With The Boys releasing on Amazon this week I thought I’d check out the dark side of superheroes to break down everything that you need to know about Season One and it’s ending.
In the same month that Avengers Endgame surpassed Avatar at the box office, The Boys deconstructs the genre to show that depending on your point of view every villain could be a hero and every hero could be a villain.
Throughout this, I’ll be recapping the majority of Season One as well as giving my thoughts on the finale of the show and what it could lead to.
There will be heavy spoilers here, so if you haven’t had a chance to watch all of the episodes yet and don’t want to know what happens then I highly suggest that you turn off now.
With that out the way I just wanna give a huge thank you for clicking this video now let’s get into my breakdown of The Boys.
The Boys Season One Recap
Season One of the Boys takes on many perspectives throughout its eight-episode run and the show centres around a group of superheroes, known as The Seven, that have pretty much-become celebrities due to their powers and lifestyles. Similar to our world heroes have infiltrated every aspect of society and it’s difficult to escape them.
It showcases that worship without question and for lack of a better term, fanboying, grants people with more power than they should have and means that they are no longer held accountable by the law.
From the off this is a clear satire on both Marvel, DC, The Kardashians, Harvey Weinstein and there’s even several shots at Disney and the corporations behind the heroes that have pretty much turned them into commodities to be bought and sold.
That doesn’t mean that the Superpowered beings are innocent either and The Boys exposes the dark side of those who possess great power and it showcases that they don’t have all that much responsibility. I guess absolute power corrupts absolutely and we learn that they are all pretty much sex-craved celebrities that use their positions to abuse the law and silence anyone who stands up to them.
This comes to a head when a regular dude named Hughie sees his girlfriend killed in front of him due to the blunder of a speedster named A-Train who smashes right through her faster than you should smash the like button on this video.
Hughie And The Boys
Due to his status, A-Train doesn’t really face any real consequences and this sets off Hughie on a reluctant quest for revenge to take down the Superhumans with his ally Billy Butcher played by Karl Urban.
Butcher has a vendetta against the Seven after their leader had an affair with her and went missing shortly after and he begins working for the CIA who realise that if the Supes are given military jurisdiction then it’ll be worse than the CGI in Justice League.
This is very much a David Vs Goliath situation and throughout Hughie constantly seems like he’s in over his head as he rushes to take down Vought, the corporation that has licensed the heroes to movies, tv shows, games and probably Funko pops. Everyone has a Funko pop these days right? I want a Deffinition Funko Pop, if the queen can get a Funko Pop I want a Deffinition Funko Pop.
Anyway, the show is about choices and throughout Hughie, similar to The Seven, is given the option to do the right thing or give in to his vices time and time again. Luckily for viewers, Hughie always tends to go with the red pill…or the blue pill…whatever it was, the other pill, and this leads to some entertaining takedowns of The Seven throughout the season.
The Shining Example
Mirroring this is Starlight a parody of Powergirl who realises that The Seven aren’t the people that she initially idolised and just because people love a team up it doesn’t mean it’s for the best. After she is sexually harassed she becomes cynical and similar to Hughie vows to take Vought and Co Down. This involves her going toe to toe with Madelyn Stilwell, the shadowy CEO of Vought who is the master manipulator of the entire season.
Starlight is very much an embodiment of The MeToo movement and she cements that the only way to rise up against oppression is to stand against it. She slowly picks apart the oppression in society and how the nails that stick up are often hammered down.
She begins dating Hughie who uncovers the truth behind the Seven and their ties to a super drug known as Compound V. This was the drug that A-Train was on when he killed Hughie’s girlfriend and they slowly unearth that it’s the formula that is used to create super-powered beings. It’s not just Vought that are using it either and they also discover a young female that has been caged and experimented on too and she eventually ends up joining them.
Realising that evidence of this could bring down the public’s perception of the group, with the help of Starlight, he and the boys do whatever they can to get a hold of it in order to expose the dark side of the supes.
Homelander
However, their attacks and Starlights public stance soon draw the attention of The Higher Ups and their overlord Homelander who makes Brandon from Brightburn look like teacher’s pet and he soon begins striking back.
Homelander is a twisted version of Superman and Captain America that pretty much embodies many of the criticisms about the USA and it’s self-interest to the detriment of others. He’s brash, arrogant and will step over people to get to the top and throughout he’s pretty much the character that you love to hate.
After refusing to save the lives of a doomed flight he uses this tragedy as a reason to equip the army and invade other countries and this becomes a clear metaphor for the Iraq War after the events of 9/11.
In the comics whilst Homelander was said to be an alien that came to Earth, it’s actually revealed that he is also in fact a government experiment that was made in order to market superheroes to humanity. He’s a marketing ploy like all of the other supes and whilst I don’t wanna spoil too much just yet this over-inflated ego eventually leads to his downfall.
Anyway there’s reality tv, confessions and an appearance by Haley Joel Osmont that will have your sixth sense tingling and overall the season gets you really invested into both sides.
What Happened To Butcher’s Wife?
It’s revealed that Homelander actually impregnated Butchers wife and due to carrying a baby with super-strength it apparently killed her from the inside during the Labour. He’s told that his baby died during the birth though we Naturally when the Superman discovers this betrayal and coverup by his owners he begins to slowly descend into madness.
The CIA also have enough evidence to blackmail Vought into retracting their military application however they soon realise that several other countries also have access to V due to Homelander’s black market dealings and thus they cannot go public as it will weaken the position of America’s defense against the new Superpowers.
The Boys Ending Explained
Homelander has created an arms race that means he will forever be needed. Butcher learns of Stilwell’s connection to Homelander and realises that she is his weakness and takes her hostage. Homelander isn’t one to pay fair though and after he brings Madelyn’s baby to the standoff and reveals that it wasn’t he who killed his wife but rather Madelyn, things get a little messy. Homelander burns through Madelyn’s head and no amount of having a mother named Martha is gonna get Butcher out of it. So he sets off the C4 attached to Madelyn but unfortunately for him, Homelander is too fast and takes him away to reveal to Butcher that his wife and Homelanders son are both alive.
We get an awesome Star Wars-esque cliffhanger and the show goes out with a lot of questions.
So what happens next?
Season Two Predictions
Well, huge spoilers for the comics here and Homelanders eventual fate so if you don’t want to know anything then I highly suggest that you turn off now.
Whilst the story highly alters the timeline of the graphic novels with Madelyn out of the picture I think Homelander will ascend further within Vought and this will Mirror his comic arc highly.
In the books, Homelander eventually is sent insane after he’s shown photographs of atrocities that he has committed even though he has no memory of them. Feeling like he has no other way out he assumes high command of everything and attacks the White House. Homelander has wished to create an uprising and this is why he armed others with V and eventually he goes on to kill the president in order to rule the country himself.
However, it’s revealed that Black Noir is actually a clone of the character that was created to kill Homelander should he ever step out of line. Noir was the one in the photographs and Homelander realises that he could’ve actually been a hero if he’d not been so easily manipulated. Lander dies at the hands of Noir who is eventually killed by Butcher.
I can definitely see this being the direction that the series heads in with Butcher eventually attempting to get back his wife and having to deal with the fact that there is a new member of the family.
Now people may be wondering what happens to Hughie and how he gets out of saving A-Train at the end. Well in the graphic novel series he too gains incredible powers and abilities after he is injected with V compound worth 19 billion dollars and I think this will be brought into the second series as his get out of jail free card so that he is not hunted and killed as easily as he would be without it.
He’s definitely the wildcard of the show and I can see Season Two focusing on the fact that he now has become the thing he hated and that once more he has a choice as to whether go the right path or wrong one. No doubt with Starlight at his side he can do good and the two could actually become the superheroes that the world both needs and deserves down the line.
Either way, there’s a lot to look forward to with the Boys and I can’t wait to see how the changes affect the season going forward.
Your Thoughts
Obviously, I’d love to hear your thoughts on The Boys and what your favourite moment of Season One was. I haven’t even mentioned the Simon Pegg part that is a tie in to the original graphic novel. Damn, anyway Leave your review and let me know, I’m also interested to see what people prefer out of this and The Umbrella Academy so drop your opinion in the comments below.
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