Scenes From The Boys Comics We're Glad Aren't In the Show (2024)

The Boys is, without a doubt, one of the most explicit and transgressive series airing now. But as violent and depraved as Amazon's hit superhero show is, it's nothing compared to the comics by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson. Even today, the comics are notorious for good reason. Its live-action adaptation, understandably, didn't adapt most of it.

What made Amazon's The Boys superior to its juvenile and self-indulgent source material was how it only borrowed its basic premise and drastically improved it. The series excised the comics' outdated commentary, pointless edge and misery, and many questionable scenes. Even The Boys' fans are grateful that most of the comics will never be adapted.

Blarney co*ck Had a Hamster in Him

The Boys established the teenage team Teenage Kix to be just as bad as the adult supes by showing them commit different petty crimes and sexual depravity. Blarney co*ck took this to the extreme when, in death, a hamster escaped from his pants. The implication was clear: Blarney co*ck used his pet for sexual gratification.

Besides lacking any actual edge, this scene was another sign of The Boys' age. It played on the debunked urban legend involving Richard Gere and a gerbil. Amazon's The Boys has lots of raunchy jokes, but they fit their characters better (like The Deep) and did more than lazily reiterate how vile the supes were compared to the chaste, hypermasculine Boys.

"Wee" Hughie Campbell Met Mother's Milk's Mother

In The Boys comics, Mother's Milk got his name from the fact that he needed to drink his mother's breast milk for sustenance. This was a result of Compound V entering his mother's body and him being born later. She was mutated into a hideous blob of flesh. She was only seen when Hughie drank her milk before the final confrontation with Butcher.

The Boys loves its grotesque transformations and showing Compound V's side effects, but the origin of Mother's Milk's name and his mother were just gross for the sake of it. The series got around this by completely rewriting Mother's Milk's origins, excising his mother's mutation, and having his codename be more affectionately symbolic than literal.

Monkey Was Further Humiliated by Billy Butcher & Terror

Kessler (aka Monkey) was one of the few characters from The Boys who has yet to be adapted into live-action, and it's hard not to see why. Kessler was Susan L. Rayner's repulsive liaison. He was best known for being obsessed with female athletes who used wheelchairs, failing to force himself on one, then getting assaulted by Butcher's dog Terror.

Kessler was necessary in The Boys, and he certainly deserved his comeuppance, but his defining traits were an edgy joke that overstayed its welcome. Kessler only really existed to push readers' buttons, and his ultimate humiliation was just pushing it. Even the series' edgy sense of humor has too much restraint and self-respect to adapt this.

Black Noir Assaulted "Wee" Hughie Campbell

Since Black Noir was really an evil clone of Homelander, it made sense that he would have even less control over his impulses. He abducted Hughie in the middle of Herogasm, not really to stop the Boys but to assault him. Black Noir did stop Hughie from laying bugs in the sewers, but he seemingly prioritized taunting Hughie and having "fun."

Since the series changed everything about Black Noir, there was no need to adapt his original encounter with Hughie. At most, they fought or crossed paths. This scene wasn't wholly unnecessary as it foreshadowed who Black Noir really was, but it would've understandably caused so much controversy and heat if it aired on Amazon Prime.

Black Noir Committed Atrocities While Dressed as Homelander

The Boys' biggest twist was that Black Noir was a Homelander clone. It was Black Noir who committed the atrocities Homelander couldn't remember and thought he was guilty of. Black Noir's debauchery wasn't shown in complete flashbacks. At most, readers saw snippets from Butcher's blackmail material that James Stillwell was in possession of.

Black Noir's twist is polarizing among The Boys' readers, but they unanimously agreed that his bloody rampages that included eating babies and violating corpses was too much. This excessively violent scene only proved how The Boys was the ultimate example of superhero comics' desperate need to "grow up" back in the early 2000s.

The Boys Cut Out a Shazam Analogue's Tongue

See Also

Saga – Comic Book Legal Defense Fund

The superhero-hating The Boys returned with the epilogue Dear Becky, and it began with a scene more brutal and vile than even the comics' fans expected. In his journal, Butcher recounted how the Boys stopped a Shazam knock-off by attacking a 10-year-old kid. He then cut the boy's tongue out, all the while self-righteously justifying himself.

Even Ennis' biggest defenders felt that this scene was one of the worst instances of his well-known hatred of superheroes in action. For what it's worth, the scene showed how far gone the Boys really were. The series isn't above endangering children onscreen, but it was thankfully never as cruel and mean-spirited as Dear Becky's opening.

Jamal Revealed the G-Men's Darkest Secret

The Boys took down the X-Men by turning them into the G-Men: an ever-growing cult of young supes who were all assaulted by the comics' twisted version of Prof. Charles Xavier, John Godolkin. The G-Wiz initiate Jamal revealed this to The Boys seconds before being assassinated by Europo. The G-Men then proclaimed their loyalty to John.

The G-Men were a mean-spirited attack on the X-Men. Making them reprehensible teenagers was one thing, but turning everyone into victims of one man's sexual assault was a bridge too far. The Boys' spin-off Gen V wisely ignored this and leveled the field by showing how Godolkin University housed both good and monstrous students.

Jack From Jupiter's Personal Life Was Leaked to the Public

The Boys had a conservative view of sex. Almost anyone who didn't have traditionally loving sex was depicted as problematic at best (e.g. Butcher and Susan), and depraved and villainous at worst. Jack from Jupiter fit the latter to a tee. Besides already being an amoral member of The Seven, he secretly participated in orgies with trans sex workers.

Jack from Jupiter was already established to be a monster. Exposing his sex life perpetuated the outdated and hom*ophobic villainization of gender-nonconforming people. The series addressed this by, as of this writing, not adapting Jack from Jupiter at all. This scene was, at best, a sign of the times The Boys was made in. It's better left in the past.

Billy Butcher Confronted Mother's Milk's Family

One of The Boys' most problematic parts was Mother's Milk's life and backstory. A core part of his character was how he was above perpetuating the most racist stereotypes about Black people, but the same couldn't be said about the other Black characters. Cases in point, Mother's Milk's irresponsible wife and his rebellious daughter Janine.

Mother's Milk's family were hedonistic and rude in the most stereotypical ways possible. They arguably only existed to be scolded then brutalized by Butcher in Issue #68. The show reworked Mother's Milk's family life for the better by completely ignoring everything in the comics and actually writing them to be fleshed-out people instead of offensive caricatures.

Billy Butcher & Susan L. Rayner's Affair Got Deadly

Rayner was the CIA director and the Boys' handler. She was also having a rough and vulgar affair with Butcher. The affair itself wasn't the problem since it emphasized how broken and twisted Rayner and Butcher were, but then Butcher took things to a scary extreme. During their last tryst, Butcher gleefully threatened to kill Rayner and her family.

This was one of the first major instances where The Boys showed how monstrous Butcher really was. The series didn't adapt the scene because Rayner (now named "Susan Raynor") was rewritten into a wholly new character. Butcher's and Raynor's affair remained intact, but it was only mentioned, and there was no need to show Butcher at his most abusive.

The Boys

TV-MA

Action

Crime

Drama

Superhero

Release Date

July 26, 2019

Creator

Eric Kripke

Cast

Karl Urban , Karen f*ckuhara , Jack Quaid , Erin Moriarty

Main Genre

Action

Seasons

4

Franchise

The Boys

Main Characters

Production Company

Kripke Enterprises, Amazon MGM Studios, Sony Pictures Television