With The Boys superhero landing it’s way onto Amazon this month, I thought I’d break down everything that you need to know about the show’s most interesting characters, The Seven.
The Seven are apparently the world’s best Superhero team that stands for truth, Justice and taking selfies with fans. Throughout this video, I’ll be breaking down everything that you need to know about The Seven in the show as well as what happens to the characters in the comic books.
There will be heavy spoilers here, so if you don’t want anything about the show potentially ruined for you then I highly recommend 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 Seven.
The Seven
The Seven are pretty much seen as the world’s best superhero team due to the marketing of their owner company Vought. Though it’s said that the heroes all have complex origin stories similar to the likes of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, we actually learn in the boys that they are in fact the result of babies who were experimented on with a mysterious chemical known as compound V.
The Seven are heavily controlled by their owners and we learn throughout the Boys that they aren’t really people who should be idolised due to their darker side.
But who makes up the Seven?
Homelander Explained
Well, their leader and the main villain of The Boys is Homelander, a pastiche of Captain America and Superman. Homelander is apparently the most powerful superhuman on Earth and Vought market him as an alien that fell to Earth and found himself possessing incredible abilities.
Though we don’t learn too much about his origin story in Season One, we do discover that he is a result of compound V injections and in the original comic series, he eventually creates an uprising to plant superhumans as the rulers of the world.
Whilst I’ll go more into what eventually happens to the character later, Homelander’s powers make him pretty much unstoppable. However, this has made him rather lazy and thus he tends to just use his heat vision to do all the work for him. This arrogance and the failing of it is exemplified in episode four when Homelander kills a terrorist onboard an airplane and also destroy the control panel to fly it. Homelander could have killed the terrorist in many ways that didn’t involve destroying the control panel but he just went with it as usual and thus the plane went down.
Unlike the show, in the comics Homelander apparently r***s Billy Butcher’s wife and his child destroys her from the inside. He slowly spirals into madness and is blackmailed into believing that he’s created several atrocities which eventually lead to his downfall.
He really is just the worst guy ever and The Boys perfectly sums up just how bad of a person he is in beautiful fashion.
Black Noir
Up next is Black Noir and whilst little is shown of him in the series there’s actually quite a lot to unpack. I just wanna give another spoilers warning here as there is a big reveal for who Black Noir actually is that could ruin the show going forward, so if you don’t want to know then I suggest that you turn off now.
Anyway, after Homelander goes on a rampage and kills the president, Black Noir unmasks to show that he is actually a clone of Homelander that was created to take down Homelander should he ever go rogue. It was actually Noir that was in the blackmail images that sent Homelander insane. He actually committed the r**e of Butcher’s wife and Black Noir kills Homelander though he is severely weakened by it. This gives Billy Butcher the opportunity to kill him and thus he stops the Seven.
Noir is pretty much your Batman of the universe and he’s an expert in hand to hand combat. He’s a master tactician and manipulator and is overall the big bad of the entire run, operating in the shadows to fulfill his goals.
Queen Maeve
If Homelander is Superman and Black Noir is Batman then Queen Maeve is definitely Wonder Woman. Unlike her leader, Maeve seems fair less sadistic and initially joined The Seven with the hope that she could make a difference. She recognises this in the newest member of the team Starlight and comes to her aid several times throughout the season, even defending her when Homelander thinks that she is a traitor.
Maeve was once dating Homelander, however, she broke the relationship off after she came to the conclusion that he was a megalomaniac and now lives a solitary existence with the worry that Homelander will kill all that come close to her.
In the comics, Maeve turns to alcohol after she is unable to handle the truth of the Seven. She eventually turns on Homelander when he begins his attack on the White House.
After her sword is revealed to be a fake stage prop, unable to do any real damage, Maeve is murdered by Homelander who cuts her head off and throws it at Starlight as she attempts to flee the fight. Maeve is truly one of the most tragic figures in The Seven and exemplifies that evil rises when good people fail to act.
Maeve is extremely strong and similar to Noir is a highly-skilled fighter. However, she cannot fly and has a few weaknesses that allow Homelander to destroy her.
The Deep
Next up is the seven’s answer to Aquaman. Praised as king of the sea, The Deep is able to speak to fishes after he sexually harasses Starlight in the show, he is exposed and is ostracised because of the bad publicity that circles him. The Deep is heavily departed from his comic book counterpart as in the graphic novel he wears a helmet that he claims he cannot remove due to an Atlantean curse, however, he is revealed to be just a man in a diving suit.
In the show, he pretty much becomes a laughing stock after attempting to free a Dolphin from captivity and his overall arrogance and disregard for the law is ultimately his undoing as he is forced to live in isolation, publically listed as an embarrassment.
A-Train
A-Train is pretty much the catalyst that sets off Hughie’s recruitment to The Boys and after he steamrolls through his girlfriend, this sets off a chain reaction that eventually brings the group down. A-Train is heavily addicted to Compound V and believes that without it he is nothing. In the fastest man alive race, A-Train uses the drug to win but this eventually leads to his downfall.
When attempting to kill Hughie, who he blames for the death of his girlfriend, even though he forced her to overdose, A-Train succumbs to the drug and has a heart attack. Hughie stays behind to save him which ends the season on a cliffhanger.
In the comics, A-Train attempts to sexually assault Starlight with several others and when Hughie hears audio of his plan he kills him once and for all though it looks like the show is veering away from this. A-Train is a speedster but he also possesses remarkable strength and is all around a difficult person to go toe to toe with even though he’s terrible when he goes off-script.
Translucent
Up next is Translucent who is pretty much a new creation for the tv show and is sort of a representation of Jack Jupiter from the comics. Translucent has diamond skin that is nearly indestructible and he is able to turn completely invisible. Whilst most would use this power for good, translucent is pretty much a pervert that spends the majority of his time spying on people and standing around in the women’s bathroom.
In the show, Translucent is captured by The Boys and is held hostage to find out information on A-Train. When trying to escape, Translucent is killed by Hughie after Billy Butcher placed a bomb up his…well you know where.
Starlight
Finally is Starlight who is The Seven’s cross between Stargirl and Powergirl. Starlight’s real name is Annie January and she is able to project blinding light and can also fly. Annie is pretty much our eyes into the Seven and throughout Season One we see them from the inside through her eyes. Initially she is a devout Christian who idolises the group, however, she turns cynical when she discovers the truth behind them.
In the comics, Starlight is heavily preyed upon by the Seven from the get-go and on her first visit, Homelander says that she must either girl himself, A-Train and Black Noir or*l s*x or she must leave the group. It’s revealed in the graphic novel that The Seven only recruited her to have fun degrading her and she eventually turns against them and helps to take them down.
Starlight begins dating Hughie and seems to have found happiness in some form or another with him. In the comics, she, similar to Maeve goes on a downward spiral and concludes that she’s actually becoming more like The Seven due to the way that she has been treated by them.
In the books, she really wants to be with Hughie but worries that he’ll leave when he discovers how she joined The Seven but after some back and forth between the two they decide to give it another go after The Boys are disbanded and The Seven are destroyed. In the end, she and The Deep are the only surviving members of The Seven and they go on to lead their own lives with Annie finding somewhat of a happy ending.
Your Thoughts
And that’s everything that you need to know about The Seven. Obviously, I’d love to hear your thoughts on them, who your favorite or rather worst is and what you hope to see in the show. Comment below and let me know!
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