For multiple seasons, the main group on The Boys has gone to war with members of The Seven — but how does the primary superhero team match up to their The Boys comic book counterparts? Based on Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson’s source material, The Boys was brought to the screen by Eric Kripke, Seth Rogen, and Evan Goldberg. The saga first premiered via Amazon Prime in mid-2019. The series has so far been consistently renewed before each new season has dropped. As its popularity and acclaim have continued to soar, Kripke announced that there are plans for at least five seasons of The Boys.
Both the graphic novels and the series center on a unique task force led by Billy Butcher. Focused specifically on holding corrupt superheroes to account, the group was originally formed by Grace Mallory (Greg in the comics), a military colonel turned CIA Deputy Director. Alongside Billy, the first incarnation of The Boys consisted of Frenchie and Marvin T. Milk (a.k.a Mother’s Milk). After a tragic event that saw Mallory’s grandchildren burned to death, however, the team went their separate ways. Years later, still driven by an extremely personal vendetta, Billy would not only reform the squad but expand it. The new members would include Hughie Campbell and Kimiko Miyashiro a.k.a. The Female, who each had their own reasons to despise superheroes and their creators at Vought International.
The majority of their journey on the show has seen them clash with The Seven, a twisted amalgam of popular superhero teams like the Avengers or the Justice League. Led by the sociopathic (and Superman-inspired) Homelander, The Seven has had an ever-shifting roster. Several members from across the years have either been killed or expelled — both permanently or temporarily. The Boys season 2 also saw a newcomer named Stormfront join the team, while The Boys season 3 introduced another super-team called Payback and several of its members, most notably Jensen Ackles’ Soldier Boy. Following The Boys season 3, the status of The Seven’s ranks has been left in flux. Regardless of what the future holds, the superhero team has individually remained distinctly faithful and substantially differed in equal measure. Here’s how each superhero of The Seven stacks up against their The Boys comic book counterparts.
Homelander
Played by Antony Starr, Homelander served as the face of The Seven from the first episode. Though his hold over the group gradually diminished across the seasons, his similarity to The Boys comic book original’s personality horrifyingly remained. It could be argued that the TV version is even worse, in fact, since he’s fully responsible for acts he was framed for in the comics. In terms of appearance, Starr is equally faithful. However, Starr’s hair is dyed blonde rather than naturally so. Starr is also not quite so square-jawed and has a superhero costume that is clearly padded to give the illusion of The Boys’ comic book Homelander’s natural bulk. Regardless, the pair share the same color and level of sadistic menace in their “really f*cking blue” eyes that Stormfront admired so much.
Starlight
Played by Erin Moriarty, Starlight/Annie January was the original newcomer to The Seven in The Boys season 1. In terms of costume, she was largely identical to her comic book counterpart — both in terms of the original and Vought’s graphic redesign. The only real difference was that the comic’s version had a block-yellow cape rather than white and star-spangled. Moriarty also lacked star-shaped earrings. Both versions of Starlight equally shared similar physical appearances, right down to the flowing blonde hair. Moriarty’s eyes, however, are brown rather than the comic book blue. The Starlight on the page is also more often depicted as forlorn, in both expressions and behind her eyes. While Moriarty’s version of The Boys’ Starlight has occasionally given into despair over her situation, she more frequently exuded an air of defiance that emboldened her face. Such a trait has been the reason why Starlight has been more akin to Billy Butcher than Hughie.
Queen Maeve
Played by Dominique McElligott, Queen Maeve served as The Seven’s resident Amazon-like warrior. The show’s version shares a very similar personality to her comic book counterpart — frequently numbing herself with alcohol and sex, but stepping up to support her fellow girl Supers in The Boys when needed. However, with McElligott being an Irish actress, the show’s version had a look more in line with the character’s own Irish heritage. This is most depicted in McElligott’s Maeve having red hair rather than blonde. She also had Celtic swirls woven into the design of her costume. Despite Vought’s penchant for producing more revealing costumes, however, The Boys‘ Queen Maeve is not as gratuitously busty as in Ennis and Robertson’s design. Both, though, often wore the star-emblazoned steel shoulder pads. By the close of season 3, she also has an eye patch.
A-Train
Played by Jessie Usher, A-Train served as The Seven’s resident speedster, and the character was race-swapped from the comics to the show. Usher’s version also had shorter hair and maintained a trimmed goatee beard, which juxtaposed the comic’s clean-shaven look and boy-band hairstyle. The comic book version also was much bulkier, in terms of muscle mass. Their costumes used the same color scheme (bar season 3, in which A-Train picked a more traditional African pattern). The Boys‘ version of A-Train, however, wasn’t sleeveless, had the letter ‘A’ emblazoned on the shoulders rather than the chest and wisely had protective plating over vital areas.
Black Noir
In comparison to the comics, The Boys‘ Black Noir is a double whammy in terms of changes. Firstly, his costume is extremely different. On the show, Nathan Mitchell’s Noir merely wears the kind of body-armored suit favorite by such popular heroes as Batman or Daredevil. In the comics, however, it’s a form-hugging and featureless bodysuit. The latter added even more to the character’s mystique – fittingly making him seem like a mere shadow or the embodiment of a black hole. Beneath the mask, however, afforded the most dramatic difference. In the comics, he’s revealed to be a clone of Homelander himself. On the show, however, Black Noir is a Black man named Earving with his own separate identity and a more tragic arc.
The Deep
Played by Chace Crawford, The Boys show’s version of The Deep emerged as the hapless washout of The Seven. Originally a firm member, he has since found himself on the outs and perpetually doomed to failure and disappointment. Deep also marked one of the show’s biggest changes. The comics depicted him as a seven-foot Black man who wore a bulky helmet with a porthole. As such, he was more a pastiche of classic DC Comics villain, Black Manta. Deep’s glare in the comics also demonstrated a broader capacity for menace than the TV version was ever able to manage. In the show, Crawford’s version of Deep was a six-foot, white, male model-type more akin to Aquaman himself, albeit even more mocked and with visible (and sometimes talking) gills.
Stormfront
Played by Aya Cash, Stormfront (who could be Homelander’s mother), marked another of the show’s gender-swapped characters. In the comics, Stormfront was depicted in the traditional fashion of a thickset and surly man, who wore his virulent Nazism as proudly as Homelander wore an American flag for a cape. On the show, the character was offered instead as a woman with no visible Nazi attire. This was by shrewd design on the part of The Boys’ showrunner, who wanted to emphasize how things had evolved during modern times. While Nazi-style fascism is still clearly alive, The Boys put forward how social media and the like has allowed it to often be wrapped up in a pretty and appealing package.
Lamplighter
Played by Shawn Ashmore, The Boys’ Lamplighter proved to be one of the breakout surprises in The Boys season 2. Ashmore’s Lamplighter was also a stark contrast, physically. In the comics, he is depicted as clean-shaven and fresh-faced, with long, flowing blonde hair. In flashbacks on the show, he is depicted as both older and scruffier around the jaw. That scruffiness is even more pronounced when he reemerged in the present day, burdened by years of guilt over what he did to Mallory’s grandchildren. Lamplighter’s costume is also markedly different. In the comics, he wore a yellow and blue costume with a blue eye-mask. On the show, Lamplighter was adorned in the kind of leather, hooded ensemble favored by certain Arrowverse heroes. He also wore a pair of tinted goggles rather than a mask. Lamplighter’s final state was equally different in both mediums. Ashmore’s Lamplighter chose suicide by self-immolation, while the comic’s iteration was turned into a brainless zombie of a prisoner by Vought.
Soldier Boy
Soldier Boy is played by Supernatural‘s Jensen Ackles in The Boys season 3. Soldier Boy and his comic book counterpart do have some notable differences when it comes to appearances and costume. In The Boys TV show, Ackles sports a dark green and heavily armored costume, whereas the comics’ version is almost a straight ripoff of Captain America – done intentionally, of course. Both heroes sport their trademark shields. However, it differs from the comics in that the TV version’s shield is much more oblong, and it has a tasteful-looking eagle etched into the front of it. Soldier Boy’s costume in The Boys is much more muted when compared to his comic book counterpart, despite being armored. Jensen Ackles also has dirty blonde hair, while Soldier Boy’s hair in the comics is a sleek black. Both characters don a face mask for battle, but Ackles’ character wears it less in the series.
Translucent Replaced Jack from Jupiter
In The Boys season 1, there was another member of The Seven named Translucent. Having caught Hughie leaving a bug in Vought Tower, Translucent tracked him back to his place of work. There, he was incapacitated and captured by Hughie and Billy Butcher. The former would ultimately kill him with a specifically-placed bomb. Unlike the others, The Boys‘ Transculent was an original product of the show, replacing the Martian-Manhunter-inspired Jack from Jupiter who was deemed too outlandish for the show’s somewhat grounded tone. As such, he has no comic book counterpart with which to compare or contrast (although, being largely invisible, very few comparisons could have been made anyway).
The Seven’s Headquarters Also Looks Different In The Show
Lastly, Amazon’s The Boys also drastically altered The Seven’s headquarters from the comics. Whereas in The Boys comics, The Seven operate out of a floating headquarters reminiscent of the Justice League’s Watchtower, the show instead has their deeply sinister operations working out of Vought Tower in New York City, a more direct reference to the Avengers Tower of the MCU. As with many of The Seven’s changes, this alteration serves to ground the show more and aids its social commentary of corporate negligence and overreach rather than spinning a more fantastical story. The show uses Vought as a stand-in for Disney and Warner Bros., so the switch to a towering corporate complex is fitting. As The Boys continues with more seasons, Vought Tower will certainly continue to be a hotspot of criminal activity, and its PR team will be working overtime to cover Homelander’s increasingly vicious tracks.
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