The Boys TV Series (Amazon)

[Khev]

Yea cause all of them are pretty much what we as a society fear. A person who is just unbeatable and can kill you without hesitation and you can do nothing to stop them. That’s why people are now Afraid of characters like Superman and strong unbeatable characters like him cause if they snapped nobody could do anything.

So true and it even casts Batman's BvS paranoia in a whole new light!

If Superman were real we'd need a whole new amendment giving everyone the right to bear Kryptonite, lol.

 

[Victοr]

It’s amazing to me that “what if Superman was… evil?!” has been hot for nearly a decade now, meanwhile X-Men are still pretending that tons of random walking WMDs, which reach literal god-like levels, spawning every other Sunday, is somehow an allegory for civil rights.

As for the differences from the comic, I honestly was never able to read it. I don’t like Ennis much. I have his Hellblazer Omni and everything, but I never quite warmed up to him. To me the show is a streamlined improvement. It’s maybe a tad more conventional as a narrative, but it’s far more enjoyable. Yeah yeah I know I said I was dropping it but I have days where I just need to burn an hour with something stupid, and the performances are still great. Honestly, I prefer it on the basis that it pokes fun at capes but it doesn’t actively hate the genre. Ennis has such a juvenile, moronic hatred for capes that I can’t ever take him seriously, especially with his own cliches and trappings he goes back to in every story he writes.

 

[chrisstbh]

It’s amazing to me that “what if Superman was… evil?!” has been hot for nearly a decade now, meanwhile X-Men are still pretending that tons of random walking WMDs, which reach literal god-like levels, spawning every other Sunday, is somehow an allegory for civil rights.

As for the differences from the comic, I honestly was never able to read it. I don’t like Ennis much. I have his Hellblazer Omni and everything, but I never quite warmed up to him. To me the show is a streamlined improvement. It’s maybe a tad more conventional as a narrative, but it’s far more enjoyable. Yeah yeah I know I said I was dropping it but I have days where I just need to burn an hour with something stupid, and the performances are still great. Honestly, I prefer it on the basis that it pokes fun at capes but it doesn’t actively hate the genre. Ennis has such a juvenile, moronic hatred for capes that I can’t ever take him seriously, especially with his own cliches and trappings he goes back to in every story he writes.

I think this is honestly one of, if not, the best "Superman is evil" takes because it does feel somewhat rooted in reality. Sure it's completely impossible but rather than just being "raaah I'm evil" you can see why he is the way that he is. He's essentially a god-like being that was raised as a test subject rather than an actual child/human being, he was never loved or cared for and never had parents; just scientists and suits. He wants people to love him but doesn't understand the concept of respect.

In a way you can't blame him for turning out like he did, but he still deserves to die horribly.

 

[Victοr]

I think this is honestly one of, if not, the best "Superman is evil" takes because it does feel somewhat rooted in reality. Sure it's completely impossible but rather than just being "raaah I'm evil" you can see why he is the way that he is. He's essentially a god-like being that was raised as a test subject rather than an actual child/human being, he was never loved or cared for and never had parents; just scientists and suits. He wants people to love him but doesn't understand the concept of respect.

In a way you can't blame him for turning out like he did, but he still deserves to die horribly.

Yeah, that aspect is what's keeping Homelander interesting for me too. I can't take Dictator Superman stories seriously because they always have the paranoid autistic supergenius be the freedom fighter, while the literal god loses because of PIS. The powerscale is too big for such a story. Meanwhile Homelander works because he is OP in-universe but still has a sorta realistic framework. It helps that his character puts limits on himself, so you don't run the risk of having to rely on left-field nonsense to write yourself out of that corner. At a base level Homelander's an interesting character and regardless of his actions, it keeps you invested.

I've said it before, but I always had a soft spot for characters that are dicks. It made things interesting to see if they could back up their talk, and most of that type were just entertaining. Now, as time went on, I started getting aggravated at the ones who are both colossal dicks, and writers wank them as heroes. See someone like Emma Frost. She's an evil ***** with a fragile ego who's become an icon for the fandom so she's the literal embodiment of the "yaaaasss kweeeen slaaaayyy". I used to think the dichotomy made her interesting, but at this point I'm completely over her because she's hypocritical and suffers no consequences. And it pisses me off that people say that this gives her depth, meanwhile Jean is "one-note", when Jean's the one with a fleshed out personality. She's a motherly, good-natured lady but with a short fuse. She screws up, but she apologises. She has genuine relationships with the characters, and her and Scott worked. She feels real because she's written as a real human, not a series of ticked off boxes. Meanwhile Frost is just a self-insert that gets away with everything while being entitled; she's not entertaining, she's unpleasant, yet she's still pushed as a hero.

Yet, all cards on the table, if played properly and going off the 90s GenX series, I do like Emma. Regardless, Morrison just did so much damage to the X-Men (although isolated I liked the ideas) and the following climate wanked the allegory so hard that she was ruined alongside a lot of others. Someone like Cyclops made it through because he retained his core of a soldier standing up for his people, but Emma turned from an enjoyable **** to a ***** getting excused. They need to pick a characterization and stick to it. She can't act like an arrogant, rude villain and get a pass while being hailed as a hero. Honestly, I just didn't like her being paired with Scott and I hated what Morrison did with Scott and Jean. Properly written Emma works much better with someone like Namor.

What I'm getting at is that rude, arrogant characters who never suffer turn me off. But I love prideful characters who nevertheless pay the ferryman when their time is up. It's why I still like Namor or Doom; yes they're antagonists, yes they’re prideful, but they have clear agendas, they conduct themselves in a cordial manner and they suffer. They lose, they get punished for their crimes and aren't shown to be "yassss king slaaaayyyy" types. It's a fine line, but it makes all the difference. Now Homelander remains interesting because despite his faults, he also has flaws. With every bad choice he makes he becomes more and more alone, more and more cornered. He's not portrayed as a genuine hero, but as a self-serving sociopath. Yet we still feel for him because of his genuinely screwed up childhood. To bring it back to Frost, she was a billionaire who decided to go work as a stripper in a secret society because... she wanted to be independent, I guess. How am I supposed to sympathise with that? Her previous backstory of being stuck in a mental asylum due to her telepathy being out of control and falling in with evil mutants made her more sympathetic. But as it stands we have a bitchy character who acts in a completely self-serving manner, makes no sacrifices, always wins, and is hailed as a hero while having a thoroughly unpleasant attitude. Meanwhile Homelander loses in small ways, is not congratulated by the script and still acts more ammicably while actively losing it more and more with every episode. That's an interesting character, and not a writer's pet.

Gross nonsense aside, it's definitely a well-made show production and acting wise, and it's one of the few I still keep up with.

 

[BeefEaster]

I'm surprised Anthony Starr hasn't been in more stuff. At no point do I think "oh, this is an actor playing a role", he's such a good actor that he just 100% is the character he's playing.

Edit: I guess I already made pretty much this same comment on the first page of this topic when the show first started, lol. He just really is great.

 

[ZE_501]

I honestly don't remember my first reaction to this show ... at some point maybe a combination of cape and gore fatigue turned me off it, I felt the satire was hamfisted ... but coming back to Season 3 after a long break ... something about it. It's somehow gained momentum and depth for me and I'm enjoying it a lot more right now.

Just shows how good his acting is I guess. But he did get arrested for assaulting someone, so... Giancarlo Esposito plays some really bad people but comes across as the nicest most wholesome guy ever.

I know a few actors and figure it could come from 3 places:

1. Some actors have some very dark places inside them. Low self-esteem, trauma, narcissism.

2. Some actors (like many people) have had close encounters with sociopaths like Homelander.

3. Some actors are just really good at their job LOL

I'm enjoying the show. It actually gets filmed here -- I haven't had the opportunity to work on it but who knows, maybe Season 4.

 

[ironwez20]

It’s amazing to me that “what if Superman was… evil?!” has been hot for nearly a decade now, meanwhile X-Men are still pretending that tons of random walking WMDs, which reach literal god-like levels, spawning every other Sunday, is somehow an allegory for civil rights.

As for the differences from the comic, I honestly was never able to read it. I don’t like Ennis much. I have his Hellblazer Omni and everything, but I never quite warmed up to him. To me the show is a streamlined improvement. It’s maybe a tad more conventional as a narrative, but it’s far more enjoyable. Yeah yeah I know I said I was dropping it but I have days where I just need to burn an hour with something stupid, and the performances are still great. Honestly, I prefer it on the basis that it pokes fun at capes but it doesn’t actively hate the genre. Ennis has such a juvenile, moronic hatred for capes that I can’t ever take him seriously, especially with his own cliches and trappings he goes back to in every story he writes.

I think the Superman Evil is more popular than the xmen one is cause Superman is always made to be like this unstoppable god like figure. The mutants have other mutants that will keep them in check and other superheroes but if Superman went off the deep end then nothing can stop him. Kryptonite works but he has shown to evade that at times.

 

[Victοr]

I think the Superman Evil is more popular than the xmen one is cause Superman is always made to be like this unstoppable god like figure. The mutants have other mutants that will keep them in check and other superheroes but if Superman went off the deep end then nothing can stop him. Kryptonite works but he has shown to evade that at times.

Evil Superman is a more marketable concept, considering it's easier to imagine and Superman is well known around the world. My point is that Superman's a godlike being with superpowers and that concept scares people enough to ponder "what if", meanwhile we have an entire "race" of people that get RNG superpowers which activate when they turn 15, ranging from reality warping to having three faces mashed together and teeth for eyes, yet any attempt to go "hey, maybe registration and treatment of these conditions is actually good" gets countered with "muh allegory", as if that explains anything.

Imagine if you had a new Superman spawning every year, and said Superman blew up a block everytime his powers activated, then the entire comic was focused on how unfair it was that people wanted him to be supervised, and how it'd be [X]-istic to take away his powers. No, wait, you don't have to imagine it, that's 80% of X-Comics in existence.

How does anyone write this and not get how it comes across? Well, one thing's for sure, if the narrative says X, Y or Z, then everyone follows suit and accepts it, even when it makes no sense. God, I hate X-Books. It's a shame that I like some characters so much though because that means I still have to get the dollies and Omnis... Well, at least I'm mostly focusing on the Summers Clan, so I'm barely hitting the 10-figure mark plus some wants that will never happen, so it's okay. My current list is Scott, Jean, Cable (plus Deadpool), Rachel, Xavier, Magneto, Sinister and Apocalypse. Madelyne, Hope and Stryfe will never happen, and I'm not buying a Havok unless they make a Vulcan too. I don't care for X-Man, and Space Pirate Absentee Dad Corsair has 0 chances. I'm not acknowledging Adam-X. So I'm there around the 10s for my X-Shelf. Eh, could be worse.

 

[chrisstbh]

 

[Dave_W]

I wonder if they would ever do a real DOT7 movie. HL would be the good guy so probably not.

 

[The Clown Prince of Crime]

So far, I like Soldier Boy. I wonder if he's different now after 40 years of torture. Also, he seems to be physically ALMOST as indestructible as Homelander, so that give him a chance in a fight against Homie.

 

[chrisstbh]

 

[Bgnyc007]

Goodness I love this show Seth

 

[The Clown Prince of Crime]

So is Homelander scared of Soldier Boy? He looked concerned when he was watching the "terrorist" footage. Does he know about SB and what he can do with his powers? Does he know that SB was alive and in Russia? Or was Homelander scared of the unknown terrorist because Butcher and the gang are behind it to take him down?

 

[Johnny Utah]

Another amazing episode. This season is absolutely fantastic.

So great to see Jensen Ackles kicking ass again. The guy just oozes charisma.

 

[abake]

This show is completely bonkers. Oddly enough, I hate Butcher and love Homelander.

 

[Buttmunch]

This show is completely bonkers. Oddly enough, I hate Butcher and love Homelander.

Same. Homelander makes the show for me. On one hand I want them to succeed with their plan of taking Homelander down, but on the other hand he’s my favorite part of the show and don’t want him gone.

 

[Neal136]

And on top of all of that, we get "Herogasm" this week!

 

[Jaycepticon]

Another amazing episode. This season is absolutely fantastic.

So great to see Jensen Ackles kicking ass again. The guy just oozes charisma.

I need a figure of Soldier Boy asap. Love this live-action version of the costume and yeah, Ackles is great. He better not be a one and done season character.

 

[ironwez20]

I need a figure of Soldier Boy asap. Love this live-action version of the costume and yeah, Ackles is great. He better not be a one and done season character.

Yea that would suck