Although the comic book The Boys is not the most popular one out there the premise of it is quite interesting. The best part of it is undoubted all the characters and their personal struggles. The story has recently been gaining popularity in part thanks to the live-action show made by Amazon. With so many characters to choose from you have to ask yourself who are the best characters in The Boys comic book series and television show?
If you want to find out more about our ranking make sure to read the article all the way through since it offers you a brief rundown of the 20 best characters of the Boys series.
20. The Deep
One of the key characters in The Boys series is The Deep, also known as the Lord of the Seven Seas and by his true name Kevin Moskowitz.
He is a superhero and a former member of the Church of the Collective and The Seven. The Deep can interact with aquatic animals and breathe underwater, which makes it pretty easy to guess which superhero he was based on.
At the age of nine, The Deep realized he had aquatic telepathy when he began hearing the thoughts of every aquatic species he came across, whether at a pet store, aquarium, beach, or Red Lobster.
He thought he was going crazy at first, but his mother tricked him, telling him it was a gift and that he was just born that way.
The Deep always wears a diving helmet in the comic books, which he is unable to remove owing to an old curse. Furthermore, the hero separates himself from The Seven in order to join the Truth squad in the comics.
Although the idea of the character is pretty interesting, he is actually left in the background most of the time. The Amazon series attempted to fix it but did not fully succeed at this, although his character arc was quite entertaining.
19. Translucent
A member of the Seven, he has a skin made up of an almost indestructible carbon-based metamaterial capable of reflecting and refracting light, making it invisible. High-intensity electricity, gases, and suffocation manage to weaken it but are not enough to kill it. He appears as the member who is most interested in the economic side of the super job, being the one who comments on the earnings obtained by the group in the meetings.
Starlight mentions that he has a son he is very attached to. In reality, he too hides a character that is not at all admirable, since he uses his powers to peek in the women’s bathrooms. He discovers that Hugie has planted a bug at the Vought headquarters and, after following him, attempts to kill him, but is knocked down by the combined efforts of the boy and Butcher.
He is then imprisoned inside an electrified cage which is itself enclosed in a soundproofed cell covered with zinc so that Homelander cannot locate him, but Butcher and Frenchie’s various attempts to kill him are useless until they have the idea of inserting plastic explosives into his rectum, with which Hughie kills him when the supes escapes from the cell.
Then the pieces of the invisible man are collected, encased in a zinc box, and thrown into the open sea. After some time Abyss manages to find the chest, in which the Boys have also written their declaration of war against the Seven. In the second season, a funeral is held for him, claiming that he died fighting the El Diablo drug cartel.
18. Jack from Jupiter
Due to his appearance, Vought-American presents him as an alleged extraterrestrial. To activate his abilities he needs to say his secret word, Carpo (name of a satellite of Jupiter) to become invulnerable. He is able to fly and carry non-flying limbs on missions. He publicly left the group due to a sex scandal, after leaking photos of him in group sex with transvestites at Dr. Peculiar
17. Dr. Jonah Vogelbaum
Vogelbaum was a German scientist who gained asylum from the United States in the 1930s. He was brought in by Vought-American Consolidated, later Vought-American, for being the creator of Compound V which gives people superpowers. He fled to the United States to prevent the Nazis from creating their supermen. Vogelbaum is often quoted in the stories of The Boys magazine, without effective acting like the other characters.
16. The Lamplighter
A former member of The Seven, he was handed over by the latter to the Boys, on the orders of the leaders of Vought, to keep the peace with them after the murders of Mallory’s nieces, and killed in retaliation. He was later resurrected by Vought America and lives hidden from view in a cell of the Seven HQ spaceship, in the form of a decerebrated zombie.
Public history of him states that he took a break from the team, with him broadcast on national television following his resuscitation with the rest of his team. After he was put in the place where he now “lives”, Patriot did him as an “example” for the rest of the team, as a warning to those who underestimate the Boys.
He is replaced by Starlight who, along with A-Train, is in charge of periodically cleaning Lamplighter’s cell of excrement. Lamplighter’s powers appear to emanate primarily from his torch-like device, which he can use to fly and emanate blinding light or destructive energy.
He has greatly improved physical stamina, having survived the impact of a wing of the flying airplane during the 9/11 attacks, even though the force of the collision broke his ribs and nearly punctured his lungs; after the accident, he used multiple pain-relieving medications. During the story, it is revealed in Stillwell’s conversation that Lamplighter was found by the CIA after a search warrant was exercised on the former headquarters of the Seven.
In the television series, his powers, unlike the comic, are pyrokinetic in nature, although he requires a source of fire: he always has a lighter in his hand. In the first season, in the pilot episode, it is stated that he has retired from the Seven. In fact, he has been assigned to work in the Sage Grove psychiatric hospital, used as an underground test site for Compound V: his job is to burn the failed experiments so that he can prevent losses.
When Frenchie, Mother’s Milk and Kimiko infiltrate the facility in an attempt to discover Stormfront’s connection to it, they encounter Lamplighter, accidentally causing a riot in their next fight. The Boys save Lamplighter, who in turn prevents Stormfront from discovering them when he arrives later.
He confesses to accidentally killing Colonel Mallory’s nephews eight years earlier in an attempt to stop him from blackmailing him and resented Frenchie for not stopping him as he was assigned to follow him. Lamplighter allows the Boys to take him hostage and drive him out of the facility. Later, Lamplighter decides to testify against Vought in the Supreme Court.
While watching pornographic movies with Hughie, they discover that Starlight has been captured by Vought and go to rescue her: Lamplighter sacrifices himself to help her escape from her cell to Super-proof her.
15. A-Train
A-Train, or as some know him, Reggie Franklin, is one of the main characters of the comic books. He is a speedster who was once a member of the Teenage Kix squad and is now a member of The Seven. Taking his superpowers into consideration it becomes clear who the character was based on.
While high on Compound V, he accidentally murdered Robin Ward (Hughie Campbell’s girlfriend) with his talents, which led to Hughie joining The Boys.
A-Train was fired from The Seven, but was later asked to return, and is now the fastest man on the planet.
The soul of a mortal athlete sits behind the casual façade of a celebrity superhero, with a genuine worry about staying at the top. He’ll go to any length to stay in The Seven because he knows it’ll only be a matter of time until a younger, quicker rival takes his spot, and that’s a problem even the world’s fastest man can’t solve.
14. Mesmerizer
A super with telepathic powers, he is a parody of Professor X because, in addition to sharing his name, he is like him a superhero with mental powers but completely devoid of fighting skills. As a young man, he played the protagonist of a series dedicated to a child detective able to solve crimes with his own powers, but now, like many other supers who has worked for Vought since childhood, Charles is a man fallen from grace, without a real job since it was discovered how he used his powers to do insider trading and is now reduced to appearing at conventions.
The only thing he seems to have left is his daughter Cleo, whom he has lost custody of for years. The Boys contact him promising to put in a good word for him with social services if he agrees to read his thoughts of Kimiko.
In the end, however, he too turns out to be a man interested above all in fame, as, just when his reunion with Cleo seems imminent, Charles renounces seeing her again because he is convinced that his return to the scenes is close: in fact, he decides to reveal to the Seven the identity of the Boys, but this leads to his death as, after obtaining this information, Vought does not give him any reward or protection, leaving him at the mercy of Butcher who, having discovered his betrayal, tracks him down and brutally kills him.
13. Ryan Butcher
An illegitimate son of Homelander and Becca Butcher, and stepson of Billy Butcher in the television series. At 8 he is still the first confirmed super to have powers from birth and was born following Homelander’s rape of Becca Butcher.
Despite being his son and having shown that he inherited his super strength and calorific vision, Ryan shows very little resemblance to Homelander, being born to a loving mother, who treated him with affection in a serene and peaceful environment, albeit isolated and protected from the psychological damage that made the biological father the person he is now.
When Billy finds out about his existence, he has some reservations about saving him too, however, at the end, when Becca dies and Ryan chooses him over Homelander, he decides to take care of him but, knowing that he cannot protect him in person, he entrusts him to the CIA because be brought to safety. Before separating, however, Billy dispenses some last advice and gives him the last memory he has of Becca, a Saint Christopher medallion.
12. Stan Edgar
A minor figure in the comic, he is said to have been one of the most important executives of the company. Stillwell was personally his protégé. In the television adaptation he is played by Giancarlo Esposito, he has a greater role, he is still part of the company and is in effect the head of it, he is the fusion of the characters of Edgar, Brewster, and the cartoonist Stillwell.
He appears briefly at the end of the first season where he offers Stillwell (a woman in the series) a promotion, only to take over the main cast with the second season.
11. Soldier Boy
His character is inspired by Captain America. He is the leader of the group, even if his position is undermined by Stormfront, a truly charismatic leader. He is endowed with super strength and has an almost indestructible shield. Weak-tempered and very naive, he is involved in homoerotic activities by The Patriot and his leadership is badly tolerated by his companions. It
is assumed that he was murdered by Butcher after capturing him to extract information from him. A proto-version of Soldier Boy was part of the Vengeful Squad during the 1940s but was killed in the war. While Soldier Boy’s very first costume is more serious, military, and Captain America-like, the modern version used to wear a skin-tight costume and thigh-high shorts, possibly in reference to the superhero DC Stargirl costume.
10. Black Noir
Black Noir is The Seven’s superpowered ninja, who is quiet, secretive, and secretive. Only his mastery of martial arts matches his tremendous strength and enhanced senses.
At the mere mention of his name, criminals flee in horror. Except for the fact that he studied with a master sensei to become the death dealer he is now, nothing is known about this merciless fighter.
Whatever is hidden under Black Noir’s mask is a complete mystery, which just adds to his terror.
Whoever BlackNoir maybe is without a doubt the most powerful character in the comics, in part due to the fact that he is Homelander’s clone
Surprisingly, despite his violence, Noir cares deeply about innocent people and has shown incredible sympathy.
Taking all of these characteristics into consideration we can easily conclude who the character is based. It is DC caped crusader for the most part, but if you look closely you can find hints of other characters such as G. I. Joe’s Snake Eyes.
9. Stormfront
After Translucent’s death was made public, Stormfront joined the Seven and became a temporary competition to Homelander before the two fell in love. She is an expert on social media and has a sizable internet following.
Stormfront is a secret Nazi who utilized her position as a member of the Seven to advance her white nationalist agenda, despite her public denials.
Stormfront is well aware of the public’s disapproval of racist ideas today, and she does a good job of masking her own racist sentiments when in settings where she would suffer political retaliation for expressing them.
When Stormfront was confronted with racial remarks she made to fellow Seven-member A-Train, she pretended to be unaware, arguing that she meant something different.
Her public reputation as an edgy, fashionable, and the ethical hero is a front for her recklessness, bigotry, and cruel inclinations, which rival even Homelander’s.
Theatrics of becoming a great hero seems to bore Stormfront. She possesses a diverse set of talents, including the ability to manipulate charged particles (lightning), flying, incredible durability, rapid regeneration, and super strength. It’s enough to pique Homelander’s interest, and Stormfront does just that.
8. Queen Maeve
Queen Maeve is the perfect role model for small girls all around the world as a warrior, a feminist, a humanitarian, and the second most powerful member of The Seven.
However, in order to achieve such incredible heights, she has had to make sacrifices along the way. Accepting the image Vought required meant letting go of the reality and even some of the people she cared about.
She’s a shadow of the resolute idealist she once was, disillusioned and cynical, albeit she’s recovering part of what she was when she came to The Boys’ help against Stormfront and Homelander.
Maeve’s abilities include superior strength, endurance, and reflexes, as well as the ability to jump up to 12 feet high and immunity to practically all forms of physical injury and we even see proof that she is bulletproof. Seeing all of this it is hard not to think of the character that inspired her Wonder Woman.
While Queen Maeve first appears to be nothing more than a cynical heroine who has been worn down by years and years of torture by Homelander, she eventually matures into a world-weary hero who can be looked up to.
Queen Maeve is without a doubt one of The Seven’s most formidable super-powered members, making her one of the most powerful characters on The Boys. Despite being implicated in most of Homelander’s misdeeds, Maeve shows more concern for Starlight and disdain for Vought International’s terrible secrets than the other members of The Seven.
7. Mother’s Milk
M.M., or Marvin T. “Mother’s” Milk, is a prominent character in the comic book series and a founding member of the black operations group The Boys.
Milk had a cause for leaving Butcher and The Boys. He now has terrific work where he can make a difference in the lives of troubled children, and he has a lovely home with Monique, the joy of his life.
Butcher states that he can’t win the battle on Supes without Milk’s systematic, detail-oriented intellect. And, if Milk is being completely honest with himself, he doesn’t notice the activity.
But he is concerned that Butcher’s win-at-all-costs pursuit of Homelander would endanger lives, particularly those of Milk’s loved ones.
He is the one member of the Boys with a vengeance who has preserved his compassion the longest. Milk is kind, supportive, and protective of his family and friends, even though his father pushed himself to death trying to sue Vought and Milk wants to revenge on him.
Mother’s Milk, maybe more than any member of The Boys, does not develop much throughout the series.
It definitely helps that the only thing he has to worry about is his wife finding out about his employment with The Boys something that, once the secret is out, doesn’t matter all that much.
6. Kimiko Miyashiro
Kimiko, also known as the Female is one of the more interesting characters in the series.
When The Boys find The Female imprisoned in a cage in a basement under high security, they mistake her for a victim in desperate need of saving.
But as The Boys unravel the mystery of The Female, they follow a trail of blood and gore to learn that she’s a badass who might just end up saving them instead.
And as they’ll discover, the puzzle of The Female’s origins is part of something larger and far more terrifying than they ever imagined.
Due to the years of trauma and incarceration she had to face, the Female might best be described as silent, harsh, and unpredictable.
Everyone in The Boys first saw The Female as a threat and mistrusted her, with the exception of Frenchie, who is supposed to be the first to treat her kindly, and with whom she begins to build a relationship.
After she departs and Frenchie is assaulted in an alley by Black Noir, Kimiko intervenes and saves his life, indicating that their friendship has evolved into mutual trust.
5. Frenchie
Frenchie, also known by his real name Serge is one of the main characters of the comic book series and a member of the vigilante group The Boys. His nickname comes from the ethnicity since he is half French and half Algerian.
Butcher and The Boys benefit greatly from Frenchie’s skillsets as a drug-dealing, gun-running jack-of-all-trades, while Mother’s Milk is constantly frustrated by his rash judgments.
Frenchie has a past as a hired killer, and the tasks he’s done, as well as the people he’s killed, have always lingered with him like scars. But when he discovers a lady trapped in a cage in a basement who is part of a greater mystery, he rediscovers his humanity.
Frenchie is the only one of The Boys who can connect with her. This makes him one of the more interesting characters and this arc is explored in detail in the Amazon adaptation of the show.
Despite his difficult history, Frenchie is a sympathetic guy who genuinely cares about his companions’ well-being. He also proved to be the group’s most intelligent member, with the most diverse skill set.
He is a multi-talented criminal with experience in a variety of illegal activities, including drug production, firearm smuggling, breaking and entering, break-ins, and lying to the police.
4. Starlight
Starlight is a member of The Seven, a superhero squad. After being exposed as a mole and ally of The Boys, she was temporally banished from the gang.
Annie January is the girl next door with superpowers, as down-to-earth and honest as they come. And as Starlight, The Defender of Des Moines, all she’s ever wanted to do is save the world and though many people say it as a cheesy slogan, she truly believes it. So when she’s chosen to join The Seven, it’s the fulfillment of every desire she’s ever had.
When this fresh-faced Midwesterner arrives in New York, however, she discovers that the old saying holds true: you should never meet your idols.
Following The Lamplighter’s departure from The Seven, she was recently hired by Vought International as an up-and-coming super-abled figure.
Overall, Starlight is a small-town hero who was reared by a single mother and has a strong faith. Her powers include the ability to absorb and manipulate electricity, as well as exceptional strength and endurance.
Annie might have easily been a one-dimensional character, yet she ends up being one of the show’s highlights. While her relationship with Hughie was pretty lifeless in Season 2, there’s no doubting that she’s an intriguing character who will undoubtedly play a significant role in future seasons.
3. Hughie Campbell
Hughie’s life is average. He’s a kind young man with a mundane profession who still lives at home with his father in the same room where he grew up.
Robin, his lover, is the lone source of brightness in his life. That is, until A-Train, a speedy superhero, slams into Robin, eviscerating and murdering her instantly.
Hughie is recruited by anti-“Supe” vigilante Billy Butcher out of desperation for vengeance, and his life is flipped upside down as he finds himself in the center of a fight against superheroes – who, as it turns out, are neither super nor heroic.
The metamorphosis of a once-naive adolescent into an anti-superhero member should have been devastating, yet Hughie’s journey managed to be one of the show’s highlights, a credit to The Boys’ superb writing.
Hughie has been pushed to his breaking point multiple times, from killing a member of The Seven to being shoved into the insides of a whale, and his reaction to these occurrences is completely natural and something that any normal person would go through.
This personal transformation makes him one of the most interesting characters and this was also picked up by the producers of the Amazon show and explored more in-depth.
2. Homelander
Homelander is the commander of The Seven and Billy Butcher, the leader of The Boys, is his main adversary.
Homelander is the greatest superhero alive and the commander of The Seven, with the visage of a movie star and the might of a god. Not only can he fly, but he also has extraordinary strength and hearing, and he can use his x-ray vision to see through practically anything before destroying it with his laser eyes.
On the surface, he appears to be the quintessential Boy Scout, an American treasure, and a God-fearing patriot; amiable, modest, and honest. Superheroes, like ordinary people, have their own secrets.
Homelander is widely regarded as the most powerful super-agent alive, feared and revered, but largely feared by practically every other member of The Seven.
Homelander is without a doubt the most interesting character on the program, and his image is bolstered by a gripping character arc that digs deep into the mind of this wounded guy and why he does the things he does.
1. Billy Butcher
Billy Butcher, a former member of the British special forces who have gone vigilante, is as charming as he is shrewd. He’s a natural-born salesman who can persuade practically anyone to do anything with a grin or brutal force or both.
He has only one goal in life: to eliminate superheroes. However, his personal animosity is motivated by his hatred for a specific Supe: Homelander.
Butcher is determined to exact vengeance on Homelander, no matter what it takes. And he’s not going to allow anybody or anything to stop him.
Butcher must choose between hunting for Becca and preserving the Boys’ security if it is revealed that she is alive. When Butcher is eventually reunited with Becca, he is unwilling to accept her son because of his ties to Homelander and his status as a Super.
As a result, he makes a deal with Edgar to permanently separate the two so Billy may have Becca back.
Although he was set up and written as a pretty average character the Amazon-produced show turned him into one of the fan favorites due to his more in-depth explored personality and interesting and badass character arc.
