No Surrender Cinema: The Boys (Season 1)

There’s an old adage that absolute power corrupts absolutely; the more power one gains, the more their sense of morality decreases.  This is the basis of Garth Ennis’ long running comic book series about the dark side of superheroism, The Boys.  It tells the tale of the world’s super powered beings, and the depravity they enjoy in their daily lives.  With an adoring public tricked into believing what they see in the news is gospel, it’s up to those who know what’s really going on (the titular Boys) to expose these superheroes as the scumbags they are and take them off their pedestal.
After years of rumors about a movie being made and a few trips to developmental hell, The Boys has finally made the transition from comic page to television screen thanks to Amazon Prime.  The eight episode first season premiered one week ago (as these words are being typed), and while it’s not a panel by panel adaptation of Billy Butcher’s war against those with extraordinary abilities, it holds true to the source material with plenty of graphic sex, violence, and humor to make eight hours of your time fly by.

Since The Boys is still in its infancy, I’ll warn anyone unfamiliar with the book, and especially those who haven’t seen the show, that some spoilers lay ahead.  I’ll do my best to keep them to a minimum, but if you care about that sort of thing, this might have to be the one time you skip over a No Surrender Cinema entry.

With only eight hours to introduce an entire world of established heroes and their various addictions and character flaws, Eric Kripke and co. certainly had their work cut out for them.  The Marvel Cinematic Universe took a decade to establish a variety of heroes, villains, and the circumstances that surrounded them.  Kripke had eight hours.  Comparatively it’s a drop in the bucket to the MCU franchises, but what it’s able to establish it does well.  In the comics, the overlying story arc is built on encounters with an assortment of super teams, government officials, old allies, and new friends.  That comic book world is quite condensed here, but for good reason; by the end of The Boys you have a good idea of everyone’s motivations, and really feel for some of the characters (good and bad).

After his girlfriend Robin is decimated by the super speedster A-Train, Hughie Campbell (Jack Quaid… I dare you to look at him and not see the resemblance to his dad Dennis) has a hatred for superheroes burning in his heart.  As a member of the elite team known as The Seven (just picture DC Comics’ Justice League), A-Train’s actions are spun as collateral damage during one of his missions.  Vought International, the corporation who oversees every aspect of The Seven’s lives, does what it can to sweep it under the rug, but the offer of buying Hughie’s silence turns the meek young man into one seething with anger.  Billy Butcher (Karl Urban), a man with a checkered past as it pertains to superheroes, takes advantage of Hughie’s vulnerable state and recruits him into battle against all superheoes.  Billy, as it turns out, was part of a black ops team that served to keep superheroes in line, and though they’ve disbanded, he still holds a grudge for reasons that become clear as the series goes on.  Hughie reluctantly follows his lead, and it’s not long before Butcher’s old buddies Frenchie (Tomer Kapon) and Mother’s Milk (Laz Alonso) have their own reluctant reunions with him.  

With The Boys back together, the series sets up The Seven to be their main rivals.  Hughie is angry towards A-Train and Vought, which Butcher exploits in an effort to get further insight into The Seven.  Hughie’s first assignment goes horribly wrong as he’s seen by the invisible hero Translucent (an Amazon Exclusive who replaces the comic character Jack From Jupiter in The Seven).  Translucent shows up at Hughie’s job and nearly kills him for thinking he could put one over on The Seven, but Butcher’s well timed arrival spares Hughie an untimely demise.  Translucent is locked up and tortured by Butcher and The Boys to no avail, but some quick thinking by Frenchie and an escape attempt by the invisible being leads to him becoming a pile of gore on the floor of an old restaurant.  This marks the second bloody body explosion Hughie has had to witness (the first being his girlfriend), and it serves to show that the way to keep an even playing field with the superheroes will not always be a diplomatic one.

Running parallel to Hughie’s inclusion in The Boys is Annie January’s enlistment in The Seven.  Known as the super heroine Starlight, Annie is a small town girl with big dreams not unlike the old tales of wannabe Hollywood starlets.  Whereas the women in those tales would do anything to get ahead, Annie/Starlight is strong in her convictions, even after her first encounter with teammate The Deep leads to a superhero Harvey Weinstein situation.  Annie’s experience leaves her jaded, and she struggles to take her role seriously while those around her are content to exploit their standing in society (and their powers) to feel greater than the mere mortals that worship them.  To that end, there is none more narcissistic than The Homelander (Banshee’s Antony Starr, who looks to be having the time of his life in this role), Ennis’ spin on Superman.  Much like the Man of Steel he is the most recognizable, most adored hero of all, and as expected that makes him the most depraved of all (even if he doesn’t put all his cards on the table at once).

The eventual meeting of Hughie and Annie is easily predictable even if you haven’t followed the comics, and there’s a lot of lip service paid to the early issues of The Boys.  One thing I appreciate about the Amazon series is that it doesn’t try to overwhelm you with by diving deep into the extended superhero universe.  En route to the new version of The Boys’ battle with The Seven, we’ve met Teenage Kix, The G-Men (and all the assorted G teams), Love Sausage, and Payback.  There are a few nods and Easter eggs for fans like me to pick up on, like references to The Lamplighter and Tek Knight, and I’m sure as the series rolls on we’ll be introduced to more than a few of those characters.  Even a few of the core characters like Black Noir (the Batman-esque member of The Seven) take a backseat so that plotlines like the Homelander/Stillwell relationship, The Deep’s struggle with feeling worthy, and Hughie and Annie’s relationship can play out.

Though Kripke’s vision for our anti-heroes doesn’t stray too far from its source material, there are enough changes that it might cause concern for devout followers.  Major changes were made concerning the origins of The Female (a mute Asian girl who in the books is an established member by the time of the reunion… here she is a captive discovered by Butcher and friends that Frenchie takes a liking to).  The story surrounding Compound V has an air of mystery to it, while in the books it’s often used by The Boys themselves so that they’re on equal ground with their intended rivals.   This twist completely changes the origins of Mother’s Milk, and gives more of an underdog, “regular guy” feel to The Boys.  The biggest detour from the original thread is the one that directly affects Butcher.  In the story, his disdain is exacerbated by the death of his wife, Becky, who was raped and murdered by a superhero.  Not only that, but the baby produced by the rape was super powered and had to be “put down” by Butcher.  Since I’m not sure how that scene would play out with Standards and Practices even on a service that gives creators carte blanche like Amazon Prime, I can see why it was omitted.  Still, the path chosen is similar yet different, and instead of something that fuels Butcher’s fire for the foreseeable future, it’s a situation that he’s confronted with in the final episode of the season in an expected, yet still somewhat shocking twist.

There were things that I expected, and there were things that threw me off the scent, but I can wholeheartedly say that after years of anticipation I’m greately satisfied by the live action adaptation of The Boys.  Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg did more justice to this than they did to Preacher (which breaks my heart to say, since Preacher is another Ennis project that I was always a fan of), and the casting is top notch.  The performances of Quaid, Urban, Starr, and Moriarty especially are each fantastic in their own right, from Starr’s scenery chewing villainy to Quaid’s portrayal of a decent man done wrong.  I would also be remiss in not mentioning Elisabeth Shue as Madeline Stillwell.  Who would have thought that Ali from The Karate Kid would one day be a vixen enjoying the attention of a superhero with an Oedipus complex?  It’s so weird that it works, but weird in our world is perfectly normal in theirs.

All eight episodes of The Boys are streaming now on Amazon Prime, and if it interests you as much as it did me, those eight hours will fly by.  It’s a quick binge (trust me, I’ve been through it several times already), and manages to showcase the dark side of superheroes without being miserable like a DC movie.  Plus, you’re not going to find babies with laser vision blowing assassins apart and ass eating so intense it crushes heads in any of that standard superhero fare.  Just make sure the kids are in bed before you spend some time with The Boys.