Summary

• The success of The Boys has allowed Garth Ennis to maintain his unique style without compromising in mainstream superhero comics.
• Ennis, known for works like The Punisher and Hitman, has always stayed true to his gritty, mature storytelling, even before the popularity of The Boys.
• Fans of The Boys should also explore Ennis' other mature comic series like Preacher, Crossed, and War Stories for more of his uncompromising style.

If there’s one thing Garth Ennis cannot stand, it’s superheroes. That much has been made clear throughout his career, as Ennis will take any chance he gets to paint superheroes in a negative light, or - at the very least - exclude them from his stories entirely (including those that take place in the Marvel/DC universes). And that’s why The Boys’ TV success is so significant to Garth Ennis on a personal level, as it saved him from having to write sincere superhero stories.

In an interview with Mark Millar in Millar Time episode 25, Garth Ennis is asked how the immense popularity of Prime Video’s The Boys has impacted his life. Ennis reveals that The Boys’ popularity completely changed his life, but that it did so by allowing his life to stay the same:

Garth Ennis: They’ve frankly changed my life, or at least allowed me not to have to change my life. They’re going to make big parts of my life much, much easier. You do ask that question at every stage in your life: if I hadn’t gotten this, where would I be? And I do sometimes wonder, would I have ended up having to write superhero comics? Like, regular mainstream ones? So, no, it’s worked out great.

This part of the conversation between Mark Millar and Garth Ennis begins at the timestamp: 1:38:40!

Because of how successful The Boys has become, Garth Ennis doesn’t have to write mainstream superhero comics for a living. With any project he takes, there is a level of understanding between himself, the publisher, and the fans buying the comic that Ennis will be doing things his way, just like he did with The Boys. And while the success of The Boys has made it much easier for Ennis to sell his style without compromise, that’s pretty much always been the case for this particular comic book creator - no matter which comic continuity sandbox he finds himself in.

Garth Ennis has Always Maintained His Iconic Style, Even in the Worlds of Marvel & DC

Hitman, The Punisher, & Peacemaker, Just to Name a Few!

While, today, publishers and comic book readers are well aware of what’s in store for them when they open any given comic that Garth Ennis has written, that wasn’t always the case. Before The Boys took off the way it has, Ennis was simply another working comic creator who took jobs with the likes of Marvel and DC while also efforting personal projects. However, even as a writer for those more ‘all-ages’ comic book publishers, Ennis never once compromised his unique style.

For instance, DC’s Hitman is about an assassin who only kills superhumans for money (making the main character arguably something of a predecessor to The Boys’ Billy Butcher). Then, there’s Ennis’ many runs on The Punisher, including the iconic The Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe. And Ennis even did a stint on Peacemaker, fleshing out the antihero’s grisly backstory in a way that only he could. These examples prove that, even in mainstream comic universes, Garth Ennis has still maintained his unique style - even before The Boys became so popular.

The Boys Isn't Garth Ennis’ Only Mature Comic That Deserves Recognition

Now that The Boys has reached an insane level of popularity, fans should look back at some of Ennis’ other mature comic series that are worthy of recognition. While Preacher is an obvious standout (and even got its own level of recognition with AMC’s live-action adaptation), there are also comics like Crossed, Just a Pilgrim, and War Stories, just to name a few. And all of them have one thing in common: Garth Ennis’ uncompromising style - a style that, thanks to The Boys’ popularity, is able to continue unencumbered.

The thought of Garth Ennis writing a mainstream comic book series centered around a costumed hero is undeniably odd, as even when he was a relatively unknown comic creator, he never wrote those kinds of stories. And now, due to how popular The Boys has become, he’ll never have to, as the success of the Prime Video series saved Garth Ennis from having to write sincere superhero comics.

Source: Millar Time/YouTube