The Boys (2019)

Several months ago, I did a survey which showed up clips of the upcoming season 2 of The Boys, a shows I had seen repeated static ads for on Amazon, but I previously had no interest in what so ever.  The name The Boys didn't tell me anything about the show, and all the ads I had seen just showed the main characters, members of the Boys, who are NOT superheros, and clearly don't look like superheros, so I had not idea what the show was about or that it would be of interest to me.

One thing I don't really care for in the show is the sex and the excessive violence.  Really, I am no kind of prude and have no problem with sex, but in most TV shows and movies, it is a distraction, and adds nothing to the story.  While sex is often added as an enticement, a lot of show have it greatly misplaced, and it doesn't add anything to the story, characters and just seems foolish. In the Boys most of the time is seems unnecessary.

While I don't really care for gore and violence, being that these characters have superpowers, and do wild and abusive things with them, it is appropriate for the story, thought it turns me off as well.

Watching The Boys made me want to read the comic from which the material came, but so far, the comic lacks anything that makes the TV show extremely interesting, and had a great deal of ridiculous elements that make it seem rather silly,

First is that the superheros are only featured in the first four issues, and then for the next 10 issues, they don't appear at all, (except a ridiculous story about Tek Knight, who has an uncontrollable urge to fuck things).  And as the superheros appear, the Deep is nothing more that background art, with the most impractical costume ever, and his whole story of being kicked out of the Seven and joining the Church of the Collective doesn't exist.  Meave get any significant attention, nor does she have any story line which is the same for Black Noir and A Train who has only a minor appearance, in the beginning of the story, which does follows the same incident in the TV show, which began the whole story and made Hugie become part of the Boys.  Also there is a character called John from Jupiter, who has a unique costume, but is irrelevant as a character.  Translucent does not exist at all in the comics, so of course his story arch is also non existent.

The comic does have the superheros abuse their powers greatly, but it is mostly focused on them having sex and sex parties (which is covered in one episode of the show), but no other aspects of them abusing their power for personal gain are featured.  It seems like these superheros are interested in sex and nothing else.

Also, the whole idea of commercializing the superheros, going through huge efforts to maintain their image and have this all controlled by Voght doesn't exist either.  That is one of the most interesting aspects of the TV show, having a greedy corporation attempting to control people who are beyond control and exploit them.

Strangely, Butcher is completely different personality wise and the way he looks in the comic.  He is drawn as very good looking, and not nearly as rough as he is in TV show.  He also having and very odd affair the his superior, and the whole back story of his wife does not exist, which is odd, as that is his whole motivation for hunting the superheros in the show.

I must say in the TV show Karl Urban does an amazing job (as to all the actors) as I have seen him in films but I had no idea he was the same actor.  He played McCoy in the new Star Trek films, but I didn't recognize him at all the whole time I was watching the Boys.

Also the animosity that the other team members have when Butcher is putting the team back together is non existent in the comic, as well as the way he keeps saying that Hughie doesn't belong in the group, where as in the comic, Butcher recruits Hughie.  And the whole story of finding the Female, freeing her and her alone having superpowers doesn't exist in the comic.

And the whole mystery/ scandal of compound V doesn't exist in the comic.  In fact the only time compound V is brought up is when it is shown that the Boys take compound V in the story, giving them superpowers, which means the angle the Boys are coming from in the TV show is completely absent and they don't have any justification for considering themselves morally superior to the Supes.  Though it does make sense to an extent, because with  Homelander being psychopathic, it seems he would have killed most of the Boys on his first encounter with them.

In the comic, the whole of Voght is nearly nonexistent, and Homelander is the one who is instigating the actions that both Deep and the management at Voght instigate in the TV show.

Honestly, while the focus of the boys on the comic makes that an appropriate name for the comic, Supes might have been a better name for the Amazon series, as it is largely focused on them, and really a completely different story.