While Season 3 of The Boys already features a huge, prolonged, SUPER scandalous event among the supers, it is impossible to fathom how much wilder it might get. However, it is, and we bet you will be startled to see how. Katia Winter joins the group of series newcomers, which also includes Jensen Ackles, who made his debut as Soldier Boy, a brand-new character.
Winter will appear in season 3 as Little Nina, who is a character from the comics by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, and she’s just as crazy as the rest of The Boys’ wacky characters. Little Nina is a mob leader based in Russia, who got her name because she is, spoiler alert, quite short. Like, very, super short. Another notable thing about this character is that she is different in every aspect of the series when compared to the comic book, and it will definitely be interesting to see Eric Kripke’s take on this supe.
Little Nina Origin
Little Nina Namenko is a villain in the comic book and the television series, The Boys. She is a Russian criminal boss who Frenchie used to be employed for. In Garth Ennis’ and Darick Robertson’s comics, Little Nina’s moniker is somewhat literal, owing to her tiny stature. Another well-known Nina characteristic is her preference for pleasure toys since she avoids getting too close to individuals she may have to kill later.
First and foremost, Nina, a Russian gangster, forms an agreement with Vought, receiving a supply of unstable Compound-V and transforming 150 criminals into a supe army eager to wreak havoc. Nina’s ultimate ambition is to stage a super-powered revolution and seize control of her whole country, and while Vought promises to support this quest, the firm utterly betrays her, only interested in hiring the supes Little Nina’s multiple contacts could garner.
Little Nina intended to let her supes go wild before bringing them all down with a detonation, but Vought failed to provide her with a critical component – a functioning detonator. Butcher and The Boys get wind of Vought and Little Nina’s plot and travel to Russia to investigate, accompanied by their old comrade Love Sausage. Nina does her best to manage the problem that their presence has created at the behest of her corporate sponsor, but in Russia, the problem handles her. Butcher slips a bomb into her pleasure toy while she is on a plane, blowing it up and plummeting it onto a cold Russian mountain.
In Eric Kripke’s Amazon Prime series, three of the first episodes follow Billy Butcher and the rest of the Boys on their mission to collect information about the weapon that allegedly murdered Soldier Boy in the 1980s. They were desperately seeking such a weapon as they felt that anything strong enough to kill a formidable superhero like the very famous Soldier Boy could also be powerful enough to kill a supe like Homelander.
Butcher’s mission led him to discover that Soldier Boy and the crew that he worked with, Payback, had been involved in a CIA operation in Nicaragua in 1984, during which Soldier Boy was killed. When Butcher discovered from Hughie that the woman named Victoria Neuman was also a supe, he knew just who he needed to contact in order to complete his job. But first, they asked Frenchie to accompany them on their visit.
However, Frenchie informed them that he had a personal matter to attend to. Frenchie was in reality assisting Cherie, a recurrent character whom he has had a brief intimate relationship with. She explained that she needed to go because she had misplaced some pills belonging to a woman named Little Nina. That’s when Frenchie offered her a phony passport, allowing her to start over somewhere else. However, after informing Frenchie that Little Nina wished to see him, a gang of Russians kidnapped him.
They then took him by force to a Russian general shop allegedly owned by Little Nina. According to the chat between Frenchie and Cherie, as well as the one between Frenchie and Little Nina, she is quite obviously a Russian smuggler or drug kingpin. It was evident from her talk with Frenchie that they used to know each other since she referred to him as Sergei. This is a Russianized form of Frenchie’s actual name, Serge.
Little Nina was curious about Cherie’s whereabouts since, according to her, Cherie had stolen narcotics from her. She also made Frenchie recall her previous employment as one of her mobsters. In this aspect, it is apparent that Frenchie and Little Nina have had some sort of a relationship. On the other hand, Frenchie escaped with his life after telling Little Nina that he is now working with the government and that she couldn’t harm him without facing the government’s retaliation.
Butcher inquired about Frenchie’s whereabouts towards the conclusion of the third Episode and discovered that he was with Little Nina. That’s when Butcher came up with the notion of using Little Nina to get The Boys to Russia, given that his ultimate aim was to learn more regarding the circumstances surrounding Soldier Boy’s death, whose body was seized by the Russians back in 1984 after they allegedly killed him.
Changes in the TV Series from the Comics
Aside from her name, Katia Winter’s Little Nina is quite a bit different from the version that is presented in the comics. This character in season 3 of The Boys is also Russian, and a mobster, with her name carrying a formidable reputation that Frenchie is also very afraid of. That’s mostly where the similarities between the two end. While in the comics Nina is based in Russia, the live action character is set in New York City.
Nina from The Boys TV series most certainly has a large criminal enterprise, but she’s ultimately just an ordinary drug trafficker for the mafia rather than the dangerously formidable plot hatcher that is shown in the comics. The “Little” part of her name, Little Nina, is only symbolic, and the infamous black bowl cut that she has in the comic books has been changed to a more socially attractive hairstyle.
Perhaps the most significant shift brought about by The Boys season 3 for Little Nina is her personal relationship with the Boys themselves. Butcher, played by Karl Urban, has obviously known Little Nina since before The Boys season 1. Butcher admits to knowing Little Nina solely by reputation when he hears her name in the comic series. Not to forget that Frenchie used to work for and have an intimate relationship with the gangster. In this new season of The Boys, this personal connection radically changes the dynamic between Little Nina and Butcher’s squad.
Amazon’s The Boys, interestingly enough, has a number of Easter eggs that allude to Little Nina’s origins. The Boys are referring to Katia Winter’s character’s comic book habit of utilizing pleasure toys as she recalls intimate moments with Frenchie and a strap-on. Another sentence alludes to a distinct comedic situation in which two spectators were taken aback by the size of a pleasure toy Little Nina was using in a public restroom.
Conclusion
This newest season of The Boys has continued to introduce new people that may play significant parts in the series, and we feel that one such character who will play a substantial role in The Boys’ future is Little Nina. It seems like she might play a more prominent role in Frenchie’s character development. While Little Nina didn’t get much screen time in Episode 3, there’s a strong chance we’ll see her again in the following episodes, especially if she plays a role in The Boys’ infiltration of Russia.
She is definitely a very intriguing character in the comics, and it’ll be interesting to see how her character is developed in the TV series. We’re sure that a lot of Little Nina’s superfans are eagerly looking forward to her return in the TV series and maybe even a major plot twist! We can only wait and watch.