The Seven – Origins of ‘The Boys’ Corporate Superhero Team
How did these psychopaths with powers get put on a corporate pedestal to be worshipped by the masses? This is The Seven explained.
The Seven is the most popular and influential superhero team. Vought International owns the team and who is on it—the company promotes, houses, and covers for its members. Its current leader, Homelander, was created by Vought in their labs and raised by the company. The rest of the team is scouted from all over the country using regional teams and reality shows to recruit.
On the surface, the team operates as a superhero group that stops crimes and promotes patriotism. In reality, the team exists to increase Vought’s stock prices and raise its image in the public eye. And these supes aren’t exactly heroes.
Contains possible spoilers for the show & comics.
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Homelander Leads The Seven
Homelander is presented to the public as an affable, modest, and sincere Boy Scout and patriot – he’s anything but. The first member of The Seven. He was lab-grown and raised by Vought Industries. From his conception, he was a corporate science experiment barely in the control of his makers. In his childhood, they attempted to mold him into the perfect supe. A supe Vought could control. Instead, he grew to be filled with rage and indignation.
The show and comic book versions are nearly identical. In the comics, Vought told the world that he came from outer space in the comics to hide the development of Compound V.
Powers & Abilities
He is the classic flying, almost unbeatable, laser-eyed superhero.
Queen Maeve
The second most powerful of The Seven starts as an antagonist and becomes an anti-hero in both the comics and the show. How she went from one to the other is quite different. Comics Maeve deals with shame and regret after a mission fails. She ends up drowning herself in a bottle and getting into abusive relationships. Show Maeve is a humanitarian and more sympathetic. She reacts to a failed mission angrily and resolves to take down Homelander and Vought. Both work with The Boys.
Powers & Abilities
Comics Maeve has superhuman strength and durability, plus she can fly. She has superhuman strength and durability in the show and is an expert markswoman. She’s also highly trained in hand-to-hand combat.
Starlight
A former member of the conservative team Young Americans, Annie was born with her powers. In the comics, she is handed over to Vought by her parents, who she blinded at birth with her abilities. Her foster parents saw her as a show pony and a means to an end rather than a child. She is introduced to The Seven via sexual assault and vows that it will never happen again. She has a relationship with Hughie that’s not exactly healthy.
Her story is similar to the show, but her mother is an overbearing pageant mom who lives through her daughter. Annie chooses to fight back against abuse through HR and the threat of publicity instead of using her powers. She gets The Deep kicked off the team. Starlight works with The Boys as an insider, but she’s not fond of being a double agent.
In both, she is the only actual superhero on the team. She’s earnest and genuinely wants to help people.
Powers & Abilities
Starlight can generate and project light from her hands; her eyes also have that power in the show. In the comics, she also can fly and is skilled in hand-to-hand combat.
The Deep
The original King of the Seas wore a diving helmet and a cape. He is considered the mature intellectual of The Seven. The rest of the team picked on him for his sensitive nature, and the boys generally regarded him as a non-threat. In the show, he’s a scatterbrain who wants approval. While the costume and IQ have changed for the show, his treatment hasn’t.
Powers & Abilities
In the comics, The Deep can fly and has super strength – nothing to do with the ocean except the helmet. In the show, he’s an Aquaman analog with gills and can talk to aquatic life.
A-Train
A-Train is the fastest man in the world. He came up through the Teenage Kix. He plays an integral part in Hughie’s joining the Boys in both the show and the comic when he kills Hughie’s girlfriend. Not much is different between the core of either version. A-Train is constantly worried about being replaced and irrelevant. He’ll do whatever it takes to stay on the team as long as he can.
Powers & Abilities
A-Train is fast and has the reflexes and perception needed to function at high speeds.
Black Noir
Black Noir is one of the main antagonists in the comics but has been regaled to the sidelines in the show (so far). He is silent and emotionless and keeps his mask on at all times. In Season 3, it’s revealed that Black Noir wanted to ditch the mask until his face was burned in an accident early in his career with Vought. He’s a death dealer.
Black Noir in the comics has a very different back story. In the comics, he’s the nearly identical twin of Homelander – the difference is Black Noir is more powerful. He was created as a failsafe in case Homelander got out of control. His entire existence is to kill Homelander, so he spends a lot of time trying to frame him for crimes and wrongdoing. He’s driven mad by a lack of success.
Powers & Abilities
In the show, Black Noir is a master ninja with superhuman strength. He’s also super durable, has faster healing capabilities, and has superhuman reflexes and agility. His hearing is also super-powered. In the comics, he’s Homelander but stronger and insane.
Translucent & Jack from Jupiter of The Seven
The character was created mainly for Hughie’s story in the show and was not in the comics. At the start of the show, Translucent may be the most corrupt member of the team. He spends most of his time spying on women, worrying about money, and not helping people. He’s also self-centered and overconfident about his abilities. Translucent thinks of himself as a people person who can read people easily.
Jack from Jupiter is the most similar character on the page. Jack is presented as an alien to the public, though he’s actually from Los Angeles. His fellow team members are generally annoyed by his existence and don’t notice when he dies.
Eric Kripke, the show’s creator, had this to say about the change:
“We’re trying to make the show as grounded as possible – and the story for the audience is that people are born suddenly and spontaneously with these powers. That’s not the truth, of course, but Vought is bringing the audience a similar mythology to that of the Mutants. To say that one of them is an alien kills that myth a bit. Jack has always felt too fantastic for the world we were trying to create.”
Powers & Abilities
Translucent’s skin is impenetrable, allowing him to become invisible. Jack can fly and become invisible when he utters the word “carp.” In my opinion, they should have carried over the on/off keyword bit.
What’s Next for The Seven
It’s been two years since Butcher and Homelander’s tragic faceoff at the end of Season 3. Fans don’t have much longer till the next season arrives. Showrunner Eric Kripke confirmed that the entire production has wrapped and is ready to hit Prime Video on June 13th. Next week, The Seven and The Boys duke it out once again, and the stakes have never been higher.
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