The Boys is one of the most graphic, violent, and absolutely diabolical series in recent memory, and while the Prime Video show has expertly brought the original comic to life, nothing will beat the classic version by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson. The premise of The Boys is simple: superheroes are bastards, and they need a slap and these are the guys who are going to do it. However, the ‘slap’ in question is usually a bit more gruesome than it may seem, though the horrors these supes do to deserve said ‘slap’ more than justifies the Boys’ extreme actions.
While there is definitely no shortage of gnarly violence in the original comic – and downright upsetting images that could never be adapted in live-action – there are certainly a few handfuls that stand out from the rest. Casual fans will be aware of a few of these moments, while others are so viciously heinous that the only ones who know about them are those who read the original comic series. But either way, if they’re crazy enough, they’ll be found right here, as these are the 10 most shocking deaths in The Boys’ original comic series.
10A-Train Kills Hughie Campbell’s First Girlfriend, Robin
The Boys #1 by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson
In the very first issue of The Boys, readers are introduced to this new superhero-filled world in a truly shocking way when A-Train throws a super-villain through Hughie Campbell’s girlfriend, Robin, while Hughie is holding her hands. The entire thing happens so quickly, in fact, that Robin’s severed hands remain in Hughie’s grasp after her body is crushed by the super-villain A-Train threw. The true horror occurs upon seeing Hughie’s reaction, as he’s left holding what little remained of the love of his life, who was so gruesomely killed in front of him.
Most fans of The Boys are familiar with this scene, as it was adapted nearly shot-for-shot in the live-action series. However, just because it’s a well-known death, doesn’t make it any less shocking, especially when reading this series for the first time.
9Butcher Massacres Payback (with 1 Especially Brutal Kill)
The Boys #32-33 by Garth Ennis, Carlos Ezquerra, John McCrea, and Keith Burns
When the ‘superhero’ team, Payback (a parody of the Avengers), launches an attack on the Boys with the intention of killing every one of them, Butcher holds nothing back in his defensive strikes. This battle takes place in a hospital, and upon luring the members of Payback to the basement, Butcher takes his time murdering each one of them in increasingly brutal ways – especially one member in particular, Swatto.
Butcher strangles Crimson Countess with his belt, decapitates Mind-Droid with a shovel, and drives a pickaxe through Swatto’s skull, all after biting the nose off Soldier Boy’s face, and throwing broken glass in Stormfront’s eyes. This massacre is truly a gruesome sight to behold, and stands as perhaps the most hardcore Butcher has ever been in The Boys series.
8MM Accidentally Punched the Head Off His Boxing Opponent
The Boys #34 by Garth Ennis and Carlos Ezquerra
One of the more interesting differences between The Boys comic and live-action series is that, in the comics, MM is actually a natural-born supe, as his mom was exposed to Compound V before he had him. MM was born with super strength, but only if he drank a steady supply of his mother’s breast milk, otherwise his body would shut down and he would die.
However, before he knew he was a supe, he and his family thought his mother’s breast milk was merely keeping him alive, and it wasn’t until he entered a friendly boxing match that he learned the truth. During the match, MM accidentally punched his opponent so hard, that his head popped right off his body, which was incredibly shocking, both because of the gore, and when factoring in the utter shock MM felt upon doing it.
7The Female Eats the Face of the Doctor Responsible for Making Her a Supe
The Boys #38 by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson
When The Boys delved into the backstory of Kimiko Miyashiro (who’s known as ‘The Female’, in the comics), it’s revealed that she was the byproduct of off-brand Compound V created by a company trying to compete with Vought-American. Her mother worked at said company, and brought Kimiko to work with her, but neglected to pay any attention to Kimiko. So, when the Female crawled away from her mom’s office, she ended up in the laboratory where the experimental ‘Compound V’ was kept. Kimiko ingested the substance, got superpowers, and proceeded to rip the head scientist’s faceoff and eat it.
Kimiko is known for ripping people’s faces off with her bare hands. But while that’s a widely known fact within The Boys fandom now, it wasn’t always, meaning the first few times she did so were incredibly shocking – including and especially in this issue.
6Vought Massacres Every Member of the G-Men
The Boys #29 by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson
When Hughie goes undercover to expose a dark secret being kept under wraps by the G-Men (that being their leader, Godolkin, is a pedophile), the Boys are quickly discovered by the X-Men parody team, and every member of the G-Men stands outside their mansion, ready to kill the CIA-backed supe-slapping squad. However, before they get the chance, Vought’s private team of mercenaries arrives and slaughters the G-Men, firing bullets and rockets at the supes before finally burning their bodies with flamethrowers.
Vought did this to ensure it never became public what heinous things Godolkin was really doing at this school, and while the scene itself was utterly satisfying (as who doesn’t want to see a pedophile ring brought down so violently), it was still incredibly shocking.
5Butcher Kills an Infant ‘Ryan’ by Beating Him to Death with a Lamp
The Boys: Butcher, Baker, Candlestickmaker #4 by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson
After Butcher’s wife, Becky, is assaulted by Homelander (who’s really Black Noir in disguise), she becomes pregnant with his child, and unexpectedly gives birth one night while lying in bed next to Butcher. Becky tragically died during childbirth, and the infant nearly killed Butcher as well, as it had laser-vision passed down by its father. However, before Butcher was killed by this baby supe, he quickly grabbed the bedside lamp and killed the deadly infant.
This infant was actually adapted in the live-action The Boys series as Ryan, Homelander and Becca’s son, who’s become a far more developed character than his comic book counterpart. However, as shown in this shocking issue, ‘Ryan’ didn’t make it very far in the comics, and Butcher’s brutality made sure of that.
4Black Noir Eats a Baby While Pretending to be Homelander
The Boys #40 (A) by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson
Throughout The Boys comic series, the entire storyline was slowly teasing the fact that Black Noir was secretly a Homelander clone, who would do heinous things in order to justify killing him (as that’s what he was created to do). This is shown when Homelander sees images of himself killing people in gruesome ways, yet has no memory of doing so. In one such image, ‘Homelander’ (really Black Noir dressed as Homelander) is covered in blood, eating a baby.
This is perhaps the most upsetting visual in the entire The Boys series, as there are very few things as viscerally horrible to see than what Black Noir was shown doing in this image. It’s so horrible, in fact, that calling it ‘shocking’ would be a gross understatement.
3Black Noir’s Skull is Cracked Open and His Brain is Squished by Butcher
The Boys #65 by Garth Ennis, Russ Braun, John McCrea, and Keith Burns
When the time finally came for Black Noir to reveal that he was a clone of Homelander created to kill him the entire time, Homelander lashed out at the evil clone, ripping his body to shreds before Black Noir finally succeeded in doing what he was made for. Meanwhile, Butcher simply sat back and allowed the carnage to unfold, and when he was faced with what was left of Black Noir, Butcher finished him off in the most brutal way possible.
Butcher stuck his crowbar in Black Noir’s skull, popped open his cranium, removed his brain, held it in front of Noir’s face, and squished it in his hand. Black Noir was responsible for what happened to Becky, after all, along with countless other acts of atrocities, so he more than deserved what Butcher did to him. Still, though, the whole thing was incredibly shocking.
2Butcher Kills His Best Friend & Fellow Boys Teammate, MM
The Boys #68 by Garth Ennis and Russ Braun
After Homelander and Black Noir are dead, and Butcher has had his revenge for what happened to Becky, he decides that there’s still one last job for him to do: kill every supe on Earth. However, when the other members of the Boys found out about his plan, they made efforts to stop him – including and especially MM.
MM was Butcher’s best friend and most trusted fellow Boys member, but when he stood in Butcher’s way, Billy had no choice but to kill him as easily as he would have any other supe that crossed his path. Butcher smothered MM after detonating a grenade in his face, which was a shocking moment because of the sheer brutality of it, and due to the fact that Butcher was able to do this to someone he seemed to care about.
1Butcher Commits His Most Grisly Murder of Them All, Killing Jack from Jupiter
The Boys #59 by Garth Ennis and Russ Braun
While beating an infant supe to death with a lamp, or pulling an adult supe’s brain out of his skull were truly grisly murders, it’s safe to say that nothing tops the time Butcher stabbed Jack from Jupiter in the stomach so many times, that the supe was essentially cut in half by the end of it. Butcher did this to the Seven member after Jack from Jupiter killed Billy’s dog, Terror. When Butcher discovered what Jack had done, he went into a dissociative state, tracked the supe down, and stabbed him to death while robotically asking the same question over and over again, “Why’d you kill me dog, Jack?“.
This was a truly chilling moment, and really showed how violent Butcher could be. Sure, Butcher had killed supes before and since Jack from Jupiter, but not like this, as this was perhaps the most grisly murder Butcher commits in the entire series. And that’s why it’s one of the 10 most shocking deaths in The Boys‘ original comics.
