BOYZ R US

Membership: "The Guy with the Dreads," "the Shy One," two unidentified others

Purpose: To entertain while appealing to all walks of youthful American life

Aliases: None

Affiliations: X-Force (Anarchist/Tike Alicar, Battering Ram, Doop, Gin Genie/Beckah Parker, la Nuit/Pierre Truffaut, Plazm, U-Go Girl/Edie Sawyer, Zeitgeist/Axel Cluney)

Enemies: A group of unidentified militant gunmen

Base of Operations: Unrevealed, although most likely mobile

First Appearance: X-Force I#116 (July, 2001)

History:
(X-Force I#116 (fb) - BTS) - Boyz R Us was a manufactured boy band designed to appeal to all walks of American life and their popularity often lead to them having to deal with millions of crazed, prepubescent girls. Eventually, a money-hungry group of murderous gunmen took the entire Boyz R Us band captive at the New York headquarters of the music channel Sonic TV and threatened to kill a band member every hour until the band's record company paid them ten million dollars. Despite the ransom message, the record company was hesitant to pay, feeling that Boyz R Us' popularity was waning and their deaths would increase sales tenfold. After the first hour, "the Shy One" was thrown through a plate-glass window to his death with the promise that "the Guy with the Dreads" would follow.

(X-Force I#120 (fb) - BTS) - Learning of the situation with Boyz R Us and knowing X-Force's investors wanted to bring new blood into the celebrity mutant group X-Force, X-Force team manager Coach met with the team's field leader Zeitgeist to discuss a mission to kill off the unwanted X-Force members and when Zeitgeist asked how the Coach planned to accomplish the killings, the Coach asked if Zeitgeist had ever heard of the band Boyz R Us.

(X-Force I#116) - After a briefing on the Boyz R Us hostage situation, X-Force, unaware that the Coach was plotting to kill and replace most of the team, accepted the mission to save Boyz R Us for free in an effort to improve their public image. X-Force then teleported inside the Sonic TV headquarters and upon their rather destruction arrival, two of the Boyz R Us band members ducked for cover and X-Force field leader Zeitgeist grabbed the two while X-Force member Gin Genie destroyed the ground beneath them. During the battle, Zeitgeist looked out of the window just in time to see a helicopter fire on the team, blowing himself, the remaining entirety of Boyz R Us and nearly all of X-Force to pieces.

(Giant-Size X-Statix#1 (fb) - BTS) - Thanks to X-Force cameraman Doop, Zeitgeist secretly survived the Boyz R Us massacre and remained in a coma for a year, undergoing extensive bionic surgery.

(X-Force I#117 - BTS) - Following the Boyz R Us rescue mission/massacre, new recruits were added to the remaining X-Force members and when their leader Coach prepared to give the new team a mission briefing, the surviving Anarchist asked if the new mission would be a "walk in the park" like the Boyz R Us mission had been previously explained to the team. Later, after new recruit the Orphan was made the new X-Force team field leader, a reporter attempted to interview him about his new position and reported back to the viewers about X-Force's recent troubles including the massacre of Boyz R Us, a potential legal wrangle over the use of the name "X-Force" and rumors that X-Force member U-Go Girl was going to form her own splinter team.

(X-Force I#125 - BTS) - When X-Force were tasked with allowing themselves to be captured by the mutated Bush Rangers so the CIA could rescue X-Force to improve their image, X-Force member Anarchist argued that the mission sounded like the Boyz R Us massacre all over again and refused to participate.

(Giant-Size X-Statix#1 - BTS) - While interrogating the captive Katie Jones, Zeitgeist explained how he had secretly survived the Boyz R Us massacre.

(The X-Cellent I#1 - BTS) - While reshooting some scenes for "X-Statix TV," X-Statix's Mister Sensitive thought back on how Zeitgeist had been thought dead during the Boyz R Us massacre.

(The X-Cellent I#2 (fb) - BTS) - X-Statix returned to their headquarters, where Mister Sensitive ordered Doop to save Vivisector's life and Dead Girl remarked that Doop should save Vivisector like he had earlier saved Zeitgeist during X-Force's Boyz R  Us mission.

(The X-Cellent I#2 - BTS) - As Zeitgeist's X-Cellent team later teleported back to their headquarters using their newest recruit, Billy McMullen, the rough experience made the reforming Zeitgeist think that utilizing Whoosh was the worst decision he had made since he wiped most of X-Force in the Boyz R Us massacre. Seconding his own thoughts about the situation being his worst decision since the Boyz R Us mission, Zeitgeist reminded himself of how that mission had turned out.

Comments: Created by Peter Milligan and Michael Allred.

    While not explicitly stated, Boyz R Us seemed to be modeled after popular boy band NSYNC and most of the band members were modeled off NSYNC's actual members. For example, "the Shy One" resembles a caricature of Joey Fatone, "the Guy with the Dreads" resembles Chris Kirkpatrick and the two unidentified Boyz R Us members resemble Lance Bass and Justin Timberlake, respectively, as one can tell by the comic images above.

Profile by Proto-Man.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Boyz R Us has no known connections to:

"The Guy with the Dreads"

The "Guy with the Dreads" was one of the band members of Boyz R Us. After the group was taken hostage, the "Guy with the Dreads" cowered and watched as X-Force arrived in an attempted rescue. Unfortunately, the "Guy with the Dreads" and the rest of Boyz R Us were soon killed by helicopter fire from the armed gunmen who had taken Boyz R Us hostage.



--X-Force I#116d

"The Shy One"

The "Shy One" was one of the band members of Boyz R Us. After the group was taken hostage by armed gunmen, they promised to start killing a Boyz R Us band member every hour until the band's record company paid them ten million dollars and the first band member killed was "the Shy One," who was thrown through a plate-glass window to his death.



--X-Force I#116d

images: (without ads)
X-Force I#116, p15, pan2 (Boyz R Us, main image)
X-Force I#116, p20, splash page (Boyz R Us' deaths alongside X-Force)
X-Force I#116, p17, pan2 ("The Guy with the Dreads")
X-Force I#116, p15, pan3 ("The Shy One" (inverted image))

Appearances:
X-Force I#116 (July, 2001) - Peter Milligan (writer), Michael Allred (art), Axel Alonso (editor)
X-Force I#117 (August, 2001) - Peter Milligan (writer), Michael "Zane" Allred (art), Axel Alonso (editor)
X-Force I#120 (November, 2001) - Peter Milligan (writer), Michael Allred (art), Axel Alonso (editor)
X-Force I#125 (April, 2002) - Peter Milligan (writer), "M.D." Allred (art), Axel Alonso (editor)
Giant-Size X-Statix #1 (September, 2019) - Peter Milligan (writer), Michael "Doc" Allred (art), Darren Shan (editor)
The X-Cellent I#1 (April, 2022) - Peter Milligan (writer), Michael "Doc" Allred (art), Darren Shan (editor)
The X-Cellent I#2 (May, 2022) - Peter Milligan (writer), Michael "Doc" Allred (art), Darren Shan (editor)

First Posted: 10/22/2004
Last updated: 11/21/2023

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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