Inspiration: The Boys

Don't worry, no spoilers!

Since we are all loving The Boys, I figured it would be worth putting together a few talking points about ways we could possibly take inspiration from the show, and shove it into our story. Nothing directly lifted from the show - more themes and issues and such that could resonate well with our world.


The idea of a corporation trying to profit from superheroes is nothing new, and crops up a few times in DC.

A recent example is the show Powerless, apparently so terrible (I've not seen it) that they didn't even finish airing all the episodes, which was a comedy focusing on the employees of Wayne Security which offered insurance against, and designed technology to defend against, harm and damage and injury that might be caused as collateral from superheroes being superheroes. The company was led by Bruce Wayne's airhead cousin, played by Alan Tudyk. Bruce already has a cousin in Batwoman, and I don't think any of us would hate having an Alan Tudyk around... but more than that, the idea of Bruce Wayne having a company that is out there repairing the damage that gets caused by Batman pursuits (even/especially if it runs at a loss) isn't off-brand for Batman. We could potentially weave in a bit of a Spider-Man: Homecoming vibe as well, where Wayne Security is hired to "clean up" after incidents, potentially giving Bruce the opportunity to get his hands on technology from alien crashes and compounds from monster outbreaks that he otherwise probably shouldn't be getting his hands on. This is potentially an open secret for ARGUS: they know that Bruce is getting his hands on this stuff, but they keep hiring Wayne Security, because better that stuff winds up in the hands of an ally like Batman than in the hands of Queen Consolidated or Lex Luthor or someone.

Maybe the biggest parallel however is Booster Gold. He is literally a corporate-sponsored superhero, he's got folks advertising on his costume, there's Booster Gold International to deal with merchandising/etc, and he was even the leader of a corporate-sponsored super-team at one point, called the Conglomerate. The Seven may be based on the Justice League, but Vought Industries and Madelyn are dead ringers for the Conglomerate and CEO Claire Montgomery (who happens to be Maxwell Lord's ex-wife). Since we're not pursuing the Impulse storyline at this point, that leaves Booster Gold at a bit of a loose end. Something like this might be an interesting way to bring him into the story, and in such a way that he is Gotham-centric, rather than tucked away in a corner we're not writing at the moment. Perhaps Queen Consolidated (or a subsidiary/proxy) is our equivalent of Vought, seeing it as an opportunity to cash in on superheroes. Perhaps it is a way to highlight the class divide in Gotham: Booster is the rich people's hero, while Batman and the Outsiders are still addressing the ground level issues that aren't glamorous enough for Booster to be sent. There may be clashes with Batman, who won't approve of Booster in his city, and won't approve of what he stands for. There may be clashes with Superman, a similarly "public" hero, and also the person who Booster initially came back in time to emulate. Also, by having Booster in Gotham City, there's a much higher chance of him crossing paths with people whose fates/timelines are wrong from his perspective: however we weave in the Warworld future, Booster will be of more use if he's here. It tests the limits of him as a character, too: just how far can his sponsors push him, before it crosses the line in the sand of his morals? As an added bonus, Booster is actually from Gotham City in the future, so him setting up shop in Gotham is essentially a homecoming for him.

Along similar lines, there is also the Justice League International. There are a few different versions, but the one that matters is a version of / answer to the Justice League that is fully endorsed and sponsored by the UN. The Boys has superheroes in the military, the MCU has the Sokovia Accords, Young Justice has UN sanctions on the Justice League as a main plot point of their story: the idea that Superman is too powerful to stop, that the GCPD is willing to just let Batman do his thing, that no one can do anything about Aquaman because he has diplomatic immunity... these feel like stuff that we're likely to touch upon. Having a Justice League International as some sort of UN sponsored/licenced/approved version of the League could be a great way to ask that question, and potentially without needing to add (m)any more characters. Will Wonder Woman join the JLI, as part of Themyscira's contributions to the UN? Will Aquaman join, or perhaps send Aqualad as his proxy? Will there be pressure or overtures for Booster Gold to join the team? What about Superman: will he work with/for the UN as part of his patriotic duty as a citizen of Earth, or will he have the Captain America reaction, unwilling to "sign the Sokovia Accords" and let a bureaucracy tell him where to go and who to save?

Another potential twist on that idea is that on some level, the Justice League International might exist to "deal with" Superman if that was ever necessary. In the New 52, the Justice League of America was a team created for this purpose, the idea being that if the Justice League ever got out of line, there were specially chosen members on the JLA who had the power/skills/knowledge/etc to take them out. That was a much more sinister twist on the idea, but the idea that the Justice League International is an internationally-approved super-team that also has the unspoken purpose of being a Superman countermeasure, could be an interesting twist... and could especially make for some interesting drama between Clark and Diana and Bruce: essentially three different ideas and ideals of how being a hero is meant to work.



As mentioned, the New 52 version of the Justice League of America was set up by Amanda Waller and ARGUS to "counter" the Justice League. Essentially, it is a group of people who exist to (if necessary) kill Supers. The team included characters like Katana and Catwoman who had the skills to take on Batman, it had Vibe (Cisco) who in the comics has powers that can neutralise a speedster, they had Martian Manhunter as the only person whose powers were potentially a match for Superman, and even Green Arrow at one point as a sort of spy/insider who really dislikes the Justice League in the New 52 for some reason.

An Anti-League like that could exist in the form of the Justice League International, as a very above-board, don't worry, we have checks and balances in place sort of reassurance for the public. It is also possible that a shadier, more Justice League of America twist on the idea exists: if J'onn J'onzz is our Nick Fury, then it isn't an entirely bonkers idea that he has a few people in mind - in ARGUS, or elsewhere - that he could pull together if anyone ever went rogue. Perhaps that's just something to keep in mind as and when we flesh out the J'onn/Dinah/ARGUS side of things, or perhaps as a loose framework for the kinds of characters who should be part of Project Tartarus alongside Nate and Starfire.

But, that kind of a team isn't necessarily an enemy of the League. If we wanted to go that route, we're looking more at the Injustice Gang (or later Injustice League), which is another variation on the theme of Injustice Society. This is a Legion of Doom sort of situation, a team of villains put together to be the equal and opposite of the Justice League, by the bad guys. In other words, if the JLI is the UN, and the JLA is ARGUS, the Injustice Gang would be the Checkmate/conspiracy version. This is a team that has Black Manta to fight Aquaman, Sinestro to fight Green Lantern, Cheetah or Circe to fight Wonder Woman, that sort of thing. The idea is a sort of 1:1 correlation with whoever the current Justice League is.

That is all very showy, but if we did want to do something a bit like The Boys, and have a group of "lads" with skills and what-not who are out there trying to figure out how to kill supes (or soups, as my brain insists they're saying), the Injustice Gang might be a good place to start. It wouldn't necessarily have to be an anti-Justice League situation either: we might get more mileage out of an anti-Outsiders. Perhaps we've already got the basis for it in Captain Cold and Killer Frost, a he/her thematic combo as an opposite for Green Arrow and Red Arrow. That might make this an Intergang situation, and might have us looking for villains who are a good counterpoint to Ray, Connor, Guardian, etc. Snart putting together a "crew" for this sort of purpose vibes with The Boys quite a bit, and while we're a long way from the Outsiders being enough of a thorn in anyone's side to go to these lengths, having characters in mind so that we can introduce them along the way, so that the villain team-up is a bunch of familiar faces, could be a great way to approach the situation.



I am going to use The Deep as Garth, the version of Aquaman who is contemporary with Roy Harper / Wally West / Tim Drake / etc. He's the right age to be part of that particular group, and he's also a total douchebag, which really fits with how I picture this iteration of Aqualad. DC Universe recently cast this guy to play him on Titans, so yeah: the guy is definitely a bro, and The Deep fits that pretty well. In Young Justice, he's serving as the Atlantean representative to the UN, which might be a good niche for him, especially if we feel like doing any sort of Justice League International type thing. If we don't, he still might make a good fit to be part of Team Booster Gold, especially if he gets to be a magnet for all the talk-to-fish Aquaman jokes.



Obviously, Queen Maeve is deliberately supposed to look like Wonder Woman. For us, she might be a good choice for Circe? She's a Wonder Woman villain, who makes a point of dressing up as Wonder Woman from time to time. She's one of the few Greek gods left in the world, which is definitely something we'll be exploring through a lot of our characters. She's also a character we planned to have in play in Version 1.0 of things, with her as a divine ally of Vandal Savage and a sort of cosmic go-between with Ares. We'd even planned for her to be "undercover" at Brentwood Academy as a therapist, back when we were planning to seduce students into witchcraft right off the bat: this was because she's a goddess of magic, and Vandal Savage was/is going to be involved with Arkham Asylum, so it made a good connection between those story ideas.

We had even planned for her daughter with Ares, who we were going to call Polly, to be a student at Brentwood. In fact, she was going to be the queen bee character, before we ended up reworking that into Eleanor Snow. This might be a character idea we want to pick up, particularly because the magic of Circe and the reflexes of Ares make her a pretty potent opponent for Connor, Wally, and Mia, and because we badly need more lady characters in the mix. Even if we don't have plans for Circe right out of the gate, perhaps having Queen Maeve in mind for her - and using that to help make a good image claim choice - would be a smart move?



In terms of specific characters, Starlight immediately reminded me of Goldstar. This was actually the name that Booster Gold wanted to have (he flubbed his introduction during his first interview), and there are a few different variations on the theme. Michelle Carter is Booster's (twin) sister, who could be an interesting character to introduce over the course of our time travel story: perhaps as someone Booster believes is dead; perhaps as someone who is part of Rip Hunter's team of timeline survivors alongside Mon-El/etc. Theresa Collins is Booster Gold's secretary/PA from his corporate sponsorship days, who has small town (Kansas) girl vibes, and who wore a costume and acted as Booster's sidekick for a while, with flight and magnetic powers. Then there's Rose Levin, a blogger who sometimes goes by Supernova (another name in the Booster Gold family of super-names), who has a bit of an ace reporter vibe and is one of Booster Gold's ancestors.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, there's also Stargirl. On Legends of Tomorrow, she's a WW2 era member of the Justice Society of America, who ends up travelling through time and becoming Merlin, because reasons. In the comics though, her adoptive father is the sidekick of a JSA hero called the Star-Spangled Kid, and is sort of his heir/successor. Sylvester Pemberton (the Star-Spangled Kid) is interesting because he sponsored a ye olde team of super-kids called Infinity Inc, way way back in the early days of DC, which consisted of the Helena Wayne version of Huntress, as well as Hector Hall and Lyta Trevor during their teenage hero days. She's definitely got a lot of connectivity to stuff on our radar, and very much has a legacy sort of vibe to her; and given her powers and personality, I'm guessing she is who Starlight is based on. She's also about to get her own DC Universe show later this year.



Homelander may be based on Superman, but he's also not. He has the powers, yes, and the patriotism (sort of), but once you put that through The Boys' cynical lens, you end up with a very different character. Booster Gold potentially brings some of that to the table, but he's more of a Tony Stark sort of character: he likes money, and he's a bit of an asshole, but not a total asshole. Homelander is powerful, but also manipulative and duplicitous, and honestly, that's a pretty fascinating character combo. In Batman and Green Arrow, we've got similar characters but with different politics, and that leads to ideological differences: Batman focuses on the criminals, Green Arrow focuses on the victims, etc. In Superman and Booster Gold, we've got (potentially) similar characters with a similar ideological discrepancy, and that's great writing material. What we don't have is anyone that our heroes completely disagree with, without it making them a villain. We've no real anti-heroes, no Punisher or Deadpool types who are fighting the good fight, but in a way that the other good guys find reprehensible. Our story seems to be about that sort of thing a lot (Checkmate in particular), so something Homelander-like may not be a terrible idea.

The first character that springs to mind is Captain Atom, the character that Doctor Manhattan is based on, who (in cartoons especially) shows up as a bit of a "the military's Superman" sort of character. Unfortunately, one of our timeline tweaks is that (like in Flashpoint) Nathaniel Adam never became Captain Atom, with Adam himself serving as the malevolent General keeping Starfire/etc locked up, and his origin story sorta grafted onto Ronnie Raymond. Also on that list is Mister America, who also/sometimes goes as Americommando, who definitely has the patriotism and the cape, but who (in the comics at least) is just a regular guy rather than anyone particularly "super". Possibly the best option would be Major Victory, a patriot who volunteered for military experimentation, with strength, flight, and energy projection, and who was part of the Suicide Squad, as well as a team called the Force of July. This last detail is interesting, because the Force of July worked for the "American Security Agency" (who are the conspiracy villains in Black Lightning) and were frequent adversaries of the Outsiders in the comics. His costume isn't quite Homelander, but he absolutely has the vibe, and the pretentious name, and the potential to tap into some cool/interesting stories for us.



If we're talking "cockney Karl Urban", a character that springs readily to mind is Chas, the London cabbie who is a frequent ally of Constantine. If we want someone to strut around and talk about how Gotham is a shithole, and give Droo an opportunity/excuse to get in on the Infernal Affairs side of things, I don't think you'll get any complaints from Sarah or me! As a fun twist, the version of Chas from the Constantine TV show had a spell cast on him that gave him 47 spare lives, resurrecting him if he ever died. Not something that's in the comics AFAIK, but an interesting option none the less.

Widening the net slightly, Cyril Sheldrake is the British version of Batman, both thematically and in the sense that he is part of "Batman Incorporated", Batman's team of international Batmen. He's the son (and former sidekick) of the original Knight, with fight skills, magical armour, and a motorcycle called Anastasia. On the one hand, the prospect of Karl Urban saying "Anastasia" in his Butcher/Skurge voice has the potential to explode ovaries; on the other hand, when you say "British version of Batman", I can't help feeling like that's a Simon Pegg character, so there's that. Especially if he's called Cyril. There's Dodger, a British thief, who Droo might remember as being a potential excuse for having Lance Hunter from Agents of SHIELD involved in things: this would set him up as part of the Outsiders crew, potentially as someone who might butt heads with Mal Duncan over how they "procure" the supplies Mal needs to put gadgets together, and so on. There's also George Cross, an alternative British Batman known as The Hood, with a little bit more of a Robin Hood / highwayman vibe to him: he's interesting, because he has a background in espionage and spycraft, which vibes a little bit with Butcher. If beardy Karl Urban is this guy, and Simon Pegg is Cyril? That's kind of an awesome potential team-up right there.

At the other end of the spectrum, there is Kyle Abbot, an SAS veteran turned gangster. He usually works for Intergang, right up there with many of the organisation's leaders, but he draws the line at mass murder and destruction of entire cities, having switched sides to help the "good guys" prevent such things. Oh, and he's a friggin' werewolf, so there's that. There's also Manchester Black, who it would surprise me to learn was some kind of inspiration for The Boys: he leads a team of anti-heroes called The Elite, and his whole schtick is that heroes doesn't go "far enough" when it comes to defeating villains, and that the only way to keep people safe is to kill them. Supergirl recently did a version of him as part of a humans vs aliens race war, that was a thinly veiled proxy for Trump's America: while Manchester was human, his fiancée was an alien killed by a hate gang, and he was there to advocate an eye-for-an-eye reaction. Supergirl turned him into a black guy without his comic book telepathic/telekinetic powers, but he did rock around in his signature t-shirt, so at least there's that.