How Does Billy Butcher Get His Powers in The Boys TV Show?

The Boys are primarily known as a comic book series, but Amazon Prime’s streaming adaptation of the comic book – which contains a lot of changes and additions – has helped the series become a global phenomenon. Now, The Boys are full of mysteries and questions, regarding both specific characters and concepts. In this article, we are going to talk about Billy Butcher, the show’s protagonist and an avid hater of Supers, and how he actually got his superpowers in the television series in an ironic twist.

Billy Butcher is getting superpowers in the third season of The Boys. Now, at this moment, it is not really known how Butcher got these powers, but we assume that it has to do something with a temporary dose of Compound V, which gave Butcher these powers. The effects of Compound V should last for only 24 hours, but we’ll have to wait a bit to confirm our theory.

In the remainder of this article, we are going to talk about Billy Butcher getting his powers in the Boys narrative, at least when the series is concerned. The goal of this article is to answer the question that’s been bothering fans since Butcher was shown to have new powers in the trailer and to give you some facts about the character as well. Be careful, as there are going to be spoilers.

Does Billy Butcher have powers in The Boys comic?

Unlike the television series, where Butcher still hasn’t been given any superpowers (although the trailer for season three showed us that he will have them eventually), in the original comic book series, he actually had superpowers, like all the Boys, thanks to being exposed to a certain dose of Compound V. As for the comics, Butcher’s superpowers were:

• Superhuman Strength: Butcher’s physical strength was enhanced by Compound V. As a result, he was able lift a grown man easily and knee him in the groin with enough force to impair his performance. He crumbled a pistol with his bare hands and hit the Teenage Kix leader with a single headbutt. Holding Shout Out above him with one hand, he slightly fractured another man’s arm. He knocked out another man by leaning his head next to a brick wall. He can also make a hole through a computer screen with his fist and hit a Supe with a single blow with his signature weapon, the crowbar. Butcher also bit Soldier Boy’s nose and broke Crimson Countess’ neck with his belt. He drove a pickaxe into Swato’s head and also drove a shovel into Soldier Boy’s head, decapitating Mind-Droid with the same tool. He nearly rammed his crowbar into Stormfront’s throat and headbutted him, causing profuse bleeding. He also brutally hit another man in the face with a headbutt. He wasn’t intimidated by The Deep, who survived a plane crash. Butcher was able to grab Jack by Jupiter’s throat and pin him against a wall before stabbing him. He also cut Black Noir’s scalp with his crowbar. Despite his own Compound V enhancement, Metzger crushed a woman with his bare hands, killing Mother’s Milk. He pressed a Supe’s face against a tree and dented it. After Becky died, he beat a baby Supe to death with a lamp. 
• Superhuman Resilience: Responds happily to brutal blows and mortal wounds. He survived a grenade that seriously injured M.M. and exploded in his hand after being knocked unconscious by the same person (although the explosion injured his left arm and destroyed some of his fingers). Much stronger than Hughie, who participated in an explosion that destroyed the Flatiron building. He also withstood attacks from Stormfront, widely considered the second most powerful Supe in the world, and survived heat vision from a baby who inherited Black Noir’s powers.

How does Billy Butcher get his powers in the show?

Now, the trailer for the third season of The Boys revealed that Billy Butcher would be getting superpowers, which is quite ironic knowing that the guy actually made a name for himself fighting and killing Supes. This is an interesting twist but one, as we have established in the previous section, that is not original, since Butcher had powers in the original comic book as well.

Now, the exact manner in which Butcher gets his powers still hasn’t been revealed yet so, ahead of season three of the show, we can only speculate. From what we can infer from the original stories, Butcher seems to have been exposed to a so-called temporary formula of Compound V. This version of Compound V gives the user certain superpowers but only for a certain period of time; it’s assumed that it lasts for 24 hours.

Now, this is probably what is going to happen in the third season of the show, but we don’t really know all of the details yet so we’ll just have to wait and see for ourselves once the new episodes premiere.

What are Billy Butcher’s powers in the show?

At this moment, we know that Butcher is going to have the following superpowers and abilities in Season 3 of The Boys:

• Superhuman Strength: By ingesting a 24-hour potion that temporarily affects Compound V, Butcher’s strength was boosted to that of a Super, which was incredibly ironic, as seen when he crushes gunpowder in a car at long range in one punch. 
• Superhuman Durability: With Compound V (Temporary), Butcher also achieved superhuman durability. 
• Heat Vision/Laser Eyes: In addition to gaining superhuman strength and durability with Compound V (Temporary), Butcher also gained Heat Vision/Laser Eyes like Homelander, Ryan Butcher, and Laser Baby.
• Master Combatant: Butcher has been trained by the SAS in various hand-to-hand combat styles. His personal and preferred fighting style is a mix of boxing, as seen against Translucent and Mesmer, and other melee techniques. He defeated Jock, another SAS veteran, and even defeated Hughie with a single punch. Butcher is enormously skilled, intelligent, and adaptable in combat, having spat his own blood at Translucent for him to see, allowing him to fight back effectively. He easily dominated a man in a bar fight he instigated. Butcher’s weapon of choice is a crowbar, but he can also improvise with a poker. Even when he was a small child, Butcher had violent tendencies, beating up the boy who broke Lenny’s nose, and Becca also pointed out that he was always on a bad day to beat someone to death in a parking lot. 
• Expert Marksman: A former member of the British Army, Butcher is an extremely accurate marksman. He demonstrated a tight regroup when he shot Starlight twice in the chest with his sniper rifle. He also held a heat-vision baby-sup to shoot armed guards. He almost shot Kenji Miyashiro with his rifle if Hughie hadn’t intervened and later quickly took down a supe with his pistol. At Fort Bragg, he taught Becca to be a better shot than him.
• Gifted Intelligence: Butcher was described by Homelander as “very intelligent” as he hid Translucent’s remains in a box made of zinc, the only material Homelander cannot see through. He’s smarter than Stan Edgar, Jonah Vogelbaum, Victoria Neuman, Hughie Campbell, Starlight, Madelyn Stillwell, Queen Maeve, Frenchie, Mother’s Milk, Alastair Adana, Stormfront, Homelander, A-Train, and The Deep. Butcher’s intelligence extends to his leadership, deception, and manipulation skills. After waking up in Fort Wayne, he was smart enough to jot down details of Becca’s house for later research. He is very observant, having seen Black Noir hiding on a roof in his side mirror, and he tricked Stan Edgar into stopping the assassin from hunting by threatening to reveal the existence of Ryan Butcher, which would hurt the Homelander’s reputation. He also easily deduced that Homelander and Stormfront were in a relationship.