- [Announcer] Soldier boy.
♪ Fab Five Freddy told me everybody's fly ♪
♪ DJ spinnin', I said, "My my" ♪
♪ Flash is fast, Flash is cool ♪
♪ Francois c'est pas, Flash ain't no dude ♪
- [Stephanie] Hello, and welcome to a special episode
of "Superhero Club," your go-to show
for all things comic book-inspired on Amazon Prime Video.
I'm your host Stephanie Williams.
Before we get too far in, if you want more superhero content
like this, don't forget to like this video
and subscribe to our channel.
Today, we are going to do a quick dive
into "The Boys" character, Soldier Boy.
We're gonna get a little bit into his short comic history
and also his TV series history, which is also as short
but there's a possibility that it could be longer.
First, let's get into this comic book history.
There are not one but two Soldier Boys in the comics,
but we'll get to that later.
The first Soldier Boy made his debut in "The Boys, Herogasm"
number one, "Babylon."
In that issue, he's on the receiving end
of a less-than-stellar review
of his tryout to join The Seven.
The hero giving him that feedback
is none other than Homelander.
Soldier Boy was introduced as a moderately insecure member
of the super team, Payback,
and if that name sounds familiar,
it should because it's also from the TV series,
but he was willing to do whatever Homelander demanded
of him, and if you've read this comic,
you know exactly what I mean.
So after issue three of "Herogasm,"
we don't see Soldier Boy again until "The Boys" number 32.
When he and the rest of the Payback team show up
to ambush Butcher and his crew, he gets his nose bitten off
by Butcher so he ends up looking like the Red Skull
for a little bit, and, you know, and this version
of Soldier Boy is only like the show's character
in name only because I just could not see the show's Butcher
getting that close to the show's Soldier Boy,
close enough to like bite his nose off.
Butcher ends up taking his meat cleaver
and putting an end to this particular Soldier Boy.
Moving on to the second iteration,
or actually the original Soldier Boy,
because you find out in "The Boys," issue number 53,
it's revealed that the first Soldier Boy
that we were introduced in the comic
was actually the second coming to the original.
He was a part of The Avenging Squad,
and he fought in World War II,
and that's actually something that's similar
to the Soldier Boy from the show
because he also was in World War II.
He ends up getting killed by a character named Greg Mallory
instead of being betrayed by his teammates
like he was in the series.
All right, now moving on to the Amazon Prime Video adaption
of Soldier Boy.
This one has way more impact compared
to his comic book iteration.
(suspenseful music)
- Buddy, you think you look strong?
You're wearing a cape.
- [Stephanie] Instead of seeking Homelander's approval
and membership to The Seven, like the Soldier Boy
from the comics, no, right off bat,
when Soldier Boy is finally, makes his introduction
in season three, he is actually one of two antagonists
for the season, the other one clearly being Homelander.
Before being freed and thawed out by Butcher and his crew,
this Soldier Boy had an entire, you know,
much more meatier backstory and all of that,
so like, let's get into that.
- What do you say, Gunpowder?
Give them the Fourth of July?
- Let's light 'em up, Soldier Boy.
- [Stephanie] Soldier Boy is introduced
as America's first-ever greatest and most popular superhero.
We learned that his DNA was used to create Homelander,
which is light years different
from their relationship in the comics.
In the show, Soldier Boy's real name is Ben,
and he lived with an emotionally abusive and wealthy father,
who thought of him to be a disappointment.
To make his father proud, Ben volunteered
to be experimented on by Dr. Frederick Vought,
Ben received Compound V during those experiments,
which gave him powers of superhuman strength,
enhanced speed, and invulnerability.
He didn't get the, you know, cool blast situation
until after he was experimented on by the Russians.
He also aged a lot slower than normal.
Ben would go on to adopt the alias Soldier Boy,
becoming a propaganda tool for Vought in the process.
- These people would rather die than be Soviet slaves.
- [Stephanie] And even after all that,
his father still didn't respect him
because he considered it cheating
that his son used superpowers in order to fight in a war.
So what was Soldier Boy's life after World War II?
Soldier Boy remained a superhero
with Vought long after World War II was over.
He founded Herogasm in 1952.
It's an annual orgy hosted by Vought
to give superheroes a place to relax or be terrorists
to each other 'cause that's also a thing.
It was here that Soldier Boy and Stormfront
would spend a great deal of time together.
Soldier Boy eventually became the leader
of the superhero team, Payback.
Again, if that name is ringing a bell,
I mentioned it earlier from the comics but, in this case,
he's the leader and not just another member.
So, all this time, as far as the public knew,
Soldier Boy was a superhero who fought for justice
and liberty for all up until his disappearance
during the botched mission in Nicaragua in 1984.
- They took his body.
(helicopter whirring)
- [Stephanie] The public was then led
to believe he heroically sacrificed himself to save America
from a nuclear power plant meltdown, but in reality,
he was set up by his Payback teammates.
They hated him because he was verbally
and physically abusive to them.
He beat the hell out of Black Noir
after finding out he was trying to start a career
in Hollywood, and eventually, his powers
of being a super A-hole got him betrayed by his teammates.
Soldier Boy was also responsible for the deaths
of Mother's Milk's family.
He punched a criminal's car onto the home of MM's family
and that is, that's what happened to 'em,
which is just trauma, honestly, I still wish
that MM would've been able to at least get,
you know, a couple punches in.
So, in the comics, Butcher is the one to torture
and kill Soldier Boy for information,
but in the Amazon Prime Video adaption,
he and Butcher develop a working relationship
with one common goal, to kill Homelander.
So, where the comic Soldier Boy was a pathetic pushover,
the series iteration of Soldier Boy was still pathetic
in ways, but more of a bulldozer,
or like a little mini-nuclear power plant,
the way that he was burning everybody up,
'cause I mean, he did make sure to get revenge
on almost all of his teammates who sold him out to Russia.
(fire roaring)
And that concludes this deep dive character session
of "Superhero Club."
Thank you so much for watching.
Again, I'm your host, Stephanie Williams.
Don't forget to like and subscribe
for more episodes of "Superhero Club."
Remember, you can check out all three seasons
of "The Boys" right now on Amazon Prime Video.
(rumble echoing)