When DeAndreCortez Way released “Crank That” in 2007, he may have created the world’s first viral music and dance video; nevertheless, we are not going to talk about that Soulja Boy. Instead, we will discuss one of the funniest characters spoofs ever to grace the pages of a comic book, which happens to be named Big Draco.
We all know that comic book parodies of Marvel and DC’s major superhero teams are nothing new; in fact, we recently made a film on the Midnighter from the WildStorm Universe– a Batman “rip-off” who, once seen in action, looks more like Wolverine and Punisher.
But therein lies the difference between the work of Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, the creators of the profanity-laced, hormone-driven, hedonistic thrill-ride that is The Boys, and most another comic book “adaptations” of the Avengers/JLA. Ennis and Robertson were not satisfied with destroying personalities; they also intended to deconstruct the concept of superheroes, leading to the development of this parallel universe in which heroes are real, but the statement “Never meet your heroes” isn’t.
Because they will almost certainly dupe you into doing something embarrassingly stupid. There are a couple of supes among the cavalcade of perverted, self-indulgent posers who take their job description seriously, no matter how mistaken they may be otherwise. Let us have a look at the Star-Spangled Boy himself without further ado; this is Soldier Boy’s Origins – Explored.
Who Is Soldier Boy?
That’s actually a great question because up until 2011, we were under the impression that there was only one Soldier Boy; and boy, was he a character. It was only when issues #52-54of The Boys came out that we discovered that Soldier Boy wasn’t exactly a man; he was more of a symbol. See, the primary antagonists facing off against Billy Butcher’s band of violent vigilantes, Vought-American, is also responsible for the creation of the worst possible WMDs to ever grace the face of the Earth; Superheroes.
Under the guise of being weapon contractors, Vought-American began a campaign of systematically infiltrating every level of the American government and private sector in an effort to achieve world dominance. Their first real attempt at a takeover took place during World War 2.
Lieutenant Colonel Greg Mallory’s pressurized unit received backup from V.A in the form of a full-fledged squadron of Supes dubbed The Avenging Squad, and their leader was the subject of this video. The original Soldier Boy was more like John Walker from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier series: a self-absorbed, rule-flouting buffoon whose very costume betrayed his allegiance.
Decked out in green-and-gold a la Hydra Supreme, Soldier Boy 1 might as well have been a villain for Mallory’s unit due to his sheer incompetency. While Vought-American gave their supes all the genetic components needed to be able to lift tanks, shoot laser beams and fly around the battlefield, they forgot to give them the most important thing of all: training. Against hawkish Nazi troops, they might as well have been civilians, and their mistakes backed that notion up.
Soldier Boy 1 assumed leadership of Mallory’s unit, naturally, and authorized aerial recon that exposed them all to the Nazi advance. What followed was a bloodbath that saw most of Mallory’s unit slaughtered. The Avenging Squad members met particularly gruesome deaths, especially the bone-headed Soldier Boy 1, who was murdered in cold blood via grenade explosion by a surviving Mallory, who would go on to create The Boy’s black-ops unit.
Vought-American would effectively retcon this disastrous failure and proclaim Soldier Boy an immortal, non-aging hero of the War, with the title becoming a secret mantle passed on from one Boy to another. The current Soldier Boy is at least the 3rd Boy to strap on the shield, introduced in The Boys: Herogasm #1published in 2009.
But unlike his predecessor’s out-and-out villainy, this Soldier Boy is decidedly less evil and far more…well, dimwitted, for the lack of a better word. Unlike his peers, Soldier Boy truly believes in his mission and is dedicated to being a “real superhero”, going so far as not swearing or participating in the aforementioned Herogasms.
It’s refreshing to find a genuinely innocent and righteous character in creation as twisted as The Boys, but it’s his best qualities that make him such an easy target. Though he is a genetically-enhanced being who leads his own team of “defenders”, he is desperate to join a “real team of supers” like The Seven; to the point that he will do anything to join it, including having sexual encounters with Homelander as part of a “test of worthiness”.
No homo, though. In fact, he is so obsessed with becoming an A-list hero that he has committed mass murders to gain The Seven’s recognition. Though his entry into the Mile High Club of supes might never happen, he can find some solace in being the leader of V.A’s second-most recognizable superhero property.
Payback: A Superhero Group Lead By Soldier Boy
An eagle-eyed archer, a man in a high-tech suit of armor, a crimson-haired “witch”, a flying man who shoots lightning from his body; no, we’re not talking about Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, though we can see why your minds would go there. These are the abilities of Eagle the Archer, Tek Knight, Crimson Countess, and Stormfront, members of Soldier Boy’ssuperhero organization The Payback which is, as you might have guessed already, is a direct parody of Marvel’s Avengers.
Size-shifter Swatto and the telepathic Mind-droid round out this group of oddities who rank second only to The Seven in the universe Vought-American have created. Surprisingly enough, Soldier Boy was “fairly” elected as the group’s leader; but readers (and Soldier Boy himself) know that Stormfront is the one who really calls the shots.
We think Soldier Boy got that position as the group is supposed to be a re-incarnation of the Avenging Squad (itself a parody of Marvel’s Invaders), but who knows why he continues to hold it in light of his clear ineffectiveness. Despite being in a group already, or perhaps because of the group they’re in, every member of Payback has tried to join The Seven at least once; all membership requests were denied, obviously, with Soldier Boy being the only one who is yet to figure this out. They were a group of supes nonetheless and would become the first wave of sacrificial lambs in Vought-America’s clandestine war with The Boys.
Is Soldier Boy A Spoof of Captain America?
From his costume design to his paraphernalia and even personality quirks, Soldier Boy doesn’t just spoof Captain America; he absolutely lampoons the Star-Spangled Man with a plan. It’s like everything that makes Captain America one of the most iconic comic book characters is being systematically roasted by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson through their pages. First, the costumes, which are extraordinarily detailed for a series whose foundation has a deep hatred for superheroes and their tall tales.
Super Boy 1’s costume design looked a lot like a crossover between the classic Captain America design and the Hydra suit that Steve Rogers from Earth-61311 wore during the Secret Empire storyline. The current Soldier Boy’s costume looks more like Sam Wilson’s Captain America digs, in one of the most meta homages to comic book continuity we’ve ever seen.
The part where things become more ostentatious is with his paraphernalia. Instead of the now-classic round, star-spangled shield, Ennis and Robertson adopted the original design of Cap’s shield and gave it a Bald Eagle-sized makeover to bring out the character’s overt, borderline-obscene obsession with patriotism. And if his looks haven’t convinced you that he’s a living Captain America troll yet, his actions most certainly will.
The original Soldier Boy’s first-and-only mission was a scathing parody of Cap’s World War 2 exploits that saw his entire unit slaughtered as opposed to being saved, and that’s just the beginning. Remember that “Language!” running gag from Avengers: Age of Ultron? Well, what was a slip-of-the-tongue moment for Steve Rogers happens to be Soldier Boy’s entire personality?
The man censures himself, using clean-cut old-school exclamations like “Aw, gee!” & “By golly!”, in situations where even good ol’ Steve would let out a scathing curse or few. As if that wasn’t cheesy enough, he has taken it upon himself to turn the names of all 50 States into his personal battle cry, bellowing out “Arkansas” or “Nebraska” mid-fight to reaffirm his faith in his mission whilst explicitly announcing his position to the enemy.
And on top of that, the man is a textbook suck-up and a stone-cold coward! Whether it’s a guy his size or ten times bigger than him, Steve Rogers never backed down from a fight and could legitimately go all day with his opponents, super-serum or otherwise. He was also one of the most stoic personalities to ever be penned for a comic, with ideals as indestructible as Vibranium.
Conversely, Soldier Boy freaks out and makes a dash for it the moment he encounters a hero stronger than himself, a fact that was immortalized by the iconic cover that shows him scared so bad, he actually pisses himself off.
And we’ve already spoken about his desperate need for attention from The Seven earlier, so we’re just gonna mention his sexcapades with Homelander as evidence here. Now if you’re gonna ask us whether this latex-clad, shield-bearing, naïve slice of pure Americana is a spoof of Captain America or not, our short answer would be a hard yes, for all the reasons listed above.
How Powerful Is Soldier Boy?
Having said all that about his characterization, we can’t deny some of the obvious similarities that Captain America and Soldier Boy share. Both men were exposed to a super serum meant to enhance their physical capabilities far beyond that of an average human. The big difference, however, lies in the formula.
Where Steve Rogers received Dr. Erskine’s perfect formula, which was only one of the many super-soldier serums that float about in the Marvel Universe, all of Soldier Boy’s powers come from Compound V; the substance responsible for creating every superhero in The Boys’ universe.
Compound V is a “flexible substance”, in that it grants different kinds of powers to different individuals. Both Homelander and Soldier Boy have received the Compound but have vastly different abilities and a massive gulf in their respective power levels. Still, that is not to say Soldier Boy isn’t superhuman. He possesses base-level super-strength that allows him to pack more force in his punches than any regular human being and also gives him enough power to be able to (sort of) lift up an armored tank.
He’s extremely agile and tricky to hit, as he can dodge most things with relative ease; from punches to bullets. His expertise in hand-to-hand combat allows him to channel these powers to their maximum extent, as shown in his fight with Billy Butcher where he stunned the leader of The Boys multiple times with his rapid-fire blows and reflexes.
Didn’t stop him from getting his nose bitten off by Butcher in the same encounter, but Soldier Boy takes any V that he can get. His weapon of choice is his ornate hexagonal shield, which he uses for defense and melee offense; though the design makes it less capable of operating like a lethal boomerang. All-in-all, Soldier Boy is pretty much a spitting image of Captain America- minus the strategic genius, the iron-clad loyalty, and general intelligence that makes Steve Rogers one of a kind.
What To Expect On The Boys From Soldier Boy?
None of the things we’ve listed above will prepare you for Season 3 of Amazon’sThe Boys. See, creators Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson have been slowly bringing their comic book work to life alongside Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg; but with slight, TV-friendly twists added to the pre-established lore in order to make them more appealing to the audiences.
We saw that in the Dominick Cooper-starter Preacher, and have been seeing it with The Boys as well. From Billy Butcher’s origin story to the composition of The Seven, everything has been tweaked and adjusted in order to tell a cohesive, fluidic, blockbuster story that will stick with the audience for a very long time.
So it was both exciting and absolutely terror-inspiring when Eric Kripke revealed that the 6th episode of the upcoming season would adapt the notoriously lewd Herogasmstoryline which is just riddled with all kinds of depraved nastiness. This is significant not just for the plot material, but also because it was during this storyline that Soldier Boy made his debut. However, if Jenson Ackles is to be believed, TV Soldier Boy is going to be an entirely different kind of sniveling.
The Supernatural heartthrob has a close working relationship with Kripke and was offered the role during the last few days of production. Naturally, he accepted it in a heartbeat and has been giving his thoughts on what the character will be like on the show. “He’s a jackass. He’s a grandpa. He’s from the ’40s. He fought in World War II, and he’s just this curmudgeon, bigot.
He doesn’t age, so he’s this 40-year-old superhero who’s really 80 years old or 90 years old”, stated Ackles while discussing the role during media runs. “They find me and I’ve been essentially in captivity for a while.
And so, when they do, I’m bearded and I look like [I’m from the movie] Cast Away, but then they clean me up and I get my superhero outfit back on and I go to town,” which hints at the fact that unlike comic book Soldier Boy, Ackles’ version is the only Soldier Boy in existence in Amazon’s The Boys.
The costume designs that have been revealed also seem to confirm this, as Ackles’ modernized bodysuit & armor resemble the look and feel of the First Soldier Boy’s outfit. And judging by the fact that this Soldier Boy is being built as the first recipient of Compound V (as opposed to Stormfront in the comics), we can safely say that his role is going to be far more insidious than his comparatively-ridiculous comic book counterpart.
Needless to say, that doesn’t mean that Soldier Boy’s screen-time will pass without incident, as we’re sure there will be more than enough homages to the comics to keep die-hards satisfied; but if you’re expecting the gullible bootlicker we’ve described in the past few minutes, then you’re in for a rude awakening.
Ackles’ version of Soldier Boy is set to be far more sinister, and has the potential to become a Homelander-level threat if left unchecked; and if we’re being honest, we just want to watch how Kripke and Co. adapts one of the most-luridly lewd comic book storylines for mainstream production. For those reasons alone, Season 3 of The Boys is sitting at the top of our to-watch list.