While the television adaptation of The Boys treats its black ops team as regular humans, their comic counterparts actually juiced themselves up with the chemical Compound V in order to fight supes. While they didn't take enough to gain any dramatic superpowers, they did enhance their strength, stamina, and durability to the point where they could make mincemeat of regular humans and hold their own against lesser "heroes."

But which of the Boys would win in a deathmatch against each other? The five members - Butcher, Mother's Milk, Frenchie, the Female, and Hughie - each have their own strengths and bring unique skills to the superhero-killing team, but is there a member who stands out as the strongest?

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While Hughie, Butcher, and Frenchie were all exposed to Compound V in adulthood, two of the group's members have a different relationship to the serum. Mother's Milk had his powers passed down to him from his parents, with his strength dependent on regular top-ups of the substance from which he takes his nickname. The Female - in a detail inspired by the classic Asterix the Gaul comic strip - was exposed to V as a young child, getting a huge dose which vastly increased her natural strength.

The Boys Full Team

The first team member to rule out is Hughie. He certainly had the gumption to murder super-powered killer A-Train, but that was after Butcher captured the supe and pushed Hughie into taking a free shot. In an outright fist fight against his pals, Hughie doesn’t stand much of a chance thanks to his uncompromising conscience. The series may end with Hughie killing Butcher as he threatens to genocide all superheroes, but it's only after an accident that leaves Butcher paralyzed and goading him to end it, making him the first of the Boys to fall.

Of course, that confrontation follows Butcher's cold-hearted murder of the rest of the team, but without the benefit of surprise and carefully hidden explosives, Butcher would struggle in a rumble. He beat down Mother’s Milk in a direct confrontation long enough to kill him with a grenade to the face, but still needed a weapon to finish the job against the bruiser. With the element of surprise and an explosive finisher, Butcher still lost a hand in the confrontation, and it was the only one he dared attempt in person.

Butcher Kills Mother's Milk

Frenchie and the Female were always the team's muscle, thanks to the Female's remarkable strength and Frenchie's tendency to go berserker in combat. Either would likely finish Butcher or Mother's Milk (and Hughie is so outmatched the Female once casually broke his arm right after waking from a coma), which is why they're usually the first into combat, but the Female boasts both greater strength and a compulsion to kill - one from which Frenchie is constantly trying to distract her. Having spent her life goring criminals with her bare hands as a hobby, the Female is the clear winner in a straight fight. 

But wait! There's one last member of the Boys to consider - Terror, Butcher's dog. Yes, Billy Butcher also injected his dog with Compound V, and he considers him a member of the team - telling Homelander as much when he kills a member of the Seven in retaliation for Terror's death. So, could Terror take the Female? Ultimately, no - when faced with the Crimson Countess in The Boys #33, Terror does a little damage but doesn't claim anywhere near the decisive kill the Female would have performed in his place. Every member of the Boys brings something special to the team - whether it's Mother's Milk's intelligence gathering or Hughie's heart - but their deadliest member is well named: in this case, the female of the species is more deadly than the male.

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