
graphic-novel,
super-hero,
borrowed-from-dave,
dark,
comics,
sex,
nudity,
gratuitous-boobies
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.

I was kind of let down by John McCrea's art, though it's not bad, it's just not Darrick's. Also holy shit, could there BE anymore naked supes? After a while there's no shock value, it's just overload. Ya we get it Garth, these Supes are a bunch of degenerate low-lifes that will fuck, suck, snort, shoot, smoke anything.
This is described as a side-story/mini-series, so I'm confused if this is supposed to be stand-alone or not.
The good parts are near the end, and some of the revelations about Voug ...more
This is described as a side-story/mini-series, so I'm confused if this is supposed to be stand-alone or not.
The good parts are near the end, and some of the revelations about Voug ...more

As impressed as I have been with Ennis’s The Boys, this spin-off mini-series started out riotously enough – with the worlds’ greatest superheroes bidding the world goodbye as they fly off into space to counter a meta-threat, only turn tail and head to a remote island for a week-long orgy with their arch-nemeses. A proper spoof on those annoying multi-title crossovers that the Big Two still churn out on a yearly basis, if I’ve ever read one.
However, the gratuitous sex becomes more of an irritant ...more
However, the gratuitous sex becomes more of an irritant ...more

Vile and puerile - not my usual experience of Ennis (it's usually one *or* the other) but a nice little miniseries in the middle of a successful run. There's some interesting subplots around the VP and just how corrupt the White house is - but mostly it's a "meditation" on how sick these heroes really are - how corrupted by their unchecked powers they really get.
It's not like I don't enjoy this kind of fun stuff - but there's still something missing from the story. It doesn't quite have the full ...more
It's not like I don't enjoy this kind of fun stuff - but there's still something missing from the story. It doesn't quite have the full ...more

Volume 5: The superheroes on all sides unite, publicly to fight an off-world existential threat, privately to go to a retreat loaded with drugs and prostitutes to let off some steam. The Vice President (who is mentally incapable of full sentences or full words) comes along because, apparently, that is the only place you can get drugs and sex. The titular "The Boys" (I assume the "The" is important) are along to surveil the Vice President's secret service. All said members of the secret service d
...more

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.

Perhaps a bit of a letdown after volume 4, but pretty much anything would be, really. This was still fun, but, storywise, it's really more about planting seeds for future plots than it is about Herogasm.
"And what is Herogasm?" you may ask. So you know how universe-changing, multi-title crossover events are pretty much standard fare for superheroes these days? In the world of the Boys, that's what the supes SAY they're doing, but what they're really doing is each other. And plenty of high end pro ...more
"And what is Herogasm?" you may ask. So you know how universe-changing, multi-title crossover events are pretty much standard fare for superheroes these days? In the world of the Boys, that's what the supes SAY they're doing, but what they're really doing is each other. And plenty of high end pro ...more

The 5th volume of The Boys sees the world's superheroes take time out, while pretending to be fighting an intergalactic war (similar to the secret invasion), and head off to a remote island for days of extreme sex, drugs and an awards ceremony. Herogasm being the name for this mini-festival of debauchery.
There are some smirks here, mainly aimed at the Fantastic 4, and what they might get up to in private, but the joke is a little laboured over the 6 issues.
I think a key learn for me is that if D ...more
There are some smirks here, mainly aimed at the Fantastic 4, and what they might get up to in private, but the joke is a little laboured over the 6 issues.
I think a key learn for me is that if D ...more

I'll probably regret writing this, but Soldier Boy is kinda cute, you know for a supe.
...more

This was... something. Still violent, still dark, still very compelling! Can't wait to read the next volume.
...more

Jun 13, 2020
Ryan Stewart
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
read-graphic-novels-comics-manga
I guess if you’ve made it this far in The Boys, you probably have some idea of how filthy it is. Still, though, this takes the cake so far. Still funny, smart and moving the story right along at an addictive pace.

This is the volume of "The Boys" with all the sex in it. Very interesting stuff. I enjoyed this volume, its very different to previous volumes and seems shorter. There is still the violence, but the boys themselves are more subdued than normal. The ending is brilliant, the female was at her best.
...more

I felt a little lost.
The story continues with great writing, terrific graphics. However, I felt the story unraveled a little. Yet as it unraveled, the plot continues to expand.
I dearly hope that book six will put the story back on track, at least, for me.
I get a little lost at times.
(I am from IOWA) lol
All I can say, reader, who may be looking to see if this is actually worth the read... it is.
Most protracted comics have their lulls.
This just happened to be the issue I felt was the low in the ...more
The story continues with great writing, terrific graphics. However, I felt the story unraveled a little. Yet as it unraveled, the plot continues to expand.
I dearly hope that book six will put the story back on track, at least, for me.
I get a little lost at times.
(I am from IOWA) lol
All I can say, reader, who may be looking to see if this is actually worth the read... it is.
Most protracted comics have their lulls.
This just happened to be the issue I felt was the low in the ...more

This series is not for the weak. This installment especially.
The supes have announced to the Press that they are off to battle some space invaders and will be MIA for a while to avenge the G-Men. In reality, they are going to the 24th Annual Herogasm located on a remote resort in the Caribbean. They are in for a week of sex, drugs, and general debauchery. (Not that they don't typically indulge in those things, but this is a Vought-American funded orgy vacation.)
The Boys are there, in hiding, t ...more
The supes have announced to the Press that they are off to battle some space invaders and will be MIA for a while to avenge the G-Men. In reality, they are going to the 24th Annual Herogasm located on a remote resort in the Caribbean. They are in for a week of sex, drugs, and general debauchery. (Not that they don't typically indulge in those things, but this is a Vought-American funded orgy vacation.)
The Boys are there, in hiding, t ...more

I don't know what's going on. This keeps getting weirder and weirder. Curious what the show will be like with some of these story arcs.
...more

The Boys is an unflinchingly graphic, 12-volume descent into sexual violence, exploding bodies, depravity, broken taboos and bodily fluids that purports to deconstruct the superhero genre with a chaser of black humor. All it really accomplishes, however, is a whole lot of sophomoric commentary on power and politics, stretches of exposition that last for entire issues at a time, unpleasant and inconsistent artwork, and a certain hypocrisy from a creative team which seems to revel in depicting all
...more

Shit is about to hit the fan. Can't wait for the next book. (good thing it's sitting right here...)
...more

July 2019 - Ugh, wish I'd listened to my own advice and skipped this on reread. If this series represents how the authors regard their readers, they don't think much about us.
February 2015 - The low point of the series, in my opinion. No character development for anyone, no plot advancement ... just an obsessive amount of debauchery. This is actually a mini-series that came out at one point; you can safely skip it. ...more
February 2015 - The low point of the series, in my opinion. No character development for anyone, no plot advancement ... just an obsessive amount of debauchery. This is actually a mini-series that came out at one point; you can safely skip it. ...more

This certainly wasn't my favorite Boys issue. The sexcapades themselves got tedious and boring, and the plot involving Vic the Veep was hard to follow, perhaps because it had been a while since reading the last book.
...more

For some reason, the storytelling gets pretty muddy in this volume, and more than once it's hard to tell what's going. Despite that, it has some interesting content.
...more
...more
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Ennis began his comic-writing career in 1989 with the series Troubled Souls. Appearing in the short-lived but critically-acclaimed British anthology Crisis and illustrated by McCrea, it told the story of a young, apolitical Protestant man caught up by fate in the violence of the Irish 'Troubles'. It spawned a sequel, For a Few Troubles More, a broad Belfast-based comedy featuring two supporting ch
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The Boys Collected Volumes
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