The Pro author Garth Ennis By Garth Ennis

Garth Ennis ✓ 8 characters

Es muy divertido, y es muy diferente a lo otro que había leído de este hombre. 158240383X I was sitting in the library earlier, and this was just what I needed to brighten up my mood.

You could say it 'blew' my mind. 158240383X Confession time: I decided to give this one a shot when I flipped it open and saw the scene of our seedy prostitute-turned-superhero giving a blowjob to a Superman proxy. Just as he is about to cum, he tells her to move her head, and he shoots his wad through a brick wall and high into the sky where it shears the wing off a passing jet. I thought that was hysterical – which may not say great things about me – and I brought the book up to the register right away.

What I admired in that scene was the utter disregard for the pieties of comics. Introducing the idea of sex, raunchy sex and not the soft-focus of puppy-dog love, seemed brilliant. It seemed, in fact, a whole new frontier for third-generation comics. It was an invitation to a comic that would undercut everything you expect a comic to be and then give something urgently fresh as well. And it had a striking, bold art.

Sorry to report that, outside of that one brilliant scene, there isn’t much to enjoy here.

On the one hand, there’s a deep laziness. Our Pro gets her powers simply because an extraterrestrial being decides he’d like to prove that even the lowliest of humans can be a hero under the right circumstances. (He’s a take on Marvel’s The Watcher, called in this case the Viewer – which another character keeps getting wrong as “the Voyeur.” Mildly funny, but an unexplored premise.) There’s nothing at stake in that, no claim he’s making or testing. Yes, I get that it’s a joke, but it’s a joke within comics – a hee-hee, did you get the reference moment – rather than a joke to make some original point about the nature of voyeurism or indifference to the suffering or experience of others.

Then comes the superhero team who welcomes her. Again, it’s an adolescent, fan-boy wink to the comics ‘other people’ are silly enough to enjoy. We have a Superman clone, a Wonder Woman, a Green Lantern. It’s such a Justice League parody that it has nothing to say other than “look at us for treading on Superman’s cape…aren’t we clever.” There’s a reasonably funny moment when the Green Lantern figure gets his ring finger shot off and, mid-flight, crashes horribly to earth. Otherwise, there’s nothing original or thought-provoking to the characters, other than vague (and tired) implications that someone’s sidekick is probably his boy lover.

Beyond that refusal to develop the situation in any way that might reflect a fresh vision, there’s a surly, half-baked libertarian politics in the air. The Pro raises a couple of potentially intriguing points when she notes that real heroes would have stopped 9/11, or when she realizes that a quasi-police force of superheroes is often the wrong security detail for the job. She suggests loosely that we shouldn’t trust the powerful just because they’re powerful – which is a potentially worthwhile inquiry to make in a comic that put more energy into its project – but even that notion sits lazily above the rest of the action. She doesn’t pursue the insight, and the story moves on as if she never said it.

And, in even uglier fashion, the story seems to celebrate that she’s a low-rent whore. Yeah, there’s something potentially funny about the idea that her superpowers – whatever they are, since we never really learn – allow her to give hand jobs at super speed, but other than a raunchy joke, that doesn’t get developed here. There’s a defiance when she defends her choice to turn cheap tricks, but it’s not clear to what effect. She lives an ugly life – even this book acknowledges that – and she does so without apology. But the only thing we seem to take from that is the idea that no one is morally superior enough to judge her.

In context, that feels less like a reasoned argument for the limits of government – as the Pro discusses in her throwaway monologue – and more like a self-defeating, teenage manifesto: I’m 17 and I can make my own decisions even if you think they’re dumb.

So I recommend passing on this. There’s an extra star for its art and for that one funny scene, but the rest of it falls far short of what my first glimpse suggested it could be.
158240383X Βαθμολογία: 7/10

Αγορασμένο πριν κάμποσους μήνες με κάτι λιγότερο από ενάμισι ευρώ, το The Pro. είναι ένα αρκετά διασκεδαστικό και βρώμικο μικρό κόμικ, με μια ιστορία με σούπερ ήρωες, εντελώς διαφορετική από αυτές που έχουμε συνηθίσει. Μια βρωμόστομη πόρνη με μωρό, αποκτά από το πουθενά υπερδυνάμεις και γίνεται μέλος μιας ομάδας σούπερ ηρώων ονόματι Λεγεώνα της Τιμής. Το κόμικ απευθύνεται φυσικά σε μεγαλύτερες ηλικίες και όχι σε παιδάκια, μιας και υπάρχει μπόλικο βρισίδι και αρκετές βρώμικες σκηνές. Προσωπικά μου άρεσε σε πολύ μεγάλο βαθμό, η ιστορία μου φάνηκε αρκετά τρελή και ψυχαγωγική, ενώ και τα σχέδια αλλά και τα χρώματα σίγουρα με άφησαν ικανοποιημένο. Στο τέλος υπάρχει και μια ολιγοσέλιδη ιστορία, με το ίδιο βρώμικο χιούμορ, όπου η Pro συναντάει την Ho. Αν και δεν τα γλιτώνει τα τρία αστεράκια από μένα στο Goodreads, γενικά είναι ένα καλό κόμικ που διαβάζεται άνετα σ'ένα μισάωρο. Όμως σίγουρα δεν είναι για όλα τα γούστα. 158240383X Other Garth Ennis books (like The Boys or Hitman) do a better job covering the same sort of shock value superhero material. It's a little like someone came up with the premise (a prostitute gets superpowers) and then...that's pretty much it. It's a little like an SNL sketch: once you get the premise, there's not a lot else going on.

I mean, we're not talking about fascinating or new questions here:
+Isn't the whole Batman/Robin-in-little-briefs thing a little...questionable, sexually? Well, yeah.
+Isn't Wonder Woman's costume a little prostitute-y? I guess I don't see a lot of ladies in a bustier, clothing designed to push the boobs up and slim the waist, armored, enchanted, or not.
+Isn't Superman kind of a boy scout? Totally. But...I think I've had my fill of What if Superman was totally evil? stories. Superman being a nice guy is part of what makes him Superman. He's better than us. That's sort of the point, and the cleverness of Bad Superman stuff is old. Read Miracleman or Irredeemable if that's what you're looking for.
+Isn't it fucked-up that superheroes don't solve problems like...the need for better healthcare? Yes and no. Yes, sure, if Mr. Fantastic was a real guy, it'd be nice if he could spend a half day on dentistry, fix that whole field and we'd all be walking around with perfect choppers. Buuut he's not a real guy, so watching him do helpful stuff is boring. He needs to make a giant machine that would wipe out Galactus (and the whole universe, side effect), not solve the problem of plastic in the oceans. Because let's say he did solve plastic in the oceans. He's a fictional man with a fictional solution. Earth-616 doesn't have any plastic in the ocean, great, but MY ocean is still packed with the shit. So who gives a shit?
+Isn't it funny how heroes and villains seem to mince around and never really kill each other or, like, break someone's spine? Yes, I guess. You know what I've noticed in movies? When two characters fight, but when neither can die, they do a lot of that thing where they throw each other around. I throw you through a wall, you throw me through a building. And the reason is, I guess if you were Thanos and the movie wanted you to kill me, you'd just crush my skull, right? But that's not cool, so throw him away from you, then he comes back, then another throw, and so on. Nobody just goes HAM with a crowbar anymore. 158240383X

It's about a prostitute with superpowers and it's amazing. 158240383X This was awful.

So short summary for a 80 page book. A prostitute becomes a superhero, joins the justice league, extremely over the top racist members, dumb as fuck scenes (a blowjob involving cum destroying a plane) and terrible dialog basically just shouting Fuck this fuck that all day. Overall this is pretty awful. Skip it. 158240383X Oh god, this was....Ho...sterical! 158240383X So this is a comic about a prostitute who gains superpowers.

It might, now that I'm thinking of it, be the *only* comic about a prostitute gaining superpowers.

If you're a fan of Garth Ennis, nothing in here is going to shock you. There's his trademark irreverence and ultra-violence. And there's some cracks at mainstream superheroes that swing wildly back and forth across the spectrum between from clever satire and 3rd-grade potty humor. (Literally. Someone pees on someone else in the comic.)

So why am I giving it five stars?

Well, for one. Because I like any sort of story that takes a bizarre premise, a premise that nobody in their right mind would think was workable, and then just goes for it.

For two, there's actually some good characterization going on in here. The Pro has a kid. And she's a loving mother, even if she isn't an idealized one.

And also, because to point at this comic and say, This comic would be better if it was more decorous, and less grotesquely violent, and didn't stoop to potty humor is to kinda miss the point. They obviously set out to write a story that was irreverent, violent, vulgar, and snarky. That's what they were aiming for and they hit it. So. Five stars.

Dealbreakers: Do I even need to get into this? Do I really need to explain this comic is NSFW?

No. No I don't. You're all intelligent humans. Make your own good choices... 158240383X Garth Ennis's dislike of the idea of 'capes' - as in 'superheroes', is given full reign in the form a of a single mother and prostitute, with a lot of opinions and a foul mouth being given super powers and thrust into the world of the 'capes'. Quite a funny book, sees Ennis really get under the concept that the conventional depiction of superheroes leaves a lot to be desired in that they don't really help the downtrodden or genuinely strive to make the world a better place. 6 out of 12, Three Star read.

2011 read 158240383X

She curses, she smokes, she breast-feeds and she blows away the competition. Just when you think Garth Ennis has gone too far, just when you thought it was safe to walk the streets, just when you thought no one would go near the idea of the world's first superhero prostitute...here comes The Pro! Reintroducing the outrageous story of The Pro in a deluxe oversized hardcover edition, plus an all-new, eight-page story by Garth Ennis, Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti! In The Pro Meets The Ho, our plucky heroine comes up against a new and fearsome challenge: a super-powered soiled dove whose powers of perversion exceed the Pro's own! Find out who triumphs in this tussle of the tarts, as The Pro's creative team returns to the sticky-floored success that made them otherwise unemployable! You'll never go to the zoo again! The Pro author Garth Ennis