Summary
The core premise ofThe Boysis trying to take down the corrupt superheroes known as the Seven. Almost the entire story is dedicated toButcher and his team taking down Homelander, but in the final issue, Hughie admits they had the wrong target all along. This isn’t because he now knows about Black Noir’s true identity or the horrific secret of the G-Men, but because the Supes were only ever a symptom of a far darker problem.
Hughie realizes the true enemy that they should have been focusing on the entire time inThe Boys#72 by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson. AfterHomelander’s pitch-perfect death at Black Noir’s hands, it seems that the problem of fascistic Supes has been solved. After all, the major antagonist is finally gone, and his planned coup is a failure. However, as Hughie takes over the Boys, he now understands the true root of the problem.
The true villain ofThe Boyswas never Homelander, but the Vought corporation. Meeting with Vought executive James Stillwell,Hughie admits"we should’ve gone straight at the ******* corporation in the first place, instead o' wastin' our time on the ********** in tights.“That’s the big tragedy aboutThe Boys' conclusion; Butcher never cared about saving the world or even stopping Vought, all he wanted was his single-minded revenge. Despite killing two horrific villains in Homelander and Black Noir, nothing has actually changed.
The Boys' Homelander Only Considers 1 Other Person a True “Superhuman”
The whole point of Homelander is that there’s no-one in the world of The Boys who can hold a candle to him, but there is one “superhuman” he respects.
Like the superheroes the series despises, the Boys beat the big villain, but the status quo persists.
Vought Is The True Villain Of The Boys
The Boys #72by Garth Ennis, Darick Robertson, Richard P. Clark, Simon Bowland, and Tony Avina
While Homelander was certainly animmediatethreat to the world, he pales in comparison to Vought’s evil.Vought created nearly every Supe and covered up their crimes in the name of profit. At the same time, their business practices hurt countless people, causing pain and misery on a (literally) industrial scale.Mother’s Milk’s entire family were destroyedby Vought just through his mother working for them, while creating the Seven required experimentation on hundreds of people. As Stillwell comments when Hughie asks what he’ll sell now, if Vought doesn’t have Supes, it will just exploit people using"something else.”
Homelander was a monster, but he was just one of hundreds of monsters Vought created and protected to turn a profit. With him and Black Noir dead and public opinion turning against Supes, Vought might not want another Homelander, but it will turn to countless other forms of exploitation, cruelty and silencing. Like the superheroes the series despises, the Boys beat the big villain, but the status quo persists.
The Boys Is a Cynical Story & Its Ending Reflects That
In the original comics,The Boyswas a sincere critique of the superhero archetype and the comics business, but it also took aim at organized religion, politics and corporate malfeasance, criticizing a society where extreme exploitation is covered by the thinnest of veneers. Of course, making a point about the real world means the series can’t end with a perfect world - or even one that much better off than where the story started. In its cynical, caustic worldview,The Boysallows its titular team to defeat the one threat unique to their fictional world, but that’s all. At the conclusion ofThe Boys, the Vought corporation changes its name and keeps on doing business, with Hughie’s biggest victory being that theyprobablywon’t attempt to recreate Homelander all over again.
The Boys
Cast
The Boys is a gritty and subversive take on the superhero genre, focusing on a group of vigilantes who confront powerful superheroes abusing their abilities, exploring themes of corruption and moral ambiguity in a world where heroes are not always what they seem.
