The Name of the Game (comic book)

The Name of the Game is a two-part graphic novel written by Garth Ennis and illustrated by Darick Robertson that was released in 2006 by WildStorm and DC Comics as the first volume of the American comic book series The Boys. It consists of the two-part The Name of the Game (from which the novel takes its title), of which Part 1, This Is Going To Hurt, was released August 16, 2006, and Part 2, The Frenchman, the Female and the Man Called Mother's Milk, was released August 30, 2006, and the four-part Cherry, of which Part 1, The Seven, was released October 4, 2006, Part 2, Teenage Kix Right Through the Night, was released October 25, 2006, Part 3, Life Among the Septics, was released November 22, 2006, and Part 4, And I Always Wanted A Little Brother, was released December 27, 2006.^[3]

The series follows Wee Hughie and Annie January as they are respectively recruited to the anti-"supe" CIA-affiliated black ops group codenamed "The Boys" (run by Billy Butcher) and the world's premiere superhero team "The Seven" (run by the Homelander), both encountering various hardships in doing so. Coincidentally meeting in Central Park, the two form a connection, each unaware of the other's affiliations on opposite sides of a war long-since on-truce.

After being cancelled after six issues by DC Entertainment, the series' rights were acquired by Dynamite Entertainment, who published the trade paperback edition of the volume, followed by the story arc Get Some. In 2019, the volume was loosely adapted as the first episode of the Amazon Prime Video streaming television adaptation of The Boys.

The series has received a universally positive critical reception.^[4]