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The Boys Season 4: Exploring 6 Biggest Series Changes From The Comics
The fourth season of The Boys has ended, and while the series is based on the comics, there have been a few major changes. Read ahead to find out the 6 biggest shits.
Warning: Some spoilers are ahead.
Amazon Prime’s one of the most loved and watched series The Boys is based on the comics created by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson. However, even though the showrunner Eric Kripke tried to keep the basic storyline and the background of the character the same as in the comics, the situations, and the connections have seen some major changes.
The showrunners often take a story from a comic and turn the storyline according to their vision. With The Boys, that is what happening. The gap between the comics and the TV adaptation is growing so much that in Season 4, the narrative is completely different from the comics. Here are a few big changes that can be identified.
Kimiko’s backstory
While the writers of The Boys and Karen Fukuhara gave a new dimension to the character, Kimiko, in the comics, the character doesn’t even have a name. She is just known as "the Female of the Species” and contributes as a side character, majorly in battle sequences. There has been no backstory of her character.
However, in the TV adaptation, the writers started to dig deep into her backstory and gave her a name - Kimiko. In season 4, her background will be clarified as well. In the books, after she fell into Compound V waste as a child, she was a lifelong prisoner of an evil scientist but in the series, it is shown that Kimiko developed her mutism after getting to force-fight other kids in a cage by Shining Light soldiers. That’s how her silence became a weapon to survive.
A-Train’s character dynamics
A-Train’s character in the comics and in the series begins in the same way by killing Hughie Campbell's girlfriend Robin Mawhinney, which made Hughie to join the Boys. However, in the comics, A-Train gets over his guilt quickly and is shown as a nightmarish person who even annoys the Supes with his recklessness and self-obsessed nature. Eventually, Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) gets to him and Hughie kills him.
But in the series, his anxiety-driven nature is shown to the point where he ditches Homelander and the Supes to become an informant of the Boys. A-Train even makes peace with Hughie (Jack Quaid). At the end of season 4, he can be seen hiding from the wrath of Homelander. Quite drastic.
Firecracker’s introduction is original to the series
Originally in the comics, there aren’t many female supes present in the Seven except, Queen Maeve and Starlight (who joins to replace Lamplighter). However, after Maeve’s fake death, it was only Starlight. However, in the TV series, several new female Supes get added to the Seven, including Stormfront (a gender flip of the comics), Jessica Bradley aka Sister Sage (a re-written character as Supe), and Firecracker played by Valorie Curry. Firecracker is an OG character in the series. Her mention is not there in the comics.
Billy Butcher’s new power?
While the comics portrayed almost all pivotal characters to be superpowered from early on, the series showed a different path by separating supes/non-supes - the Seven and the Boys (except Kimiko). But when Billy and Hughie take Temp V (a variation of Compound V) that gives temporary superpowers, the storyline starts to shift in the series. Butcher in the initial phase got a similar power to his comic counterpart, including superhuman strength and durability, along with Homelander’s invulnerability and heat vision.
But in season 4, his character arc was changed when he started to show symptoms of having a tumor-like black mass in his body as a side effect of Compound V. However, in the season finale, the mass becomes a superpower that includes huge tendrils shooting out of his chest with massive strength. This is nothing like the comics!
Victoria Neuman?
Another gender-flipped character from the comics to the series is Victoria Neuman who is known in the comics as Victor (Vic the Veep). In the original content, he’s a lot less important and he comes in prominence after he becomes president by accident. But in the TV adaption, Victoria shows deliberate attempts to walk up the ladder to become president. However, in the later half of season 4, Homelander outs her as a supe when she goes to the Boys to seek help fearing the danger for her and her daughter. The only common thing among the characters in comics and series is that they both die when things start to gear up.
Ryan Butcher becomes the central arc
In the comics, Black Noir sexually harasses Billy’s wife, leaving her pregnant with their child. While Becca dies during childbirth in the books. In the series, it was actually done by Homelander, and Becca and their child are well alive until she dies in a heartbreaking scene. However, Ryan Butcher was kept hidden under Vought’s supervision. After Becca’s death, he is cared for by Butcher until Homelander finds him and takes him under his wing.
Now, what is going to happen in the next season is quite in debate as the comics’ finale will not match the storyline of the series. What are your thoughts about it? Let us know.
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