92: The Boys Read The Boys Part 8 - Highland Laddie

Summary
In this episode of the Comic Dudes podcast, the hosts discuss The Boys: Volume 8 - Highland Laddie. They express their disappointment with the volume, noting that not much happens and the story feels stunted. The unreadable Scottish accents and lack of world-building are also mentioned as negatives. The only positive aspect highlighted is the development of the Starlight character. Overall, the hosts agree that this volume was not enjoyable. Overall, Highland Laddie is considered one of the weaker volumes in The Boys series.

Chapters
00:00 Introduction and Personal Updates
03:00 Review of The Boys: Volume 8 - Highland Laddie
09:02 Disappointment with the Volume
14:09 Unreadable Scottish Accents and Lack of World-Building
18:01 Highlight: Development of the Starlight Character
25:07 Character Focus and Slow Pace
26:34 The Starlight Issue
27:31 Confusion and Lack of Clarity
30:18 Outrageous Moments: Tapeworm and Tiny Penis
38:19 Personal Connections to the Story
39:26 Least Likable Characters
41:06 Final Thoughts and Conclusion

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Original Music by Alex Productions
Show notes include some AI generated content

Transcript

Dave (00:01.74)
Welcome back to the Comic Dudes, a podcast about comic books and comic book related things with me, as always, my esteemed co -host Matt. Matt, how are you?

Matt - CDWA (00:11.382)
I'm not doing great. I'll be honest. I'm not doing great guys, but if ever I needed to rely on the boys, today would be the day I need the boys. I need some boys therapy in my life. So I'm looking for a little escapism today.

Dave (00:23.628)
Alright, well. Hopefully we can provide. Also with us for the second time this month are sometimes second third cohost. If we're all cohost, you'd be the third. Eric, how you doing?

Matt - CDWA (00:27.443)
I think you can.

Erik (00:37.344)
Yeah, yeah. I'm you know, I'm doing okay. I I'm glad just just like Matt, I'm really glad to be here with the two of you talking boys with the boys.

Matt - CDWA (00:37.673)
Yeah.

Dave (00:49.73)
Yeah, me too. I'm also not doing great. You may notice that I'm sitting down. I typically record the podcast standing. I have a standing desk in my office and I found that for me it's like easier to have a conversation when I'm standing up. It just feels more natural and I have a little more energy when I speak. But my band had a show Sunday night and I carry equipment.

Matt - CDWA (00:53.642)
You

Erik (01:00.183)
Yeah.

Matt - CDWA (01:07.711)
Yeah.

Matt - CDWA (01:17.895)
no.

Dave (01:18.626)
Carrying lots of things then coming home and like taking the trash out and stuff. At some point I did something in my lower back and I woke up Monday morning and was in excruciating pain. So I tried to walk to my office upstairs after taking quite a long time to put socks on and the rest of my clothes. I need to mention Abby was not at home. She had taken the cat to the vet because he had to get neutered.

Erik (01:26.38)
Duh.

Erik (01:39.948)
Mmm.

Dave (01:46.636)
So before I got to the steps, took a, I don't know. I don't know what happened, but I felt the strongest, most excruciating pain where my left leg connects to my hip that I've ever felt. It was so bad that I literally like yelled out and then immediately dropped to the floor and laid there until she came home. Yeah. So I went to an ER that day.

Matt - CDWA (01:52.948)
sharp it.

Erik (01:55.201)
Yeah.

Erik (02:06.488)
shit.

Dave (02:11.2)
And they were like, yeah, you know, maybe an MRI if it doesn't clear up on its own could just be like a strain or something. So I got two steroid shots on Monday. I have a muscle relaxer and two different painkillers to get me through the week. So, so here we are sitting down talking about the boys.

Erik (02:27.424)
Holy shit.

Well, the boys will make you feel better.

Matt - CDWA (02:34.364)
Now my day doesn't feel so bad. Holy crap dude, like, that's, I know that's intense though. Like legit fell. Wow. You need life alert, dude.

Dave (02:34.594)
They will.

Erik (02:36.768)
Yeah.

Dave (02:37.038)
Well, it's not a competition.

Dave (02:46.21)
I I didn't fall. I lowered myself to the ground because standing was excruciating. It's like I just fell over. I put myself on the floor. It was under control.

Matt - CDWA (02:49.77)
You need life alert. I'm getting you. I'm picturing one of those commercials. I'm sorry. the cereal bowl flies all over the place. don't know.

Erik (02:51.383)
Mm.

Dave (03:00.334)
Okay, well that's not what happened.

Dave (03:04.77)
Yeah, no, I will say once once I was safely on the ground and laying on my back, Dusty, our dog, took one sniff of me and then left me there. Just went and like I heard her get on the couch to go to sleep. Did not care at all what had happened to me. Yeah. Yeah, anyway.

Matt - CDWA (03:09.746)
Yeah.

Matt - CDWA (03:15.42)
But.

Matt - CDWA (03:21.278)
The disrespect.

Erik (03:21.634)
Shit. Shit.

Matt - CDWA (03:25.45)
observe.

Erik (03:25.696)
Well, compared to what the two of you have going on, I just have had a stressful week at work. So I really can't complain that much.

Matt - CDWA (03:28.34)
You

Dave (03:32.546)
Yeah, felt felt. My work has also been stressful. I'll be happy to talk about this. This dumb comic. So you already know who we are and what this is. I haven't mentioned that you can follow us on social. We'll have our Twitter handles in the description of the episode, as well as the podcasts, Instagram and TikTok accounts we post fairly regularly on those platforms. You also join our discord. We've had a.

Matt - CDWA (03:33.0)
Yeah.

Matt - CDWA (03:41.224)
Yeah.

Dave (04:01.75)
A steady stream of people joining. That's a slow stream, but people join. Shout out Paul. He's, he's now part of the discord.

Matt - CDWA (04:08.533)
okay. Okay, okay.

Dave (04:12.014)
So it's a let's read the boys reading the boys. This is a volume eight Highland laddie If this is your first one of these episodes again weird place to start There's seven more of these that maybe you should start at the beginning with but that's okay if you don't What we do we read one volume a month I recap what we read hitting the high notes Leaving some of the story elements out. Sometimes we talk about them. Sometimes we don't but if you go and read this yourself

There'll be some new things for you to discover. We'll talk about the things that we liked, the good, the things that we didn't, the bad, and then we'll have a few things that were outrageous that don't quite classify into good or bad. And then we'll talk about our favorite and least likable characters from that volume. All that being said, I think it's it's recap time. You boys ready?

Matt - CDWA (05:03.71)
guess please please I need this

Erik (05:04.448)
Yeah, yeah.

Dave (05:05.954)
Yeah, this was fun to read. I'd like to set the stage first with a direct quote from the first issue of this trade, because it really sets the tone for what we had to read. So here's the quote. He's still an evil wee bastard with a face like a bulldog looking come off a nettle. I had to look up what a nettle was. I guess it's a plant. It's also a superfood in the UK.

I don't really know. But that type of like, that's the type of bullshit we had to read. That's what we read. Yeah.

Erik (05:36.288)
Nettles are awful,

Erik (05:41.216)
The whole the whole thing is that but also I made the mistake last year of walking into stinging nettles that grow near my house. I didn't know what they were. And I had like immediate blisters and pain all over my legs. They're horrible. Nettles are nasty.

Dave (05:59.224)
Did you try to eat them?

Erik (06:01.054)
No, but I've had nettle tea before. And I was like, why would you try to drink this horrific, dangerous plant?

Dave (06:09.582)
Well, you know what? I've seen a lot of British food on TikTok and they eat a lot of garbage. Apologies to anyone from the UK that listens to this podcast, but some of your food does not look appetizing. Anyway, getting into the recap, as mentioned at end of last episode, this is a Huey mini series. He goes back to Scotland and he goes back to his hometown specifically. He meets up with his mom and dad.

Erik (06:12.502)
Fair. Yeah, that's fair.

Dave (06:37.166)
Who we learn eventually are not his real mom and dad their foster parents or whatever adoptive parents He gets some drinks with his old friends one who just always wears a gas mask his name is debt and another friend named big Bobby who is I guess He's supposed to be a trans woman. So I guess it's a she but they refer to him by He and Bobby the entire trade

I think at one point some people just refer to him as being like a cross dresser. I'm not sure, but I know we're going to talk about more more about that later in subsequent parts of the episode. Either way, he's he's pretty early on turned into a bit of a punch line. No surprise. Just based on what it is we're reading and who wrote it. He's really just trying to sort his life out, decide what direction is best. And if he even wants to go back to America, he's thinking maybe he'll just stay in Scotland.

Matt - CDWA (07:10.569)
Yeah.

Dave (07:35.418)
not a whole lot is really happening so far. moving into the second issue, there's just more backstory with Huey and his friends. we find out there's like some Russian drug dealers that are bringing Coke that's laced with compound V in the Scotland. we also get a flashback to, excuse me, right before Huey left New York, he and mother's milk went out to like a farewell dinner.

and, know, they just have a conversation about some things, some of which we'll touch on later. think, moving into issue three again, not much really is happening. he was sort of just like a big complainer and he feels really guilty about his parents treating him so well. the gangster that, is buying the, the V laced Coke from the Russians is now aware of Huey and kind of knows who he is, I guess.

At the end of the issue, Huey also finds out when he gets back home to his parents' house that Starlight is sitting there and waiting for him, and he is very, very unhappy. Next issue, we get a Starlight origin, which is awesome. I actually really enjoyed that part. And there's also, I think, maybe a chance here for Huey and Starlight to reconcile. They continue to kind of talk things out.

Bobby and Huey get lured to the cove at night, which is where they first spotted or heard about the coke that's laced with V coming in. They happen upon that coke deal. They find that their friend debt is involved. And then I forget who this guy was. His name's Tupper. He shoots. He shoots. Tupper's the guy that's yeah, he's the gangster guy. That's right. I don't know why I didn't reference him sooner in my notes. I'm sorry.

Matt - CDWA (09:27.754)
He's the good, yeah. Yeah.

night.

Dave (09:32.918)
He takes a shot at Huey and debt, debt steps in front of the bullet that's meant for Huey. And then the bad guys kind of get what's coming to him. Bobby gets into a fight with Tupper's niece or daughter or whatever. It's a very large woman with a pair of like, yeah, yeah, they got like the big like, yeah, Bobby gets his dick cut off.

Matt - CDWA (09:52.586)
Thailand shears, there's yardnames, cheap shears.

Dave (10:01.612)
He seems to be OK with it.

Matt - CDWA (10:04.202)
Eric's face.

Dave (10:08.075)
He we also yeah He we also finds out that this this this British guy that he'd kind of been like meeting up with and just having some talks with who introduced himself as mr. Vigors is actually Mallory who used to be a member of the boys before he we joined and Mallory is the one who orchestrated this whole sting from the night before the the coke lace with feasting that I just mentioned

Erik (10:08.29)
mean, that does happen, yes.

Matt - CDWA (10:27.05)
Ooh, I had

Dave (10:38.989)
At the end, Huey kind of breaks down in front of Starlight. He apologizes profusely for everything that he did and said, seemingly patching things up with her. But he never came clean about how he saw the video, who he really is and what it is the boys do. So there's still probably a reckoning coming there.

This was probably my worst recap yet.

Matt - CDWA (11:06.014)
This was, I was gonna say this is probably the worst trade yet in my opinion, but like, I don't know. Good. I'm not gonna like sugarcoat this. really don't have a lot. Like I was really down on this. The main thing I really liked was continuing from our last episode for me was I don't know why, but I'm like captivated by the whole Starlight character. I'm really a big fan of Starlight in this.

Erik (11:06.114)
This is a tough one to recap.

Erik (11:10.561)
Yeah.

Matt - CDWA (11:36.158)
really liked her like commitment to coming to Scotland to try to like reconcile or at least get some kind of closure on their relationship. Like it just it went all bad. I really I'm digging the path that we're on with Starlight. I also really liked an issue four where she kind of reconciled not reconciled but like went off on Huey and freaked out and started throwing all the shit that he said at her.

to her back at him and like went after him and like he cowered up like a little bitch. Like I really thought she deserved that moment for all the crap that she's gone through in this story so far. Like I really liked her having that moment of little comeuppance. But yeah, man, that was about it for me for the good. I got some things in bad, I was, I was leaning on you.

Erik (12:27.542)
you

Dave (12:28.802)
Yeah, I don't have a lot of good either, honestly. So actually, I don't know why I wrote this down in the good. Maybe it's just because I'll just tell you what I wrote down. I have no idea why this is in the good, though. I've been trying to figure it out since I sat down at my desk to prep. So when Huey and are having dinner in New York before Huey leaves for Scotland.

Erik (12:31.361)
Well, what do you have?

Dave (12:56.302)
Mm mentions herogasm and what happened to Huey there But it seemed like Huey either doesn't really remember what happened or has repressed it I don't know why that's in the good I don't know if maybe I meant to put that somewhere else or it was just supposed to be like a note for myself to remember to talk about later I'm very sorry, but I I really don't know the context of which this is in the good for Maybe it was just some babies. Maybe I just liked the fact that

Matt - CDWA (13:01.044)
Yeah.

Matt - CDWA (13:06.878)
Yeah.

Erik (13:07.552)
Yeah, I don't think so.

Matt - CDWA (13:13.098)
You

Matt - CDWA (13:20.936)
things we need to discuss.

Dave (13:25.602)
something happened in the comic that I could understand both sides of the conversation.

Erik (13:30.882)
I was relieved when there's like two flashbacks where people are not speaking in a Scottish accent. And I'm like, what a relief.

Matt - CDWA (13:34.163)
Yeah.

Dave (13:38.818)
Yeah. my other good was, the, Scottish gangster Tupper, when he would interact with the Russians, he kept calling them by obviously made up and rude names. and I wrote all three of those names down. One was, Ivan fist, your maw, which fist your mom. the second one was Yuri wanks them off. And the third was up your bum of itch.

And they all made me laugh.

Matt - CDWA (14:11.21)
And that's what's important.

Dave (14:14.168)
Yes.

Erik (14:14.892)
I feel like there was even more but I also noticed I'm like, these are ridiculous. I didn't catch it at first and then I'm like, I understand what's happening.

Dave (14:21.634)
Yeah. Yeah. Once I figured it out, I wrote them all down. I don't think there were more. think those are all three. I could have missed some though. That's it. I only had those two things written down in the good. I generally did not enjoy this.

Erik (14:33.622)
Okay. I want to thank you for your recap because I totally missed that the painter guy that he was using for therapy was a former member of the boys. I didn't catch that at all. Yeah.

Matt - CDWA (14:45.726)
Yup. Me neither.

Dave (14:48.686)
He only reveals it in the note that Huey gets and he signs the note Mallory.

Matt - CDWA (14:53.092)
my gosh, okay.

Erik (14:55.542)
Okay, missed that. So my goods are I like that he and Annie worked things out. But it's only because she's smarter and more patient than him. And I feel like something bad is coming when he when it finally comes out what he does. So that he had all the opportunities when they were like putting it all out on the table, it would have been the right time to do it. And it sucks that he didn't. But

Dave (14:57.005)
Yeah.

Dave (15:13.517)
Mm -hmm.

Erik (15:22.964)
Not sure if this one is good or just something to talk about. But I think it's interesting that this entire volume just served to tell us things that we already knew about Huey, but sort of gave us a little bit of the why. I don't know. We probably didn't need to know why Huey feels the way or acts the way or thinks the way he does. But I do think that this volume was valuable in the sense that it reinforced those things, right? It reinforced the fact that

he does belong in New York with the boys fighting against the dastardly superheroes. Everything that happened just went to prove to him that this is not where he should be. He should be back there doing that. So there's value in that. I like that. Also, I think this is kind of good. I think I kind of liked it. I'm not sure though. Huey went from looking like Simon Pegg in every previous volume to looking like Bryan Cranston from Breaking Bad in this one, which was really weird to me.

Matt - CDWA (16:17.199)
you

Erik (16:22.7)
totally he looked I mean, obviously different artists, but I was like, looks like an older guy or something. I don't know.

Dave (16:28.748)
Yeah, a lot less ugly. No offense to Simon Pegg, but Derek Robertson draws Huey as a very ugly man.

Matt - CDWA (16:31.754)
You

Erik (16:35.648)
Yeah, it felt less ugly. And I was like, Okay, upgrade for you, Huey.

Dave (16:38.306)
Yeah. Yeah, the art was definitely better. Though I don't dislike Derek Robertson, there are some moments where his art is not pretty.

Erik (16:48.802)
Yeah.

That's what I've Yeah.

Dave (16:52.494)
Is that all you're good? Yeah, okay, yeah. Not surprised that we don't have a lot of good to say. Let's just get into the bad, because that's where the meat of this conversation is gonna take place.

Erik (16:56.413)
I'm

Matt - CDWA (17:06.186)
This could have been two issues and not six, in my opinion. Like, I hate... Nothing... Like, you did a recap and the first three issues were like nothing. And I really don't like... I don't like when we're moving through a story and really gaining forward momentum and we pause and stop and go back. I know it's necessary in comics. I know we do it all the time, but I really don't normally like that, especially when we start cooking.

Dave (17:06.2)
Matt.

Dave (17:09.791)
Eh.

Yeah, I nothing really happens.

Matt - CDWA (17:34.686)
Personally, I just don't like going back like that. Especially for an arc. Two issues, I don't care. Whatever. But six issues, to me that's a lot.

Dave (17:35.98)
Yeah. Yeah.

Dave (17:45.912)
Well, and you know, I think part of the reason why that feels so awful is because Huey has not been a super likable cast member of this comic. So, you know, I don't know. I don't think anyone wants to read six issues of Huey because he kind of sucks.

Matt - CDWA (17:49.683)
Yeah.

Matt - CDWA (17:54.18)
No, -

Matt - CDWA (18:01.436)
I liked Huey a lot in the beginning, but the more and more this has gone on, like I totally agree with you. if maybe if this was earlier, I would have been all for it. But like as of recent and recently, I'm like, yeah, I definitely don't want to read about him for six issues. I don't know if I should hold this against Garth Enix, but get in this. But this was almost non readable for me due to my linguistic shortcomings of Scottish, the Scottish accent.

Dave (18:09.752)
Yeah.

Matt - CDWA (18:30.174)
If you didn't tell me what Ken was, I'd have no idea. Like I wasn't, I wasn't about to get a dictionary, look up what nettles were. I'm just trying to take this thing and its face value. So I had no idea what was going on for like half of this.

Dave (18:30.306)
I mean.

Dave (18:41.688)
Well, I had to look up nettles because I needed the context for why there'd be cum on it. If I don't understand why the cum is there in the first place, the metaphor falls apart for me. Unfortunately, once I found out what a nettle was, I still didn't understand.

Matt - CDWA (18:44.362)
Yes. Exactly.

Erik (18:51.104)
Bye.

Matt - CDWA (18:56.106)
Okay, and as our recap expert, were Dad and Bobby and Huey, were they like the Hardy boys in high school? Like, what is this like? Were they like investigators or something that I completely missed? Being kids, okay, they'd solve -

Dave (19:08.768)
No, they were just fucking kids being kids. And Huey's, Huey's, I think that was mostly in there to show that since he's been a child, Huey has been sort of a, I want to do the right thing. you know, I'm, I'm, I'm a helpful kid. want to be on the side of the good guys.

Matt - CDWA (19:21.415)
Okay.

Matt - CDWA (19:28.572)
Okay, I was just like were they these investigative kids or they just fall into some of these things? Yeah, okay

Dave (19:33.506)
Yeah, they just fell into it. Yeah. And and Garth Ennis fell into some casual police brutality, too.

Matt - CDWA (19:39.594)
he sure did. He sure did.

Dave (19:41.783)
same time.

Erik (19:41.856)
I think that's there to show that in some ways nothing has changed because Huey is still trying to do the right thing and people are still getting hurt because of it. Just like when he was a kid.

Dave (19:50.733)
Yeah.

Matt - CDWA (19:51.41)
Yeah. I just, I just didn't know what I read outside of like the whole purpose of this was for Starlight and Huey to get back together like that in the Reconcile. Like that was the whole purpose of this and in my opinion, and that could have been done in two issues, but

Dave (20:08.258)
Yeah. Yeah, I agree with you. I also have the unreadable Scottish and my bad. It's fucking unreadable, man. There's so much of it. I don't know. I only figured out what Ken meant through context clues, and it took me until like the second or third issue before I was like, OK, I get it now. If I replace the word Ken with no, I can read these sentences a little bit more competently. But there was so much stuff that I was just completely lost.

Erik (20:11.34)
Yeah, for sure.

Matt - CDWA (20:14.794)
You got rid of the sk -

Thank so much.

Dave (20:37.676)
And I, I on one hand, I guess I can appreciate wanting to be authentic. But come on, man. Give me a little something.

Matt - CDWA (20:41.81)
As such, yeah.

Matt - CDWA (20:47.208)
Like, I was wondering where this comic was released, like if it was released in Britain first, or wherever, in Europe first, but no. So I'm like, I don't know. I don't know if lot of Americans know that slang, a lot of that deep slang. So.

Dave (21:02.937)
They don't. No, not at all. Also, I'm curious what the unit of measure is in Scotland. When Huey gets dropped off close to his town, there's a sign like a like a, whatever the name, I forget the name of the town's name was something long and unmemorable. But the sign just said the number one and the letter

Matt - CDWA (21:11.516)
Yeah.

Dave (21:30.666)
the name of his hometown. I know that it's not one meter away. I would assume that the unit of measure in Scotland would be kilometers, but the sign appeared to say one mile and I was just very confused. That was confusing for me.

Matt - CDWA (21:39.099)
Yeah.

Matt - CDWA (21:43.517)
Mm.

Erik (21:44.704)
Does the UK not use imperial measurements and stuff? I mean, isn't that where it all came from?

Dave (21:51.884)
I don't know. I don't know.

Erik (21:53.05)
I guess I don't know either. I would assume everybody but the US uses metric and we're the only weirdos that don't.

Dave (21:59.18)
Yeah, but then what the fuck is that 1M on the sign?

Matt - CDWA (21:59.71)
Yeah, it sounds about right.

Erik (22:02.668)
Let's find out.

Dave (22:04.238)
because it wasn't a meter away.

Erik (22:07.65)
Let's see, Scotland.

Erik (22:12.962)
Scott land uses God, this is confusing. They they don't use imperial or metric. It looks like they use both in some ways. But they also use a measurement system called Scott's that's else and falls and chains and furlongs. So they've got three types of measurement there. But apparently they do use

Matt - CDWA (22:37.8)
You

Erik (22:39.808)
both imperial and metric for different purposes. So it's probably mild.

Erik (22:47.052)
Perfect.

Dave (22:49.614)
That's what I think about that.

Erik (22:50.978)
Good.

Matt - CDWA (22:51.538)
No change in expression, just play the clip and keep it moving.

Dave (22:57.258)
my final bad, didn't I, I don't, really don't have a lot of things to say about this, this mini series because not a lot happened. And what did happen wasn't particularly interesting. The only thing that was interesting was the starlight and Huey stuff. But the, the, the bad that I wrote down is actually a sort of a cumulative bad. The world building in this series feels a little stunted, based on the subject matter that we are reading.

I expect a much bigger scale to things and I'm finding that the longer we go with this series, the world doesn't really seem to expand along with us. And I think about comics like Saga and Invincible and, you know, even to some extent, something like DMZ, which takes place wholly on the island of Manhattan, still manages to build this extremely rich world. Saga...

Erik (23:38.455)
Mm.

Dave (23:55.074)
does it particularly well and I think everything Robert Kirkman does, the world building is at the core of his story. You have to have a lush and interesting world for your characters to interact in to make the comic interesting. And that doesn't happen here. Everything just feels so small.

Matt - CDWA (24:12.233)
Yeah.

Dave (24:18.338)
I don't get it.

Matt - CDWA (24:19.075)
Maybe he likes that intimacy. Maybe, I don't know, maybe that's... But then you got the seven flying around and Homelander being crazy. I don't know. Like it's like...

Dave (24:27.362)
Yeah, I mean, that's the thing. Like you have like these grandiose beings that are, know, they have godlike powers. There's tons of superheroes everywhere, but I don't feel, I have a hard time even remembering that we're in New York City.

Matt - CDWA (24:32.606)
Yeah.

Erik (24:44.33)
Yeah. It's as a series is very character focused. And it seems like really hyper focused on that most of the time. And every once in a while, we get something that's building the world or building the lore, like that time that the legend was talking all about, let me explain the history of Vought and stuff. And it was like, this is really interesting. But that happens so rarely.

Matt - CDWA (24:44.541)
Yeah.

Matt - CDWA (25:04.68)
Yes, there.

Dave (25:07.18)
Yeah. And like this somehow manages to be more of the same. you give me like this, you basically like six issues of expansive Huey lore and it's all super not interesting and small. And maybe that's the point. I don't know, but.

I don't know. Yeah.

Matt - CDWA (25:29.514)
The best part was the Starlight issue, like, with that whole explanation, you know? And I was gonna ask my favorite question to you, Dave, is like, is that a good jumping up on point? Could you jump in with that issue? I love it. Jump in cold, man. You know, relationships start from the beginning.

Dave (25:40.652)
No. No. No. Of course not.

Erik (25:42.846)
No, you need the context. Yeah.

Dave (25:50.062)
I mean, you know, I'm a, you know, I'm all about jumping in cold back, back in the day. If you wanted to read anything from the big two, you were jumping in and the 300s, 400s, 200s. Like you just figured the shit out. But for a series like this, it only goes, you know, 60, 70 issues. There's no, start in the beginning.

Matt - CDWA (25:55.71)
That's what I'm saying.

Matt - CDWA (25:59.604)
That's all I'm saying.

Erik (26:08.15)
Yeah, I agree. My bad is really similar to both of yours. Matt, I agree. This didn't need to be a six issue arc. It could have just been a simple like, we tell the story and explain it in one or two issues within some other storyline. But it was hard to read on top of that, because it was really slow. It was really uneventful. And all the Scottish isms like Dave, like you're saying.

Matt - CDWA (26:08.319)
Yeah.

Erik (26:34.892)
there was multiple places where I'm like, I sort of figured out something by context. But like, I'll just come right out and admit maybe this is really dumb. But in the first issue or two, he kept like saying something and then ending with debt. And I'm like, is debt some kind of slang that's like, you know, I actually looked it up. And I'm like, what the hell and it wasn't until like an issue later that I'm like, this is this person's name. Okay, I was so confused. But there was like one or two spots where they said something

Matt - CDWA (26:50.163)
Yeah.

Erik (27:03.222)
And I went back and reread it once or twice. And I was just like, No, I'm sorry, I can't figure this out moving on. I don't know what they're trying to say. I think there was some things in here that although are useful to us in understanding Huey, which this arc really shows us that Garth Ennis views Huey as the main character, and as somewhat of a hero, he wants us to understand him believe in him see the the good in him and that this is his

Dave (27:08.044)
Yeah. Yeah.

Erik (27:32.034)
predestined path in life with this arc here. But some of the stuff that he put in there to help us understand I'm like, you could have just left this out because it added nothing for me like the story about his aunt that should a tapeworm into a bathtub. What was I supposed to take away from that? Also, what kind of alien tapeworm is that that can live outside the body and stand up on its own? Very weird. And then there's the one about like, we were really excited to go visit my family. But they took me up into the cockpit of the plane and

Matt - CDWA (27:44.19)
Yeah, what?

Dave (27:44.429)
Mm -hmm.

Dave (27:48.194)
I

Matt - CDWA (27:49.802)
You

Erik (28:01.93)
the guy had some sort of freak out panic attack. And I'm like, is that valuable to me? Did I need to know that? Maybe. I also don't understand what statement Garth Ennis was attempting to make by making Bobby transgender. I, I kept trying to figure it out because it wasn't obvious there was they didn't make it like all the characters ridiculed him over it. They all just kind of accepted it and moved on. Which great, that's cool.

Dave (28:28.31)
Mm -hmm.

Erik (28:31.68)
But at the same time, like, but why are you trying to drive home that like, again, like with all of these things that the idealized version of Huey's hometown that he thought he was going back to isn't what he thought it was, or something like I just couldn't figure out why that was in here. And then, no agreed. And then last Garth Ennis showed his taste in music. I wasn't a fan. I spotted t shirts for Metallica tool and Eminem in this volume.

Dave (28:45.966)
I have no idea. I have no idea. It doesn't make sense.

Matt - CDWA (28:58.858)
You

Erik (29:00.562)
none of them instilled much faith in me that Garth Ennis gets it but it no he didn't that's true yeah that's true that's true yeah i mean i guess those are my bads more thoughts than bads

Dave (29:06.008)
Maybe that was Derek Robertson's decision or not there. I guess he didn't drew that. You didn't draw these. So maybe it just an artist decision.

Matt - CDWA (29:09.012)
Yeah, there are.

Dave (29:19.796)
I mean, it's hard to. Yeah. Yeah. mean, like, that's the problem with this. This trade is that hardly anything happens. Yeah. Yeah. Like, yes, I read it.

Erik (29:27.968)
Yeah, there's not a lot of good. There's not a lot of bad things happen. But yeah, same.

Matt - CDWA (29:29.961)
It's just -

Matt - CDWA (29:33.554)
It's the indifferent. Like, why are you indifferent?

Dave (29:34.466)
Yeah.

Erik (29:35.808)
Yeah. I did like that it was only six issues. But that six issues. It took me four sittings to get through it because I would read and be like, I need to step away from this, you know.

Matt - CDWA (29:44.2)
Oof.

Yeah.

Dave (29:48.782)
powered through all at once. It was tough. was tough. It's had to power through it, man. Had no choice. But yeah, Matt, I agree with you. Like this could have been two, three issues. This didn't need to be six. We can talk outrageous.

Matt - CDWA (29:50.206)
You're crazy. I don't know how you do that. It's impressive.

Erik (29:50.38)
Good for you.

Matt - CDWA (30:07.306)
Eric, did you know the largest tapeworm in history is 8 .8 meters and was reported in 1980s in Tokyo? That was my outrageous, I did some research.

Erik (30:18.134)
Holy shit, I did not know that.

Matt - CDWA (30:20.112)
I do not know if that tapeworm stood up in the bathroom, though, but it is a very long tapeworm that came from a man.

Erik (30:24.16)
I

Erik (30:27.764)
I don't think they can, but that's still horrific. Just -

Matt - CDWA (30:30.282)
So that was my outrageous because I was like, what is that whole detour about this tape? I have no idea. Yeah, that's what I'm I had the conversion chart. Yeah.

Dave (30:36.366)
Jesus Christ, eight meters is 26 feet.

Erik (30:40.438)
Yeah, yeah. I didn't know what was going on in that scene at first. I thought, did she did she kill somebody? Is she dead? Did something happen? And then they're like, she had a monster. And I'm like, what does that mean? Did she have a baby? Did something happen? And then I'm like, what is what is this image? What the hell?

Matt - CDWA (30:49.95)
Yes. Yeah.

Dave (30:50.754)
Yeah, yeah, s -same.

Dave (31:00.898)
Yeah, so weird.

Matt - CDWA (31:01.384)
I think they set it up so you think it's like a baby, like she had a baby like in the toilet or in the, you know, and that's what I was thinking. And then you see this giant tapeworm and I'm like, okay, well that works. the tapeworm.

Erik (31:06.625)
Yeah.

Erik (31:10.708)
wild. Do you have other outrageous because that was pretty outrageous.

Matt - CDWA (31:16.638)
That was my outrageous was just the tapeworm. I was like, what is that?

Erik (31:20.256)
All right. Here's an outrageous I think outrageous I there's this is probably the least like wow, there's some over the top crazy stuff in this issue. There was not that much. So this was more like weird things to me. His friend that always wears a gas mask even since he was a child in the flashbacks, but his whole family wears them. There's never an explanation. They say something about something smelling bad at some point, but he wears it everywhere all the time.

Matt - CDWA (31:30.45)
Yeah.

Dave (31:46.796)
Yeah, he's like he's so stinky that like even deodorant doesn't work like I don't know why he wears a gas mask I don't know what that was I don't know if they were alluding to something that I'm too stupid to pick up on like I don't know

Matt - CDWA (31:56.084)
What's up?

Erik (31:56.694)
the people around him. But the people around him aren't like, man, you smell bad. Like that never comes up. It was weird. I you know, you talked about this already. But Bobby getting her dick cut off with hedge clippers and then being like, good. I was gonna do that anyway. And I was like, okay, weird. This I don't know whether it's not how that works.

Dave (32:01.452)
Right. Yeah, I don't get it.

Dave (32:14.146)
Yup. Also, that's not the way that works. Like medically speaking, that's not how that works. It's how you, that's how you get a vagina. If you're doing surgery to change your gender, you still need the penis. Did they?

Matt - CDWA (32:18.098)
You

Erik (32:26.838)
Well, they address that, that, I mean, that, you know, they're they're gonna get rid of whatever else is there and then work to do a gender reassignment. I mean, you're gonna, they're gonna have to do some extra work without the dick. But yeah, so this was this was probably the worst thing in the book that I almost put it down and was like, I'm done with this series. But when they started throwing rocks at that dog,

Dave (32:40.205)
Yeah.

Dave (32:43.946)
Good talk.

Matt - CDWA (32:54.174)
OOF

Dave (32:54.179)
Yeah.

Erik (32:54.282)
And then he we hit it. I thought for a minute he killed that dog and I was like, I, Huey is the worst character in any comic to me at this point, because that's fucked up. And if he had killed the dog, I would have been done with it. At least he didn't and the dog was okay. Also, interestingly, when I went back to look through the book to take my notes, I realized first issue first page when he first arrives in his hometown, he looks down and sees a dog that looks just like that one.

Matt - CDWA (33:02.314)
Ever.

Matt - CDWA (33:22.739)
Mmm.

Erik (33:22.89)
And he says, let's not get all sentimental right now. And you wouldn't notice it. Yeah, a very, very weird sort of foreshadowing thing. Also, here's an outrageous. I didn't even catch on why it was there at first, I had to go back and reread to understand it. But in issue four, there's a single frame where they're talking about people that use V and it went wrong. And there's just this image of a green dude with a huge head and a tiny body wearing just a watch. And he has the tiniest tiniest penis.

Dave (33:25.579)
Mmm. I remember that.

Matt - CDWA (33:29.95)
Nice.

Dave (33:52.43)
Hehehehehe

Matt - CDWA (33:52.554)
you

Erik (33:54.628)
And it's just the most random image.

Dave (33:57.004)
I actually went back to that a couple of times during that little spread of all of the V gone wrong people, and that was by far the best one.

Matt - CDWA (34:03.634)
Yeah.

Erik (34:06.976)
Yeah, for sure. Very weird.

Dave (34:08.994)
Yeah, also like very close to the Hulk almost a little too close.

Matt - CDWA (34:11.976)
Yeah,

Erik (34:13.93)
It's like Reverse Hulk.

Dave (34:15.447)
Yeah.

Matt - CDWA (34:15.922)
Isn't there the dude with the big head though? That's what it reminded me of. I can't think of... No, not like Moda. Well, now that you say that. No, like the leader in... Yeah, but the leader has that big head and he's a Hulk, though, and that's kind of who I thought of. Yeah, true. That massive head, that massive dome. Got you.

Erik (34:19.254)
like Modoc?

Dave (34:20.451)
Yeah.

Dave (34:24.77)
My dog's got a tiny body, big head.

Dave (34:30.252)
Yeah, but the leader's proportioned other than that big -ass tall head.

Yeah.

Dave (34:39.226)
you've, you've all touched on all of my outrageous. The only thing that I also wrote down that was, again, it's not like outrageous to your point, Eric. It's just like weird stuff that happened, but the preacher from that church. Just showing up randomly and yelling at people and calling them readers. I don't understand what that meant. Why are you calling everybody readers? Like the dude was just off his rocker and just in the most random of places throughout the comic.

Erik (34:39.33)
those.

Matt - CDWA (34:53.0)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Matt - CDWA (35:00.435)
Yes.

Erik (35:04.15)
And that was the thing at the very end as they're driving away that Huey sees out the window and that's what breaks him down. And I'm like, am I, do I not understand the significance of this character?

Matt - CDWA (35:14.014)
final scene and it's like okay that was that was great.

Dave (35:17.071)
Dude, I have no idea. I have no idea.

Erik (35:18.498)
This this is the first one where I'm like, get Garth on this show. I want him to explain the significance of these things that we're not we're not seeing.

Matt - CDWA (35:27.08)
Yes.

Dave (35:29.006)
I mean, if you want me to try to reach out to Garth's people, see what I can cook up.

Erik (35:32.074)
Yeah, yeah, do it. Make sure he listens to all the previous episodes before he comes on. Okay.

Matt - CDWA (35:35.338)
you shit on me.

Dave (35:37.302)
I prefer you not do that. I have I have one final thought on Highland Latty volume eight of the boys. This one made me miss the regular series, guys.

Matt - CDWA (35:51.526)
It sure did. Sure did.

Erik (35:51.852)
same. Yep.

Dave (35:54.572)
It was a very hollow read for me. was other than other than the segment with Starlight and Huey. It was really a snoozer.

Matt - CDWA (36:03.23)
But you get that in the regular series. You get the Starlight Huey stuff in the regular series. So it's like, yeah.

Dave (36:07.02)
Yeah

Erik (36:07.796)
It's tough because it picks up immediately where the last volume left off. It continues the story, but it adds in all this extra padding and things that even though it's still part of the main story, it feels like such a side story, like such a diversion.

Matt - CDWA (36:12.732)
It

Matt - CDWA (36:23.348)
Yes. Yeah.

Dave (36:24.524)
Yeah, very bizarre.

Should we do favorites?

Erik (36:30.218)
Is it so far in the series or in this volume?

Dave (36:34.722)
just per volume.

Erik (36:36.413)
Okay.

Dave (36:39.938)
I'll go first, guess. No, it Starlight. Took it took a lot of guts to do what she did. To just show up unannounced at his parents house and then to to really try to talk to Huey after all the horrible fucking awful shit he said to and about her. I think she handled it as well as she could have. And I like Starlight Starlight guy, I say.

Matt - CDWA (36:39.976)
The tape. Yeah, that's fine.

Erik (36:41.322)
Do it.

Matt - CDWA (37:08.714)
I I talked about Starlight a lot at the beginning, I'm gonna go with the tapeworm. No, no, no, no. No. Starlight for everything that Dave said.

Dave (37:13.523)
Hehehehehe

Erik (37:14.656)
Hahaha!

Erik (37:21.802)
Okay. Because I can't say the female this time.

Matt - CDWA (37:26.034)
Yeah, you gotta pick it.

Dave (37:26.092)
That's right.

Erik (37:28.202)
Yeah, I you know, my my first instinct was starlight. Although I'm still trying to understand why Huey, what it what's the connection after everything that happened. But I do like the way she handled herself in this one. And I admire that. But I liked Huey's parents in this one. They were genuinely sweet, good people that I sort of thought, hey, that's that's the one shining beacon of good they never

did anything bad, there was no flashbacks to where it's like, they were actually secretly terrible. They're just they're just good parents that love their kid. And I'm like, you know, not everybody gets that in their life. And that's awesome. So I like Tewi's parents.

Matt - CDWA (38:00.639)
Yeah.

Dave (38:10.126)
Okay, so we got two for Starlight, one for Huey's mom and dad. Okay, least likable.

Erik (38:13.943)
Yeah.

Dave (38:19.278)
Shall I go first? Okay, yeah, ahead. No, Huey, yeah. That's okay.

Erik (38:19.532)
Huey. I accidentally did. Yeah, Huey.

Matt - CDWA (38:20.409)
Yeah.

Matt - CDWA (38:25.98)
Huey, he's got friends that love him and his parents are amazing and he's an asshole. I don't understand. He's just a comp - you said it Dave earlier. He summed it up perfectly. He's just a complainer now. Like I don't understand. Like I don't get it. The more the more this series goes on the less I like him.

Erik (38:32.898)
Hahaha

Dave (38:48.354)
Yeah. That's actually an excellent segue into my least likable. And that is Garth Ennis.

Matt - CDWA (38:49.459)
So.

Matt - CDWA (38:53.386)
You

Erik (38:55.922)
Fair.

Dave (38:59.022)
Cause the more this goes on, the less I like him.

Matt - CDWA (39:01.162)
For the same reason, for the same reason.

Dave (39:03.266)
for the same exact reason. There's hardly any characters in in this to choose from. There's so many like minor characters and really I just I dislike this trade so much. I know Garth Ennis isn't a character in the comic. I'm just being silly but I very much disliked this entire trade. If I had to pick an actual character in the comic it would be Huey.

Matt - CDWA (39:27.014)
I was gonna say Highland Laddie the whole thing the whole trade is the least likable character

Erik (39:29.57)
I mean, realistically, I can't imagine coming away from this one. And if you had to pick a favorite and a least favorite, not saying Starlight is a favorite and Huey is least favorite, really.

Dave (39:30.592)
You

Matt - CDWA (39:39.902)
Yeah.

Dave (39:40.204)
Yeah, it's kind of set up that way. I I will say just in a general sense, there were as much as I disliked the actual content of the comic. There are some thematic elements here that were pretty relatable for me when it comes to like returning to visit your hometown. I know, Eric, you probably feel the same way that the times that you've returned. Eric and I share the same hometown.

Erik (40:05.834)
Yes.

Dave (40:10.382)
and, typically when we go home to visit, we'll text each other and be like, yeah, I'm an airy. Yep. Yep.

Erik (40:17.246)
And you always know exactly what that means. You know the experience. I, I literally had that thought while I was reading it. And there was like one part where he was sort of like, talking about, you know, kind of thought coming back here was going to be something different than it is, you know. Yep.

Dave (40:33.485)
Yeah.

Yep, So there are definitely some complicated feelings on a personal level while reading this. And you know, I guess I got to tip my hat to Garth Ennis for that because he did do a good job of illustrating what it's like to go back home as an adult and how that's not always so easy to do. And I appreciated that at least. I'll find one positive takeaway here. But that's it. That's volume eight of The Boys.

Erik (40:56.662)
Yeah, that's fair.

Dave (41:03.064)
Highland the Laddie might be our shortest boys episode ever.

Matt - CDWA (41:06.15)
I was gonna say like based on conversation.

Erik (41:08.037)
Shortest volume. Yeah.

Dave (41:09.326)
Yeah, not much to talk about, but we're home stretching it. We only got three more to go. Four more to go for 9, 10, 11 and 12.

Erik (41:14.241)
Wow.

Dave (41:19.086)
We're 75%, no, 66 % done.

Matt - CDWA (41:23.754)
It's just sad that I'm looking forward to reading it at the main trades after this. Like I really am. Yeah.

Dave (41:28.718)
I think it's a good thing.

Erik (41:31.212)
Yeah.

Dave (41:32.94)
It probably won't take many pages before we're like, fuck, I don't like this either.

Matt - CDWA (41:36.202)
Exactly.

Erik (41:38.614)
I wonder like if you love this series, like if this is just your thing, if this specific volume is one that you're like, I fucking love that. I love that story. I love that they gave us Huey's backstory. I think your enjoyment of this volume purely depends on how much you love the story that Garth Ennis is telling.

Dave (41:57.836)
I also wouldn't be surprised if there are people that love the boys and think that this is the weakest part of the series and maybe dread reading this when they reread it. Because they're even though I, I love invincible and I've read invincible like three or four times, there are certain stories that when I get to them and subsequent rereads, I'm not as excited to read it again. Cause it's just not my favorite thing. Like anything with the sequence. I'm just like, not into it.

Matt - CDWA (42:19.081)
Yeah.

Dave (42:26.956)
I know you do. I know you do. Anyway, thank you all for checking out this episode of CDWA. And if you're along for the ride all year, we'll have another one of these in September. Matt and I will be back with something else in between. And yeah, I think that's that. So take care of yourselves. We'll see you in a couple of weeks. As always, my name is Dave.

Erik (42:28.204)
You

Matt - CDWA (42:55.74)
And I'm Matt.

Erik (42:56.971)
And I'm Eric.

Dave (42:58.37)
Take care of yourselves, everybody. Bye bye.

Matt - CDWA (43:00.18)
Peace.

Erik (43:01.186)
Bye.