The Boys Presents: Diabolical premieres on Prime Video on March 4, 2022.
Like The Animatrix and Star Wars: Visions before it, The Boys Presents: Diabolical proves that most franchises can benefit from giving a group of creative voices free rein to use the power of animation to tell unique stories in the same universe. Though not every episode of this animated anthology is a winner, it still stands as a hilarious, gross, sexy, hyper-violent addition to the Vought-verse. While imperfect, it’s still a must-watch both for fans of The Boys and fans of the kind of cool superhero stories we don't get to see often on screen.
The Boys Presents: Diabolical consists of eight episodes running at around 12 minutes each. Though they all take place within the world of The Boys, they are not strictly canon, at least not in the sense that they will heavily impact the main series’ story going forward. That means that those looking for hints in what happens next in the story of Billy and Hughie may be disappointed by these episodes, but those just open to watch some fun stories with light connections to the main plot should find a lot to love in the freedom they have to tell whatever story they want. Like Star Wars: Visions, most episodes follow a similar beat in that they follow someone exposed to Compound V, the substance that gives people their powers, and things go very, very wrong.
Luckily, Diabolical has a lot more variety than Visions, as the episodes take big liberties with how they approach the world of corporate-sponsored supes, most without the need to connect to the show by bringing in known characters. Instead, we get smaller stories that explore the ramifications of the existence of superheroes created by injecting babies with a powerful drug, and how easily and quickly Compound V would expand to other aspects of our lives, from beauty products to recreational drug sales. That being said, the few episodes that do connect do so very effectively, whether it's making The Deep the butt of a joke, or showing Homelander's story before he became everyone's favorite psychopathic Superman.
For instance, one of the most fan-service-heavy episodes has the original comic creator, Garth Ennis, write a story about Billy forcing a provider of all kinds of drugs, body parts, and other gross things for superheroes to tamper with his next delivery for an up-and-coming superhero, with horrifically gory results. That episode features an art style reminiscent of Darick Robertson's illustrations in the comic, and it even has Simon Pegg, who inspired Hughie’s original design, as the character’s voice. A fulfillment of a promise years in the making, the result is everything you could hope for – just in animated form.
What makes The Boys Presents: Diabolical stand out, too, are the vastly different visual styles presented in this first season. The animation studio Titmouse — which also worked on projects like The Legend of Vox Machina and the Animaniacs reboot — really outdid themselves with this show. Giancarlo Volpe, who also worked on many of the all-time best episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender, served as a supervising director, overseeing the fantastic animation that gives us action scenes more dynamic and energetic than the ones in the two seasons of the live-action show, and even moments of tender emotion and simply surreal visual gags. One episode serves as a throwback to the golden days of over-the-top Looney Tunes cartoons, with animation quirks like a random change in color palette and music by Animaniacs composers Julie and Steven Bernstein. Another more colorful episode, meanwhile, is inspired by Korean watercolor paintings. Whether you just like to watch a show take advantage of its medium by vastly changing its style to fit the story, or are an animation nerd who enjoys homages, the visuals alone are enough to keep you engaged.
Of course, this being an anthology, some episodes will stand out more than others. For instance, one written by Eliot and Ilana Glazer tries to say something about how our obsession with social media makes us miss what's in front of us, but ends up retreading old ground, with a story we've seen over and over again in the past decade. On the opposite end, Andy Samberg’s penultimate episode, arguably the best of the bunch and a rare dramatic turn for the actor-writer-producer, tells a rather small-scale story full of emotion, about an old man doing whatever he can to cure his wife of a deadly illness. It manages to cross over with the story of Vought and Compound V without losing sight of telling a sweet and romantic story, and features the voice of Oscar winner Youn Yuh-jung.
The Boys Presents: Diabolical may not be as consistent as its live-action counterpart due to the many voices and styles present in this season, but that, along with its lack of clear connection to the canon, are features rather than bugs. It checks off most of what you’d want from a spin-off show, expanding on the franchise in a way that makes its world feel lived-in and rich, while presenting different visual styles that make the episodes memorable.
from IGN Reviews https://ift.tt/xIUkCtV
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