Analyzing The Abilities Of Characters From The Boys Pt. II (Indestructiblity)

Analyzing The Abilities of Characters From The Boys Pt. II (Indestructiblity)

⚔️Maeve⚔️

I like to view Queen Maeve as a litmus test for The Boys fans. It’s either you’re a straight man (the target audience) and you kind of hate her, or you’re gay (the unintended yet equally sizable audience) and you adore the mommydom roleplay Dominque was doing with Jack onscreen for the world to see.

Either way, Queen Maeve is indestructible, the opening sequence (as shown above) showing that not even an armored trucked can phase her as her body is used as a shield, cutting through the vehicle without a scratch. All of this is to say that while she’s physically unable to be harmed or bested, even standing up against Homelander in S3, she’s vulnerable in her own ways. For the majority of the show, she was the only member of the Seven who experienced remorse for the things they’d done (outside of Annie of course), which frames her as being more humane than her comrades.

Her fling with Homelander’s equally interesting, implying that while her ability matched him to some degree, it’s that Teflon mentality that drew them together, before she probably understood that he hasn’t caught on that Supes are still people in the end. Ironically, she’s one of the few Supes we meet who doesn’t have a god complex, despite her referencing DC’s resident goddess, Wonder Woman

♟️Black Noir♟️

Black Noir/Erving’s a super soldier. Obedient, silent, lethal, and according to Homelander, one of the captain’s best friends. This all comes at the obvious cost of Noir being an aspiring superhero back in the 1980s who had a fateful mission down in Nicaragua. One thing led to the next and he was severely injured, left with little cognitive functioning. As “The Boys:Diabolical” revealed, it was Noir who taught Homelander the first rule of being a Supe in this world; it doesn’t matter what happened, what matters is what you tell the press.

The characters with indestructibility are jaded, being forced to view the world’s greatest hardships and atrocities only to come out unscathed and progressively unfazed. We never see them get nearly as afraid or uncomfortable as the others, mostly due to this ability. However, we do have evidence that Noir mourned the boy he was with Replacement McDreamy Noir assessing that not only did OG Noir keep files of Buster Beaver (knockoff Chucky Cheese) in his closet, but despite the vague ninja motifs in his branding, he never learned martial arts at all.

With both Maeve and Noir, the issues were seldom physical and always tied back to identity. Maeve’s sexuality being used as a bargaining chip and Noir face/ethnicity not being deemed worthy of confirmation despite Erving’s early wishes. He was trained to view his identity as a burden so that the only person who could truly hurt him outside of Homelander/Soldier Boy would be himself imagining the star he could have been if things turned out slightly differently.

Analyzing The Abilities of Characters From The Boys Pt. IX (Campbell Edition)

🚀Hughie🚀

Hughie’s honestly such a lovable character in my opinion, so seeing him get to shoot up with Temp V was so pleasureful for me.

While the first episode establishes he lost his girlfriend in an instant from A-Train running through her, he was left holding her severed hands on the sidewalk. He had been searching for a way from that point on to find out how to grab the people he cares about and instantaneously escape from danger.

This is where teleportation comes in. He’s capable of teleporting himself or anyone he’s holding onto away from a crisis, the same way he couldn’t do for Robin. He uses this to aid Butcher in Russia, Annie from Soldier Boy, and even Mindstorm that one time. In every scenario he’s squeamish while being made to fight, and instead opts to blink in and out, in a useful manner. His ability is inherently complimentary to another fighter, or at least his application of it is.

While he forgoes injecting himself with Temp V to help Annie fight in the S3 finale due to the lethal health effects of another dose, his newfound “ability” is supporting his significant other while she kicks ass.

👤Hugh Sr.👤

Hughie’s father had a minor role, and yet, analyzing his ability provides more clarification on the nature of Compound V’s effects on individuals.

After being resuscitated from brain death by Compound V, he was initially fine with no changes, until he discovered his ability to phase through solid objects. He walked through hospital walls, cutting through patients in a gory body horror scenario. As he states, his wife Daphne abandoned him with their child son, walking through Hugh Sr. like he didn’t even exist to her. He is now capable of mimicking the person who hurt him most, much like Butcher.

In the case of Maverick, Andre, and kind of Ryan, they all match their specific abilities of their supe fathers exactly. This is because they were all babies when they were injected/born with V. This may imply that had Hugh been injected and gained intangibility, and then had Hughie injected as a baby, Hughie would have mimicked Hugh instead of developing his own ability.

To make matters potentially even more fascinating, intangibility and teleportation aren’t entirely unrelated powers. Both include averting danger by supernatural escape means. While both can escape harm, Hughie can blink away from danger, while Hugh is forced to trudge through solid terrain, much like how when Daphne left, he was forced to endure the pain of her leaving. However, when Robin died, Hughie had to watch as everything ended in the blink of an eye.

Analyzing The Abilities of Characters From The Boys Pt. VII (Blood Sisters Edition)

*mention of Marie’s self harm, she’s the second section*

🤯Victoria Neuman🤯

“Diva Down” was the cry I bellowed at the S4 finale. One of my favorite characters gone by the hands of a pesky man. Please pause for a moment of silence.

Victoria’s ability to manipulate blood was tethered to her vision, which is the main part I’ll be focusing on. While she can make people’s heads explode, she must see her targets clearly in order to be able to do so. This ironically stems from her general “blindness” in terms of the consequences of her actions. As I previously berated her for, her careless injection of Compound V into her daughter came at a price she could have avoided had she not been so proud.

Additionally, her murdering congressmen and ultimately threatening and killing anyone and everyone who stood in her way made her a true loose cannon, especially since The Boys now have nothing on her. With her secret out, it was only a matter of time before she popped someone’s head in that room, and Butcher still defended his team, regardless of the symbiote situation he has going on.

Vicky’s bloodlust and situational blindness prove to be the main reason why her abilities manifested the way they did.

🩸Marie Moreau🩸

Another one of my favorites who possesses a similar ability to Vicky, Marie proved that with the right cultivation, she can be far more powerful than people give her credit for.

Marie’s abilities seem to be the result of her resentment of and mourning of her own familial structure. She feels like she “lost her blood” in losing her family, so she’s now able to manipulate the blood of others, along with blood letting/self harming in order to create tendrils of blood. While she reasons that this practice is “just her power”, it’s evident she uses this as an outlet to express her perceived powerlessness in the world. Despite a kickass power, she’s been at the mercy of Red River, GodU, Vought, and every government system her whole life. Marie’s a girl who needs release, and she turns to a literal shedding of her familial tethers by releasing her blood.

Both Marie and Vicky have great durability and a wide range of abilities, but while Victoria settled on her explosive, immediate power to put an end to her opponents, Marie opts to perform more invasive and creative maneuvers, insinuating that while they could have done the same things, Vicky was “blinded” by the immediate gratification of success, while Marie willfully seeks out solutions to a wider range of issues, this cementing her as the hero in the end.