From the series’ initial teaser trailer, it seemed Amazon was keen to make sure The Boys stayed true to its source material and presented a dark and gritty world in which superheroes are more than corruptible. Now the series has landed on the streaming platform for fans to watch all at once and that’s the aesthetic that the producers have absolutely stuck to.
The Boys as a series is incredibly dark and not at all like the superhero outings we’re used to seeing on the big screen. While it doesn’t actually really show any of the series’ central heroes saving anybody, it does show what they get up to in their time off and all the ways that they take advantage of their status to essentially do whatever they want.
With that in mind, here are ten spoiler-filled moment where The Boys doesn’t flinch.
Hughie’s Girlfriend Is Killed
Reading The Flash comics, you might have wondered what would happen if he were to run into someone. The Boys answers that question as A-Train - the series’ very own fastest man alive runs into - or should we say runs through - Robin, the girlfriend of Hughie.
Robin essentially explodes on impact, leaving Hughie standing holding her hands - and just her hands. This is the event that sets up and kicks off the series’ entire story arc and is one of the most gruesome deaths in all ten episodes of the show.
The Secret Lair
Hughie’s introduction into the superhero world is by Billy Butcher who takes him to The Secret Lair, a discreet private members’ club where superheroes can indulge in their vices, whatever they may be.
As the two non-superheroes make their way through the club, they’re met with lots of interesting happenings which the series doesn’t flinch from showing. What this scene does, aside from set the tone for this unashamedly dark series, is show Hughie and the audience that super heroes in this world aren’t the pure, goody-two-shoes shiny beings that we’re used to seeing on screen.
Starlight’s Introduction To The Seven
It’s one of the key moments in the comic books that had questions around its appearance in this series. Hughie, someone who lives on the outside of the superhero world is shown the dark side of superheroes in The Secret Lair while Starlight, the newest member of The Seven experiences it from the inside.
The series’ only ‘good’ superhero, Starlight is played brilliantly by Erin Moriarty who is introduced to her new role by being raped by The Deep. This sets him up as an incredibly corrupt and deeply disgusting character but also shows Starlight the reality of who she’s now working with which propels her to stay good.
Translucent’s Death
Because one person exploding wasn’t enough, the beginning of the series sees the titular characters, The Boys trying to work out how to kill a superhero after he’s electrocuted by Hughie and held in a cage. Because Translucent - one of the main heroes in The Seven - has impenetrable skin, the only way is to put explosives…. Inside him.
After several threats of detonating said explosives, Translucent escapes and the only way to stop him getting back to tell everything to his superhero pals is to hit the trigger. Hughie does so and is absolutely showered in blood and invisible body parts which makes for a really hard clean up job.
Homelander’s Worst Moment
Homelander is the equivalent of Captain America or Superman - he’s the head of The Seven and represents truth, justice, and the American way. Initially set up as one of the only heroes who’s not been at least caught doing anything corrupt, you quickly learn that he’d not the golden boy he’s presented to be when the cameras are rolling.
This is solidified when he flies up to save a hi-jacked plane and instead of doing that leaves everyone to die and then uses it as good publicity for The Seven and why they’re needed in the military.
Popclaw Crushes A Head
A moment that was seen in the trailers, Popclaw is a minor character who we’re told used to be one of Vought’s best stars. But her fading stardom and an addiction to drugs means she’s in dire straits.
As such, she needs to seduce her landlord in order to avoid paying rent she can’t afford and in doing so ultimately crushes his head in a really gruesome fashion. This is a turning point for The Boys who get the whole thing on tape and use it to blackmail her into helping them.
Dolphin Rescue
The Deep is one of the series’ strangest characters who - on being put on probation from The Seven - is sent to a town in Ohio. Here, we’re told many times about the town’s waterpark and aquarium which The Deep must endorse as an Aquaman-like hero. He decides that the best course of action is to steal a dolphin from the park and take it home as company.
This is an odd addition to the series but is ultimately a brief storyline as a car accident means the dolphin is immediately ejected from The Deep’s van where it’s hit by a truck in a really bloody sequence.
Black Noir And The Female Fight
One of The Seven who purposely doesn’t get anything to do is Black Noir - that is until his beautiful piano solo in the last episode. His only on-screen fight is with The Female, the only super-powered member of The Boys and is a really realistic punch up even though both are supes.
This unflinching nature of all the fighting in The Boys is mostly done in camera without visual effects and this is a nice moment of well-choreographed scrapping that’ gives both of these frankly underused characters a great moment to show what they’re capable of.
A-Train’s Leg Is Broken
The Female is also responsible for another attack on one of The Seven. While Hughie confronts A-Train leading up to the series finale, she sneaks up behind him and hits him with a crowbar. Being the fastest man alive, The Female hits him where it hurts and breaks one of his legs which is seen in excruciating details with the snapped bone sticking out of his leg as he writhes in pain.
The gore isn’t the selling point of this series like it with some ‘gritty’ series and it’s dealt with in such a matter of fact way. If a super-powered person was to hit anyone with a crowbar, it would definitely do this amount of damage.
Stillwell’s Final Moments
Set up as the mastermind of the whole series, by the end of this first run of ten episodes, Madelyn Stillwell is overtaken by Homelander as the big bad. She’s used as a pawn between Keith Urban’s Billy Butcher which ultimately fails because Homelander has no more use for her and instead of giving Butcher the satisfaction of killing her, meets her eyeline with his own laser vision.
We’ve seen at several moments throughout this first series how powerful this power of his is even from a distance so the damage that it does at point blank range is pretty gruesome and adds a cherry on top of what’s been a really unflinching look at superheroes in The Boys.