TVs most provocative anti-heroes scored record ratings while tackling Nazis, systemic racism, and police brutality.
Warning: This article contains spoilers about the entirety ofThe Boysseason 2, including the finale.
“I can’t lash out like some raging entitled maniac,” Edgar says.
“That is a white man’s luxury.”
“So, it’s just business then, eh?”
“When, Mr. Butcher, in history has it ever been about anything different?”
But it’s deeper than that.
“It’s not their job to worry about themselves.
The duo wanted to do more than poke fun at other superhero comics.
“It didn’t deal with as many alienating topics as other things.
In fact, it had essentially as mainstream a topic as you could ask for: superheroes.
They’ve written these multidimensional characters with flaws and wonderful human traits that we can all identify with.”
“That story is a, very sadly, realistic one.”
Playing it safe has never been inThe Boys' vocabulary.
“They just don’t like the word Nazi.”
It’s no coincidence that Stromfront’s rhetoric finds a matched set with the sociopathic Homelander.
(Like Urban, Starr hails from New Zealand.)
“Homelander does not represent the best of America.
And let’s face it, America has always had issues if you’re anyone but a white male.
For many, there were no good old days.
A show bold enough to attack these topics head on needs actors just as willing to start a conversation.
“Entertainment for entertainment’s sake is not very entertaining to me.”
Laz Alonsofinds the same experience “cathartic,” he says.
Early in the second season, his character, Mother’s Milk (a.k.a.
“Eric is not trying to artificially create moments,” he says.
“That Mother’s Milk monologue was completely he and I working together.”
The scene became about generational trauma.
Like Valerie, MM has lost a loved one to systemic racism.
And that’s not the inheritance that I want to leave.
“I think the best disinfectant is sunlight.
A piece of the action
Satire or no satire, there are still blockbuster-worthy superhero moments.
“We have the cameras [film] from right above and it was awesome.
I felt like such a badass superhero.”
“Um,” she clarifies.
“Not ‘hero.'”
“Doing it on the day was amazing,” Fukuhara recalls.
It’s not just me who gets to kick her ass it’s all of the girls.”
“But we’re getting in there and we’re socking [Stormfront] and kicking her.
And it’s very aggro.”
Perhaps the truest sense of Stormfront’s arc this season is what happens in the finale’s final moments.
Billy has just rescued Becca and Ryan when Stormfront foils their getaway.
Just because the battle is won doesn’t mean the fight against white supremacy is too.
Cash, as it happens, can neither confirm nor deny whether Stormfront might return for season 3.
All she’ll say is that when she first took the job, she was contracted for one season.
“She’s not dead.
She’s just a stump,” Kripke says with a laugh.
So we’ll see.”
Now, Kripke is able to expand this universe in ways he didn’t initially consider possible.
‘Cause they’re not made very often.”
Amazon went for it.
“It’s its own totally different animal,” he says.
“The goal is that the spin-off will definitely be a college show.”
The opportunity also opens the door to make even more series rooted in the world ofThe Boys.
But the shows have to be really good.
It doesn’t help if it’s cash-grabbing."
He’s hopeful for a start early next year.
Those will belong to members of a new squad: Payback.
We will be exploring the history of that team and all the members in it."
As you might guess, there’s a relevant reason for looking back to the original age of heroes.
“Certain politicians like to pitch this somehow idyllic ‘good old days’ where everything was perfect and calm.
That is complete and utter bulls—.
It was never that way.
There was never an America [like] when they say ‘Make America Great Again.’
It was always a struggle.
That’s the point.
It’s a struggle to make things better.”
Direction and Photography by Mark Leibowitz.
