Spoiler Warning: The Boys Season 3
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At the center of the supe world stand the Seven, who represent the world’s most powerful heroes in the universe of The Boys. Though they are substantially less wholesome, they are reminiscent of the Marvel cinematic universe’s Avengers. One of the most powerful members of the seven is Black Noir, a faceless, silent supe portrayed by Nathan Mitchell (Arrow, Supernatural). Though he never speaks, aside from a few flashbacks of the character’s young self before the events that made him mute, Black Noir is still intimidating (and, at times, rather funny).
Here’s why Black Noir’s strong and silent performance in season three cements him as one of the best characters in The Boys universe.
Black Noir: The Strong and Silent Type
In the third episode of The Boys season three, “Barbary Coast,” audiences get their first glimpse at the origin of Black Noir as a young man. In the same episode, he is told by his superior, Stan Edgar, that he needs to continue to wear his mask at all times so that the general public doesn’t know his race. He is outspoken in his opposition to this, and it leaves audiences briefly puzzled as to why the character is mute in the future, though this confusion is quickly resolved in a later scene.
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Though Black Noir’s traumatic injury was given to him by one of his superhero teammates, Jensen Ackles’ Soldier Boy (more on that later), a lot of the blame can be placed upon his superpowerless supervisor, Stan Edgar (Giancarlo Esposito), who instructed Black Noir to kill an increasingly obstinate Soldier Boy so that he could be replaced by an even more powerful young supe, who audiences quickly learn is Homelander. When Black Noir confronts Soldier Boy, alongside his supe teammates, a collective of Earth’s ‘finest’ heroes that predated the Seven known as Payback, things quickly go awry, and the resultant battle leaves Noir silent and scarred for the rest of his life.
Black Noir’s Tragic Backstory
The in-depth details of Black Noir’s backstory are revealed in a subsequent episode of The Boys season three, episode seven, “Here Comes a Candle to Light You to Bed.” Though the subject matter presented in the episode is as dark as the rest of The Boys, the show’s creators chose to give audiences Black Noir’s backstory in the form of a cartoon. The animated sequence starts out silly, with a lovable cast of critters gently cajoling Black Noir into confronting repressed memories. Still, when the events of Nicaragua, which were left to the imagination of audiences in a previous episode, are laid bare in the cartoon antics, the tone quickly darkens.
As mentioned in the previous paragraph, in the chaos of an attack on the Nicaraguan camp, Black Noir and his Payback teammates square up to Soldier Boy. The star-clad supe, who was the de facto leader of the Payback squad, is understandably perturbed and turns the full brunt of his incredible powers on his teammates. Before Soldier Boy is sedated by his former love interest, Laurie Holden’s (The X-Files, The Walking Dead) Crimson Countess, he manages to knock Black Noir to the ground using his supersonic blasts. Then, in a scene so unbelievably graphic that it could only be shown on television in cartoon form, Soldier Boy raises his signature shield and smashes it, over and over again, into the face of the prone Black Noir. This attack is what left Black Noir unable to speak and permanently scarred.
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Unfortunately, The Boys season three might represent the end for Black Noir, which is a shame, given how much information regarding his backstory fans were recently made aware of. In the dramatic season finale, “The Instant White-Hot Wild,” Antony Starr’s Homelander discovers that Black Noir had always known that Homelanders father was Soldier Boy and that he hid that information from him for years. In a fit of rage, Homelander disembowels Black Noir, and audiences see Noir’s gang of lovable animated critters fade slowly from his eyes.
However, given the technology available in the universe of The Boys, as well as Black Noir’s impressive regenerative, it’s possible that the show’s creators could bring the character back in some way, shape, or form. If this is the end, then it is fair to say that Black Noir’s arc on the boys was perhaps most disturbing of all.
