It is a refreshing change of pace that there are now other female superheroes that comic book geeks and movie buffs equally adore besides Wonder Woman. Black Widow struggled for more than a decade to get her own movie made, but now Marvel has not only released that feature but also WandaVision and Ms. Marvel, two complete TV series with female leads.
In the realm of superheroes and supervillains, women have slowly but surely found their place, but Queen Maeve still believes she is a cut above the rest. The only superhero with any sort of complexity to her portrayal is the Diana Prince spoof from Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson’s very contentious and influential series The Boys.
She may be just as cynical as the other Seven, but at least Homelander acts in a certain way for a good reason rather than just for fun. And more people are learning exactly how wonderful a seemingly unimportant character is as a result of the Amazon TV series. Who is Queen Maeve, though? Where did she originate? And why does she behave in this way? This movie, Queen Maeve’s Origins – Explored, will address all of these questions and more.
Wonder Woman + Barbie – Morality = Queen Maeve from the Comics
The equation we just showed you is pretty much all you need to know about the original version of Queen Maeve. The Boys is essentially a satire of pretty much every facet of hero and celebrity culture, and Maeve’s character fits perfectly into that commentary in that she is 2 stereotypes thrown together and then given a bottle full of jagged pills to swallow that somehow turns her into a DP aficionado; and no, you don’t wanna Google the full form of that particular abbreviation.
In fact, we don’t even get to find out her name; the only information about her personal life outside of The Seven that we get is that her civilian nickname is Maggie. But other than that, Queen Maeve from the comics is pretty much Wonder Woman with a blonde wig and an intensely cynical outlook towards life.
But things weren’t always like this for her. Though the comics don’t throw a lot of light at her background before she became a superhero, they do reveal one key incident that ended up changing Maeve’s life forever. So, like most of the Supes in The Boys’ universe, Queen Maeve gained her powers thanks to Compound V which was injected into her while she was still in the womb.
Maeve would grow up to become one of the strongest test subjects to survive the process of administration, ranking in the Top 3 of The Seven in terms of pure, raw strength. As a teenage superhero, Maeve was filled with optimism and a true sense of duty whenever she’d take off to fight bad guys- oh yeah, Queen Maeve could fly in the comics!- and that sentiment endured well after she joined The Seven.
But as we’ve already referenced, and as The Joker likes to say, all it takes is one bad day to turn your life inside out, and for Maeve, that day came during a particularly dicey time in American history. See, Amazon’s version of The Boys is actually rather dialled in when it comes to the gory violence and the rampant hedonism; because Ennis and Robertson did NOT pull punches in their original creation and took the idea of Supes being just disastrously ineffective right back to home in the worst way possible.
If you ask any American what the worst day in their country’s history was, chances are, 9 times out of 10 they’ll say 9/11. And they’d be right, you know; 9/11 was the single-most unprecedented act of international terrorism spilling directly onto American soil and it isn’t an exaggeration to say that it affected the lives of every American living at that point, and the world to a larger extent.
So naturally, Garth Ennis decided that 9/11 wasn’t entirely the fault of the terrorists and he threw the Supes into the mix, creating a recipe for pure disaster. The Seven tried their best to “save the day” and prevent the attacks from being carried out, but in a scene rather reminiscent to the one we saw in season 1 episode 4, Homelander ends up ordering his team to stand down in effect, which leads to the destruction of the entire plane, the Brooklyn Bridge and Mr. Marathon; the original speedster of The Seven.
Up to this point, Queen Maeve was still the same idealistic superhero who took her job description at its face value and worked incessantly to save the day. This mission was her first major outing as a member of the Seven and it completely disillusioned her with everything.
She thought heroes were supposed to save the day like in the movies and comics, but when Homelander burst everyone’s eardrums and gave 0 effs about it, and later when he put his hands on Queen Maeve for being “naïve enough” to believe that heroes were meant to save the day, it completely broke her morality and turned her into just like everyone else on the team; a depraved, alcoholic, sexual deviant with a penchant for getting double-timed by bodybuilders.
But it isn’t like she chose this lifestyle; Maeve’s trauma and the subsequent desensitization that she was subjected to collided into this massive ball of apathy that she carried around with her everywhere she went. When Starlight was assaulted in the comics and she came across Maeve, she wasn’t given a pep talk, she was summarily asked to eff off. Queen Maeve’s Vought cover story was that she was the Queen of the Netherworld, come to the surface to fight for the side of justice and humanity; and in a way, they weren’t even lying about it, because that’s exactly how Maeve saw herself after 9/11. She let those people die.
She was the reason that the greatest tragedy in American history happened. In a way, she was the Queen of the Dead; after all, what kind of living being with a soul would let what she had allowed to happen, happen? And so Queen Maeve turned into the saucy nihilist that we all know and love from a distance.
She became a promiscuous wreck, being one of the most enthusiastic participants of Herogasm, and having several affairs outside of her one-time relationship with Homelander, including one with Stormfront- who is a guy in the comics- and The Legend, who is the publisher of Victory Comics in-universe.
She gives birth to several children but usually ends up either getting rid of them or not caring for them at all, which is horrifying once you fully realize the extent of what we’ve just told you. For the most part, Queen Maeve remains a staunch ally to Vought and a Trinity Member of The Seven, but everything changes when Homelander finally pushes her a bit too far.
Queen Maeve had already been re-discovering her heroic self, thanks to coming into contact with Starlight. Her inner struggle was back with a vengeance, and she even started showing signs of resisting her vices, for example when she saved Starlight from an evil-intentioned Black Noir who was trying to force her to wear a skimpy new uniform. What pushed her over the edge was the fact that Homelander had already violated her consent without even touching her; just not in the way she might’ve thought.
See, back when they were dating, there was this one night where Homelander blind-folded Queen Maeve before getting busy with her. Knowing the kind of heathen he his, Maeve didn’t think too much about it at the time. To her terror, Homelander revealed that that wasn’t actually him that night; it was Black Noir, who ended up taking pictures of the whole thing, which Homie then leaked to every higher up in Vought in an attempt to humiliate Maeve for “choosing the wrong side”.
It was then that she decided that enough was enough and something needed to be done about this, and she came into contact with Butcher and his Boys thanks to her old flame Legend. Queen Maeve became their mole and planted bugs all over Seven Tower, giving The Boys direct access to Homelander’s plans for the world. Sadly, Queen Maeve wouldn’t live long enough to see her vengeance fulfilled.
When Homelander discovers her and Starlight’s treachery, he simply declares that he’s going to kill them both, and lunges at the latter first. As her final redeeming act, Maeve pushes Annie out of Homelander’s trajectory, giving her just enough time to escape. She then squares up to the man who was responsible for all of her worst traumas and engages him in battle but quickly realizes that she was set up to fail from the start; She was the third-strongest out of The Seven, her sword was nothing but a metal replica piece, and she had just pissed off the strongest being on the planet.
In the end, Homelander punched her head off her shoulders- literally- and ended the life of the woman he professed to have once loved. That’s right, folks; Queen Maeve doesn’t live through the entire series, which is actually a recurring theme with the members of The Seven, but regardless to say, her impact is felt throughout the story.
Garth and Darick don’t give her a lot to work with, they don’t even explain her backstory properly, but they make sure that they give us enough for us to connect with her and see her as a Supe who actually was a hero. But when it comes to nuanced portrayal, we have to admit that the Amazon series did it much better.
Her real name is Maggie Shaw – Queen Maeve from Amazon’s The Boys
So, there are a couple of key differences between Maeve from the comics and Maeve from the TV show. First, she isn’t blonde, she’s a redhead, and that is also reflected in her gear. Second, and more importantly, she is much more of a human being than her comic book counterpart, and that is what makes her such an emotionally resonant character. In the comics, when Starlight gets assaulted, Queen Maeve just asks her to eff off, but in the show, she gives her what can only be called sage advice in hindsight when she tells her to “never let them see you like this.”
That’s just the tip of the iceberg to the pantheon of complexities that is Queen Maeve in Amazon’s The Boys, so we’ll give you the low down on her origins. In the show, Compound V isn’t administered to babies in the womb; instead, it is given to new born infants, with the consent factor of a parent playing a much bigger role. And while that sounds like a good thing, The Boys has shown us just why becoming a Supe can have consequences beyond gaining superpowers.
We’ve already seen from Starlight’s backstory that the only reason her mom agreed to give her Compound V was because she wanted to vicariously live through her daughter. And while that pressure and exploitation has unsurprisingly proven traumatic for Annie, Maeve’s story is somehow even worse.
She was born Margaret Shaw, but her loved ones called her Maggie. When she was an infant, Maeve got injected with Compound V after her dad cut a deal with Vought to essentially give up her daughter to them. Maeve grew up an idealist partially out of choice, but also because of the environment she was raised in.
Her father was a gambling addict and the only reason he agreed to allow Vought to give Maeve the V is because he figured he could make a tonne of cash off of her superpowers. Much like Annie, Maeve was forced to go to superhero pageants and such and put through gruelling training to ensure her victory; just so her dad could piss away all her winnings at the poker table. Still, idealism gained is better than idealism bought, and so till the time that she grew up to become an adult, Queen Maeve still believed in the idea of heroism.
She believed her powers were given to her so she could do some good for the world, and before she joined Hero College, she used them to do just that. When Starlight shows up pissed with Vought, Homelander, Maeve’s apathy and everything in the middle, she claims that the story about Queen Maeve saving a bus full of children and breaking her arm in the process is what inspired her to become a superhero but she now believes that that story was fabricated by Vought just because how big of a lie everything “heroes” did was.
Maggie reveals to a stunned Starlight that that story wasn’t created by Vought; it actually was her, and she shows her the proof. Her arm never set properly, and a thing like that cannot be hidden now, can it? But everything went left dramatically after she joined Hero College because that’s where she met Homelander, and once she got drafted into The Seven and saw Vought’s true colours, her spirit just broke.
She became more cynical and self-destructive, indulging in alcohol and frequent promiscuity similar to her comic book counterpart. It’s revealed that Homelander forced her into dating him, and hinted that he probably went much further than that, but Maeve just put up with it and went on as instructed because despite being the second-strongest member of the Seven, she had bought into the modus operandi of Vought International; and more than that, she was downright terrified of her psycho team captain.
In fact, things got so bad that Maeve had to spend a good chunk of her life living in the closet and staying away from the person she truly loved. Queen Maeve hid the fact that she was a bisexual not because she was scared of embracing her own identity, but because she was scared of what Homelander might do to Elena, and of Vought might do to their private lives by extension.
And as it would turn out, she was right to think so; once the cat was out of the bag, not one person could’ve stopped Homie from outing her on national TV and forcing her to market herself as a lesbian even though he himself had dated her in the past. Although #BraveMaeve was probably one of the greatest things to happen to the in-universe LGBTQIA+ community of The Boys, all it really did was confirmed to Maeve that all her fears were true.
Homelander would kill Elena the first chance he got, Vought was being incredibly insensitive as always, and she couldn’t even keep her true love by her side for too long. The only ray of hope for her was Starlight, whose doe-eyed optimism and true belief in being a superhero jerked Maeve back into action. She was reminded of the person she used to be, and by interacting more with Starlight, she allows that part of herself to resurface.
Maeve tells Starlight to keep being the “goody-two-shoes a-hole” she is and says that she will use all the under-handed skills she’s picked up from Vought to become a real pain in Homelander’s ass. This is a stark contrast from earlier on in the series when she told her that a Supe’s true weakness was the fact that they were human on the inside and that if they cut off all emotional ties, then “that way you’re really bulletproof”.
We’re guessing what really spurred her into action was the fact that Homelander allowed an entire plane filled with civilians to go crashing into the sea without saving a single person. After going on a bender- which is understandable given the circumstances- she realises that the only real way for her and her loved ones to be safe again is to get rid of Homelander. And so, she makes a decision. She asks The Deep to recover evidence of Homelander abandoning the airplane from the crash site and tells him that she will get him back into the Seven if he does.
She saves Starlight from Black Noir when he attacks her in the Hall of the Seven and makes him go into anaphylactic shock by feeding him an Almond Joy and kicking his epipen away. When news breaks out that Homelander’s latest girlfriend Stormfront is actually a Nazi, she takes off to where the Kraut is and helps Starlight and Kimiko kick the crap out of her.
Queen Maeve decides to take a stand for herself, and this is where her story starts lining up with her comic book counterpart somewhat because at the start of season 3, it’s revealed that she is working as a mole for Billy Butcher and his Boys. Queen Maeve has been giving him leads all year long and helping get Supes locked up left, right and center. That infamous opening sequence at Termite’s house party doesn’t happen if she doesn’t give Butcher intel, and no one knows about this except for the two of them.
Not even Starlight knows that Maeve is working with Butcher, because she buys into her cover story that she has stopped training and is only interested in getting buzzed and sleeping with bodybuilders at the moment. It’s only when she confronts her about “BCL Red” when she finds out that Maeve has been training for the past four months and is completely sober that she realises just how serious she is about killing Homelander.
Well, that and the fact that she brought Butcher temporary Compound V- aka V24- in that first episode in the hopes of finding something that can blow Homelander’s “effing brains out”. For the first 4 episodes, she manages to keep her head on straight and stay on mission. Elena breaks up with her and leaves and she still manages to keep her feelings in check; besides a short table flip of frustration.
She is the one who gives Butcher his lead on Soldier Boy, and she also gets him another round of Compound V after he finishes all of it during his trip to Russia. But then she makes a crucial mistake when she succumbs to her urge to drink and ends up sleeping with him, because when she gets back to Vought Tower, Homelander can literally smell him all over her and has Black Noir take her to the “Global Wellness Retreat”; which we’re guessing is just code for Queen Maeve is dead, but that remains to be seen. For now, all we know is she’s been taken out of action, and that itself is a scary prospect when you think about her stats.
How Powerful is Queen Maeve?
Queen Maeve is one of the strongest members of the Seven, second only to Homelander in the show and both him and Black Noir in the comics. She is easily the strongest female superhero in both iterations, and her list of superpowers is pretty impressive. Though she doesn’t have laser eyes or a flashy, unbreakable lasso at her hip, Queen Maeve’s physical capabilities far exceed those of others.
She has superhuman strength and endurance, as evidenced by the fact that she tore through a speeding armoured truck just by standing in its path. During one of her training sessions, she was able to take out 5 fighters without breaking a sweat, not even flinching when she was hit in the face with a metal rod. Though she isn’t The Seven’s resident martial artist, she is proficient at the discipline herself.
She was skilled enough to counter Black Noir at his peak performance and even overpowered him in a fight. Queen Maeve has superhuman reflexes, as we’ve already argued, and her speed is such that she can run along walls, legit defying gravity for a short period of time. In the comics, she also had the power of flight, but that was nixed for the show; instead, she does most of her flying thanks to Homelander, but her physical endurance is such that she can survive Mach speed without any sort of protection.
Perhaps her biggest gift is her senses, which have been attuned to a level beyond what would be considered enhanced. You know you’re a Supe when you can tell an invisible person is standing right behind you, which is exactly what she did to Translucent in season 1 episode 1. All this to say; Queen Maeve is the definition of an impressive physical specimen and she is definitely in the upper echelon of the Supe food chain. Homelander might sit pretty at the top, but she’s a close second, and you guys will know just how important that is if you’ve seen the recent Herogasm episode.
Interesting Facts about Queen Maeve
But while she is the personification of a strong, independent woman, Queen Maeve’s character is also special in that it is inspired by the only comic book superhero that Garth Ennis actually cared about. It’s been well-documented that Garth did not care much for superheroes or the ideal worlds they lived in, and that is very evident in his writing, but the one superhero even he couldn’t help but love was Wonder Woman, who is also the primary inspiration behind Queen Maeve’s character.
In a lot of ways, Maeve is what Diana would have become if her unrelenting optimism was replaced with hardcore cynicism. Even her costume is a proper replica of the classic Wonder Woman look from DC Comics; in the show, Dominique McElligott wears armour more inspired by Gal Gadot’s Diana from the DCEU. But what’s more interesting is the choice of a given name for the character.
Maeve isn’t a Greek name, nor is it even American; it’s actually Irish, just like Dominique, and has its roots in Irish mythology’s Ulster Cycle. Maeve was the name of a rather promiscuous Queen of Connaught who allegedly had to sleep with 30 men a day to satisfy her urges. And while it is never overtly referenced in either depictions of the character, there are strong hints that this figure from Irish legend served as a secondary inspiration for the character.
In the comics, that hint comes in the form of her promiscuity, which is much more acute than what we see in the show. As we’ve mentioned already, Queen Maeve is a group enthusiast, and might as well be engaging upwards of 30 men a day if her Irish inspiration is to be believed. This is further reinforced by her Herogasm arc in the comics, something you’re just going to have to read to believe.
This association is also apparent in the show, and as if to make it extra evident, Dominique’s Queen Maeve is also a ginger; and we’re just going to wait for the Irish jokes to flood our comment section right about now. Another interesting thing about her character is that, in the comics, it’s Maeve who has an affair with Stormfront, not Homelander.
Stormfront is a male in the comics, and his Nazi ideology isn’t something he wants to reinforce onto the world, unlike his Amazon counterpart; in fact, their relationship is entirely sexual and is something Maeve only agrees to because she wanted to tell off Homelander. There’s a general sense of ruthlessness about her in the comics, which is entirely missing from the TV show where she is usually just a wreck or an inspiration.
In that aspect, comic book Maeve is more like her Irish mythology inspiration, because Queen Maeve of Connaught was known to be ruthless and fierce. She wouldn’t hesitate from taking what she desired and had played with the politics of Connaught and the Ulster Empire for decades before she eventually passed away.
Marvelous Verdict
Whether it’s the version from the comics or the TV show, the one thing that doesn’t change about Queen Maeve is the fact that, at her very core, she is a true hero. Maeve’s role in both mediums isn’t just to illustrate how power can corrupt you and leave you a shell of your former self; it is also a blatant red flag for Starlight because their characters are analogs.
Starlight is the new Queen Maeve in all but name, and when she realises that she sees herself in this kid, she wakes up to her true self and becomes what she always wanted to be; a real superhero. Sure, she goes about it in the most practical and least heroic way, becoming a mole for an intelligence agency and gathering evidence as opposed to bashing heads in. And sure, she gets her head punched off her shoulders for her “treachery”.
But what Maeve teaches us with the little bit of her life that we do get to see is that it’s never too late to stand up for what you believe in and to give it your all. In the comics, right before she dies, Queen Maeve doesn’t act scared of Homelander. She dies with pride because she knows that she has given Starlight enough of a window to escape.
She knows she died doing something heroic, and that is something we think will happen in the TV show as well. Maeve represents the idea that change doesn’t just happen, you have to reach out and take it. Because if you let yourself be swayed from your path, you will end up an empty husk like she used to be; and that’s as good as being dead, in our opinion.