Garth Ennis: A Rebel Among Superheroes
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Garth Ennis is the writer that wrote superhero comics while hating superhero comics. That might seem like a contradictory statement but such is the reality of one of the most complex and thought-provoking writers in the industry in the last thirty years.
While most comic book writers that have built their careers in Marvel and DC grew up as fans of these companies’ material, that wasn’t the case with Ennis. The British writer started reading war comics when he was a kid and didn’t read superhero stuff until his late teens, which formed his opinion that they were “ridiculous”. This would be a key aspect of his career many years down the line.
After several years doing work for companies in the UK, Ennis found his breakthrough with DC’s Vertigo line, which was focused on more mature content, and took over the Hellblazer series in 1991. This series was key for Ennis, not only because he started writing for one of the most notorious comic book companies in the world, but also because he worked in this series with artist Steve Dillon, who would go on to become his partner in crime for several of his best work.
However, series such as The Preacher, which he started with Dillon in the mid-90s, showed what he was all about. This comic showed a priest searching for the Christian God as he fought several monsters along the way. One of the key aspects of the comic was Ennis’ capacity for dark humor and satire, which would define his career.
Despite not liking superheroes, one of the great examples of Garth Ennis as a Rebel in the Cool Continuum is how he challenged the conventions of these characters. One huge example of this is the famed Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe miniseries that was released in 1995, which was an alternate universe where Frank Castle decides to take down the heroes one by one in gruesome fashion, showing how far Ennis’ dislike of the heroes went.
While the British writer usually focused on gunmen as his main characters, as it can be shown in
his Punisher, Hitman, and The Preacher series, as of this writing, there is no denying that his most known work these days is his indie comic, The Boys.
The Boys, simply put, are Garth Ennis’ “Screw you” letter to comic book superheroes.
It may sound exaggerated, but the famous adaptation, which has become a modern classic of the superhero genre, is actually fairly tamed when compared to the comic book version. Ennis had no problems showing superheroes at their absolute worst, with several characters being very obvious references to established names in Marvel and DC. Depravity of the highest order can be seen in the pages of The Boys comics, although it can also be said that Ennis sometimes goes too much for shock value, which makes the stories feel a bit too forced at times.
The importance of the series cannot be understated when analyzing Ennis’ role as a Rebel in the Cool Continuum. Most comic book writers that don’t like superheroes simply don’t write about them. Ennis, on the other hand, went for the jugular with The Boys, to the point that it could be viewed as the ultimate critical series of the genre. Yes, it might not be as sophisticated as, say, Alan Moore’s Watchmen series, but it shows a level of depravity and creative courage that most established writers wouldn’t dare to do.
However, saying that Ennis is just a guy that likes hating superheroes would be doing him a disservice. He has proven time and time again that he is a very capable writer and one that can push the envelope of the medium by doing high-quality stories in genres that are not superhero-based, which is something that makes him a bit of a rarity in this industry.
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