The Boys episode 1 review: A case for hating superheroes

Based on a comic book series that hates superheroes just as much as any notorious supervillain, The Boys is a loud anthem to a realistic interpretation of super-powerful characters.

In the growing era of comic-adapted movies and television series, comic media needs to grip us from the first episode. While superheroes are a prevalent shtick throughout comic media, the premise of The Boys is unique enough. As a story about a team of superhero-hating vigilantes, the Amazon Prime series establishes its own voice in the comic book media arena.

While superhero fandoms rely on mysticism, The Boys demystifies all that wonder and idealistic worldbuilding to create a chaotic approach to alleged “heroes.” Like its comic predecessor, the series opener illustrates its Supes as capitalistic venturers who care more about their profits than the people they claim to protect.

By showing us how the Supes campaign in different districts, the series succeeds in creating a nihilist approach to superheroes. When we’re arguably living in a real-life dystopia, it’s nice to distract ourselves with a fictional one. Being cynical about satirical versions of the superheroes we love is just an added bonus.

In a world full of Supes we love to hate, the Amazon series creates an especially villainous character with The Deep. The Deep isn’t necessarily the big bad of the series, but we hate him the most. Watching him abuse his power to sexually assault Starlight established him as a heinous character. This scene is disturbingly impactful. And thankfully, the series makes a point not to show the actual assault — just like the show removed some disturbing comic panels from its adaptation. Beyond establishing The Deep’s characterization, this scene gives the audience motivation to hate him and to hate Supes in general.

A particular highlight of the first episode is how The Boys infuses real-life political propaganda into its characters. The first episode shows how the Supes fearmonger public officials into believing their districts need a superhero to feel safe. When they aren’t hired as a city’s official Supe, the fearmongering comes with deadly repercussions (e.g. the Homelander method).

With some dominant evil characters like The Deep and Translucent, the series starts to draft Homelander’s nefarious story. While the ending of the episode clearly depicts Homelander as a villain, his visible tryhard benevolent persona creates makes the viewer skeptical.

Where Starlight acts as a more genuinely hopeful superhero, The Boys uses Homelander’s subtly uneasy demeanor to create a disparity between the two characters. Up until the final moments of the first episode, where Homelander obviously shows his villainous true form, he seems like one of the good Supes. However, we only learn about him and his moral conduct from other characters.

Everything we know about Homelander’s moral code is through another person’s eyes, which gives viewers a sense of distrust around the character. Building a general uncertainty around Homelander creates a comparison between him and Starlight. While it leads viewers to distrust Homelander, it also allows us to admire Starlight’s authentic sense of justice.

The Boys serves as a satirical but realistically grim answer to the age-old question: What would life be like with superheroes? In its assertion, the first episode of the series builds its corrupt fictional society in a bloody but oddly captivating way.

After establishing how cruel and corrupt the “heroes” are, the series acts as a triumphant mantra to ordinary people. Seeing Billy and Hughie, two normal people, plot to take down the Supes allows us to connect with the two characters almost instantly.

They might not have dilemmas that we can really relate to, but seeing two underdogs set out to overthrow powerful people who control basically everything makes us want to root for them. Plus, it basically ensures that we’ll continue to watch their trials and triumphs. (Though the comic book accuracy was enough to ensure our viewership.)

With a premise as loud as an anti-superhero show, The Boys manages to captivate us with its strong tone and strange but believable society during the first episode.