‘The Boys’ Show Made This 1 Change From Its Source Material That Could Make It Similar to ‘Invincible’
The Boys and Invincible already had enough in common with both being superhero shows on Amazon Prime. But as early as season 1, The Boys added an element to the show that wasn’t present in the comics. This minor change only added more similarities between the two unconventional superhero shows.
[Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Boys comic series and television show]
The 1 change that had a massive effect on ‘The Boys’
The Boys television series took a few creative liberties that differentiated it from its comic book counterpart. Alot of these changes ranged from adding characters who don’t exist in the comic. Sometimes, characters’ story-lines from the comics are completely revamped and given new direction in the Amazon series. As early as season 1, the show started tampering with the lore established in the source material. And one of the show’s most significant changes was the birth of Homelander’s son Ryan.
In the comics, the super-powered child isn’t Homelander’s to begin with. He’s actually the product of Becca and Black Noir, who’s revealed to be a clone of Homelander in the book series. The Supe baby doesn’t last long, and is murdered by Becca’s love interest Billy Butcher.
In the television series, however, Black Noir doesn’t seem to be a clone of Homelander at all. The child is actually Homelander’s and Becca’s, and ends up being alive and well in the show. Ryan is also shown to have the potential to be as powerful as his father. A key theme in the series is whether he’ll grow to be with Homelander or against him. Boys showrunner Kripke recently revealed much of Season 4 will be dedicated to their relationship.
“A lot of the focus of season four is on Ryan because the way that kid turns goes the fate of the world. It’s whether there’s a second Homelander or somebody who can actually fight Homelander,” Kripke said.
Depending on where Kripke takes them, The Boys could have a similar clash between father and son as Invincible.
The animated show also explores a situation where the superhero Invincible is at odds with his villainous father Omni-Man. Many people believe that Invincible has the potential to be as strong as his father. Because of this, Invincible is seen as perhaps one of the only defenses against Omni-Man if he tries to take over their world.
Like Invincible, the world may see a battle between Ryan and Homelander in The Boys’ future. Although the approach to the two superhero families couldn’t be any more different.
‘Invincible’ creator Robert Kirkman explained what’s different between his show and ‘The Boys’
Comparisons between The Boys and Invincible are unavoidable. Still, Kirkman explained that his superhero show has a different purpose than The Boys series. Kripke felt The Boys was his way of deconstructing modern superheroes, and drew inspiration from real-life events.
“So I think the show works for people who love superhero stuff and people who hate superhero stuff,” Kripke said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
Whereas Kirkman’s Invincible opted to embrace the superhero genre, and wanted to explore all angles of its mythology.
“The idea was basically to take everything we had ever loved about the superhero genre and put it into one series. We wanted to construct a world that was so broad that, over the course of the life of the series, we could tell basically every type of superhero story that had been told and put our own spin on it,” Kirkman told Entertainment Weekly.
He also felt Invincible was more focused on its family dynamic than The Boys, which often focuses more on its ensemble cast.
“It’s about a son and his father and mother in this superhero world and all the complications that come from that,” Kirkman said. “It is grounded, but in principle, more than The Boys, it celebrates what makes superheroes special, in my opinion.”
Why Eric Kripke decided not to kill off Ryan Butcher
The change Kripke made to The Boys’ mythology came about because of his fascination with the Ryan character. He felt including the child into the series created too many unique storytelling opportunities too good to pass up.
“You have this kid who’s half human and half monster; half the person Butcher loves most in the world and half the person Butcher hates most in the world. That’s just too perfect a character to not keep alive,” Kripke told Entertainment Weekly.
