The Boys: Hughie's First Kill Made a Secret Anti-Superhero Statement

It is no secret that the Dynamite Comics series The Boys shows superheroes in a negative light by depicting them as nothing less than depraved monsters, and Hughie’s first kill was the greatest, yet most subtle, anti-superhero statement in the series.

The Boys features a team of operatives who have made it their mission to keep supes in line by occasionally harming their reputations and even causing physical harm in extreme circumstances. This team, known as the Boys, is led by Billy Butcher and consists of Frenchie, Mother’s Milk, the Female, and Hughie Campbell. Most of the time, the Boys do simple recon on any particular team of superheroes, collecting dirt on them to use as blackmail for the purposes of gaining more intel on higher-profile supes or simply exposing the information they uncover to irreparably harm their reputations for the purpose of encouraging other superhero teams to be on their best behavior.

During one such mission, the Boys turn their attention on a team of supes called the Teenage Kix, but once the heroes find out that they’re being spied on, they take the fight to the Boys–a battle that takes place in The Boys #6 by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson. In the issue, the Teenage Kix confront the Boys, though little did the supes know, the Boys were hopped-up on a special formula of Compound V, giving everyone on the team who didn’t already have super powers heightened strength. While they only wanted to ruff the Teenage Kix up a bit, Hughie wasn’t used to his newfound powers and accidentally punched a hole in Blarney Cock, one of the members of the superhero team. Initially, the kill is brushed off as ‘accidents happen’ but a few issues later it is revealed that Blarney was the son of another character known as The Legend, a fact that adds a whole other layer to Hughie’s kill.

Hughie's first kill in The Boys is secretly anti-superhero.

The Legend is a crude and absolutely abhorrent parody of Stan Lee, from his caricaturish physical appearance to the fact that he was responsible for writing the iconic first edition comics for superhero teams like the Seven–turning them into household names through his in-world original stories. When Hughie killed the son of the Legend, someone who happened to be a superhero, he symbolically killed the metaphorical ‘children’ of Stan Lee, i.e., a huge chunk of the superhero genre as fans know it as today. Given Stan Lee’s contribution to the superhero medium, his ‘children’ include beloved characters like Iron Man, Fantastic Four, and Spider-Man, and The Boys consolidated all of his creations into one silly superhero character, Blarney Cock, and then proceeded to have Hughie punch a hole right through him–a symbolic gesture of disdain for all of Stan Lee’s creations.

Even though this kill is the first of many throughout The Boys, it is easily the most impactful. The Boys depicts superheroes as irredeemable villains who don’t deserve the god-like powers they wield, and just as Hughie punched a hole through Blarney Cock, the series punches a hole through the entire superhero genre by changing the light in which people view superheroes and making fans question if these beloved heroes really are good people beneath the surface. Hughie’s first kill in The Boys made a secret anti-superhero statement, and it is the most powerful one in the series.