Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews

Boys Highland Laddie #6Highland Laddie #6 of 6
Dynamite Entertainment
Ennis, McCrea & Burns

This baffling mini series wraps up with yet another poor effort. Perhaps unfairly I judge this series off of the strength of the main book, The Boys. As much as I love the main title this mini series simply doesn't measure up to it in any shape of form and this issue is probably as good an example as any as to how it misses the mark. Sadly, if you are reading the main title you probably already got roped into paying out the $4 an issue for this mini series. Hopefully you got more out of it than I did. It's never a good sign when the issue that wraps up the mini series appears to be filler.

The issue opens with the death of one of Hughie's forgettable childhood friends. As was the case with the characters reactions, this death had zero emotion and felt completely irrelevant to everyone that knew him and the readers that had followed him. As the Scooby Doo-like plot gets wrapped up, the other one of Hughie's friends has one of his anatomy cut off and is forced to come to grips with it. The conversation between Hughie and the friend seems as bizarre as the insertion of these characters.

The issue continues its downward spiral as Hughie relays his deepest and darkest story from his past to Annie. The emotional story helps build some background on the character, which is welcome to the series as a whole, but the placement is just dreadfully awful. Somehow, by Hughie talking about this incident, he is reconnected with this feelings that made him such a likeable guy in Annie's eyes. It's odd that with Hughie's feelings switching into something so sensitive and self aware that he would go back and join up with The Boys, but I suppose that's what will happen.

The ending of the issue puts an end to a mini series that should have been a one shot. Ennis has a lot of good elements in this series, particularly between Annie and Hughie, but they seem out of order, over diluted and jammed into a setting that does nothing for the characters or the story.

Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle ReviewsMcCrea and Burns bring a good game when they are dealing with the emotional discussions between Hughie and Annie. The art helps bring some life to some scenes that could definitely use it. However, the opening scene on the beach is just impossible to follow. I understand that it is at night but it took me a few reads to figure out what character was doing what here and I'm still not sure what I think I read is correct.

When the other mini series, Herogasm, started I disliked it but eventually saw that the story was solid by the end I was enjoying the read. However, this mini series never came together for me. I may have disliked this issue most of all. This is certainly a story to miss if you have the option. It's rare I dislike a Garth Ennis book but I have faith that the main series won't skip a beat as a result of this poor issue and mini series.

2 out of 5 geek goggles