Warning: The following contains SPOILERS for The Boys season 2 and The Boys graphic novels.
Season 2 of The Boys crafted a storyline for Becca Butcher that was radically different from her fate in the original comics and, in doing so, corrected a mistake author Garth Ennis felt he made while writing the original story. In doing this, the show's writers made Rebecca Butcher into a stronger character and the most heroic person on The Boys.
Early in The Boys season 1, Billy Butcher revealed that he could sympathize with how Hughie Campbell had lost his girlfriend, Robin, because his wife, Becca Butcher, had disappeared mysteriously after an encounter with the superhero Homelander. Butcher believed that Becca had been raped by Homelander and that she had been killed to cover up the crime. However, it was revealed in The Boys season 1 finale that Becca was alive and well, raising Homelander's son Ryan in a secret location. This was a radical change from the comics, where Rebecca Butcher died after being raped and impregnated by the superhero. She didn't die immediately though — "Becky" Butcher (as she's called in the comics) meets her end months later when the superpowered fetus claws its way out of her. This all happens in front of Butcher, which goes a long way to explaining why he is the way he is. To make matters worse, Homelander's premature spawn tried to kill Butcher with its laser vision. Billy had to beat the half-developed baby to death with a lampshade in what is possibly one of the most harrowing scenes in the entire The Boys graphic novel run.
Ennis wrote about his regrets regarding Becca's death in his notes on the original pitch for the comic in The Boys: Definitive Edition. Ennis noted that he was indulging in one of the worst cliches of the superhero genre by killing off Becca and Hughie's girlfriend Robin in order to traumatize the men in their lives; what is popularly known among comic fans as "fridging." While the ultimate point of The Boys was to parody tropes like these, Ennis despaired at having to kill two likable women just to prove a point. Unfortunately, he saw no other way to tell his story but tried to take the curse off of it by making Becca Butcher in The Boys so lovable a character that the audience would share Billy Butcher's rage at the pointless stupidity of her death. This, in turn, fueled Butcher's own Punisher-parodying fall from grace, as he became exactly the sort of vengeful monster Becca feared Butcher might become if he learned about her rape and sought to avenge her. Becca Butcher in The Boys and the Becky Butcher of the comics are incredibly different characters, though. Here's how The Boys on Amazon fixes one of the worst mistakes from the comics — Rebecca Butcher.
The Boys TV Show Becca Is Stronger
Even the writer of The Boys graphic novels isn't a fan of how he handled Rebecca Butcher. Thankfully, the writers of The Boys' series found a way to correct Ennis' mistake, taking the Becky Butcher of the comics and changing her circumstances (and name slightly) to better display the strong spirit which made her a match for the iron-willed Billy Butcher. This was subtly shown throughout season 2, as she reportedly stood up to Homelander and got him to agree to spare her husband. The Boys handles sexual violence better than the comics, and Becca Butcher's resilience is a perfect example of the more tactful approach. Her strength was shown directly in season 2, episode 3, "Over The Hill With The Swords Of A Thousand Men," when she ordered Homelander to get away from their son after pushing him off the roof of her house while trying to teach him to fly. The fact that she was able to do this to her rapist without showing any signs of fear made this courageous act even more impressive.
Any doubts about Becca's courage was obliterated in The Boys Season 2 when Becca confronted Billy and refused to go along with his plan to free her. Becca did this because she realized that Billy hated superhumans because of what Homelander did to her and that would forever color how he viewed her son. The heart-breaking speech Becca gave to Billy in the show mirrored one she gave to Billy Butcher in The Boys' comics, which Billy read in her diary after Becca's death. In both speeches, Becca says that Billy put her on a pedestal because he believed she saved him from his darker impulses, but in truth, she was afraid of what he'd do if he found out she'd been raped and feared his death at the hands of Homelander more than anything.
Ultimately, the Becca Butcher of The Boys has proven to be a more interesting character than her comic-book-counterpart, Becky Butcher, while remaining true to the spirit of the source material. While she may not be the saintly social worker who helped battered women flee abusive homes, the live-action Becca Butcher is no less brave and no less noble, sacrificing her life both to save the man she loves and prevent the creation of another super-powered individual with Homelander's scary psychopathy. This may make Becca the most heroic character in a world full of superheroes; an irony Garth Ennis would likely appreciate.
Becca's Death In The Boys Comics Was Gratuitous (Even For The Boys)
Becky's comic-book death feels all the more like a cheap and cruel narrative device because of how gratuitously violent Becky’s final moments are in The Boys graphic novel. Trigger warning ahead — even reading details of how Becky Butcher meets her end in Garth Ennis’ original text is a bit much. Unlike The Boys on Amazon, in the comics, Becca Butcher never carries Homelander’s baby to full term. She also doesn’t vanish after being raped by Homelander and instead returns to Billy to try and lead a normal life. Shortly after learning she’d fallen pregnant, it became apparent the baby was developing at an accelerated rate. Three months after insemination, the fetus, almost fully formed, claws her way out of Rebecca Butcher’s stomach while she and Billy are in bed. This is also how Billy Butcher learns of the rape, although it’s not until later that he discovers how Homelander was the specific member of The Seven responsible.
This isn’t where the horrifying scene ends though. The half-formed Supe, not content with matricide, turns on Billy. It tries to incinerate him with laser vision. Billy is forced to beat the baby to death with a lampshade and literally no part of this harrowing process is spared in the artwork. The Boys 'graphic novel doesn’t allow you to look away — it shows everything, including a lampshade cracking open an infant's skull, with a chilling level of detail. This was clearly intended to hammer home just how brutal the reality of life in a world filled with The Boys' Supes could be and solidify Homelander as a hateworthy antagonist, as well as justify Butcher’s rampant sadism toward Supes in readers' eyes. However, even fans of The Boys felt that it was excessive and unnecessary, and Amazon proved this when The Boys' show achieved the same objectives without the nightmare-inducing infanticide. The show used a similar image when Billy Butcher wielded a Supe baby's eye lasers as a weapon, but this child thankfully made it through the scene.
Becca Would've Hated Season 3's Ryan And Billy
Becca Butcher's death in season 2 of The Boys was emotional and her story certainly dark, but while gory, it wasn't excessively violent unlike what Ryan did to Stormfront in retaliation. Season 3 of The Boys took the Ryan story arc in a dark direction, setting him up as a possible future antagonist who takes after his father Homelander, and Becca's death was arguably the catalyst. It's not just Homelander who Ryan is growing to resemble, though – Homelander and Billy are more alike than Butcher would ever admit. Becca saw this, and keeping Ryan secret was as much about protecting him from Butcher's influence as preventing Homelander's knowledge of his son. Since she died, pretty much everything Becca feared has been proven right.
Without the hope of returning to a life with her, Billy has fully leaned into the worst parts of his personality. Without his mother to guide him, Homelander's son Ryan becomes more like his sadistic father every day. To make matters worse, Butcher has been too embroiled in his vendetta to realize it's happening (and as the season 3 finale showed, it's probably too late). Both Ryan and Billy are becoming people Becca would hate, which makes her death all the more meaningful. Becky Butcher's death in the comic books was an unnecessarily cruel narrative device that served little purpose beyond justifying Butcher's actions. Becca Butcher's death in The Boys' Amazon show proved that she'd actually been a hero all along and one of the few pure souls on the show. If The Boys season 4 follows through on the predicted Brightburn-style Evil Ryan arc, Becca really was the only person protecting the world from the most dangerous Supe it's ever faced — Ryan Butcher, the combination of Homelander's near-infinite power and Billy Butcher's unending capacity for hatred.