In most forms of media, superheroes are the good guys. They fight villains and save people who don't have special powers. But that's not always the case. The successful TV show The Boys shows a different side of superheroes. In this world, having powers automatically doesn't make a person one of the good guys. Often quite the opposite, in fact.
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Superheroes of the show are mostly corrupted, violent, unpredictable. That's especially true about the Seven, the most famous superhero team. Even though not all of them are bad, some members of the team are far from heroic.
Starlight
Starlight is by far the most heroic member of the Seven. Her big dream is to join the team because she believes it will be the best way to help people. Starlight - or Annie - is caring and kind, wants the best for the world and those she loves.
That's one of the reasons why she's in for a big disappointment when she first realizes what her fellow team members are truly like. But Starlight perseveres and in the end, she finds a way how to stay in the Seven and still help others.
Queen Maeve
By her own confession, Queen Maeve once used to be just like Starlight - idealistic, full of hope and she wanted to help people. But as time progressed, she became more and more jaded and let Homelander push her around.
Maeve isn't a bad person, she still tries to save people but also doesn't want to die. She knows very well that Homelander would try to kill her if she went against him. But she still does the right thing in the end and saves Billy Butcher's life by blackmailing Homelander. She also joins Starlight and Kimiko in their fight against Stormfront.
A-Train
A-Train seems careless and crude, but he's not downright evil. At least not as much as other, older members of the Seven. His reaction to Robin's death makes it look like he cares about no one and doesn't respect the lives of others, but as his journey continues it's clear that he's not totally heartless.
Unfortunately for A-Train, not only does he struggle with addiction, which makes him unpredictable, he also fears Homelander. He fears him so much he even kills Popclaw to stay safe, even if her death makes him miserable afterward. In other words - A-Train's biggest error is being weak, possibly a coward. But he still decides to help Hughie and Starlight in the end and gives them secret files about Stormfront's dark past.
Lamplighter
Lamplighter is another member of the Seven (albeit a former member) who joins the good side in the end. His biggest crime is burning Mallory's grandchildren. But as he later confesses, he didn't want to kill the children - since he didn't even know they would be in the house.
Lamplighter somewhat atones for his bad deeds, but once he realizes the Seven has replaced him with Starlight once and for all, he breaks down and kills himself - making his help less than useful in the end.
Translucent
Translucent only briefly appears in the beginning of the first season before the Boys kill him. He doesn't seem to be a very nice guy - he tries to kill Hughie and spies on Queen Maeve and Starlight.
But in comparison to other things his fellow team members do, Translucent seems relatively mild. Of course, he dies soon enough to tell what he was really like, but if had stayed on the show longer, he might have turned out even worse.
Black Noir
It's difficult to rank Black Noir properly since the audience doesn't know anything about his motivations. It's clear he's capable of killing - he would have killed Starlight if Queen Maeve hadn't stopped him.
But is he doing it because he enjoys killing or simply because it's what his superiors, Vought and Homelander, expect him to do? Black Noir seems like an almost unstoppable killing machine with no actual conscience, and only future seasons might reveal if there's more to him than meets the eye.
The Deep
The Deep sometimes has good intentions - especially when it comes to protecting animals, fish, dolphins, and the like. But he's not terribly bright and doesn't always go about it the right way. So his efforts end in disaster more often than not.
He's also awful toward women and he manipulates Starlight into doing his bidding shortly after she joins the Seven. Sexual abuse is a horrific offense and it puts the Deep fairly high on the list of baddies, and no cult-induced groveling can change that.
Homelander
Until Stormfront came along, Homelander was by far the worst member of the Seven. Violent, unpredictable, cunning - and with no respect for human life. The only thing that stopped Homelander from committing even more mass murders was his worry about his reputation.
Yes, Homelander wants people to like him, to believe he's a real hero. His love (or as close to love as he's capable of) for his son Ryan humanizes Homelander a little, but it still doesn't erase all the bad things he's done. Plus, Homelander isn't the best dad, to put it mildly.
Stormfront
In a way, Stormfront is even crueler and more destructive than Homelander, possibly because she has a clear agenda and she aims to follow it. Stormfront is a former member of the Nazi party and she still believes in things the Nazis promoted during the World War II.
She's good at manipulating people to help her, as she demonstrates by making Homelander join her side. What's more, she also enjoys killing people - as Stormfront herself says, she likes it when the light goes out of their eyes, which makes her downright psychopathic.
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