The Boys and Celebrity Culture

*Spoilers for The Boys*

*Content Warning – Discussions of Sexual Assault*

Comic book adaptations are all the rage at the moment. We get three Marvel movies a year, maybe two DC movies a year and tons of tv shows from various properties from Supergirl to Preacher. Most of these adaptations are based on superheroes. We went from a handful of people reading comics based on Guardians of the Galaxy to everyone’s grandparents knowing who Groot is. Superheroes are everywhere from our cereal boxes to our soft drinks almost like celebrities… like I mention in the title… look you know where I’m going with this.

The Boys is set in a world where, as the synopsis says, superheroes as popular as celebrities as influential as politicians. They are able to say some interesting things about celebrity culture and even our relationships with superheroes and their movies. Starlight is probably the best character to discuss when it comes to celebrity culture as she acts as our entry point into the world of the Seven. Starlight is introduced into the Seven after auditioning to join them, she is presented on stage in front of a massive crowd of people. We see just what it means to be a part of the Seven, she is told what to say and do by a marketing team to make sure that she is as popular and as talked about as possible.

It is not the big public appearances that give us the most insight but the private moments with the team. She goes to the Seven meeting room with The Deep, the Aquaman of the team, and while they are alone, she is sexually assaulted by him. This moment feels all too real with the current MeToo movement. When she is at a Christian festival, Starlight does a speech where she goes script and reveals that she was sexually assaulted. Vought makes The Deep do a public apology as they are worried that some of the other girls that he has done this to might come forward. This whole plotline is just a perfect representation of what has been happening in Hollywood recently with women coming forward with their experiences of sexual assault and how they were swept under the rug to protect the abusers who had too much power in Hollywood.

A-Train’s plot about having a race to decide who’s the fastest man on Earth also has elements of the celebrity athlete. A lot of these athletes who become world champions feel added pressure to win medals because they have brand deals with companies based on the fact that they are world champions. Like A-Train says “No one wants the second-fastest man on Earth”. A-Train takes a superhero steroid called compound V in order to stay the best in a similar manner to what an athlete would in the real world. When A-Train isn’t being the fastest man on Earth, he’s killing civilians which is a plot point that’s maybe a bit harder to relate to celebrity culture but my superpower is super stretching to make a point.

Hughie struggles to get justice for the death of his girlfriend, Robin at the hands of A-Train mainly because he is a superhero and they are too powerful to be held accountable. Celebrities aren’t really held to the same level of accountability as your average person but I’d probably say this example is probably aimed at politicians who definitely don’t get held to the same accountability as any other person. I also think the way it is described as a “civilian casualty” is meant to invoke the language of politicians who talk a lot about civilian casualties when it comes to attacks that they conduct.

This scene where The Boys puts a face to the words “civilian casualty” also makes us think about how we view heroes in our superhero films. A-Train is defended because he was apparently stopping a bank robbery so the civilian cost was worth it to stop the crime. When The Avengers stop a villain but it causes some civilian deaths, it is okay because the villain would’ve done worse and that’s the defence they use. Marvel and DC have both dealt with this in their own movies such as Civil War and Batman v Superman but The Boys shows the cost on freedom by giving these superheroes the power that they have to do anything and maybe it’s a cautionary tale about giving people that much power in the real world as well or maybe it’s just a TV show that you enjoyed or didn’t enjoy. All I know is Wannabe by The Spice Girls is a banger.