Spoilers Below:
The Boys stars Hughie, a quirky electronic store salesman whose life gets obliterated when a super speedster runs right through his girlfriend. Over the first few episodes, he meets members of the Boys, a sordid group of former government agents who are in charge of keeping superheroes in line.
There’s Billy Butcher, a foul-mouthed killer with a sordid past; Frenchie, a scientist whose specialty is killing super-powered individuals; Mother’s Milk, a family man who can’t resist a chance to work again; and the Female, a super-powered mute who channels her Berserker Rage. These characters all come straight from the comic, though all have much larger and more fleshed out personalities. Long monologues about religion, heart to heart talks and philosophical debates about murder were mostly absent from the initial 71-issue run. Frenchie also rarely spoke English in the comic, but that change had to be made.
The Boys main adversaries are the Seven, a group of the most powerful heroes the world has ever seen. Created, funded and controlled by Vought Industries, this group of superheroes is. led by Homelander, the generic Superman-esque every hero who on the outside represents truth, justice and the American way, On the inside, he’s a psychopathic bastard who only cares about the bottom line. In the comics, the Seven are pretty much as depraved and maniacal. Except for The Deep, who was rewritten for the show since he was initially a man in an old nautical diving suit who rarely talked.
Easter Eggs for the comic are hidden throughout the series. The show alludes to Teenage Kix, who were the first group of superheroes The Boys ever blackmailed in the comics. Popclaw is nothing more than a side character from Teenage Kix who was given a much larger role in the show. When Butcher meets with the CIA director, his demands include an “office in the Flatiron Building” which was the base of the comic book team.
If The Boys television show continues, there is plenty more material to be adapted from the comic book series. There’s the G-Men, an X-Men homage with a pedophilic head master. Tek Knight has an obsession with having sex with things, sometimes killing them. There’s even a badger that’s trained to attack the president; the possibilities are endless.
