Mythology Gag / The Boys (2019)

The Boys (2019)

General

• Hugh Campbell Sr. is played by Simon Pegg, who was the inspiration for comic Hughie. He even uses the phrase "Jings" like comic Hughie often did.
• Most episode titles ^note exceptions being The Female of the Species, Payback, and The Only Man in the Sky derive names from story arc or issue titles from the comic.
• Three of the promotional posters are reminiscent of the comic covers
  • Season 1's is from issue #1, seen on the comics page.
  • Season 2's first poster resembles #65 (with the Rain of Blood removed).
  • Season 2's second poster replicates that of #31.
• The season 1 teaser ends with a homage of the cover of #22.

Season 1

• The Name of The Game:
  • Countess, presumably Crimson Countess, a comic expy of Scarlet Witch, is mentioned as a supe that Starlight beat to join the Seven.
  • Billy takes Hughie to a club where supes are performing numerous sex acts like in Herogasm.
  • The Boys get around Translucent's invulnerability by electrocuting him with a cable up his ass. The comics' counterpart to Translucent, Jack from Jupiter, could make himself invulnerable, but the process made him feel like he had "a 10,000 volt cable up [his] ass".
• Cherry: Two US Senators named McCrea and Robertson are mentioned, named after Darrick Robertson and John McCrea, the artists who worked on the comic.
• The Female of the Species:
  • A Jitter Bean coffee shop is briefly seen, which is a frequent setting in the comic and a stand-in for Starbucks.
  • Homelander (and Maeve) looking down on the falling plane he condemned mirrors comic Homelander looking down on the Mullers' car after he drops it.
  • Billy is clean-shaven in the flashback set 8 years ago, as is his comic counterpart.

Season 2

• The Big Ride:
  • A news screen has a headline of "#G-Too? G-Men Scandal", which just about sums up the "We Gotta Go Now" storyline.
    • The same screen also mentions the character Swatto, a pastiche of Ant-Man who was theorized by fans to be the recurring fly seen in season 1.
  • One of Stormfront's followers' screen name is "Jack Off From Jupiter", alluding to the character "Jack from Jupiter" who was a member of The Seven in the comics, but was replaced by Translucent in the show.
• The Bloody Doors Off:
  • Coldsnap and Malchemical from the comics get mentioned here. In this continuity, they had clashes with Frenchie before the events of the series.
  • There is also a Supe expy of the The Incredible Hulk called Behemoth mentioned in the same capacity, who didn't appear in the comic, though a Supe called She-Hemoth, an expy of She-Hulk, did appear, implying a Spear Counterpart.
• Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker:
  • One of the supe-themed porn movies Lamplighter watches features the comic-only character Jack from Jupiter.
  • Another porn movie references A-Train assaulting Starlight in the comic, rather than the Deep.

Season 3

• The Only Man in the Sky: Homelander says "The only man in the sky is me" before forcing a reluctant suicide to jump off a building. In the comics, he said it before dropping the Mullers' car.
• Glorious Five Year Plan:
  • Jamie the hamster makes an appearance, although rather than a normal hamster that Hughie adopts, it's a Russian experiment with superpowers.
  • M.M. recalls that when Butcher first recruited him he was in the brig for punching out his commanding officer, a nod to the comics where he had been thrown in for accidentally killing a comrade in a boxing match gone wrong.
  • Kimiko kills a bunch of Russian mobsters with dildos under the orders of Little Nina. In the comics, Little Nina used dildos as weapons.
  • At the end of the comic, James Stillwell had a Villainous Breakdown after he realized superheroes were no longer a viable business model, calling them "bad product". After Homelander takes over Vought, James' show counterpart Stan calls him this during his "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
  • Hughie's first kill under Temp-V (accidentally punching a Russian guard through the gut) mirrors his first kill in the comic (the superhero Blarney Cock, which Hughie killed accidentally while under permanent V).
• The Last Time to Look on a World of Lies: The Legend mentions getting Marlon Brando to star in a biopic of Steel Knight, a minor character in the comic who "fought" alongside the original Soldier Boy and was the predecessor of Tek Knight.
• Herogasm: While in the hospital Little Nina brings Kimiko chocolate limes, her Trademark Favorite Food in the comics.
• The Nicaragua and Black Noir flashbacks reveal that Vought International was called Vought-American in The '80s, the name the corporation has in the comics.

The Boys: Diabolical:

• A Running Gag involves Wolverine expy Ground Hawk being Mistaken for Pedophile (he isn't). However in the comic, he and the other G-Men absolutely were.
• After being defeated by Nubia and Nubian Prince in their staged fight, Groundhawk says Gonna, his catchphrase from the original comics.
• Homelander is outright told that Black Noir's purpose is to bring him in if he acts out of line, mirroring his role in the comic.
• In the episode "I'm your pusher", written by Garth Ennis and set in the comic's continuity rather than the show, Simon Pegg voices Hughie (as Hughie's looks were based on Pegg) and Jason Isaacs voices Butcher (a popular fancasting when the comic came out).