Why Is Billy Butcher So Strong In The Comics, & Will He Get Powers In The Show’s Season 3?

It was made clear early on in both the comic book and the TV series versions of The Boys that Billy Butcher is one of the main characters. In the show, he is shown to be an ordinary man who is a skilled fighter but doesn’t have any extraordinary powers like the supes. However, in the comics, he became one of the most powerful The Boys characters in the entire story. So, why is Billy Butcher so strong in the comics, and will he get powers in season 3 of The Boys?

Billy Butcher is so strong in the comics because he took a Compound V serum that was specifically made for super strength. On top of that, he has the skills of a CIA operative and the brutality of a man on a mission. And based on the trailer, it appears that he’s going to get powers in the series.

It is interesting to note that the way Billy Butcher is portrayed in the show is a bit different compared to how he is portrayed in the comics. Nevertheless, their goals and motives are the same. And that means that we may end up seeing the show version of Butcher becoming as strong as he is in the comics.

How Did Billy Butcher Got Powers In The Boys Comics?

One of the central characters of The Boys is Billy Butcher, who is described to be the deuteragonist of the series alongside Hughie, who is the main protagonist. But you could say that Butcher is the one who held things together and allowed the series’ main plotline to progress because he put The Boys together for one goal, and that is to eradicate the supes from the planet because he had a personal grudge against them.

That said, in the comics, however, Butcher is portrayed to be a bit different compared to the live-action version of The Boys. While the live-action version is an angry man who wanted to kill Homelander because of an issue with his wife, he is but an ordinary man equipped with the skills of an independent contractor. So, while he may be a dangerous man when compared to other regular people, his lack of superpowers doesn’t make him a threat to the supes when he is alone.

Nevertheless, in the comics, Billy Butcher had already used Compound V, the very same serum that created the supes, prior to meeting and recruiting Hughie. And the comic book version of Billy Butcher is quite powerful to the point that his headbutts could crush the skulls of supes and that his strikes are strong enough to one-shot some of the strongest characters in the story.

So, how did Billy Butcher get his powers in the comics? Well, it’s quite simple. He was able to get a specific strain of Compound V when he tracked down the very same scientist who was responsible for creating the compound. Using this strain, he was able to make himself stronger.

But the problem with the Compound V that the members of The Boys use is that it only gives them temporary powers that won’t last long. Because they take the serum at an advanced age instead of during their younger years, their powers are only relegated to super strength. However, their level of super strength is above almost any other supe in existence, except for Homelander and Black Noir.

As such, whenever Billy Butcher and the rest of The Boys take the serum, they gain super strength, which they use against the different supes that they intend to kill. And when they all work together, they are strong enough to take down members of The Seven.

When Did Billy Got His Powers In The Comics?

It wasn’t specifically mentioned when Billy Butcher got his powers in the comics. However, what was clear was that, when he assembled The Boys, he was already in possession of the Compound V that allowed him to gain super strength.

This means that he was able to get his hands on the Compound V strain prior to the events of The Boys. That was when he was probably working for Mallory as an independent contractor/agent that tracked down the scientist responsible for creating this formula.

Why Is Billy So Strong In The Boys Comics?

As mentioned, Billy Butcher is so strong in the comics. In fact, he is so strong that he was able to defeat a lot of different supes with a few strikes and with his prowess as a killer. This is something different compared to the live-action series, where he hasn’t killed a lot of supes. But when he did kill supes in the series, it was through his ingenuity as an independent contractor and not as a superpowered human being.

That said, why is Billy Butcher so strong in the comics? Well, it all boils down to the Compound V that he uses and to the fact that he is a skilled killer.

In the comics, it was explained that all supes gain a certain level of super strength due to Compound V, but the level varies. Some supes are only powered up to the point that they are moderately stronger than regular people. We have seen this in the likes of Starlight, A-Train, and The Deep, who are all super strong but have levels of super strength that vary. And Compound V works in a way that is quite random.

However, the Compound V that Butcher took was specifically formulated for super strength and not just to give people random powers. This means that Butcher’s Compound V is specifically geared towards making him stronger than most humans and quite possibly most supes as well. Still, the true reason why he is as strong as he is in the comics lies in his background, and that’s why he is stronger than the other members of The Boys, who take the same Compound V.

Billy Butcher has always been portrayed as a skilled killer who was a CIA agent/independent contractor prior to leading a life dedicated to killing supes. He has the training and experience of a killer, and that means that he knows a lot of different ways to kill his opponents with his hands or with any other object he sees. Butcher was even able to snap a supe’s neck using his belt as a weapon.

In that regard, he has the mindset and training of a killer and is brutal and angry enough to become stronger than most other supes in the comics. On the other hand, the supes that we have seen in the comics are not as well-trained or as skilled in the art of killing as Billy Butcher is because they are far too reliant on their superpowers. Butcher, meanwhile, was already a skilled fighter and killer before he got his powers.

Of course, Billy Butcher is also a very intelligent man who knows how to plan ahead before he attempts to confront a supe. In the comics, he isn’t a mindless killer but is actually an intelligence operative that researches every supe so that he would know the best way to approach them. This allows him to gain the upper hand against almost any supe before they even fight, and that means that he is almost always several steps ahead of them.

Then there’s the fact that he is a motivated killer. His motivation to eradicate all of the supes in the world for personal reasons drives him forward and allows him to become stronger based on his willpower alone. On the other hand, the supes that he faced were not as motivated as he is, and that means that he already has the upper hand as far as willpower is concerned.

As such, Billy Butcher was always portrayed in the comics as a dangerous man with or without his powers. This means that, even if he wasn’t augmented by Compound V, he would still be a heck of an opponent to deal with for any supe, and that was what we saw during the first two seasons of The Boys when Butcher was skilled and intelligent enough to find a way to win against different supes.

Will Billy Butcher Get Powers In The Boys Season 3?

It was suggested in the trailer of season 3 of The Boys that Billy Butcher will get powers. The trailer starts out with him having glowing eyes that are quite similar to Homelander’s whenever he uses his heat vision. This could mean that Butcher could very well end up with superpowers that are similar to Homelander’s own powers.

The fact that Butcher and The Boys were not introduced to have augmented physical capabilities in the live-action series allowed the showrunners more freedom in portraying their characters and what they could someday do if they ended up gaining superpowers of their own. 

As such, Billy Butcher could quite possibly find a way to give himself superpowers so that he could fight fire with fire in the next seasons of The Boys. And we may even see the rest of The Boys getting their own superpowers as well.