Did The Boys Presents: Diabolical just introduce The Deep's fishy young fry child? Played by Chace Crawford, much of what The Boys reveals about The Deep doesn't paint him in an especially positive light. You know things are bad when vanity and narcissism are just the tip of his unpleasant iceberg. In The Boys season 2, we discovered Deep had embarked on a veritable voyage of casual relationships with women, all of them based around objectification rather than respect. And, of course, we saw The Deep go one step further in The Boys season 1, leveraging his position in the Seven to sexually assault Starlight - a crime he continues to feel the public consequences for.
The Deep makes a whiff-y cameo appearance in The Boys: Diabolical's "BFFs" episode, but could Crawford's watery supe connect to another of the spinoff's animated anthology stories? The Boys: Diabolical's "Laser Baby's Day Out" takes place at Vought tower's orphanage. It's here that babies are tested, trained, then either ruthlessly culled, or adopted to families who find the lure of flying babies appealing. While Laser Baby obviously takes center stage in these Looney Tunes-inspired cartoon antics, there's another, fishier supe also kept at the facility...
When Superbrain (the evil villain deciding which babies live and die) pins Laser Baby's photo to the "TERMINATE" board, her picture is placed directly next to a green-skinned child with orange, fish-like fins. Later, as Simon the researcher passes through the cell block to rescue Laser Baby, an assistant serves fish to a locked-up, unseen child who burps out water - almost certainly the same green/orange kid from Superbrain's board. Could this youngster possibly be the spawn of The Deep?
We know that The Deep possesses semi-aquatic physiology thanks to those Patton Oswalt-voiced gills in The Boys. And the father-son connection between Homelander and Ryan proves Compound-V powers can be hereditary from parent to child. Given The Deep's many ethical failings in The Boys, we might also assume that any illegitimate children he sired while hopping from one sexual conquest to the next would be handed over to Vought with little hesitation, unlike Homelander, who wanted to raise Ryan himself. The most compelling (and most disgusting) exhibit of evidence, however, is how the young supe in The Boys: Diabolical appears more fish than human. If Deep is the father, its mother is probably an actual fish, and this plays into a gag from The Boys season 1, where Deep bashfully rejects the sexual advances of a dolphin. The Deep having sex with fish also continues the character's parody of DC's Aquaman, since the very same inter-species accusation has been leveled against Arthur Curry on numerous occasions (most recently Peacemaker). It's surely no coincidence that the same episode includes a zoo exhibit sign with a cardboard Deep promising, "Piranhas need love too."
Maybe the aquatic guppy in The Boys Presents: Diabolical is unrelated to The Deep entirely, but the spinoff surely knew these assumptions would be made if it introduced a water-based child supe without any parents. It feels worryingly plausible that this creature is the product of a Deep underwater liaison, who Vought then took custody of (and which we saw happen in The Boys season 2 with Ryan), while Deep characteristically walked away from his fatherly responsibilities. If this theory holds water, Aqua Baby would be another naturally-born super-powered child like Ryan Butcher. Sadly, Vought appears less interested in test subjects produced between human and fish...