Garth Ennis, Russ Braun and Darick Robertson will return to the world of The Boys with a new series subtitled Dear Becky. The first issue will debut in April, just in time for the second season of the Amazon Prime adaptation.
The Becky in the title refers to Becky Butcher, wife of Billy Butcher, one of the main characters of the original 90-issue run. Her death set off many of the events in The Boys.
“Originally I never intended to do more with The Boys at all, but for obvious reasons I’ve found myself thinking about the story and characters again over the past couple of years,” Ennis said. “There was one aspect of the original story, and one character in particular, that I never felt got a fair shake- Becky Butcher, whose demise motivates her husband Billy to do the terrible things he does, but who only actually appears in two issues of the original book. I liked writing Becky very much, almost as much as Butcher himself, and I wanted to look in greater detail at how her relatively brief appearance cast such a long shadow.”
According to publisher Dynamite Entertainment, the story will pick up 12 years after the events of the final issue of the original series. Hughie and Annie, a.k.a. Starlight, are married, and they discover “a mysterious document that threatens to rip open the scars of the past and reveal nightmarish truths about The Boys.” Expect flashback sequences set before the events of the original series that will flesh out “the pre-history of The Boys.”
Braun will draw the new series, while Robertson, The Boys co-creator along with Ennis, will provide covers.
“This comic has always been close to my heart and seeing the response to the show and the new drove of readers discovering the original material, makes the timing for this series a wonderful opportunity to bring fresh material to the new readers as well as a treat for the original fans. Revisiting these characters is a nice feeling, and creating covers for the series and collaborating with Ennis again is a treat,” Robertson said.