7 Scenes 'The Boys' Never Showed Because They Were Too Controversial
The Boys (2019) is a brutal show, with Prime Video’s superhero satire taking the MCU, corporate media, and the entire US political system to task in gleefully gory fashion. Based on the comic of the same name by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, The Boys follows the titular group of underground “agents,” working to keep an all-powerful superhero group and the massive corporation at their back from fully breaking the world. The series has a grim view of superheroes and loves to explore the horrifying ramifications of superpowers, with plenty of people reduced to piles of blood and guts by the “superheroes” in the show.
With the series wrapping on a predictably blood-soaked note, it’s worth reflecting on just how far the show didn’t go. Garth Ennis, a legendary comics creator whose work has also inspired Preacher (2016) and Marvel’s The Punisher (2017), is a notoriously brutal writer with a strong sense of gallows humor. Some of the harshest satire, meanest characters, and most heartbreaking elements of the original comics never made it into the show, often for some good reasons. Here are the seven biggest things The Boys did that the Prime Video series didn’t even attempt.
The G-Men Were Way Worse Than Gen V
Gen V (2023) is a brutal expansion of The Boys universe, but the superhero academy had nothing on the underlying horror of the G-Men storyline from the comics. Godolkin University is the primary setting in the show, serving as a training ground for prospective supes. This makes it the grim version of the Xavier Institute or Sky High (2005), reflecting the harsh nature of the superhero universe.
By contrast, the comics version of the concept is a more overt parody of X-Men (2000), with the academy feeding into a superhero team known as the G-Men. In the comic, John Godolkin is the main villain, a Professor Xavier riff who turns young runaways into his own superhero team. Godolkin is also grooming and abusing his charges, another example of the comics’ overarching terrifying reimagining of superhero tropes. Vought wipes out John Godolkin and the G-Men by the story’s end, who were seeking to keep Godolkin’s actions a secret. At least the kids of Gen V have a somewhat open-ended fate going forward instead of being slaughtered alongside their abuser.
Malchemical’s Abuse Of Super Duper Was Horrifying
While plenty of superhero parodies from the original comics appeared in The Boys, one team that was left out of the adaptation was Super Duper. The team is among the rare genuinely good superheroes in The Boys, although far more of a group of helpful neighbors than an actual superhero team. Based in New Jersey, Super Duper consists of multiple low-powered heroes who are so removed from the Seven that they never became corrupted by their power—at least until Vought made the monstrous Malchemical the team leader and tried to abuse them.
Hughie’s undercover mission with the group reveals that many of them suffer from a lack of control over their powers or from real-world disabilities, with Malchemical’s actions making him a notably cruel figure. The Boys didn’t need another monster like Homelander, although some elements of his gleefully malicious personality feel more in line with Malchemical.
Oh Father Was A Way Bigger Villain In The Comics
Oh Father was introduced in The Boys Season 5 and played by Hamilton (2020) and Snowpiercer (2020) star Daveed Diggs. The superpowered priest brings a bit of religious satire to the show, with Diggs playing the character as a reluctant but true believer in Homelander, even producing a wild song and dance number in the show’s penultimate episode.
Oh Father is also present in the comic. However, he is a far more malicious character from the jump, portrayed more as a peer of Homelander in their worst impulses instead of just being a disciple. Whereas the TV version of Oh Father seems to have lost his faith over time and is at least briefly conflicted by how far Homelander wants to take things, the Oh Father of the comics is cruel from the start, abuses the young heroes under his charge, and is gleefully involved in Homelander’s takeover of the United States, making the religious satire feel far harsher.
Lamplighter’s Return As A Super Zombie
One of the saddest stories in The Boys TV show has been the subplot about Lamplighter in Season 2. Played by X-Men and The Rookie (2018) star Shawn Ashmore, The Boys introduces Lamplighter as a former member of the Seven who, after committing an atrocity, fell into grief and eventually became a brief ally of the team in the battle against Vought.
In the comics, Lamplighter has a similar origin story, although he is far less guilt-ridden over his actions. After being handed over to the CIA by the Seven and executed by the Boys as a means of keeping the tense peace between the two groups, Lamplighter is brought back to life by the Compound V in his system. However, he comes back to life essentially brain dead, making him one of the many “Zombie Supes” that appear in the comic—and far from the only unsettling one. This grim fate actually makes the fiery demise of Ashmore’s version of Lamplighter seem pretty tame in comparison, with a horrifying extra edge that would feel too much like The Walking Dead (2010).
Terror’s Death (And The Fallout) Were Huge Turns In The Boys
One of the only things left of Butcher’s conscience, the bulldog Terror is a cheeky bit of comedy in both iterations. In the show, a near brush with death for the dog leads to the whole team scrambling to protect him in the fifth season in a cute moment of humanity for everyone involved. Terror dies in the finale and sets up the conclusion of Butcher’s arc. However, in the comics, it happens earlier and harsher.
Terror’s mysterious death toward the beginning of the comics’ endgame is a surprisingly tragic moment. With the last of Butcher’s restraint gone, the leader of the Boys brutally murders Jack from Jupiter—a member of the Seven reduced to an Easter egg in the show—by repeatedly asking why he’d kill his dog while stabbing him with a butcher’s knife. Terror’s death effectively serves the same narrative function as the death of the dog in John Wick (2014), a stolen piece of innocence that breaks the already very dangerous main character.
The Truth Behind Black Noir
One of the biggest changes between The Boys comic and the show is the identity of Black Noir. Although two men took on the role over the course of the TV show, the comics eventually reveal that Black Noir is an exact clone of Homelander. Created as a counterweight to Homelander that could defeat him if he went rogue, one of the big twists in The Boys’ final stretch is that he is the one responsible for all of Homelander’s early atrocities (including the assault against Butcher’s wife, Becca), all in an effort to gaslight Homelander into thinking he’s gone off the deep end and become a monster.
The atrocities committed by this character in the comics were never going to make it on-screen, with visuals like dropping a family of four from the sky (and worse) going too far even for the show. While Homelander is horrifying, his comics counterparts cross some pretty big lines.
Butcher’s Betrayal
As a result of the changes made to the source material from the original comics, the ending of Prime Video’s The Boys remains focused on Homelander. In contrast, the final arc of the comics sees Butcher systemically target the rest of the team and pick them off so they can’t prevent his plan to release the supe-killing virus into the atmosphere. This results in the brutal death of the Legend, MM, Frenchie, and Kimiko’s equivalent, the Female. Although there is a tease that Kimiko and Frenchie may have survived, this sets up the comic ending where Butcher almost commits genocide and is only stopped by a reluctant Hughie killing his gruff mentor.
With the ending of The Boys feeling more attuned to the narrative that came ahead of it than the comics that inspired it, it makes sense that the slaughter changed. However, it also probably plays into the more sympathetic take on Butcher in the TV show, whose slaughter of the show’s other main characters might have felt like a step too far for the series.
