'The Boys' Final Season Comic Book Recap: Does Homelander Die In The End?

After four seasons’ worth of degeneracy, gore, shock, crazy plot twists, and unchecked ultraviolence, Amazon Prime’s groundbreaking adaptation of Garth Ennis’ superhero satire comics series, The Boys, has neared its end. Even though the multiple spin-offs will continue to expand upon its live-action lore, the original series has found the right narrative space to anchor itself. For viewers who are acquainted with the comics, it’s a pretty well-known fact that the live action series deviates greatly from its source material but at the same time, uses crucial plot points to establish its narrative structure. Let us take a look at how The Boys ends in the comics by discussing the final twelve issues of the series, spanning from #60 to #72.

Comic Book Spoilers Ahead

Vought’s Takeover of the US Government and Initiation of War

Before getting into the plot details of the final arc of The Boys, beginning with “Over the Hill with the Swords of a Thousand Men,” a little bit of context is needed. The mounting tension between the Seven and the Boys has reached its peak after Billy Butcher brutally killed one of the members of the superteam, Jack from Jupiter, by stabbing him to death. As the opposing teams gear up for inevitable large-scale conflict, a major power shift happens in the White House. The inept POTUS Robert ‘Dakota Bob’ Shaefer remains paranoid about Vought’s growing influence in the military and the Secret Service and worries for his own safety, as he knows they are aiming for a complete takeover of the government. In true The Boys fashion, the POTUS meets a gnarly end when dim-witted VP Victor Neuman, former CEO of Vought, accidentally releases a feral wolverine during a meet-and-greet event. Neuman becomes the new POTUS, leading to Vought assuming control over the White House and the entire nation itself. The puppeteer of Vought, James Stillwell, shares hints about his contingency plan to ensure Homelander can be taken care of if the need arises with one of the promising employees of the company, Jessica Bradley. Additionally, he introduces her to Team Titanic, a group of fodder supes comprising former sidekicks who are brought in to ensure the safety of Vought personnel in case the Seven turn rogue. Traumatized by his recent experiences where he was sexually assaulted, Hughie struggles in his relationship with Annie, aka Starlight, and he confesses to Butcher about no longer being willing to participate in violent on-field duties. Mother’s Milk goes through a deep personal crisis when his ex-wife leads their daughter down a dark, regressive path and traumatizes her in the process. 

Stillwell sends a team of supes, Paralactic, who look like a pastiche of 90s overstylized tech heroes, to kill off the Boys, and they end up getting themselves butchered in no time. Realizing the end is near, Hughie opens up about his sordid experience of getting sexually assaulted by Black Noir during Herogasm, now that the team is speculating Black Noir to be the weak link to get to Homelander and the rest of the Seven. Butcher sends Frenchie and the Female to Vought International while trying to cheer up a depressed Hughie by bringing him to a captive, beaten-up A-Train who was on the verge of leaving the Seven. Hughie confronts A-Train about causing his former girlfriend, Robin’s death, while Butcher continues to pursue him to take his revenge by killing the speedster hero. Butcher plays an audio recording of A-Train and his supe buddies, where their gratuitous discussions about Starlight send Hughie into a fit of rage, and he kills the speedster by splattering his head with a single kick. Frenchie and the Female lay waste to Team Titanic until Stillwell reveals that he suspects a common enemy is pulling the strings from the shadows, as he never ordered any supe team to attack the Boys in the first place. 

Homelander’ Death and the Final Showdown

Having decided to leave the Seven, Annie crosses paths with Queen Maeve, who, unbeknownst to her, has helped the Boys get confidential intel on her degenerate colleagues to expose them and Vought. Annie, who was rescued from Black Noir’s clutches by Maeve on a previous occasion, believes in her innate goodness. As Starlight is about to leave, Homelander, already planning to thwart Vought’s control, interrupts her and Maeve. To save Starlight, Maeve throws her out of the Vought HQ while trying to stop Homelander in vain as he brutally murders her. Stillwell informs Butcher that Homelander sent Paralactic to wipe out his team, and it becomes apparent that the heroes gathering outside the White House are also following Homelander’s command to seize control from Vought. Knowing the end is near, Butcher asks MM to share all the confidential intel of the heinous secrets of the supe community they have gathered over the years, right from the debaucheries of the G-Men led by their pedophile mentor Godolkin to Vought’s experimentations on the Female and other captive supes and the truth about Homelander, in public. The kind of actions Homelander is seen partaking in are gratuitous and vicious enough to become a watershed moment for the Seven and the Boys. The exposé pushes Homelander to the brink of his sanity, or whatever is left of it, and he goes completely off the rails. 

Homelander, who knew about Stillwell’s plan to replace him with a much more compliant lab-grown supe, confronts him, and even in the face of death, a sociopathic Stillwell remains absolutely calm. Stillwell manipulates Homelander’s insecurities, prompting him to get even madder and fly off. Anticipating a severe conflict, CIA Director Rayner hands over control of the military to Butcher, who has already reached Washington along with Hughie. Expecting Homelander to be present, Butcher ventures alone into the White House, while MM warns Hughie about Black Noir’s hidden truth. He reveals Homelander’s origin of how he was grown from veteran supes, Stormfront’s DNA, and similarly, Black Noir, a stronger and controllable clone of Homelander, was created by Vought as the ultimate contingency against him. However, a deeply psychotic, extremely twisted Black Noir went on a vicious crime spree and committed the majority of the atrocities Homelander is accused of, including the rape and murder of Becca Butcher. 

Homelander kills President Neuman off-screen and, still reeling from the scathing verbal attack from Stillwell, goes into a meltdown in front of Butcher by desperately trying to prove that he is not restrained by Vought. Butcher confronts him about killing Becca, only to learn that Homelander had nothing to do with her tragic fate, and neither did he commit the horrendous atrocities shown in the leaked pictures. Right at the moment, Black Noir arrives on the scene, removes his mask, revealing his true face, which is completely identical to that of Homelander’s, and acknowledges his crimes with a sickening smugness. Noir further adds he took the pictures of his horrid actions and framed Homelander by sending them to Butcher, as he was commanded to do so. The sole purpose of Black Noir’s existence was to put an end to Homelander, and the day has finally arrived. Homelander, furious at having his life ruined by Noir’s actions, attacks him, and a brutal fight ensues inside the White House. Outside, the gathered supes engage with the military, causing major losses on both sides. A mangled, torn-up Noir emerges victorious, as he has killed Homelander by tearing him limb from limb. But his happiness is short-lived, as Butcher takes his bloody revenge on him by popping his skull right open by jamming a crowbar through his eyes and crushing his brain in his hand. A cathartic release of pent-up emotions liberates Butcher’s mind, and he remembers his beloved late wife with tears in his eyes. 

Butcher Turns to the Dark Side and the Boys’ Final Fate

The hatred and rage simmering inside Butcher through all these years, which prompted him to orchestrate harrowing, amoral actions by giving up on his conscience, was never going to fade away following his bloody vengeance. Butcher decides to go after the rest of the Supes and kills his former informant, Legend. MM learns that upon learning of his ex-wife’s demented actions, Butcher had killed her with absolute brutality, prompting MM’s daughter, Janine, to keep her distance from her father out of fear. Butcher eventually kills MM following a brutal fight between the two friends. Hughie, who has broken up with Starlight, decides to go after him after learning about his actions. Hughie learns that Greg Mallory, the former chief of the Boys, whom Butcher had supposedly killed, had helped Butcher to formulate the super annihilation plan by providing him with anti-supe missiles, the ones that were used by the military during the battle of the White House. Butcher provokes Hughie after getting exposed, and has Frenchie and the Female bombed to death. Acquiring a pathogen from scientist Jonah Vogelbaum to specifically kill Compound V-induced individuals, Butcher plans to orchestrate mass super genocide by triggering a bomb. Hughie acquires MM’s power in the most obnoxious way possible and confronts Butcher at the Empire State Building. While trying to save Hughie from falling from the top of the building, Butcher falls along, resulting in breaking his back, while Hughie gets severely injured by having himself impaled. Butcher, having no way to fulfill his mission any longer, has a heart-to-heart with him and tricks Hughie into stabbing him to death by lying that he has killed his parents. A distraught Hughie calls his mother and learns his parents are safe; the guilt of killing his friend sits heavy on him as he wonders that even in death, Butcher was able to manipulate him. On the other hand, Stillwell, who manipulated Bradley into having a relationship with him and made her a face of Vought, throws her under the bus for the White House incident. 

Six months later, Hughie takes a page out of Butcher’s playbook by blackmailing Stillwell into keeping a rebranded Vought from exerting its influence on government and military. Starlight and Hughie get together, as Hughie finally gets his much-deserved peace. 

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