The Boys – Theory Crafting and Analysis

With the article posted earlier in the week, I tried to not to delve too far into the real meat and grit of The Boys for a couple of reasons. The first and primary one being the fact that I didn’t want to spoil too much of the plot of either iteration. The second being I wanted to kind of make a more speculative assessment comparing what has been done in the show, and my guess as to what will happen next season. So let’s get started in a deeper dive of differences and similarities and what I think they mean.

The Boys’ Status

Right off the bat is the fact that The Boys (barring Female/Kimiko) have NO superpowers and I’m feeling this change is going to stay. Pretty sure that Eric Kripke is going to stay in line with his trend in having normal humans fight supernatural entities through wit and sometimes dirty tactics. While he could go the route of someone (either Butcher or Hughie) injecting themselves with Compound V and getting some sort of power, I doubt this will be the case.

Another component about The Boys is that not only do they NOT have government support, they are currently being hunted as the ones who killed Translucent and Popclaw. At this point in the comics they had funding and support to help in addition to the powers, further stacking on how screwed the crew seems to be.

Butcher ended up finding out his entire crusade had been predicated on a lie/misdirection and I for one can’t wait to see how that goes. M.M., Frenchie, and Female all are in the wind and I’m curious how they plan to play these characters off moving forward as their backstories were much more focused on their superhero origins that seem to have been completely redone or overwritten. Finally, we have Hughie and his current girlfriend Starlight, facing off with A-Train, the murderer of his ex-girlfriend.

The Seven’s Status

This is the category that seems a lot stranger and different from the story, but looking like it’ll open up for a much more in depth and meaningful story. First and foremost being the fact that Homelander has only slightly become unhinged and insane, opposed to the full tilt coup planned to practically enslave humanity. He did however supply terrorist cells with the ability to create their own supes, but I’m still of the mind this is lesser than the plan to take over the world.

Annie was one hell of a trip in the show compared to the comic, with her actually hitting highs and lows and the viewers unsure 100% until the end there where her loyalties would lie and I think that was a better take on the relationship between her and Hughie. Also she’s a lot better about putting up with the corporate BS that Vought throws her way.

The Deep is actually seeming to hit a bit of a change in direction not taking his lack of acceptance into the military very well. With his fate left unsure, and I think that is considerably better compared to the comic version which was just a dude in an old school diver’s suit who had the least impact to the story overall among anyone in The Seven.

Queen Maeve is staged to be more of a potential game changer, opposed to the undercover mole in the comics. She’s also younger and less jaded, but still clearly quite jaded against Vought and especially resentful of Homelander.

A-Train may or may not be dead, but he was definitely at least dying in the end of episode 8. He seemed like he was finally coming close to handling his guilt about his hand in killing Popclaw, they did a good job of leaving his ultimate fate a cliffhanger, opposed to the pathetic execution he received in the comics at the hands of Hughie. Noted, is that in this instance, he was accompanied by Annie instead of Butcher, which may have had a hand in the ultimate decision.

Translucent is still dead, and I’m glad they basically re-speced Jack from Jupiter to a less idiotic premise, however between the invulnerability and sexual deviancy you can tell they are clearly related. I’m of the mind though that with the overhaul of the Deep, that if you had to kill off a member of The Seven, Translucent/Jack was the one to go.

The Ending and The Future

I kind of touched upon this earlier on in my other article, but the way they left off and the way they set up for season two is radically different and open for content. The entire crux of the matter pertaining to Butcher was the assumption his wife was raped and killed by and/or due to Homelander. The fact that the baby was both not killed by Butcher and actually came to be alive and raised by Becca who was very much so alive. Additionally, most people are alive and well, with the exception of Stillwell who in the comics ended up on top though clever and correct political and corporate maneuvering.

As for season 2, there’s a vast sea of content they could drive from with all the plot hooks provided by season 1. First off was a possible prequel with flashbacks to the last time The Boys were in circulation and what exactly happened to the Lamplighter, as in the Comics we knew that the Lamplighter was effectively executed as a placation to The Boys for the murder of Mallory’s grandchildren. Another direction is to just pick up completely from where they left off season 1, with Butcher at Becca’s doorstep, Homelander appearing to be somehow both less and more psychotic, and the rest of the Boys in flight. Finally, they could focus more on the external threats posed by international terrorist supes like Naqib.

For the first time in a long while, I’m actually really looking forward to the season 2 of a show that isn’t anime. I know I’m rarely the kind of guy who talks about “real people stuff” but I’m enjoying this and probably going to do similar things with Watchmen and Preacher, which I have to finish both the show and comic of. Feel free to let me know what you thought of the show, if you read the comic, or if you think my theories have any credence.