The Boys has been billed as the antithesis to the archetypal superhero TV show; a much darker and grittier version of anything else we’ve seen from DC or Marvel - or any other comic book for that matter. And this didn’t disappoint for anyone wanting a fresh take on the world of superheroes. It’s certainly dark and it’s unashamedly gritty.
When you look at The Boys compared to something glossy and idealistic like Arrow or Supergirl, or the tone of the MCU which is spawning its own limited series this next year, this Amazon series based on the comics by Garth Ennis really is unlike anything else on at the moment. But just how different is it?
Here are five (spoiler-free) ways that The Boys is unlike any other superhero series - and five ways it is.
Different - The Business Of Superheroes
While there has been corporate intervention in TV series; Queen Consolidated in Arrow or STAR Labs in The Flash, no other series has approached the ideology of superheroes like a business as seen in The Boys.
Here, The Seven are the face of a major corporation who license their heroes to local governments and townships for protection. They have events, merchandise and PR people who look after the ins and outs of superhero life in the same way that a sports star would have representation. This is an incredibly interesting idea we’ve not seen before and part of this world that we could spend a lot more time exploring.
Same - City Protection
The way comic books traditionally set up heroes was that any one would usually have a jurisdiction. Superman looks after Metropolis, Spider-Man lives in Queens, The Flash protects Central City and so on. Of course, they go outside of this to help each other out, but they were always tied to just one city.
Even though the show does buck a lot of trends, this idea of having a hometown hero is something that’s still the case in The Boys, with heroes belonging to different cities that they have to look after - even small ones like Sandusky, Ohio.
Different - Blood and Guts
From the earliest trailer, it was obvious The Boys would have a dark side to it and what’s now streaming on Amazon doesn’t flinch away from that. There aren’t really any huge VFX-heavy fight scenes. Instead, all the violence is very much based in reality - even when super powers are involved.
To say that The Boys has blood in it would be an understatement. And this is something that not all series have. Arrow’s early seasons saw Oliver Queen shooting lots of people with a loose of his bow but even though a lot of them would die, there wasn’t usually any blood to be seen.
Same - Team ups
A line in The Boys says that everyone loves a team up. Members of the series’ main group of heroes, The Seven (an Avengers-like supergroup) are given assignments to go out and help with and often include more than one teaming up to kick butt.
And the same is true in other superhero universes. Every year, the shows on the CW - Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, and The Legends of Tomorrow - have a series of four episodes where they all cross over and it’s an event that the channel markets a lot more than any other episode.
Different - Guilt over hurting someone
While many, if not all heroes at the heart of superhero series go out and throw people around or even kill them, very few pause to think about whether they feel any remorse for their actions. Of course they’re usually fighting the enemy - but even foot soldiers might have a family!
This isn’t the case in The Boys and it’s an interesting idea that shows the grounding in reality of the series. Several characters - both good and bad - take time to feel guilt about some of the things they have done.
Same - Secret Identities
While the incredibly mainstream MCU has had a bit of a non-relationship with secret identities - Tony Stark announcing he was Iron Man in the very first movie - lots of current TV series have the secret identity aspect of a hero very much intact.
While there are others, there’s one hero at the heart of The Boys who keeps their real identity a secret. The heroes who don’t bother are the ones who love the celebrity of their job and this idea represents a very definite divide in the series’ heroes between the corrupted and incorruptible.
Different - religious iconography
There have always been some comparisons between superheroes and religious ideas - most recently in Superman’s representation in the DC extended universe movies. But it’s not something that’s necessarily explored in any great depth.
However, this is something that’s very much on show throughout The Boys. It’s an idea that several characters question and more concerningly, something the series’ corrupt heroes embrace and exploit. Without wanting to spoil anything, this theme is a really interesting storyline in this first season and something that could be really dug into in future series.
Same - Heroes create villains
If you look at the origins of lots of villains in comic books and subsequent TV series or movies, they usually center around the actions of a hero. This makes their ideologies and powers the polar opposite to their foes. And more often than not, their differences form the heart of many comic book storylines.
This is a theme that’s also embraced in The Boys - albeit in a much more explicit way. The results of the heroes’ actions go a long way to set up storylines for later series, which thankfully have been confirmed.
Different - Superheroes’ vices
One of the things made clear from the very first episode of The Boys is that superheroes in this universe aren’t squeaky clean. Of course Oliver Queen in Arrow isn’t free of sin but usually heroes don’t do anything too bad - especially in their downtime.
Here, however there are sequences and scenes pulled from the comic book of The Boys that are designed to show how the heroes in this world are very very different. This is never more clear than in the first episode where Billy Butcher takes Hughie to a club where he sees heroes really indulging their vices in some fairly unsightly scenes.
Same - Hierarchy of Heroes
In any series or movie, superheroes tend to fall into a hierarchy. In the DC series team-ups, The Green Arrow tends to take the lead; Tony Stark and Captain America are the leaders of The Avengers and Wonder Woman would always get better seats than Aquaman or Cyborg.
This is the case in The Boys too where The Seven has a hierarchy of the top hero - Homelander - above the likes of Queen Maeve, with A-Train and The Deep on lower rungs. This idea is also reflected in the heroes’ actions throughout the series and leads to a point where those in charge are afforded more sway as events unfold.