“The Boys” is a superhero series for the Trump era

By M.S.

YOU MIGHT think that, in the 81 years since the first “Superman” comic was released, every permutation of superhero plotline must have been thoroughly explored. But one set of story arcs remains surprisingly underdeveloped: that in which the superheroes are the bad guys. To be sure, stories in which the public mistakenly believe superheroes to be villains have been around since “The Green Hornet” (1936), and government restrictions on ultrahuman vigilantes form the backstory of the “Watchmen” and “Incredibles” franchises. Yet what remains rare are scenarios where the reverse is the case—in which the gullible masses sing the praises of powered individuals who they believe are protecting them, but who in fact exploit them and hold their puny lives in contempt.

This is the delightfully subversive premise of “The Boys”, an Amazon series based on the comic books by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson. Its themes of arbitrary power, corruption and media manipulation deliver a Trump-era jolt to the seemingly played-out world of superhero drama. In the opening episode, the protagonist, an indecisive electronics salesman named Hughie Campbell (Jack Quaid), sees his girlfriend accidentally annihilated by A-Train, a hyper-speedy member of an elite superhero team known as The Seven. The group’s management corporation, Vought (a reality-television studio that secretly scripts their crime-fighting adventures), tries to pay Hughie off as part of a non-disclosure agreement. Infuriated, he joins The Boys, a band of ex-CIA officers who know what the superheroes are up to, and have set out to kill them.