Geeks logo

The Boys

Satirizing Supes

By Alexandrea CallaghanPublished 11 months ago 3 min read
1

Homelander

Clearly based on Superman, I have a lot of thoughts on this actually because I don’t know how much of his commentary was intentional but here we go. Let's start with his nationalism, for those who don’t know Superman’s original catchphrase was truth, justice and the American way now I think that original ideal manifested itself as Homelander’s nationalism. Considering that that catch phrase was born out of war-time, the base idea was absolutely American lives are the only ones worth saving which is Homelander’s whole thing.

The other thing Homelander’s character encompasses is Superman’s overpowered-ness. Now for anyone capable of objectively analyzing, there is an ongoing joke that DC characters are simply less interesting because they are overpowered, it's not fun to watch or read the same fights over and over again with the same outcome but that's besides the point. Superman is the poster boy for overpowered, and as an alien from another planet he is literally a God and in some adaptations treated like one. So this is where we get Homelander’s God complex from, there is clear imagery and even dialogue that compares Homelander to Jesus.

The final major thing that Homelander’s character does is show us comic fans what Superman would be without a moral compass, which at least for me makes his character more interesting.

Lady Mauve

This lovely lady is clearly based off of Wonder Woman. The first and most obvious exaggeration, tribute whatever you want to call it, is that Lady Mauve is bisexual. Now Wonder Woman is canonically bisexual but it is something certain people will deny or bitch about so making it a focal point of Mauve’s story is really important.

Next we’ve got her using her mind and emotions more than her physical strength. She’s very strong, the girls got power but what we see from her is her coming to Starlight’s defense and talking Homelander down. We see her coming up with plans to protect Elena and take down homelander. Wonder Woman’s main characteristic is fighting with love and hope and yes that is put into a much darker context but it is directly reflective of what Wonder Woman is supposed to be.

A-Train

The Boys keeps the Flash’s arrogance and amplifies it, turning into A-Train not accepting consequences for his actions. He’s too good to do anything wrong. The other thing they do with his character and his story is to make him slower, he’s no longer the fastest man alive and therefore is pretty useless. Not to shit on the Flash or anything but super fast is kind of a lame superpower and that's what A Train draws attention to.

The Deep

The Deep is clearly a satirization of Aquaman literally the lamest of superheroes. Which is shown very clearly by just no one in the seven or in the general public really giving a shit about him. I also think they used his character to satirize other parts of comics really well. Women in comics are constantly oversexualized and subjected to sexual harassment and assault because men that write comic books have never actually been touched by a woman and therefore feel the need to take out their sick power fantasies on fictional characters and this is very clearly brought to the forefront of the show when the Deep assaults Annie. Unlike real life he has some actual consequences. And even when he comes back to the seven he is very clearly considered a joke.

Soldier Boy

Soldier Boy is Captain America. He has the full fuck authority attitude, but instead of coming from a place of “the government doesn’t have the people’s best interests at heart” It comes from a place of only having his own best interest in mind. The most interesting part of this satirization is that generally speaking if you don’t actually know the character Captain America is seen by most people as a cookie cutter, goodie two shoes, golden boy so for Soldier Boy to be this alcoholic, drug abusing, sex obsessed character is a very fitting commentary on the general public’s views of Captain America.

tvsuperheroespop culturemovieentertainmentcomics
1

About the Creator

Alexandrea Callaghan

Certified nerd, super geek and very proud fangirl.

Reader insights

Be the first to share your insights about this piece.

How does it work?

Add your insights

Comments

There are no comments for this story

Be the first to respond and start the conversation.

Sign in to comment

    Find us on social media

    Miscellaneous links

    • Explore
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Use
    • Support

    © 2024 Creatd, Inc. All Rights Reserved.