Jensen Ackles’ Soldier Boy is one of the best additions to Amazon’s The Boys, and our reasoning goes beyond the fact that he nails every aspect of entertainment like a goddamn champ.
From his picture-perfect encapsulation of the old, grumpy grandpa lion that Scar could have been to his pitch-perfect rendition of “Rapture” by Blondie, which drew praise from Debbie Harry herself, to his picture-perfect encapsulation of the Marvelous Viewers who have read the comics by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson will be aware that Jensen’s Soldier Boy is essentially a completely unique character who yet possesses characteristics from each incarnation of the Supe.
You heard us right; we mean every version of the Supe. Given that Soldier Boy is the best Captain America parody now available for our money and that even Steve Rogers was not Captain America in perpetuity, he could not exactly fall behind, could he?
In Ennis’ original work, there are three distinct Soldier Boys who each share the mantle as a legacy title among themselves. Eric Kripke (pronounce: Crip-Key) has sort of transformed Soldier Boy into a composite character and then gone down the MCU route. What about these Soldier Boys though?
And what distinguishes them from the Supernatural star’s persona? This film, which features all three Soldier Boys from The Boys Comics – Explored, will provide all the answers to those queries.
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The First Soldier Boy – World War 2 Era
The rendition of Soldier Boy that served as the basis for Jensen Ackles’ television character opens this video. The original soldier boy only makes one appearance in the comics, and it is a flashback appearance. But even in the 1940s, that should be plenty to give you an idea of just how incompetent this man was, so let us get right to it, shall we?
Greg Mallory mentions World War 2 and his first experience with Superman to Wee Hughie in issue #53. The US Government made the decision to boost their troops’ field success rate by bringing in a completely new kind of weapon to the front lines during a weeks-long standoff between Mallory’s group and a S.S. Waffen Unit; that’s right, we are talking about Supes.
In 1944, Dr. Jonah Vogelbaum, an ex-Nazi scientist and the creator of Compound V in the comics, was able to create an entire team of super-powered individuals for Vought American Consolidated, which would have allowed the company to effectively monopolize warfare if their “heroes” were able to keep up with the boys in the field.
Sadly, they decided to let them loose on the field without training them in warfare first, which, as Greg put it to Hughie in no uncertain terms, was practically committing suicide. When he was informed by the senator that the Supes were going to join his team, he wasn’t just annoyed like his counterpart from the TV show; he was horrified.
Because Mallory knew what kind of danger an untrained team of super-powered individuals given free reign would put his normal, human troops in.
Sure, he was appointed as their handler, but if we’ve learnt anything about Vought, it’s that they respect authority as long as it suits their needs. Mallory promptly schools Soldier Boy and his team of costumed clowns in the sheer weight difference between American and German tanks and was probably close to even accepting their presence on the field when S.B. let slip a detail that put everyone’s lives at risk; including his own.
Before arriving on the scene, he had the flight-enabled members of his team- Manbot, Eagle the Archer & The Buzzer- do a perimeter check in order to make sure everything was secure. But the thing is, as we’ve mentioned multiple times already, this entire surveillance op was conducted by a bunch of civilians with super powers and no military training.
Had they received the latter, they’d have known that sending a flying man into the air is as good as asking the enemy to attack them without their knowledge; and Soldier Boy in his ignorance had sent out 3. One they could have put down to disbelief, but three flying men circling around the same area?
The Waffen S.S. was known as one of Hitler’s most efficient military wings for a reason. Mallory realised as soon as he heard what the “Avenging Squad” had done that if his men didn’t act as soon as possible, it was game over for all of them. He sprinted like a madman and commanded his men to take positions just as the Nazis stormed their camps and sprayed the Supes’ brains all over the place.
Crimson Countess and Soldier Boy’s sidekick Laddio died in the first hail of bullets. Eagle the Archer flew into the propellers of a fighter plane and got shredded for his efforts. The rest of the Avenging Squad was also left otherwise disembodied, dishevelled or simply dead; and Soldier Boy suffered the worst fate of all, though it is hard to feel sorry for him.
A shell-shocked Mallory took a survey of the hellscape that used to be his camp and came across Soldier Boy, vertically bifurcated but still very much alive thanks to his head having missed the separation.
Mallory coldly tosses a grenade at him and hands himself over the Wehrmacht, spending the rest of his time in World War 2 as a Nazi Prisoner of War. It was this incident that sparked his hatred for Supes in general, and in the comics, Mallory only recounts this story to Hughie as a warning about Butcher’s “true nature”.
And as far as keeping adaptations authentic goes, we have to say that Eric Kripke & Co. did a great job of weaving this story into the background of their version of Soldier Boy. Because if you have seen the TV show, then this entire scene might remind you of a little mission down in Nicaragua back in 1984; and that’s because that entire scene was directly inspired by issue #53.
The major differences between the show and the comics are the timeline, the outcome of the conflict and the status quo at the end of it. Because in the comics, Soldier Boy very clearly dies; you see Mallory blow him up, for Christ’s sakes, so there’s no funny resurrection business here either.
Now, Mallory was serving during World War 2, whereas in the show, the camp scene takes place in 1984- 40 years after the comic book timeline. Also, Soldier Boy is fighting on the side of Nicaraguan Contras against Soviet-back Sanindistas, which is pretty much the same as saying Satan fought Lucifer.
But here’s the thing, Ackles’ Soldier Boy is not as inept as his comic book counterpart. Sure, he’s just as egoistical, but nowhere near as lost in the shuffle. The TV show’s Soldier Boy parodies the MCU version of Captain America specifically, and that necessitates him having had a military background much like Steve Rogers.
In fact, Ben signed up for the army and was clandestinely injected with Compound V to turn him into the “world’s first superhero”, which is a direct reference to Chris Evans’ iconic character. But in the comics, Soldier Boy has precisely 0 knowledge of military tactics and combat skills which pretty much rendered him useless even with a buttload of super-powers. On the other hand, Ackles’ Soldier Boy can clearly take care of himself in a fight, as evidenced by the Mallory flashback and the multiple, tragic and downright disturbing Black Noir flashbacks from season 3 episode 7.
Now that we’ve addressed the first difference, let’s move on to the second, and that being the ultimate outcome of the conflict. As we’ve already stated, O.G. Soldier Boy was blown to kingdom come in the comics and for nearly 20 episodes, the same was believed for his TV show counterpart. But towards the end of Season 3 episode 4, it’s revealed that Soldier Boy is still alive.
Turns out, he wasn’t killed in action like Vought told the American public; he was sold out by his team Payback to the Russians because, well, they simply hated him. And who wouldn’t? Have you seen the show? Because if you haven’t yet, then spoiler alert, Soldier Boy is still alive.
He was tortured for nearly 4 decades by the Russians in an attempt to learn the secrets of Compound V, and that has turned him into a literal walking nuclear reactor with a particularly sensitive case of PTSD; but don’t tell him that if you don’t want to get back-handed by a grumpy grandpa.
And that brings us to the final difference, and that is the status quo. After the disastrous debut of the Avenging Squad in World War 2, Vought decided to turn Soldier Boy into a legacy role and hid that fact from the public for over half a century; which is a real credit to their PR team. Because the man they put in the suit after him didn’t exactly get a lot of contextual exposition.
Soldier Boy 2 isn’t in the comics for even a cup of coffee!
This Soldier Boy pretty much works as a confirmation device for Mallory in the overarching scheme of things. In the very next issue of The Boys, issue #54, Mallory continues to tell Hughie about his story following the experience of the war. He recounted that even though he was back home by ’45, he still felt this cold desire for revenge, which led to him becoming one of the founding members of the C.I.A. Mallory was summarily put to task on the Red Threat from the East, and he quickly realised that his own vengeance was geared not towards oversees political enemies; but the ones close to home.
He developed an intense hatred for Supes and was really the first person to even bring up their existence to the higher ups of America’s intelligence community; but of course everyone called him crazy. Things didn’t change much by 1950, when the C.I.A. was forced into action due to the onset of the Korean War and the global expansion of the “communist agenda”.
But a few years into his service as a top-spy for the C.I.A., he discovered that all of his fears about the Supes and Vought were right; because following the Korean War’s explosion onto the global political theatre, a certain team of costumed vigilantes surfaced on the national stage that were strikingly similar to the ones Mallory had met in the Appalachians nearly a decade ago.
Sure, some of their team members had clearly been swapped out for different people to keep the character alive, but given the fact that the Supe incident of ’44 was covered up completely by the US government and Vought, who was going to believe him if he told them that this was The Avenging Squad and that Soldier Boy there was not even the original?! Well, he did manage to convince the eventual head of the C.I.A. of the threat that Vought and their Supes posed to national security and managed to secure a black budget and Vogelbaum to create The Boys, but that’s literally the only silver lining to come out of this entire ordeal.
Fact was, the general public adored the Supes and their colourful personas inevitably ended up making them more of a national symbol than the armed forces themselves. Eventually, Soldier Boy started waving the American flag at every photo op and his team- which was re-branded as Payback- went on to became Vought’s top asset in the 20th century. S.B. the second even shot several propaganda films aimed towards the Soviet Union and their Communist Encroachment across the world.
The Amazon TV show incorporated this version of Soldier Boy into their character specifically from this angle. Ackles’ Soldier Boy starred in such hit films like “Red Thunder”, which focused on the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and many other such productions spear-headed by The Legend.
But apart from that, there isn’t much to say about this version of the character except that his penchant for propaganda film-making is perhaps going to be his only lasting legacy; because Soldier Boy 2 died a couple of decades into his career, which leads us to the third and quite possibly final iteration of Soldier Boy.
Soldier Boy 3 – The Latest And Most Pathetic Version!
So, it’s unclear when Soldier Boy 3 came into active duty, but his debut appearance cannot be forgotten- more on that later. But the way Soldier Boy ties into the comics is rather curious, because the third version of the character is basically Captain America with a raging case of cowardice and a penchant for using phrases like “golly gee” and “aw gee whiz” etc. See, Soldier Boy 3 is a literal lampooning of Captain America, even going so far as to not swear at all, and yelling out the names of every American state whilst engaging his opponent. But his presence in the story is more of a vehicle for violence than anything else, though we do manage to get quite a few laughs out of him.
In issue #32 Butcher and The Boys are present at a hospital overseeing The Female who incurred potentially life-threatening damage during her last mission. But something isn’t quite right about this entire scenario; Butcher notices that besides like 4 staff members, they hadn’t met anyone at all, and his suspicions are proven to be correct because at that moment, The Boys are attacked by Payback.
The whole gang is here, too, with Crimson Countess taking on Terror, Swatto going after Frenchie, Stormfront immediately attacking M.M. because duh, and Soldier Boy yelling out Oregon while slamming his shield into Butcher’s chest. Things seem to be going well for Payback all things considered; their ambush worked, Stormfront managed to break M.M.’s arm- though he did get his genitalia damaged severely in the process- and Crimson Countess knocked Frenchie and The Female two stories off of a building and directly onto an ambulance.
But then Terror ripped a chunk out of Countess’ arm, and Butcher told Hughie to take Mother’s Milk out of the building and make sure no one comes back and we realised that The Boys are not the ones who should have been worried here; it’s Payback. Because right after Hughie and the lads get outside, Butcher snaps Crimson Countess’ neck with his belt and starts hunting the rest of Payback down like a bunch of annoying rats.
The cover of issue #33 is iconic because it features Soldier Boy pissing himself silly, but to be fair to the guy, he’d just lost his nose to a psychopath who was advancing on him and another superhero-like they were breakfast and he hadn’t eaten in a week. Although his speech is heavily distorted thanks to now essentially having a gaping hole for a nose, you can argue that Soldier Boy’s notorious cowardice actually would have come in handy for once here. See, Soldier Boy was the leader of Payback but that was only on paper.
In reality, Stormfront called the shots and Soldier Boy simply went along with it because, as we’ve already mentioned, he hella weak y’all. I mean if Butcher could tear his nose out with his first bite, how strong can he really be? But that cowardice weirdly makes him a rather logical leader.
He acknowledges the fact that Eagle the Archer and Tek-Knight are the only ones who ever treated him like a proper human being and thus holds them in high regard; which is crucial because in their own twisted way, they were among the handful of “real heroes” in the world of The Boys; albeit their heroics always came tinged with that characteristic twisted humour that Garth Ennis is so famous for.
But if only Stormfront and Mind-Droid had listened to him when he suggested they retreat. If only they had ignored their greed and worked together as an actual team to take down this obviously menacing threat. If only Mind-Droid had taken up Soldier Boy on his proposition to flee earlier than he did; perhaps he’d still be alive today. Butcher toys with Payback like they’re toddlers, making Stormfront leave the place in a rage thanks to a handful of glass to his eye and a pick axe introduced straight to Swatto brain.
He takes care of Mind-Droid as well, using a shovel to gruesome effect, and the next time we see him, he’s with The Boys headed to Payback’s HQ. Issue #34 mostly focuses on Butcher and his Boys’ fight against Stormfront, which is tough one, no doubt. Stormfront manages to weather several blows from The Boys- who are all on Compound V in the comics by the way- and not even Butcher’s extra-rage-filled punches can really keep him down.
It’s when they all come together to literally kick the crap out of him that they manage to turn the tide, and they’re given an assist by fan-favorite Love Sausage- who has a much larger role in the comics. Together, the 4 super-powered individuals make Stormfront a permanent part of the terrain surrounding Payback’s HQ with nothing but their feet, as a horrified Hughie watches on. It looks like things are going to be fine for The Boys because they go back to the hospital where they admitted The Female and manage to get her out of her coma, thanks to Hughie’s trademark whining.
But then the issue ends with Butcher paying a visit to a gagged-and-tied Soldier Boy and asks him who sent him, so we don’t know if this can be classified as a happy ending. Suffice it to say, that Soldier Boy 3 lived a coward’s life and went out the same way; though the manner in which it all transpired was somewhat tragic and way too graphic for sure. And if you can’t tell already, this version of Soldier Boy has no bearing on the Amazon version of the character.
Can you imagine hardcore misogynist and homophobe grandpa Soldier Boy even putting up with half the stuff that his supposed counterpart puts up with? No wonder Eric Kripke revived Soldier Boy 1 for his adaptation because things could’ve gotten very tricky if he went with the third one.
That being said, there is an interesting way in which he incorporated S.B. 3 into the story. So in Season 2, when Homelander and Stormfront practically kidnap Ryan from Becca, we find out that not only does the young man have the names of every American state memorized, but he also has a habit of saying them out-loud as sort of an inner peace activity. Of course, the specific states that come up in the TV show are Oregon and Nebraska which is very intriguing because they are two states that Soldier Boy 3 specifically calls out in issue #32.
What’s more is following the revelation that Homelander is Soldier Boy’s son, Ryan effectively becomes the 3rd Supe in a generation of “the world’s strongest heroes”. In fact, you could even call him Soldier Boy the Third, given the fact that his granddad is literally Soldier Boy and his father is the Soldier Boy after Soldier Boy; or Soldier Boy Jr., if you will, except he’s way stronger than his father.
So in a way, Eric Kripke managed to find a way to incorporate even this version of the character into the story somehow, and for that we salute him. It would be very fitting if it turns out that at the end of the day, when all is said and done and The Boys comes to an end, that Ryan becomes the new Soldier Boy and the whole state-name-recital becomes a part of his gimmick but in a much more positive fashion. But that’s just what we think; let us know what you think, in the comments below. Now, let’s get to that debut appearance, shall we?
Soldier Boy’s infamous debut in THAT mini-series
We’re aware that we have spent a lot of time dunking on Soldier Boy 3 but that isn’t without reason; after all, his first appearance in The Boys occurs in the first issue of the Herogasm mini-series, and what an introduction he has. After Homelander brings in the entire Supe community for the Vought-sponsored orgy, he disappears and the scene focuses on Starlight navigating Herogasm alongside Queen Maeve and just trying to adjust to the visceral nature of it all. But where did Homelander go, you ask, knowing the answer yourself?
Well, as it turns out, he was conducting a sort of annual test in a private room for a prospective member of The Seven. The test? Impressing him in bed. And the examinant? You’ve probably guessed where we’re going with this. Yes, Soldier Boy was introduced as the literal boy toy of Homelander who would annually trick him into sleeping with him every Herogasm, despite Soldier Boy not even partaking in the actual event itself! But this scene isn’t just meant as a joke; it also clearly introduces us to the naivety and downright stupidity of Soldier Boy.
Because after going at it for presumably a long time given Homelander’s feedback, S.B. can’t even figure out that he was getting taken advantage of. Heck, he asked Homelander if there was anything gay about what they were doing just to make sure it was all a test. How gullible can one be? But that’s sort of the entire point of his character. He’s a neutered version of Steve Rogers in more ways than one. He’s weak-willed and subservient, two things that couldn’t be further from the idea of Captain America, and it reflects just how hollow the act of being a Supe can be.
Funnily enough, Soldier Boy’s Herogasm debut was incorporated into the TV show in a rather unique manner. Instead of not participating in the annual proclivities like the rest of the Super-abled brethren, in the Amazon TV show, Soldier Boy created the damn thing; alongside a “firecracker” of a Supe called Liberty, aka Stormfront from the TV show. Hey, his words, not mine! That’s right, the duo came up with the whole idea in 1952 and the show depicts its 70th anniversary in season 3 episode 6.
Of course, there are a lot of changes to the way Herogasm is presented, as in the show it’s more of a C-list Supe get-together/orgy rather than a Vought-sponsored retreat, but they manage to preserve the essence of Herogasm. Another thing that they change is the interaction between Homelander and Soldier Boy, because instead of crossing swords in bed, they’re literally butting heads in the TNT twins’ living room to determine who is the strongest of them all.
And of course there’s the fact that instead of calling Homelander daddy, which he presumably did in the comics, Soldier Boy is revealed as his literal dad, which just adds a whole new Freudian dimension to the proceedings. But we’re not going to get into that here; we just wanted to point out how Soldier Boy was introduced to the story. And now, let’s address his exit.
Soldier Boy’s death in the comics
4 entire issues go by before we see exactly what came out of Billy Butcher’s “strict interrogation” of Soldier Boy 3. Issue #39 finally gives us the results. It opens with Butcher giving a rare smile; and not the sarcastic one that he usually wears in the comics. No, it’s the genuine article, because apparently, Soldier Boy gave up “everything”. Butcher has personnel files on The Seven- at least he’s got Starlight’s- and he also has enough dirt on them to cause a scandal big enough to rattle the foundation of Vought American.
Let’s just say he somehow has photographic proof of the infamous assault that occurred in issue #3, and he’s got half a mind to release it to the media. We also find out that he has deduced who sent Payback after The Boys- Vought’s President of Superhero Development- but this is after Billy takes his time to admire one of his pieces of art that ended up on national TV. We are talking, of course, about Soldier Boy’s death.
If you thought that there was any chance for S.B. to survive the British Nightmare, then you clearly are too optimistic for this world. Billy Butcher was not known to leave a scene with survivors, even if it was just an intel op. He took no half measures, and always made sure that he covered his tracks.
And, well, he just plain enjoyed killing Supes, which was evidenced by the laughter that came out of his mouth when he saw The Seven parading Soldier Boy’s coffin across Times Square. And that’s the last we see of him, because Vought ends up not re-casting the character and retires the persona permanently. Of course, a similar thing can end up happening in the show, where Butcher kills Soldier Boy, but it won’t be as much of a cakewalk for him as it was in the comics.
After all, Soldier Boy is second only to Homelander in terms of strength, and Butcher was barely able to keep him with him even after taking Temp V. And given the ending of season 3 episode 7, we can’t see them working together for too long going forward. A conflict of interests in inevitable, and when things finally implode, we might see Butcher go up against Soldier Boy in a big finale fight to bring Season 3 to an end; but that remains to be seen.
Marvelous Verdict
Soldier Boy is that rare case of a character being so unabashedly weak and shameful that he does a full 180 and becomes a fan favorite. Literally, the only reason some of the fans of The Boys love him is the cover art of issue #33; which is why the Amazon show has been such a blessing for his character.
By turning Jensen Ackles’ Soldier Boy into an amalgam of MCU Steve Rogers, packaging him with the Winter Soldier’s trauma, and injecting that John Wayne, frontier attitude into his personality, they have managed to make a character more pathetic than Wee Hughie look like a complete badass; and that is not an easy task, Marvelous Viewers. Just go read the comics.
On top of that, Eric Kripke’s Soldier Boy also has characteristics of each of his comic boom versions, which makes him one of the best composite characters in TV history in our opinion; and one with an original story arc to boot because the dad stuff is nowhere to be found in the source material.
Soldier Boy is definitely going to be a big player in the finale considering the teasers we’ve been seeing, and we can’t wait to see how his story concludes in Season 3. Will it all end here? Will we see him next season? Does he know he probably likes gay sex in the comics? We’ll have to wait to truly know!
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