After the success of their adaptation of Garth Ennis’ Preacher, showrunners Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg return to adapt another of the writer’s best-known works: The Boys. Originally created by Ennis and Darick Robertson, The Boys turned the superhero genre on its head by depicting costumed crime-fighters as dangerously narcissistic celebrities with godlike powers. That’s where The Boys come in. When a hero gets out of line, Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) and his crew “spank” them back in line.
While it retains the comics’ bloody sense of humor and satirical wit, Amazon’s newest series is a more condensed version of the source material. This resulted in some big changes, some of which will undoubtedly surprise fans of the original comics. So without further ado, here are 16 differences between the comic and the series.
UPDATE: 2022/12/28 11:00 EST BY SHAWN S. LEALOS
With three seasons of The Boys in the books, the show has continued to move further away from the source comics. This includes changing characters, both in their actions and their motivations. There are also several things hat happened in the TV series that never happened in the comics. As a result, the show is a surprising ride for everyone, from the most loyal comic book fans to those who never heard of The Boys before Amazon Prime Video launched it as a series. With a fourth season green-lit in June 2022 and an animated series hitting in March 2022, When it comes to The Boys comic vs the show, there is no telling where these R-rated heroes and villains go next.
Mother’s Milk
Mother’s Milk is very different in The Boys comic vs the show. In the comics, the entire basis for the character was the babies born to drug-addicted mothers in the 1980s. In this case, his mom ended up infected with Compound V and this meant Mother’s Milk had to have his mother’s breast milk to survive.
This lasted into his adult years, and she was always on hand to provide him with what he needed to remain alive. This never could have happened in the TV series, so Mother’s MIlk had a different sort of addiction, one for the pursuit of justice and helping others at all costs.
Soldier Boy
When Jenson Ackles of Supernatural fame joined The Boys, fans got excited. When he showed up as Soldier Boy, it was even better. However, for someone with as big a fan following as Ackles, changes had to be made for this world’s version of Captain America.
In the comics, there were many different versions of Soldier Boy. The one from the war was a bumbling coward who got himself and his entire team slaughtered. However, in the TV show, Soldier Boy is no coward. He is confident and willing to jump into battle, fighting in numerous wars over the years. In the show, he is also set to help take Homelander down, so he is clearly more heroic than in the comics.
Queen Maeve
Queen Maeve saw her fate changed from The Boys comic vs the show. In the comics, Maeve died pretty horrifically when she wouldn’t continue to follow Homelander like a sheep. However, at the end of Season 3, her fate improved, and she will play a much more important role than comic fans expected.
While Homelander decapitated her without her ever getting in a blow in the comics, she only lost an eye here and then lived to have a happy ending with Elena. In the world of the Amazon Prime series, it seems that characters who do good get happy endings, something the comics didn’t even consider.
Herogasm
When fans learned Herogasm was coming to the Amazon Prime series, no comic book fan had any idea how it would work without major changes. In The Boys comics, Herogasm is an annual orgy that offers a vacation to every superpowered person on the planet for a vacation.
Unlike the comics, Vought International has no hand in helping form it, and this isn’t about all heroes attending. Only select people show up, but it is still the raunchy and deadly orgy, where normal people get hurt for the supes pleasure. The show also has a major battle with Homelander, Hughie, and Soldier Boy showing up to wrack the party, which didn’t happen in the comics.
Stormfront
Stormfront is one of the evilest characters in the universe of The Boys, and one of the characters with the biggest changes from the comics. Aya Cash played the character in the show, who was originally a man in the comics. The Nazi Supe led the team Payback, a group of Nazi creations similar to The Seven.
The Boys comic vs the show, Stormfront doesn’t have the same relationship with Homelander or the storyline she does in the show. Though her origin is somewhat similar, with her true past and identity being hidden from the public, her ultimate fate at the hands of Ryan is far different.
Development Of Ryan
Another major change in The Boys comic vs the show is how it develops Ryan, the son of Homelander. Ryan doesn’t exist at all in the comics, his life snuffed out in a violent rage by Billy The Butcher soon after birth. In the show, he develops quickly into a powerful young boy with shocking potential.
His developing powers, specifically his eye lasers, lead to horrific consequences for Stormfront, whose ambitions exceed her grasp. It also leads to unexpected character developments for Homelander, who is far more complex in the show than he is in the original comic books.
True Identity Of Black Noir
The true identity of Black Noir was a major mystery in the comics, teased over time until it was revealed that he was a clone of Homelander. This clone is a deranged murderer, behind some of the most shocking crimes in the comics. In the show, it seems that this isn’t the case.
The TV show has yet to completely reveal the identity of Black Noir, but context clues established in season two suggest he isn’t a clone of Homelander. The biggest clue comes when he lifts his mask to eat a piece of candy. It appears that Black Noir is Black, and also severely scarred.
The Love Sausage
The Love Sausage is an imposing Soviet Supe from the comics who plays a bloody role in the death of the comics version of Stormfront. The version in the TV show is quite different. This powerful Russian man plays only a bit role in the TV show, making effectively a cameo appearance.
He makes his only appearance so far as a patient at Sage Grove Center. His appearance is shocking and pretty different from the comics. In the comics Love Sausage is generally an ally and friend of the other heroes and teams up with The Seven to take down Stormfront once and for all.
Victoria Neuman
A number of characters have different genders in The Boys comic vs the show. One of them is Victoria Neuman, who appeared in the comic books as Victor Neuman. The original was known as Vic The Veep, a political figure who was effectively the stooge of Vought Industries.
The TV show plays it somewhat differently. Victoria is a member of Congress and an apparent Supe herself. She also intends to bring down the corporation, though this could simply be her public cover as she protects the interests of Vought and The Seven behind the scenes.
New Superheroes
To give readers something new, The Boys adds original superheroes into the mix. Some of these newcomers include Ezekiel, Mesmer, and Translucent. They may be new characters, but they’re based on familiar names.
The televangelist Ezekiel is a nicer version of the pedophilic Oh Father while Translucent seems to be the series’ version of the alien-themed Jack From Jupiter – one of the original members of The Seven who also had impervious skin, although not invisible. Mesmer, on the other hand, is a wholly new character.
TransOcenaic Flight 37
After failing to save the hijacked Flight 37, The Homelander uses the disaster he caused to advance Vought International’s agenda of contracting superheroes to the military. As unethical and sleazy as this already is, it was much worse in the comics.
Originally, The Seven intercepted one of the planes headed for the Twin Towers during the September 11 attacks. The heroes kill the terrorists but fail miserably at everything else, causing the plane to instead crash into the Brooklyn Bridge. Vought has done everything to cover this up to make sure the catastrophe never stains its top assets.
Compound V and The Boys
Except for The Female, Billy Butcher and his men don’t have any powers. They may be skilled in black ops missions and weapons handling, but The Boys don’t stand a chance against the heroes in a fair fight. To them, the heroes are nigh unstoppable monsters they have to exterminate.
This is different in the comics because The Boys can go toe-to-toe with any of The Seven thanks to the super-soldier serum Compound V. Without their powers, they lose their original angst of being super-powered humans who hunt down superheroes for the government.
Madelyn Stillwell
The Seven may be the most powerful superheroes in the world, but they still have to answer to their boss. Their superior in the comics is James Stillwell: an emotionless and sociopathic corporate executive with nothing but Vought’s welfare in his mind.
Looking at The Boys comics vs the show, the Prime Video series replaces James with Madelyn Stillwell as The Seven’s handler. Unlike her printed counterpart, Madelyn is more human and vulnerable – even dying thanks to the latter. She may prioritize Vought’s dealings, but she’s not as inhuman as James, who ordered the massacre of the comics’ version of the X-Men for becoming too uncontrollable and unmarketable.
A-Train and Popclaw
What could be seen as a foil to Hughie and Starlight is the relationship of the superheroes A-Train and Popclaw. The former Teenage Kix heroes’ love turns into tragedy when A-Train kills her to keep his dependence on Compound V hidden, but this only makes things worse.
This relationship never happened in the comics because the two never even shared a panel together. Everything about them was exclusively made for the series, and the two are considerably more sympathetic than their original selves. By the comics’ end, it’s A-Train who dies while Popclaw is (presumably) still alive.
The Deep
Much to Starlight’s horror, her idol The Deep – The Seven’s meathead version of Aquaman – turned out to be a terrible person who sexually abused her. While the harassment occurs in the comics, it wasn’t The Deep who was at fault.
What happened to Starlight was actually worse in the source material, where three other heroes (A-Train, Homelander, and Black Noir) pressured her into oral sex. Ironically, the original Deep was the most mature and business-savvy of The Seven. His live-action incarnation shares more in common with the original A-Train, who was just as cocky and self-absorbed.
The Homelander
The Boys’ version of Superman is The Homelander, a spoiled brat with the powers of a god and an endless list of vices. Everything he does is motivated by his childish desire to be taken seriously, though half the time he acts impulsively and proves peoples’ fears right.
In the series, he’s cunning and unpredictable, making him more dangerous than ever. Now, he calmly threatens and manipulates people to make things go his way instead of throwing a tantrum. He also has a sexual relationship with Stillwell – something that’d never happen in the comics since he despised the corporate representative.
The Female’s Origins
As a baby, the Female accidentally ate some Compound V and became the most dangerous of The Boys. Save for Frenchie, no one understands what she’s thinking, but she can be counted on to rip people’s faces off. She also part-times as a mafia hitman.
Meanwhile, The Boys comic vs the show gives her an entirely new backstory. Instead, she was a child soldier who was injected with Compound V by her guerilla compatriots. Inadvertently, she was a byproduct of Vought’s plans to create supervillains, as the company shipped the compound to terrorists to bolster the artificial demand for superheroes only they can satisfy.
Starlight
The Boys opens with The Seven welcoming Starlight into the fold. Though she’s naive at first, she slowly adapts and figures out how to maneuver her way around the sleazy underbelly of the superhero business.
The series, conversely, presents a more proactive version of her illustrated self. Even if the company pushes back, Starlight doesn’t take too long to stand her ground in the team, and she actively fights to keep her idealism and dignity intact. Like in the comics, this earns the respect of Queen Maeve who has since succumbed to her cynicism.
Wee Hughie Campbell
The heart and soul of The Boys is Hughie Campbell: the mild-mannered newcomer who’s brought into Butcher’s team after A-Train accidentally kills his girlfriend Robin. Originally based on Simon Pegg (who now plays his doting father), Hughie is a well-meaning yet spineless kid who Butcher pushes around into compliance.
Like his love interest Starlight, Hughie is more assertive in the series than he used to be. While it takes him eight episodes to defy Butcher’s intimidating nature, this is still faster than the comics where it took him forever to break free from the emotional manipulation.
Becca Butcher
The biggest change in The Boys comic vs the show is the fate of Butcher’s wife, Becca. Previously, she dies after giving birth to The Homelander’s baby. Her rape and death at the hands of The Seven’s leader is the only thing that keeps Butcher alive.
Shockingly, the series keeps her alive. Apparently, Vought hid her survival and more importantly, her super-powered child. It’s implied that superheroes biologically can’t reproduce, possibly making Homelander’s son the first superhero to be born outside of a laboratory. Her being alive also shatters everything Butcher believed in, making things unpredictable for him and even the comics’ most dedicated fans.