THE HIDDEN SUPERVILLAIN OF THE BOYS
Opening
Spoilers ahead. Season three of The Boys was outstanding. Soldier boy, Black Noir, and the introduction to their team was as quickly and intelligently executed, as those very team members through the season’s eight episodes. Every single season ends with Homelander, the main antagonist, being forced to take a step back and then the main characters make sure he is unable to take a step forward. We have been awaiting Homelander’s demise for three seasons now; however, I am here to convince everyone that most do not know who the actual villain of The Boys even is, even though he has been displayed to be the most horrible person throughout the entire show.
The “True” Antagonist
The show does an incredible job of capturing characters’ emotions and personalities; I am yet to find a single character to which I am indifferent. It feels incredibly satisfying to finally see our main heroes be able to leave Homelander bruised. Nobody ever saw him harmed before, and as we all hope our heroes will finally have a way to neutralize Homelander, we all forget why is he exactly the main antagonist, and is he at all? What would killing Homelander achieve? There will be one psychopath with unwieldy power less, but no change long term. I am here to vouch that the real antagonist of the show is Vaught, the corporation that created the superhero serum and superheroes in general. Homelander and the representatives are just a part of an organism that will suffer from losing him but recover. Vaught is not concerned with people or committing acts of heroism or saving lives which the CEO of Vaught, Stan Edgar, confirms during a secret meeting when he says that the official allowed collateral casualties are at around 30 percent. During the plane scene in season two, it was shown how Homelander, instead of saving the plane full of people allows it to crush near the beach to get more PR and recognition from the event. Nothing matters but shareholders and public image.
With Great Power…
In the modern world people with immense power do not care about life quality or lives in general, but shareholders and the company’s profits. Disney, Facebook, Amazon, and more corporations purchase more and more companies yearly and as of now hold a monopoly over many sectors of our lives. The whole situation is ironic because the company responsible for turning The Boys from a mildly interesting comic into a fascinating show is Amazon; For those unaware, Amazon is considered to be one of the evillest corporations with worker’s rights violations being a common practice. Not even the government is able to intervene because of the sheer size of these corporations. We might be entering a new age where corporations control everything and hold more power than our governments.
Conclusion
In the end, Homeladner is still a fascinating character and could potentially be nominated as the best villain of this decade. It is rare to see a superhero content creator that can take an old idea of an evil superman and make it so relatable to the common folk with our real problems of global corporations overtaking all media and goods we consume and how immense power in one individual’s hands harms the society and our freedoms. I hope that eventually, we will get our own Boys that will begin the fight for the media space to be free of company influence, against monopolies, against the powerful who want to abuse the powerless.
Written by Maddie Tim Fox