Based on Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson’s comic book series, Eric Kripke’s The Boys has been a much-needed addition to the superhero space that has been occupied by DC and Marvel Comics for a long time. The creators of The Boys harkened back to the age-old niggling ol’ doubt: what if superbeings are not the so-called protectors of humanity but just all straight-up evil? Then who will defend us against the false defenders?
MCU briefly tried to address what happens when superheroes go unchecked and leave behind them a path of destruction as they try to “save” the world. Even when they spoke of the casualties and mass destruction of property, the cost to civilian life is never really spoken about in overt terms. We know Thor, Iron Man, and even Captain Marvel are proverbial “good guys.” They follow the one rule most Disney heroes have had for long – the good guys do not kill – not on-screen, and not explicitly at least. They avenge. If they ever accidentally kill someone or become the reason for someone’s death, through their immense remorse they get their hero’s arc. But The Boys is no Disney production. So we get our supes who are constantly blowing up brains spilling out guts, all the while as someone else covers their image.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
It is established in The Boys that the supes are the bad guys, and our vigilante group of regular Joes will have to save humanity instead. But, while most of the supes seem to be in some form of arrested development, it is still the humans who run the show, make the policies, and exploit the supes to drive chaos that garners profit.
Vought Leads the Way
History is witness to the fact that human beings can be the worst. The wealthier, the more privileged, the more influential and the chances of them being more selfish, shallow, and greedy just go exponentially up. The idea that the mega-rich will come to save us, lived and died with Batman and Iron Man. Even these characters have raised questions about the ethics of billionaire superbeings doling out vigilante justice instead of addressing systemic injustice.
RELATED: Christian Bale Would Play Batman Again, But With One Condition
The Boys does not shy away from being a scathing critique of late-stage capitalism as humanity’s biggest downfall. A lust for power led Vought (a fictional company founded by a Nazi who defected to the Allied powers later) to create superbeings, essentially living weapons, that the multi-billion dollar company can eventually control. In scary echoes of the real world, Vought’s PR machinery not only presents their supes as saviours but manipulates the media to spread political propaganda to the world at large.
Homelander (Antony Starr) is the scariest and most powerful supe created by Vought. Even though he can raze entire cities to the ground with his laser eyes, he is still controlled by people like Stan Edgar (Giancarlo Esposito) and Madelyn Stillwell (Elisabeth Shue) most of his life. Edgar not only controlled Vought, but he has also exercised considerable power over the government of the United States through his adopted daughter Congresswoman Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit).
Even the ‘Good’ Humans Blur the Line
On a smaller, but equally and annoyingly out-of-touch scale, the non-super celebrities of The Boys universe still sing inane songs to show solidarity with regular folks in times of crisis. There is a straight-up parody of Gal Gadot’s “Imagine” sing-a-long viral video, which came out during the first wave of Covid, that is simply hilarious to watch.
Billy (Karl Urban), Hughie (Jack Quaid), MM (Laz Alonso), and Frenchie (Tomer Capone), along with supes Annie (Erin Moriarty), Maeve (Dominique McElligott), and Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara), are supposed to be the good ones. They are the vigilantes out to save humanity here. But even in this ragtag group of misfits, there are the outliers.
Hughie’s insecurities about being perceived weak and his zealous want to protect his girlfriend can be read as a projection of his fragile masculinity. When he takes the temporary drug that gives him superpowers, he promptly forgets about everything else apart from the rush of power he feels surging through his veins. In that moment, both Billy (who has also shot up the drug) and Hughie care about their victory over the lives of their friends.
Billy Butcher is objectively a bad friend. He is engulfed by his hatred for Homelander so much so that he betrays his friend MM to team up with the supe that killed MM’s family and has given him PTSD-fueled waking nightmares all his life. Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) may be every bit as big of an evil supe as Homelander, but Billy can justify any means that will hand him revenge against Homelander, hot and sizzling on a platter. The supes might be straight-up a menace to society, but the humans of The Boys manage to make a mess of a world well on their own just fine, much like in reality.
