The Boys has taken the superhero genre and turned it on its head. Based on the comic book series of the same name created by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, the hit Prime Video series depicts its “heroes” as sinister supes who will stop at nothing to get their way. The Seven is an ensemble of the most powerful group of these superhuman beings, led by the most despicable of all, The Homelander (Antony Starr). Frustrated at the manner in which they act and the hurt they cause to innocent people, the titular “Boys” are a group led by Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) who make it their life’s goal to take down Homelander, exploring every possible avenue to do so.

Whilst the series takes most of its depictions and stories from the comics, there are a few key changes the showrunners felt necessary to make. Let’s take a look at some of these changes and how they’ve changed the landscape of Ennis’ original narrative.

12Sister Sage

Sister Sage is an original character

Image via The Boys

One glaring difference that The Boys in its current season has from the comics is Sister Sage. Portrayed on screen by Susan Heyward, Sister Sage is considered the smartest person on Earth. She has a history with A-Train (Reggie Franklin), as both were a part of the superhero group Teenage Kix. Homelander (Antony Starr) has personally asked Sister Sage to join The Seven to kick off his plan of supe domination.

Sage is an original character made for the show, just like Translucent. She’s a step in the right direction in the show, giving depth to Homelander’s and Victoria Neuman’s (Claudia Doumit). In fact, she might even be scarier than Homelander, as it was revealed that she was always two steps ahead of The Boys and had a darker plan to conquer mankind.

11Gen V

Gen V is different from the arc it was based on

Image via Prime Video

The universe of The Boys has expanded thanks to the Prime Video spin-off show Gen V. The show is based on a self-contained comic arc “We Gotta Go Now,” where The Boys investigates the G-Men, whose leader is John Godolkin and is suspected of abducting children and administering Compound V to them, with the hopes of creating new supes.

In the show, John is long gone but has established a university aptly titled God U, a premier school that hones the talents of potential superheroes. However, the show reveals that there’s something more sinister happening at God U, led by the dean of the school Indira Shetty. There’s also a bunch of new characters introduced in Gen V that have no counterpart in the comics, like the blood-bending supe Marie Moreau (Jaz Sinclair).

10Compound V

Compound V’s effects differ from the comics

In the show, Compound V is shown to be a hard-to-find drug that gives superheroes an addicting and euphoric kind of high, as seen with the Wolverine-like Popclaw (Brittany Allen) and speedster A-Train. The Boys also use another version of Compound V called Temp-V, which temporarily gives them superpowers and allows them to go head-to-head with strong supes like Victoria Neuman and Homelander.

Compound V is hard to source, in the show as Vought decides who gets Compound V, especially if they desire to create new heroes. It is also shown that Compound V affects animals, as some creatures gained terrifying abilities when Compound V leaked into the ecosystem’s water supply. However, in the comics, the effects of Compound V can be genetically inherited, allowing superheroes to be born without having been injected with the drug, free from Vought’s grasp.

9Ryan’s Life

Ryan was killed at birth by Butcher in the comics

Image via Prime Video

Onscreen we meet Ryan (Cameron Crovetti), the first natural-born supe. As a result of a violent sexual assault by Homelander on Butcher’s wife Rebecca (Shantel VanSanten), Ryan is hidden away with Rebecca out of reach of Homelander and Butcher. Both rivals are initially led to believe that mother and child died due to a horrific childbirth, but it soon comes to light that they were alive and well in a Vought compound. When we see Ryan, he seems like a normal child, but it becomes clear that he was born with powers, which for the most part he suppresses due to the wishes of Rebecca.

Ryan’s whole life is a complete contradiction to the comics, where he was killed at birth in a fit of rage by Butcher. There are a couple of reasons the showrunners may have made this change. Firstly, it gives a whole new arc to the feud between Butcher and Homelander, adding a much more personal element to the rivalry and a sense of responsibility to Butcher’s character. Also, Butcher is someone fans root for. It’s no secret he’s not the most morally sound character, but for the most part, he has good intentions. A cold-blooded murder of a baby wouldn’t really fit in with this narrative, so it was quite a necessary change in the transition from paper to screen.

8Black Noir

Black Noir was a Homelander clone in the comics

In the series, fans haven’t learned too much about Black Noir’s (Nathan Mitchell) identity. In the comics, he was a clone of Homelander, making him just as powerful. Not only does he have all of Homelander’s powers and looks, but he also has a sinister side and is somehow even more murderous than the subject he was cloned from. Comic fans may have had short-lived hopes that he would be a Homelander clone in the series, but it became clear in Season 2 that since he’s Black, he’s clearly not a clone.

Season 3 has further developed Black Noir’s character through flashbacks and there is no mention of him being related in any way to Homelander, although he has become a source of humor for the show. This is quite a major change; in the comics, Noir was just as strong, if not stronger, than the Seven’s leader, whereas in the series there is nobody so far who can compare.

7Victoria Neuman

Victoria Neuman plays a bigger role in the show

Image via Prime Video

In one of a few gender-swapped roles, Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit) actually appears in the comics as Victor Neuman. “Vic the Veep,” as he is also known, is a high-ranking political figure who acts as an inside man for Vought. This isn’t too different from Victoria, who is also a politician and is revealed to be working alongside Stan Edgar (Giancarlo Esposito), the CEO of Vought.

However, as well as the huge difference of being a woman on screen, Victoria is also revealed to be a supe, known colloquially as The Head Popper. This is unique to the TV series, and definitely adds an exciting dynamic. Apart from Homelander, Victoria has become one of the show’s most fearsome antagonists, working with Homelander to advance their world domination plan.

6Simon Pegg as Hughie

Hughie was molded after Simon Pegg

image via Prime Video

Ennis and illustrator Darick Robertsonoriginally modeled Hughie Campbell on Simon Pegg, which is strikingly clear in their depictions of him throughout. By the time the series was adapted for television, Pegg was too old to play Hughie, and the studio instead went with Jack Quaid, who definitely does the role justice.

Of course, Pegg does appear in the series as Hughie’s dad, Hugh, which is a nice nod to the actor and his inspiration for the character. He briefly appeared in the first and third seasons of the show. In the fourth season, Pegg appears again, as he tries to carve out a deeper relationship with his son. However, he then suffers a stroke, and his storyline ends when Hughie decides to euthanize him, seeing that Compound V did nothing to improve his health.

5Flight 37

Flight 37 was based on the September 11 attacks in the comics

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The famous flight incident, where Homelander and a reluctant Queen Maeve (Margaret Shaw) abandoned all the passengers as the plane crashed into the ocean, had very different origins. The comic’s version of events involved the September 11 attacks, where the supes intercepted one of the attacking planes, but then instead redirected it to the Brooklyn Bridge, causing another catastrophe.

This telling of the story serves more to highlight the recklessness of The Seven, whereas onscreen it shows how Homelander is not much of a hero at all. The original storyline also wouldn’t have really fit in with the timeline of the series, which is set nearer the present day.

4Mother’s Milk

Mother’s Milk is a natural-born superhero in the comics

Image via Amazon Studios

The series makes a big deal of Ryan being the only natural-born supe. However, this isn’t the case in the comics. Due to his mother’s work in a factory contaminated with Compound V, Mother’s Milk (Laz Alonso) is born with powers. He doesn’t have many powers, and perhaps that’s why he isn’t really considered much of a super, but he does have super strength.

Unfortunately for him, his name also comes from this contamination. He has to regularly feed from his mother’s breast to survive. In the show, Mother’s Milk is known for being a tough guy. There’s no sign of his backstory brought into the onscreen world of The Boys, and would definitely be a bizarre addition, but who knows what could happen?

3The Deep

The Deep wears a helmet in the comics

Image via Amazon Prime Video

Chace Crawford is captivating as The Deep, but if the series had stuck to the comics we would have hardly seen his face at all. That’s because the original incarnation of the character was cursed and always had to wear a helmet. He was also a very minor character, hardly featuring in storylines and making little difference to the overall narrative.

In fact, perhaps The Deep’s biggest storyline in the series was his sexual assault of Starlight, but in the comics, this was even more sinister, yet didn’t involve The Deep at all. It was Homelander, Black Noir, and A-Train who committed the assault. The Deep had more of a professional persona in the comics and was one of the least sinister of The Seven.

2Kimiko

Kimiko gained her powers by eating V as a child

Image via Prime Video

The Female, or Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) as she’s known in the live-action series, is the only member of The Boys who has permanent powers, but the origins of these differ in the two versions. Onscreen, we learn she was taken as a child soldier into the Shining Light terrorist organization. It was here she was given Compound V as part of Vought’s plan to create supervillains across the world.

In the comic’s version of events, she ate some V as a young child, which gave her the powers she has, including her regeneration abilities. She is also suffering from selective mutism in the comics, and at one point does speak. The series made mutism a result of a traumatic event in Kimiko’s childhood, and she has yet to speak on screen apart from when she talks to the audience.

1Stormfront

Stormfront was a man in the comics

Season 2 of The Boys developed Stormfront (Aya Cash), and enlightened the audience to her Nazi allegiances. Her origins and powers in the comics are pretty similar, but that’s about where the likeness stops. First and foremost, Stormfront is a man in the original telling of The Boys. The gender swaps in the series are quite a refreshing change, as they allow for more female representation in what would otherwise be a predominantly male series.

On top of this, Stormfront was the original leader of Payback, a rival group to The Seven. We learn about Payback in Season 3, but there’s no sight of Stormfront, and they are instead led by Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles). Her relationship with Homelander is also a change from the comics, where the male version of Stormfront actually pursues Queen Maeve. The Nazi allegiances of Stormfront created in the comics were clearly a perfect starting point for the show runners to add in a new villain, but they have taken a lot of creative license with the character and adapted her to further the dimensions of Homelander’s arc.