The Boys

In the mid-2000s, Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson brought their signature brutal satire to DC's WildStorm imprint with The Boys, a six-issue series that pulls back the curtain on a world where corrupt, celebrity-like superheroes are controlled—and sometimes eliminated—by a black-ops CIA team led by the ruthless Billy Butcher. Anchored by the horrified perspective of new recruit "Wee" Hughie Campbell, the story pits this gritty squad against monstrous figures like The Homelander, Queen Maeve, and The Deep, exposing the toxic culture behind the capes. It matters as a sharp, uncompromising deconstruction of the superhero genre, setting the stage for a much larger, even more infamous saga to come.