This isn’t the first time in pop culture that a superhero satire has served as a warning about fascism and its biggest fans have whiffed on the point. That it keeps happening is a testament to how difficult it may be for all of us to not be lost in the allure of powerful people.
The whole time? The Boys has been making fun of Trumpers the whole time?!
Why fans keep missing the point of The Boys.
What’s happening on this season of The Boys
At the heart of The Boys is a brash deconstruction of the superhero fantasy, taking apart the traditional comic book superhero arc where super-powered beings save the day and defend those who can’t defend themselves.
In The Boys, however, every character, every line, every shot, and every scene paints a larger portrait of how extremely screwed we would all be if superheroes existed in real life. The Boys’scynical counter to the fantasy is a worldview that humans — even super ones — are morally flawed beings and that power always compromises morality. No matter how good we could be or think we could be, our selfishness, biases, envy, and everything in between will always get the better of us.
People aren’t meant to be superheroes.
These human failings take the form of heroes like the terminally narcissistic Homelander or any of his coworkers, known as The Seven (a parallel to DC Comics’s Justice League or Marvel’s Avengers). Homelander and his pals rape and kill and lie but their powers and, more importantly, their celebrity status keep them from facing any semblance of justice. The Seven are all propped up by Vought International, an ultra-powerful pharma-entertainment-military defense corporation originated by a Nazi who invented a serum that gave normal people superpowers.
Vought has its tentacles wrapped around every sphere of human life, whether its politics or sports or television and movies or law enforcement. There is no escaping Vought and the heroes it uses to make the world bend to its will.
Still, both want to raise a mirror to their audiences, using superheroes to warn us about the perils of believing in the goodness of the most powerful people, from professional athletes to politicians to pop stars. Political affiliation doesn’t matter, power is power and shouldn’t be adulated. At the end of the day, no one is going to save us, especially not corporate-backed, focus-grouped capitalist heroes. That viewers keep tripping on this point only proves how alluring this fantasy is.