THE BOYS on Amazon Prime

[Immortal Weapon]

I'm very curious about what Stormfront's relationship with Edgar is. He was the one who made her part of the Seven and he's black. That can't sit well with her.

It's great to see Terror still has the **** it command.

[Denkota]

The sickness of the two made stormfront and homelander the ideal partner for each other and it's interesting how she is going to manipulate him. The deep arc is kind of just there till now but it could get hairy if mauve is successful in convincing him to go up against homelander and it could ultimately put both in cahoots with the boys. The fight against Black Noir was nothing especially to shout about but it did defang the character a bit when he couldn't take them out in a blink of an eye given who he supposedly is. Some are speculating that he couldn't be homelanders clone given his current showings but I am of the opinion that he is the first product of Vought labs and is a sort of imperfect attempt at creating a super soldier which wasn't entirely successful and homelander is his genetic duplicate perfected later on. It would be a twist for black noir to be created first and homelander being made after him but turning out to be a outstanding success though they didn't attempt it again due to the volatility of the lab subjects produced. All in all a nice episode that captures interest though starlight getting out of tight situations involving her colleagues is becoming a oft repeated trope.

[Immortal Weapon]

There's to be a couple of different plays against Homelander from what I'm seeing. There's the blackmail Butcher has on Edgar with Becca being alive and Ryan existing, and Mauve planning something with The Deep. Starlight still has her pact with A-Train so that could develop into something depending on how desperate he is to get back into the Seven. Lots of things going on against Homelander and Stormfront.

[Hellion]

I love this show but have never read the comic.

I just have a question for those in the know: is the pacing of this show ever going to pick up? I'm still thoroughly enjoying it, but I got a little pissed with the Homelander massacring protestors fake-out. For a few seconds I got super excited thinking the meandering plot this season was actually going somewhere. We've only got 3 episodes left this season and it still feels like the story hasn't really gone anywhere this season. Is it like this in the comics? I'm just concerned since Kripke says he's only planning on 5 seasons for this show.

[numberthirty]

I love this show but have never read the comic.

I just have a question for those in the know: is the pacing of this show ever going to pick up? I'm still thoroughly enjoying it, but I got a little pissed with the Homelander massacring protestors fake-out. For a few seconds I got super excited thinking the meandering plot this season was actually going somewhere. We've only got 3 episodes left this season and it still feels like the story hasn't really gone anywhere this season. Is it like this in the comics? I'm just concerned since Kripke says he's only planning on 5 seasons for this show.

Nope.

Barring Hughie when he is recruited, every member of The Boys is a supe. They are actively taking out the trash and cracking skulls.

There is also some stuff in the streaming series that is strictly created for that version of it.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

I just have a question for those in the know: is the pacing of this show ever going to pick up? I'm still thoroughly enjoying it, but I got a little pissed with the Homelander massacring protestors fake-out. For a few seconds I got super excited thinking the meandering plot this season was actually going somewhere. We've only got 3 episodes left this season and it still feels like the story hasn't really gone anywhere this season. Is it like this in the comics? I'm just concerned since Kripke says he's only planning on 5 seasons for this show.

As far as comics go, The Boys was an ongoing that reached around 70 issues. So that means the comics' pacing was if anything, even slower than what you have in the show.

I think the pacing is fine. Both the comics and show are stories where basically the Team and the leader, Butcher, has a main goal and objective (take down Homelander) but to pad out and delay that, and also build up to it, there are many other superheroes and sub-teams who are introduced to be taken down and taken out in episodic stories.

The comics because they ran longer and had more room, actually introduced even more superheroes and superteams than the show has done so far, so on that level it might have been better paced because the show is more heavily serialized than episodic as compared to the comics. I think The Boys need to get to a more episodic place where basically every episode they hunt down a different superhero and team because that's how the comics worked. Right now, the show has focused on a Season Villain and Season Arc, so obviously Season 2 is about taking down Stormfront, where Season 1 was taking down The Deep and A-Train.

[Hellion]

Thanks for the responses. And I've realized my problem with the pacing this season is partly Amazon's decision to only release an episode a week.

As I said above, though, really enjoying the show. Kripke can do no wrong for me. I'm just eager for them to actually kill another supe soon. Translucent was forever ago.

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

I love this show but have never read the comic.

I just have a question for those in the know: is the pacing of this show ever going to pick up? I'm still thoroughly enjoying it, but I got a little pissed with the Homelander massacring protestors fake-out. For a few seconds I got super excited thinking the meandering plot this season was actually going somewhere. We've only got 3 episodes left this season and it still feels like the story hasn't really gone anywhere this season. Is it like this in the comics? I'm just concerned since Kripke says he's only planning on 5 seasons for this show.

I think this season is a bit deceptive. A lot has happened already. More than in the prior season. It just feels like something bigger is coming so all the plot advancement isn’t as notable and it’s harder to see an endgame.

-Butcher knows Becca’s alive.
-he went back to her and was visiting her
-Becca cut things off to raise her kid without fear of Butcher.
-Now he’s firmly back in the boys
-Starlight stole compound V and leaked it to the world.
-she’s currently in a standoff with A-Train and Stormfront mutually blackmailing then for knowing she was the leaker
-she also broke things off with Hughie
-Kimiko’s brother was revealed and murdered. Now she’s an assassin who left the Boys dealing with grief
-Edgar took over and is undermining Homelander
-Edgar clearly was revealed to be in control of Black Noir and if you paid attention was all over Stormfront emails
-Stormfront is revealed to be an ageless racist
-She is clearly manipulating Homelander who is now in a relationship with her while also being kind of a double agent trying to slander Vought in the media
-Maeve was outed and is now making moves to join up with the Deep to takedown Homelander
-A-Train is out of the Seven now and is one of two people to know Starlights secret
-Homelander is trying to place house with Becca and failing
-We got confirmation that a Becca was raped
-Homelander is slowly breaking at the seams because his facade is falling apart without Stilwell and for the first time he lacks control and is the one being manipulated.
-Oh and now we have a de facto truce between Vought and the Boys

That’s a freaking lot. I think the issue is, last season it was relatively the Boys as one singular plot thread together (with Hughie and Starlight’s relationship and Butcher’s quest driving it) vs the Seven trying to get in the army while they were slowly being dismantled (with the side plot of Becca and Homelander that kind of melded into Butcher’s plot).

Now all the individual characters are getting autonomy and their own threads so there is a bit of reshuffling going on and it’s harder to see where it all will end

Also the show is nothing like the comics at this point, too much is different. Several characters aren’t even recognizable.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Also the show is nothing like the comics at this point, too much is different. Several characters aren’t even recognizable.

I disagree with that, thoroughly. The spirit of the show is the spirit of the comics. Karl Urban's Billy is absolutely the character in the comics as is Erin Moriarty's Starlight, and Randy Quaid's Hughie while now a full American still has the same dynamic with both Billy and Annie as he does in the comics. Even Rebecca Butcher, her reasons for not going to Billy right away with what happened to her, those are the same reasons Becca wrote in her diary in the comics, where she expressed fear and grief about what Billy would do should he find out. The other characters are different -- Frenchie and Mother's Milk aren't the exaggerated stereotypes they are in the comics, and Kimiko has more characterization than she did in the comics as well.

The show is taking different roads to get to the same place that's all, but fundamentally I still see the show eventually heading to the same place as the comics in terms of conclusion. Whether it will do it the same way with the same gimmicks and so on, that remains to be seen. But the bedrock of The Boys is still the comics, no question.

The changes that the show has made is mostly due to the fact that the comics came out in the 2000s during the late-Bush early Obama years, whereas the show was made and released in the Trump Presidency and after #MeToo. Rebecca Butcher in the comics was a fridged saint but in the show, that thing has become distasteful so they had to alter it (though who knows if things will stay that way eventually). Just because the show isn't 1:1 dot-for-dot the comics, which nothing ever is, doesn't mean it's different.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Thanks for the responses. And I've realized my problem with the pacing this season is partly Amazon's decision to only release an episode a week.

As I said above, though, really enjoying the show. Kripke can do no wrong for me. I'm just eager for them to actually kill another supe soon. Translucent was forever ago.

The show has killed other supes...they killed Popclaw (although that was Homelander and A-Train's doing), then Billy Butcher massacred Mesmer (an ex-superhero turned snitch).

This season has teased out Stormfront and last episode reintroduced Lamplighter (the guy who murdered Mallory's grandchildren and responsible for their first disbanding). A-Train and The Deep are also characters who are set up for huge falls.

[numberthirty]

I disagree with that, thoroughly. The spirit of the show is the spirit of the comics. Karl Urban's Billy is absolutely the character in the comics as is Erin Moriarty's Starlight, and Randy Quaid's Hughie while now a full American still has the same dynamic with both Billy and Annie as he does in the comics. Even Rebecca Butcher, her reasons for not going to Billy right away with what happened to her, those are the same reasons Becca wrote in her diary in the comics, where she expressed fear and grief about what Billy would do should he find out. The other characters are different -- Frenchie and Mother's Milk aren't the exaggerated stereotypes they are in the comics, and Kimiko has more characterization than she did in the comics as well.

The show is taking different roads to get to the same place that's all, but fundamentally I still see the show eventually heading to the same place as the comics in terms of conclusion. Whether it will do it the same way with the same gimmicks and so on, that remains to be seen. But the bedrock of The Boys is still the comics, no question.

The changes that the show has made is mostly due to the fact that the comics came out in the 2000s during the late-Bush early Obama years, whereas the show was made and released in the Trump Presidency and after #MeToo. Rebecca Butcher in the comics was a fridged saint but in the show, that thing has become distasteful so they had to alter it (though who knows if things will stay that way eventually). Just because the show isn't 1:1 dot-for-dot the comics, which nothing ever is, doesn't mean it's different.

Brownie points just for making me laugh on that one...

That said, this ain't anything like "Comics" Butcher. His wife's fate made him into a largely different guy. Never mind that he doesn't have -

Minor "Comics" Spoilers! Seriously, Don't Highlight This If You Want To Go Into The Series Cold!

spoilers:

The Whole "Scorched Earth" plan where he even intends on murdering MM/Frenchie/The Female if it means wiping supes off of the face of the planet.

end of spoilers

[numberthirty]

That's setting aside that the "Comics" version of the team is largely the fallout of Mallory's looking to settle a score. The show isn't really even touching on that.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Brownie points just for making me laugh on that one...

That said, this ain't anything like "Comics" Butcher. His wife's fate made him into a largely different guy. Never mind that he doesn't have -

Minor "Comics" Spoilers! Seriously, Don't Highlight This If You Want To Go Into The Series Cold!

spoilers:

The Whole "Scorched Earth" plan where he even intends on murdering MM/Frenchie/The Female if it means wiping supes off of the face of the planet.

end of spoilers

WRT to spoilers, who's to say the show won't ultimately send Billy down that path. He does have a genocidal hatred for supers in the show, right? That's true.

[inisideguy]

I think you're misreading the character, vis a vis her belief in individual empowerment. She doesn't give a crap about individual empowerment. She cares about SELF empowerment. As in, empowering herself. She uses populist rhetoric not because she has any interest in making people or their lives better, but because she knows she can weaponize the mob to her own ends once they have put their trust in her and will do her bidding. She's building a cult of personality, the sole purpose of which is to serve as her personal army. Which she even straight up tells Homelander when he confronts her about her actions. ("I'm not creating followers. I'm creating soldiers.") And she's doing it by stoking fear, and conditioning those that will listen to her that existing institutions have no power to protect them. That only she, and through her they, can do so.





























Short of her putting on a tiny mustache and waxing poetic about her struggle, I'm not sure the Hitler parallel gets any clearer.

Exactly right. Stormfront isn't a feminist. She is a Nazi. She is trying to paint a picture of herself to the public that she is something she isn't. She is insidious. And whats I think is going to happen is she has an idealogy. She has a mission. And she wants to use Homelander to help fulfill it. Problem is Homelander isn't a Nazi. He doesnt care about race. He views everyone as beneath him. White, Black, Brown whatever. His agenda is for himself. She on the other hand has a bigger mission. She is going to try and rope Homelander into it and she is going to pay the price. Because he just wants to be popular and adored by the public that he thinks are a joke. There are so many parallels they are using right now with whats really going on in this country its brilliant. Yet scary at the same time.

[Sammael]

Exactly right. Stormfront isn't a feminist. She is a Nazi. She is trying to paint a picture of herself to the public that she is something she isn't. She is insidious. And whats I think is going to happen is she has an idealogy. She has a mission. And she wants to use Homelander to help fulfill it. Problem is Homelander isn't a Nazi. He doesnt care about race. He views everyone as beneath him. White, Black, Brown whatever. His agenda is for himself. She on the other hand has a bigger mission. She is going to try and rope Homelander into it and she is going to pay the price. Because he just wants to be popular and adored by the public that he thinks are a joke. There are so many parallels they are using right now with whats really going on in this country its brilliant. Yet scary at the same time.

Homelander = Neocon version of Trump

Stormfront = Bannon/Stephen Miller