The Boys season 3 should complete what has been a gradual deviation from the original comic series. Generally speaking, live-action comic book adaptations alter source material at their own peril. Countless times throughout the history of TV and film, foolhardy filmmakers have made sweeping changes and ended up facing angry fans, scathing reviews, and low box office. The likes of Dragonball Evolution and the 1970s The Amazing Spider-Man TV series both suffered immensely from abandoning their respective origins. Equally, there is such thing as being too faithful. For example, a giant alien squid probably wouldn't have translated well in Zack Snyder's Watchmen movie. It's a tricky balance few franchises get completely right.
Amazon's The Boys is a fine example of using comic material as a jumping-off point for brand supe-spanking new stories. The general premise carries over from Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson's work, and overarching storylines such as Butcher's feud against Homelander, and Starlight's sexual assault feature in both. Even so, The Boys largely does it sown thing. Both of those ideas took a fresh direction on TV, and Eric Kripke has added many others besides, including the Dawn of the Seven subplot, Kimiko's brother, and Homelander's son, all representing uncharted territory.
As The Boys has implemented more and more changes throughout its two seasons, the comic books have become a mere speck in the distance. Rather than bending over backwards to accommodate comic accuracy, Amazon's The Boys should become entirely it's own thing in season 3.
The Boys Is Too Different Already
Right from the off, The Boys was cut-and-pasting source material to suit its own needs. The introduction (and bloody departure) of Translucent, and The Female starting out separate from the main group established a very different landscape for the show, and while Ennis' storylines were adapted in broad strokes, the shocking reveal of Becca Butcher's survival promised even more radical departures were forthcoming. So it proved in The Boys season 2, when Homelander's son turned into a major character, Stormfront became a social media guru, and the band broke up at the end. Standing on the precipice of season 3, The Boys now has even less in common with the comics.
To begin with, Victoria Neuman is primed as the next major supervillain, outed as the mysterious head-popping supe assassin. Even if her true allegiance is eventually revealed to be the same, she now shares very little in common with comic counterpart, Victor Neuman. The Boys season 2 might've gender-flipped Stormfront and elaborated upon her motivations, but the core Nazi beliefs from the comics still remained. With Neuman, however, the correlation is non-existent.
Season 2 also confirmed that The Boys' endgame will be different on TV compared to the comics. Originally, Homelander's crimes (including the attack on Becca) were committed by Black Noir, revealed to be a clone of the Seven's uber-patriotic leader. When Queen Maeve partially removed Noir's suit to force-feed him some nut-filled candy goodness in live-action, however, The Boys revealed Black Noir as a Black man, seemingly ruling him out as an exact clone of Homelander.
With a completely new main villain ready to pop and a very different finale ahead, there's very little room for The Boys season 3 to weave comic material into the recipe, and even Jensen Ackles' Soldier Boy will be vastly changed compared to the printed incarnation. The original Captain America ripoff peed his pants during battle and slept with Homelander to secure a place in The Seven. Eric Kripke has already described Ackles as a very different incarnation of Soldier Boy, comparing his character to John Wayne, who couldn't be further removed from the naive, soggy hero readers will know. When The Boys season 3's biggest connection to the comics is completely reinvented, it's perhaps time to put those trade paperbacks down altogether.
Amazon's The Boys Characters Have Evolved Beyond The Comic Books
In live-action, The Boys has been a real triumph of character development, and after two seasons, the likes of Hughie, Queen Maeve, Frenchie, Kimiko, The Deep (pretty much everyone, in fact) has evolved far beyond their comic entities. From Ennis' original molds, Amazon's TV cast members have naturally grown into nuanced, complicated, morally tangled characters, and the vast majority have veered further and further away from their comic book selves as a result. With season 3 on the horizon, these huge changes necessitate different directions for the heroes, villains and antiheroes in The Boys. From Maeve's romance with Elena and Homelander's slither of fatherhood redemption, to The Deep joining a cult and Frenchie's relationship with Kimiko, it's more important than ever that The Boys gives these figures custom-built story arcs to fit their bigger personalities, rather than trying to force comic angles to fit.
Herogasm Was Always An Offshoot
Soldier Boy isn't quite the only comic book connection in The Boys season 3. According to Kripke, the upcoming run will incorporate the infamous "Herogasm" arc. Named after an orgy where heroes across the world get together and let loose (what were they doing the rest of the time, behaving?!), "Herogasm" includes a string a wild, disturbing, near-pornographic scenes. The Boys, meanwhile, attempt to infiltrate. As memorable as it might be, "Herogasm" is very much a miniseries sitting between issues of the main The Boys comic story, serving more as a spinoff than a chapter in its own right. Ennis' intention for "Herogasm" was to parody the crossovers of the comic industry, such as DC's "Crisis on Infinite Earths" or Marvel's "Secret Wars," so while the debauched tale is certainly canon, it's better described as a sordid and standalone supplementary to the core story.
As far as The Boys season 3 is concerned, Amazon's "Herogasm" will inevitably be very different to the comic variety. Censorship alone will ensure a raft of changes to the original - take away everything you can't get away with in live-action, and Eric Kripke will have approximately 4 panels to work with. But even if Fantastic Four-gies and endless strippers weren't an issue for Amazon Prime, there's nothing in "Herogasm" that The Boys season 3 needs to adapt, with Eric Kripke already confirming the omission of Homelander and Soldier Boy's hook-up. So even if The Boys fans are getting "Herogasm" in season 3, the comic's offshoot status means it'll surely be a very different beast.
The Butcher Betrayal Is No Longer Relevant
The big finale of The Boys' comic run involves Billy Butcher betray his comrades by plotting to kill every single person in the world with Compound V in their veins. Not only does this mean wiping out all heroes, regardless of their villainy, but M.M., Hughie, The Female and Frenchie are also in the firing line, having used the stuff to compete with supes in battle. Although Amazon's The Boys has been foreshadowing Butcher's single-minded nature since the very beginning, the Compound-V setup doesn't work. On TV, the only member of The Boys to be juiced with the blue stuff is Kimiko, who Butcher has far less affection for than the others, so for The Female alone to be affected by Butcher's rampage would seriously take the sting out of his betrayal.
If Amazon's The Boys isn't heading for the authentic comic book finale, season 3 must start making headway toward its own endgame. Billy Butcher is going to throw his friends under the bus in spectacular fashion, that much is sure, but if not via Compound-V detonation, how else can he do it? Combined with the aforementioned reveal of Black Noir's ethnicity, the Compound-V change means The Boys is charging into a markedly different ending compared to the comics. That should become even more apparent in season 3.