Caution: spoilers ahead for The Boys season 3
The Boys season 3 completely reframes Black Noir by revealing the tragic truth behind the man - here's everything we learn in "Barbary Coast" and what it all means. Since The Boys premiered in 2019, Vought's Seven lineup has fluctuated more than Billy Butcher's accent. Though Homelander, Queen Maeve and Starlight remain present throughout, A-Train left then came back, Deep left then came back, and Translucent left then came back... in several pieces. Black Noir, however, offers the Seven a reliable presence. A shadowy ninja possessing powers of strength, agility and durability, Black Noir is the very definition of "silent but deadly."
Despite him providing the Seven's backbone, The Boys has revealed precious few details about Black Noir's backstory and identity. Season 2 confirmed Noir was a Black man underneath the mask, and also hinted towards some horrific facial injury. Meanwhile, The Boys Presents: Diabolical surprisingly confirmed Noir was Vought's most popular hero in the years immediately before Homelander debuted. Rather than get jealous about Madelyn Stillwell's patriotic newcomer, Black Noir actually helped Homelander on his unstoppable road to the top, explaining why these two supes are so tight in The Boys.
Those scant factoids aside, Black Noir has cast an aura of total mystery across The Boys... until now. As Billy Butcher continues his Soldier Boy investigation, Black Noir's untold history gradually unravels. Not only do lingering questions get answered, but Noir becomes an infinitely more tragic character with each and every scene.
Black Noir Was A Member Of Soldier Boy's Payback Team
The Boys season 3's first Black Noir detail comes during the premiere episode, where Queen Maeve hands Butcher a stolen file concerning Payback. A photo within shows the group's central trio of Jensen Ackles' Soldier Boy, Laurie Holden's Crimson Countess and a young, gun-loving Gunpowder, but standing second-from-left is the familiar, inconspicuous figure of pre-Seven Black Noir. Butcher then cements the connection by suggesting Maeve should look a little closer to home in Seven Tower for more information about Soldier Boy's death. The Boys already teased Black Noir's Payback past in marketing material, but season 3 confirms exactly when and how he was a member.
In terms of which supe was strongest, Soldier Boy holds the edge over his masked colleague. Butcher believes the wartime hero was almost on-par with Homelander, whereas Black Noir is probably closer to Queen Maeve's power level. Regardless, fighting in the Payback crew evidently earned Noir a strong public following, as flashbacks reveal "Black Noir Dark Roast" coffee beans were a thing during the 1980s (and used to smuggle cocaine into the US). In conversation with Stan Edgar, Noir also mentions taking on a more "central role" in Payback, which speaks to his soaring stock, and how he'll one day succeed Soldier Boy as Vought's top guy.
Black Noir's Age, Identity & Superhero Persona Explained
In The Boys' present day, Black Noir is renowned for never speaking and never removing his mask, but season 3's Nicaragua flashback explains where those habits came from. Talking privately with Stan Edgar, a helmet-free Noir says he wants to "lose the mask" and become a superhero with a face. His request is flatly denied because Edgar's market research shows the "silent ninja" gimmick is incredibly popular with young boys. Unveiling his true face and speaking in public would, according to Vought, only ruin Noir's brand. This scene confirms Black Noir's enigmatic aura was - initially, at least - a marketing ploy.
The Boys season 3 then adds a much darker note to Black Noir's history by revealing his early superhero career was hampered by racism. Silent ninjas might score highly in popularity polls, but Stan Edgar describes the notion of a Black man in America's top superhero team as a "non-starter" for certain areas of the USA in 1984. Black Noir's costume was designed to cover up his skin color.
Underneath the mask, Noir comes across as a pretty regular supe with regular supe worries, and is played by Fritzy Klevans-Destine rather than usual actor Nathan Mitchell. Given his severe reputation in The Boys, it's ironic that Black Noir had a great sense of humor back in 1984, semi-joking to Edgar about how he wears his mask while hailing cabs. Noir's bright, vocal, almost goofy personality is - by design - the exact opposite of his superhero reputation.
Now The Boys has unveiled Black Noir's face, we can take a rough guess at his age. "Barbary Coast" doesn't state exactly when Noir was born, but the character looks (and bearing in mind he's already an established hero by this point) in his early-mid 20s. Payback's Nicaragua mission happened in 1984, so Noir would be in his 60s come The Boys season 3's present day. Compound-V subjects generally age slower than normal folk, of course, so it's possible Black Noir has been around even longer than that.
Why Black Noir Wears A Mask & Never Talks In The Boys
Two big questions followed Black Noir throughout The Boys seasons 1 & 2 - why does he wear a mask, and why doesn't he talk? The Boys season 3's "Barbary Coast" satisfies on both accounts... and it's all thanks to Payback's gross incompetence. Payback was drafted into Grace Mallory's Nicaragua operation as a trial for supes joining the US military, but the experiment went as wrong as you'd expect. Ignoring a direct order from Stan Edgar, Swatto couldn't resist stretching his insect wings, and the sight of a costumed idiot hovering above the trees alerted enemy soldiers to the location of Mallory's camp. Had they been even remotely useful, Vought's Payback team could've defeated these soldiers with ease. Instead, Crimson Countess struggled to tell the difference between friend and foe, while Gunpowder got so riled up having a big gun in his hands, he mowed down anything that moved.
A potent combination of friendly fire and rockets left the entire camp a flaming mess, and Black Noir got caught directly in the mayhem. When Mallory discovers him, the left side of Noir's face is completely burned - the skin bubbling hot, left eye loose in its socket, and large chunks of hair scorched. These injuries explain the glimpse of burned face viewers spotted in The Boys season 2. Looking directly at Mallory, Noir reaches desperately for his fallen mask, hinting that he'll spent the next 40 years willingly covering up his face to hide the damage. The Boys' Payback tragedy pays off Stan Edgar's ominous prediction that Black Noir would one day be "begging" for his mask back.
As Noir gurgles toward Mallory, audiences can also assume this is how the supe lost his ability to talk. There's a bitter irony in how Black Noir suffered considerably more injuries than his Payback colleagues, but was actually one of the group's two competent members (Soldier Boy himself being the other). During the attack, Noir was shown fending off attackers with a blade, deftly protecting Stan Edgar from harm while the other supes screwed up spectacularly.
How The Boys Season 3 Explains Black Noir's Personality
Filling the gaps, it seems Vought patched up Black Noir and readied their man for a post-Payback solo career, which he took to like Justin Timberlake after N*Sync. The Boys season 3's Nicaragua flashback might also explain why Noir is such a loyal soldier for Vought in the present day. The so-called "Silent Knight" clearly has Stan Edgar's ear, with the pair's shared history dating back four whole decades. Black Noir might've even been Edgar's pet project in the same way Madelyn Stillwell oversaw Homelander. Either way, Noir's long-standing Edgar association neatly accounts for why he never questions orders and always does Vought's bidding with perfect, clinical obidence.
Though The Boys season 3 doesn't spend long with young Noir, he's presented as a more reasonable, down-to-earth supe - a far cry from egotistical types like Soldier Boy and Homelander, or reckless types like A-Train and Crimson Countess. That rational mindset might explain the flickers of kindness Noir has demonstrated previously in The Boys - handing a young child a cuddly toy during the Syria mission, for example. He's still awful, obviously, but not quite as awful as everyone else, and season 3's flashback provides more context as to why Black Noir's moral compass points in the direction it does.
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The Boys continues Friday on Prime Video.