Soldier Boy will join the ranks of The Boys in season 3, and this supe may become a friend to Butcher - initially, at least. The Boys season 2 was an acclaimed release for Amazon Prime, expanding Garth Ennis' snarky superhero world in wild and unpredictable ways. Stormfront joined the Seven and partnered with a flagging Homelander, spearheading a campaign for Compound V to be handed out among the population. Eventually, Stormfront was outed as a 100-year-old Nazi and handed a thorough beating by the Boys and Queen Maeve, before being lasered in half by Homelander's son. With Victoria Neuman on the rise as an anti-Vought political figure, Butcher and the gang finally look to have won their long battle against superhero kind.
With The Boys season 3 confirmed, however, their future isn't looking entirely rosy. Neuman is a secret supe with an unknown agenda, and Vought's Stan Edgar surely has more evil schemes in the pipeline. And while Homelander may be tamed for now, his planetary ego can only tow the line for so long. Viewers can safely expect Hughie to be covered in someone's guts once more when The Boys returns. Thus far, the only new superhero announced for The Boys season 3 is Soldier Boy, who'll be played by Supernatural's Jensen Ackles.
By this point, The Boys viewers are conditioned to expect the worst from Vought's superheroes - an illicit sexual vice, a hidden political agenda, wanton corruption, etc. Ackles' Soldier Boy could follow that same pattern eventually, but he might first work alongside Billy Butcher and the Boys in their ongoing crusade to end Homelander.
Like Stormfront in season 2, Soldier Boy is a natural addition to The Boys season 3. Vought finds itself in a tricky position after publicly admitting that a Nazi was allowed into their prestigious superhero group, and there's some major PR damage to patch up. As in the Marvel universe, the best antidote to a Nazi is a grown man in stars-and-stripes spandex. Soldier Boy is a parody of Marvel's Captain America - an enthusiastically patriotic do-gooder with a shield as a weapon. Continuing The Boys season 2's dive into World War II history, "Soldier Boy" traces back to the 1940s, giving The Boys an opportunity to explore the origin of Compound V further, this time from the opposite side of the battlefield. With the Herogasm event rapidly approaching, The Boys season 3 is approximately where Soldier Boy enters the narrative in the comics, although the Amazon TV show has only followed its source material in broad strokes until now. Soldier Boy is also a member of the Payback superhero group, who are expected to appear in the forthcoming season. Other members, Tek-Knight and Eagle the Archer, have either already debuted or been mentioned on screen, so the time is ripe to bring Soldier Boy into the fray.
In The Boys' season 2 finale, Homelander was brought to heel through Queen Maeve's audacious blackmail play. With Stormfront's modern marketing touch gone and Maeve holding the plane footage from season 1 over his head, Homelander's crown has truly slipped. Vought's top superhero is rapidly losing both his public appeal, and his hold over the Seven, while Stan Edgar made perfectly clear that Homelander isn't anywhere near as indispensable as he believes. Homelander may be down on his luck when The Boys season 3 begins, but you can bet he'll be fighting tooth and claw to regain his place atop the Vought pile. Furthermore, Butcher's grudge against Homelander is far from resolved. With Ryan safely hidden and Becca dead, nothing is holding Butcher back from getting revenge on his caped nemesis.
When Butcher and Homelander clash in The Boys season 3, Karl Urban's character won't necessarily have Mother's Milk, Frenchie, Hughie and The Female by his side, after everyone went their separate ways at the end of season 2. One advantage Butcher will have is a degree of legitimacy, since Neuman and Mallory agreed some off-the-books funding for Butcher's anti-supe escapades. With more authority behind him, Butcher might be able to recruit someone who wants Homelander gone as much as he does, and Soldier Boy fits the bill. The original comic Boys juice themselves with diluted Compound V to compete with their super-strong enemies, but since this doesn't happen in the TV show, Butcher needs some extra firepower. In the comics, Soldier Boy is incredibly naive and desperate to join the Seven. Jensen Ackles' character might fancy himself a successor to Homelander, given their joint love of 'Merica, and he could be tempted to forge a grudging partnership with Butcher in The Boys season 3.
While Soldier Boy and Homelander certainly share a love of patriotic fashion, their personalities couldn't be more different. In a world full of despicable supes, Homelander is one of the worst - a murderer, a rapist, corrupt, morally bankrupt. Whatever the crime, Homelander has probably committed it. Soldier Boy is the exact opposite. Where Vought's other heroes (even the other members of Payback) indulge in the trappings of their chosen career, Soldier Boy actually does believe in the superhero mission, choosing to abstain from the wild orgies and hedonistic binges. He's certainly no Starlight - Soldier Boy is an absolute coward known to wet himself on occasion - but as supes go, The Boys' answer to Steve Rogers is far from the worst.
In the Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson comic books, Soldier Boy's ambition to join the Seven results in him naively pandering to the whims of other heroes. In one infamous issue, the Payback member is manipulated into sleeping with Homelander, misinterpreting the sexual liaison as the wrong kind of "entry exam." Eric Kripke has suggested that Jensen Ackles' Soldier Boy won't be quite as soft, so rather than kissing Homelander's ass, he might prefer to kick it, leaving a vacancy in the Seven that only his red, white and blue frame can fill. For Butcher's part, he gets revenge on the man who raped his wife.
Soldier Boy may partner with Butcher to eject Homelander from the Seven, but his intentions for their relationship won't necessarily be honest. In the opening episode of The Boys season 2, while Homelander was still at the peak of his powers, Stan Edgar gave Vought's top hero a severe dressing down, proving that no one person stood above the company as a whole. Since then, Homelander has caused Vought untold embarrassment - going viral for lasering an innocent bystander, botching a press conference, aligning with a Nazi. Edgar insisted that Vought wasn't in the "superhero business" and the CEO might've finally deemed Homelander more trouble than he's worth.
Of course, one does not simply fire Homelander. Vought would need to disgrace him, break him, and ensure he's no longer a threat to the company. Vought must also ensure that a ready-made replacement is waiting in the wings, averting any potential dip in merchandise sales or social media presence. Enter, Soldier Boy. If Edgar promised him Homelander's spot at the head of the Seven table, Soldier Boy would surely be tempted to work alongside Billy Butcher to destroy his all-American rival. Vought gets rid of its ticking time bomb and Soldier Boy gets his dream promotion - a perfect partnership. Meanwhile, Soldier Boy could provide information to Edgar on the British thorn in Vought's side.
Soldier Boy teaming with Butcher only to betray him by secretly conspiring with Vought represents the perfect next step in Billy's character arc. Thanks to Kimiko, Starlight, Queen Maeve and Ryan, Butcher's passionate hatred of all supes has softened by the end of The Boys season 2. Partnering with Soldier Boy only to get burned would severely test Butcher's tolerance for the super-powered in The Boys season 3, but if he can achieve his goal of destroying Homelander, will he care?
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