How Can Soldier Boy Take Powers Away? (& Do They Return)

The introduction of Soldier Boy in season 3 of The Boys changes a lot of things because we now have one of the strongest supes in existence teaming up with Butcher and Hughie in an effort to take Homelander down. However, we also saw what Soldier Boy’s new power could do as Kimiko no longer has the ability to heal or her super-strength. She could even talk now. So, how can Soldier Boy take powers away, and do they return?

Soldier Boy takes powers away with the nuclear energy blasts that he can shoot from his body as a result of the experiment that the Russians conducted on him. It is possible that this blast is so radioactive that it removes the Compound V from a person’s system permanently and gets rid of powers.

The fact that Soldier Boy is capable of taking powers away is an interesting development in the story of The Boys because of how it could possibly come in handy in the inevitable battle against Homelander. In that regard, there are a lot of things that could happen in the next episodes of The Boys. So, while waiting for that, let’s look at how Soldier Boy can take powers away.

Does Soldier Boy’s Energy Blast Take Powers Away?

Back in episode 4 of The Boys, we saw that Soldier Boy was confirmed to be alive. This was surprising to those who never saw the trailer, considering that he was believed to have died back in 1984 when he and Payback went to Nicaragua, where they were attacked by the Sandinistas and the Russians.

The confirmation of his survival changed everything for Billy Butcher and The Boys because their mission involved looking for the weapon that was said to be strong enough to kill Soldier Boy. Instead, there was no weapon used to kill him. He was merely captured by the Russians and was taken away to Russia.

So, while The Boys were in Russia, they released Soldier Boy, who was quick enough to attack Frenchie using an energy blast that came from his chest. This blast was something new to him because, prior to getting captured by the Russians, he only had augmented strength and durability that were said to be close to Homelander’s level.

Before Soldier Boy could hit Frenchie, Kimiko jumped in to catch the blast as she was sent flying away. Soldier Boy escaped, but Kimiko was left severely injured and had gotten impaled with a metal pipe. And the thing that they were wondering about was the fact that Kimiko was not healing, considering that her best power as a supe was her healing factor, which was powerful enough to allow her to heal from a bullet wound on the head.

Despite the fact that The Boys were able to stabilize Kimiko’s health, they needed to get back to America quickly because they had to send her to a hospital. She woke up and realized that her wound did not heal. Oddly enough, she was happy about it and was quick to ask Frenchie to give her something heavy. She tried lifting it, but she did not have the strength she once had, as it was clear that Kimiko no longer had her powers, to her delight.

She told Frenchie that it was Soldier Boy who took away her powers, as she was clearly happy about it because she never wanted to be a supe. It even came to a point she got her voice back. In that regard, Soldier Boy’s new powers can take away a supe’s powers, especially when they get blasted by that energy blast from his chest.

Nevertheless, this is the first time we saw someone surviving Soldier Boy’s energy blast, considering that all of the other victims were incinerated right then and there. This includes Crimson Countess, who he killed in an instant with his energy blast after learning that she was the one responsible for selling him out to the Russians, who experimented on him for decades.

How Can Soldier Boy Take Powers Away?

As established, Soldier Boy’s new powers can take away a supe’s powers. Kimiko was the first supe to experience this new ability first hand as she was happy enough to become a normal human once again. But how can Soldier Boy take powers away?

It starts from the very nature of his energy blast, which is radioactive. Butcher was using his Geiger counter to keep track of the radioactive energy left by Soldier Boy’s attacks as he realized that they were through the roof. This suggests that his ability to take a supe’s powers away is tied to the radioactive nature of his new powers.

In fact, when Soldier Boy killed Crimson Countess, the blast was powerful enough that the shockwave reached Hughie and Starlight, who were far away from the center of the blast. And it incinerated Crimson Countess in an instant, even though she herself is a supe.

With that said, the energy blast’s ability to take powers away could be tied to its radioactive nature as it is akin to a small nuclear bomb. It is possible that the radioactive properties of this blast could clear away the Compound V in a person’s body to a point where all traces of this substance are removed. That was probably what happened to Kimiko, whose body was durable enough to withstand the blast as the radioactive nature of the attack cleared out the Compound V in her system.

This power is likely the reason why the Russians experimented on Soldier Boy, as they could have something that they could use as an ace if they were to be threatened by Homelander and the US. They took Soldier Boy because he was probably the only one durable enough to survive the procedures they conducted on him. As such, he acquired this power from the Russians, who were probably planning to use it against the Supes of America so that they could neutralize them.

Will Powers Return After Soldier Boy Takes Them Away?

As of this moment, we are unsure whether or not the effects of Soldier Boy’s power nullification are permanent or temporary. That’s because Kimiko is the only supe to have survived the attack thus far, as it was possible that she was able to withstand the blast due to her durable body or because Soldier Boy didn’t put a lot of energy into the blast.

Nevertheless, the only other supe we have seen becoming a victim of this attack was Crimson Countess, who got burnt to a crisp in an instant. As such, the sample size is too small for us to conclude whether or not the effects of this new power are temporary or permanent.

This could be something that The Boys could use as an ace up their sleeves in an inevitable confrontation against Homelander, who is too powerful for any of them to take on. As such, Soldier Boy’s ability to nullify powers could come in handy against Homelander. And that is where we would most probably find out whether or not the effects of this attack are permanent or temporary.