The Boys: Dear Becky #2
Writer: Garth Ennis
Artist: Russ Braun
Cover: Darick Robertson
FC | 32 pages | Superhero Satire | $3.99 | Mature

If the TV series on Prime Video shocked you, keep in mind that it actually toned down some aspects of the comic book version of The Boys. And now that Amazon has announced that Season 2 will arrive on Sept. 4, it’s great that we can read Dynamite Entertainment‘s The Boys: Dear Becky while we count down the days.

Spoilers ahead.

Haunted by the past

I loved the TV series, but I have to admit that this is my first time to read the actual comic book even though I’m a comic book geek. For those who haven’t read the comic books or watched the TV series, The Boys are a team of vigilantes. They were formed to police and even liquidate superhumans created by Vought-American.

The Boys: Dear Becky mini-series takes place 12 years after the events in The Boys #72: “You Found Me”. It features Hughie Campbell a.k.a. Wee Hughie. After thinking that the past has been buried, he receives a series of documents. These shed new light on his days in The Boys — specifically with information on Billy Butcher and his late wife, Becky.

This issue starts with Hughie in front of his parents’ gravestones in his native Scotland. He tells them what has happened. How he has received the mysterious documents.

“It’s brought up somethin’ I always suspected anyway, which is the whole thing left me more of a mess than I thought.

“An’ if that sounds so obvious it’s daft, believe me, even here you’ve no idea what it took me to say it out loud.”

Hughie is back in Scotland for his nuptials with Annie January a.k.a. “Starlight”, the young and naive superhero who joined the world’s most prestigious superhero group, the Seven. And now he has a dilemma because of these documents, as he tells his dead parents. Because he and Annie are not supposed to have any secrets.

Gods and Skorchers

Meanwhile, the narrative shifts to Colonel Greg Mallory briefing the Mallory era team of The Boys about a new group of superhumans known as The Skorchers.

The team reacts to their, um, picturesque superhero names. We find out that they are the first superhero team proposed, funded, and launched by Vought’s Mediacorp division. This has never happened before, as every team before had come from Superhuman Development.

The Colonel says there’s evidence of a possibly catastrophic rift inside the Vought-American Corporation. He says they would be fools not to try to exploit this.

And then we have Billy Butcher and Terror going to the funeral of a goddess. And catching Th-, er, Vikor with his pants down.

Vikor says they can’t talk about The Skorchers, or engage with them in any manner. This comes straight from Vought, according to Vikor.

And then brutality ensues.

Remember, this is a comic book for mature readers.

What will happen to Wee Hughie and Annie? And what’s going on inside Butcher’s head?

The Boys: Dear Becky is violent and nasty and won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s certainly mine. God help me, Wee Hughie.

(Editor’s note: This review is based on an advanced review copy provided by Diamond Entertainment. The Boys: Dear Becky #2 will come out on July 1.)