Every day this summer, Laurent Valière plunges us into the history of the best series, and gives us ideas for series to see or re-watch. All this week, we revisit the most terrible anti-heroes. Today, they are the worst: the super-anti-heroes of “The Boys”, two seasons available on Prime Video. 

There is no worse. They are nasty, greedy for power, racist, they sexually harass new recruits, and yet they are superheroes and we love to see them work.  

We knew Watchmen, the comic strip in which a superhero in 1986 wiped out millions of Earth’s inhabitants. Three years ago, Amazon surprised everyone by adapting an even more raw and trashy comic book about superheroes, published in 2006.  The Boys, available on Prime Video, is first and foremost a satire on superhero stories. With a cynical tone and very violent scenes that make it a must-have stripper. The Boys is the adaptation of an offbeat American comic book by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson.

A pastiche of super heroes à la Stan Lee, portrayed as crooks. A comic strip born after the September 11 attacks. For its director, Kripke, comics were the perfect metaphor for today’s world which mixes celebrity and authoritarianism, and in which fascism is conveyed through social networks.  

The story takes place in a current world where many superheroes live among the population. The best are hired by a conglomerate that uses social networks to make idols and monetize this popularity. Only these supermen are often corrupt, irresponsible, sometimes criminal. The boys who give the title to the series are not these super heroes, but a group of men led by a CIA agent who will try to unmask them, even if it means kidnapping them.