In this day and age, it seems like superheroes are everywhere. While it is awesome to see such love being given to comic book stories, this has unfortunately led to a flood of formulaic storytelling as heroes repeatedly triumph over lackluster villains. No superhero movie or TV show has done more to break this mold than Amazon Prime's The Boys.
Based on the hit comic series from writer Garth Ennis and artist Darick Robertson, this series compares superheroes to corporate celebrities, their public personas and daring stunts just part of plans to make a profit with carefully marked media attention. With that in mind, here are the main characters on The Boys, ranked by their intelligence.
10 The Deep
The Deep is basically an Aquaman knockoff with more insecurities. There are some things he really cares about, like environmentalism, his reputation, and the occasional romance with a friendly porpoise. Despite being part of the Seven - the world's elite superhero team - he's not exactly a deep thinker.
He acts in the moment on pure impulse, driven by ego and libido. Even when he does the right thing, he can't imagine what the consequences of his actions will be. But he rarely does the right thing. Either way, he all too often finds himself in hot water for his thoughtless behavior.
9 A-Train
A-Train is the first member of the Seven that audiences get to meet in the show. The speedster debuted in the pilot when he ran straight through Huey's girlfriend while he's holding her hands, her body exploding in a gory mess of blood and viscera. Then A-Train looks back and dismissively tells Huey he's in too much of a hurry to stop.
Like so many superheroes, A-Train is ruled by his arrogance. He thinks of little beyond his role as the fastest man alive and feeding his addiction. That said, he demonstrates a tactical cunning that the Deep lacks.
8 Homelander
As the most powerful superhero on the planet, Homelander commands the Seven as their leader. He is also the exact sort of person who should not have that sort of power. He is narcissistic, insecure, volatile, easily manipulated, shortsighted, and has absolutely no empathy for other people. The American flag cape he wears just reinforces the heavy-handed metaphor that he embodies the abusive misuse of force by the United States as a global superpower.
For all his faults, Homelander is capable of learning. He demonstrates an awareness of the ways others are manipulating him and adapts his behavior accordingly.
7 Mother's Milk
Of the Boys - that is, the team Billy Butcher put together to take down superheroes -Mother's Milk is perhaps the most ethical and friendly of the whole group. Well, there's Huey, but by the end of season one, even Huey's got a lot of blood on his hands.
M.M. (as he likes to be called) has a family and a good job. He is strategically gifted enough to take on the Seven without having any powers. But he also allows Butcher to pull him back in, costing him everything he cares about. Not a smart move.
6 Frenchie
For fans of the comics, seeing the TV version of Frenchie as a semi-sane half-functioning adult was a bit of a shock. Frenchie is nuts. He's a gun-obsessed paranoid murder-happy psychopath - and that's his sane TV version. The comic book original is the sort of man to joust at his enemies from a bicycle with baguette spears.
To be clear, crazy and stupid are not the same. Frenchie is able to outsmart the Homelander and other members of the Seven multiple times, and even helps construct a method to kill Translucent, a superhero with indestructible skin.
5 Queen Maeve
For a long time, Queen Maeve was the only woman among the ranks of the Seven - a diversity hire just reinforcing that despite women making up more than half the planet, men seem to rule over every aspect of society. Maeve is a tragic character, a former idealist beaten down by the abuses of the patriarchy, and by being subjected to the affections of a man like the Homelander, who refuses to take no for an answer.
Her intelligence is revealed in her ability to succeed going while surrounded on all sides but hostile rivals and yet keep herself looking fine in the public spotlight.
4 Madelyn Stillwell
There is a myth that successful business professionals must be smarter than the average person, when in truth many are just greedy, corrupt, or lucky. As one of the most important people at Vought (the corporation that manages and markets superheroes), Madelyn Stillwell is definitely corrupt, greedy, and lucky. She's also brilliant.
She has an understanding of how to use media to impact sales figures and public opinion that is frankly mind-boggling, but it is her ability to manipulate superheroes into obeying her when they could easily crush her to death that makes her so exceptional.
3 Starlight
Starlight is the newest member of the Seven. She's a Midwestern girl who genuinely believes in community, helping others, and doing the right thing. When her dreams come true and she is made a member of the Seven, she quickly learns just how corrupt, cruel, and petty the group are - their heroics focused on marketability rather than actually doing good.
Part of why Starlight is so amazing is that she sees how awful things are and learns, but doesn't suddenly become jaded and dark. She maintains her virtues. She questions the important things in her life but maintains true to her core belies about right and wrong. It's easy to grow cynical, but it takes both emotional intelligence and critical thinking to reevaluate the world and adapt without losing oneself.
2 Huey
As the main character of the series, Huey is perpetually caught between being a naive newcomer and a gifted learner. When the show starts, he works for an electronics store and is gifted at what he does, simple as it is. After Translucent comes for him, he is the one to finally kill the superhero.
Huey's ability to keep learning and growing is what makes him so high on this list. He starts out smart but soon develops acting skills, tactical abilities, and a variety of useful talents while adapting to less than ideal circumstances as he works for Butcher to stop the most dangerous threat on the planet.
1 Butcher
Billy Butcher is the leader of the Boys. He is a disgruntled working class Englishman who has seen just about everything in his time fighting superheroes. He's lost everything he cares about to them. Butcher is driven by a fanatical destructive hatred for superheroes, a fundamentalist dedicated to a personal crusade against them.
As with Frenchie, crazy does not mean stupid. Though he is a essentially a loner, Butcher has become a weapon, recruiting every person he can to his cause and somehow convincing them despite their knowing better. He's killed multiple superheroes without having any powers of his own. Butcher's a mean hateful brute, but he's got the cunning to achieve his goals, even if he destroys everything and everyone else around him in the process.
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