Comic series → TV series · Direct adaptation
The Boys (2019–2026)
The recruitment premise, the ensemble, and the satirical target carry across. Four of the twelve source units reach the screen in some form; the other eight are replaced with original story across forty episodes.
Source
The Boys · Comic series · 2006–2012 · 72 issues in nine volumes, plus three six-issue miniseries (Herogasm, Highland Laddie, Butcher, Baker, Candlestickmaker)
Garth Ennis (writer), Darick Robertson (artist)
WildStorm (DC Comics), issues #1–6; Dynamite Entertainment, issues #7–72
Adaptation
The Boys · TV series · 2019–2026 · 40 episodes across 5 seasons
Eric Kripke (developer, showrunner)
Sony Pictures Television and Amazon MGM Studios, for Prime Video
TrueToPage 48 · The Boys (2019–2026 Broadcast series) · v0.3censuscatalog score
Fidelity is not level across this show's run; see fidelity.by_era. Season 1 carries the recruitment premise and restages the plane-crash disaster. The four seasons after it draw on the Herogasm miniseries and on fragments of the comic's finale recombined into the Season 5 ending, and are otherwise original material.
Screen-only characters and plot devices, among them Ryan, Madelyn Stillwell, Translucent, Victoria Neuman, and Sage, are not in the character table. The comic attests nothing about them, so they register under additions_restraint instead.
This record treats only the main 72-issue series and its three contemporaneous miniseries as source material. The Boys Presents: Diabolical, Gen V, and Vought Rising are separate works and out of scope here.
The identity rule applies throughout: where the comic is silent on a trait (Maeve's sexuality, Soldier Boy's genetic link to Homelander), a screen addition is not counted as an altered trait against the character, even where it is a large part of the show's version of that person.
Season 5 aired April 8 through May 20, 2026; this record was written after the finale and reflects the completed series.
Fidelity
Higher = more of the source is still true. Fidelity is not quality.Season 1 (2019)
55
The season carries the kept recruitment premise, Robin's death and Butcher recruiting Hughie, and restages the Brooklyn Bridge plane-crash disaster at the start of the story rather than mid-run and without the comic's September 11 framing. Two of the record's fourteen invented beats also land here, Madelyn Stillwell's arc and Translucent's death.
Seasons 2 through 5 (2020–2026)
42
Thirty-two episodes across four seasons. The source material present in this span is the Herogasm miniseries, condensed into one Season 3 episode, and fragments of the comic's finale shape recombined into the Season 5 ending. Stormfront's arc, Soldier Boy, Victoria Neuman, Sage, and Homelander's final-season coup are screen-original. This composite is an editorial estimate for the page's era toggle and not a script recomputation; the whole-run axes above are the audited numbers.
Plot structure25Twelve mapping rows cover the nine main volumes and the three miniseries. Each row is weighted 1 to 3 by rough issue count and credited 1.0 when kept, 0.7 when condensed or reordered, and 0 when replaced or omitted. Four rows earn credit: the recruitment premise in The Name of the Game is kept, the Brooklyn Bridge plane-crash disaster from The Self-Preservation Society and the finale's shape from The Bloody Doors Off are both reordered, and the Herogasm miniseries is condensed. That is 5.5 weighted points out of 22: plot_structure = round(100 × 5.5 / 22) = 25. The other eight rows carry character names and setting forward and replace the plot machinery, except Highland Laddie, which is not adapted. The full weighted table is in the REPORT.partial evidenceN = 12 beats, source weight 22
Character51The axis is the prominence-weighted mean of fourteen scored characters, leads weighted 3 and supporting 2. Queen Maeve (80) and Homelander (78) keep most of their attested traits, though the record of who committed Homelander's worst crime changes hands. The Deep (75), Annie January (67), and A-Train (67) keep their core functions and lose specific plot beats. Billy Butcher (64) keeps his marriage, his methods, and his death at Hughie's hand, and loses the mechanics that lead there. Frenchie (60) keeps his role and personality and loses the nature of his central relationship and his fate. Hughie (44), Mother's Milk (50), and Stormfront (40) change on more attested traits than they keep. Kimiko (20), Black Noir (20), and Soldier Boy (25) each keep one attested trait: her powers, his mask and silence, and the legacy hero name. Jack from Jupiter, a founding member of the Seven whom Butcher kills in the comic, never appears on screen and stays in the table at 0. Full trait tables are in the REPORT.partial evidenceN = 14 people, weight 32
Dialogue & voice75Twelve voice markers are inventoried and nine are preserved: Vought's corporate doublespeak, in-universe superhero merchandising jingles, unfiltered profanity, Butcher's Cockney invective, Homelander's saccharine public patter, Homelander's folksy veiled threats, Frenchie's French-inflected English, Mother's Milk's exasperated straight-man rejoinders, and Starlight's earnest directness. Three are altered. The Female's near-total silence is replaced by sign language and imagined song sequences for Kimiko. The splash-page shock reveal is a print device, and the show uses cold opens and scene-ending stings in its place. The comic's practice of naming real celebrities and public figures outright is mostly routed through fictional analogues. dialogue_voice = round(100 × 9 / 12) = 75.partial evidenceN = 12 voice markers
Theme & tone80Ten thematic claims are inventoried and eight are preserved: unaccountable corporate power over a compliant government and public, fame and power corrupting completely, unpowered people's capacity to damage the powerful, revenge destroying the person who pursues it, superhero culture sold to children by companies indifferent to the cost, patriotism marketed as a product, institutions shielding the powerful men who abuse women, and the mockery of Silver Age superhero tropes. Two are altered. The comic's claim that there is no clean victory, only survival and retreat, is replaced by a finale in which the immediate threat is removed and the ensemble settles into stable lives. The comic's claim that its own protagonists become killers is not carried over; Eric Kripke has said the show was never going to have the Boys murder people they love. theme_tone = round(100 × 8 / 10) = 80.partial evidenceN = 10 thematic claims
Coverage33Source units are the nine main volumes plus the three miniseries. Four of twelve appear on screen in a form that counts as present, meaning kept, condensed, or reordered: The Name of the Game's recruitment premise, The Self-Preservation Society's plane-crash beat, The Bloody Doors Off's finale shape, and the Herogasm miniseries. coverage = round(100 × 4 / 12) = 33. The other eight units are Get Some, Good for the Soul, We Gotta Go Now, The Innocents, The Big Ride, Over the Hill with the Swords of a Thousand Men, Highland Laddie, and Butcher, Baker, Candlestickmaker. Seven of those are replaced with original material, and Highland Laddie is not adapted in any form.partial evidenceN = 4 of 12 source units present
Additions restraint22Four source beats reach the screen, and the change log itemizes fourteen invented beats spread across all five seasons. The invented beats are Madelyn Stillwell's arc, Translucent's membership and death, Stormfront's romance with Homelander, Becca Butcher's survival and death, the Church of the Collective, Soldier Boy's Cold War history, Butcher's Compound V illness, Butcher's black-tendril power, Victoria Neuman, Sage, Homelander's White House coup and the V1 serum, Kimiko's depowering ability, A-Train's death, and Ryan. additions_restraint = round(100 × 4 / 18) = 22, from 4 source beats and 14 invented beats.partial evidenceN = 4 source beats, 14 invented
Ending
Side by side, in our words.On the page · The Boys
In The Bloody Doors Off (#66–72), Black Noir reveals himself as an identical clone that Vought built as a secret fail-safe against Homelander, and kills him. Black Noir has committed many of the crimes blamed on Homelander, including the attack on Becca Butcher. Butcher then kills Black Noir, decides that is not enough, and sets out to release a bioweapon that will kill everyone carrying Compound V, murdering Mother's Milk, Frenchie, the Female, and others who try to stop him. The story ends in a rooftop duel atop the Empire State Building, where a badly injured Butcher goads Hughie into finishing him. Hughie accepts an offer from the CIA's Susan Rayner to oversee superheroes by non-violent means and walks off with Annie January (Starlight), the two of them among the story's few survivors.
On the screen · The Boys
In the Season 5 finale (May 2026), Homelander has seized political power and found V1, a self-administered immortality serum, and Butcher holds a virus that can kill every Compound V carrier on Earth. Homelander kills Frenchie in the previous episode, where Frenchie stays behind to hide Kimiko and Sage. In the finale the Boys storm the White House. Kimiko uses a newly awakened ability to strip Homelander's powers, and Butcher shoots him dead while he is powerless and begging. Hughie then shoots and kills Butcher to stop him releasing the virus, and tells the others that Butcher would never have stopped on his own. The survivors disband: Mother's Milk takes in Ryan, Kimiko moves to France, and Hughie and Annie prepare to start a family.
Both versions end with Homelander and Butcher dead, with Hughie killing Butcher, and with Hughie leaving for a quiet life with Annie January. The mechanisms differ at every other point. The comic's killer of Homelander is his own clone, which clears Homelander of the crime that drives the plot; the show has no impersonator and makes Homelander guilty in person. The comic's Butcher is stopped only after he murders most of his own team; the show's team survives apart from Frenchie. The comic ends with almost the whole cast dead; the show ends with the immediate threat removed and the survivors in stable lives. Eric Kripke said in May 2026 that he was never going to adapt the comic's exonerating twist.
Mapping
17 rows. Every source unit, including the ones that never appear.| Source unit | What happens there | On screen | Notes | Tag | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Name of the Game (#1–6) | A-Train kills Hughie Campbell's girlfriend Robin at superspeed; Billy Butcher recruits the grieving Hughie into the Boys and shows him the abuses Vought-American's supes get away with. | Season 1 (2019), episodes 1–3 | kept; Robin's death and Hughie's recruitment by Butcher open the show. The show's Boys are not injected with Compound V, and their CIA backing is intermittent rather than the comic's near-constant support. | primary | strong |
| Get Some (#7–14) | The Boys investigate the dark-avenger hero Tek-Knight and his sidekick Swingwing, a send-up of Batman and Robin. | no direct screen equivalent | replaced; Tek-Knight returns later and separately as a Vought executive with an unrelated backstory, and Swingwing does not appear on screen. | partial | |
| Good for the Soul (#15–22) | The Legend, a bitter former Vought comics editor living under a comic shop, and Mother's Milk's family history of inherited Compound-V damage are introduced. | Season 3 (2022), episode 5, 'The Last Time to Look on This World of Lies' (The Legend only) | replaced; the Legend is cast (Paul Reiser) and rewritten as a different kind of industry insider rather than the comic's Stan Lee analogue. Mother's Milk's family backstory has no screen equivalent and is replaced wholesale. | partial | |
| We Gotta Go Now (#23–30) | The Boys uncover Malchemical and a deeper layer of Vought's corporate conspiracy against them. | no direct screen equivalent | replaced; the show's Vought conspiracies are built from screen-original material throughout the run. | partial | |
| The Self-Preservation Society (#31–38) | Issue #36: hijackers attempt to fly a passenger plane into a target on the ground; the Seven's botched interception sends the airliner into the Brooklyn Bridge instead, killing thousands, in a scene explicitly written as the setting's 9/11. | Season 1 (2019), episode 1, the crash of Transoceanic Flight 37 | reordered; the mechanism survives, a hijacked airliner, a failed interception by the Seven, and the same bridge as the crash site. It moves from the comic's mid-run placement to the first episode and loses the explicit September 11 framing. | primary | strong |
| The Innocents (#39–47) | A junior-hero training program's abuses are exposed, echoing the Young Americans material behind Starlight's own backstory. | no direct screen equivalent | replaced; the show covers institutional abuse of young supes through screen-original storylines rather than this arc's reveals. Gen V is a separate work and out of scope for this record. | partial | |
| The Big Ride (#48–59) | Vought corporate maneuvering in Herogasm's aftermath, and the excavation of Compound V's origins and the earliest superhuman program. | no direct screen equivalent | replaced; the show's Compound V and Vought origin material (Soldier Boy, Vogelbaum, Frederick Vought) is written for the screen rather than drawn from this arc's reveals. | partial | |
| Over the Hill with the Swords of a Thousand Men (#60–65) | Butcher's own manipulations and cruelty are exposed to his team, deepening the series' portrait of his moral collapse. | no direct screen equivalent | replaced; the show discloses Butcher's manipulations gradually across seasons through screen-original incidents rather than this arc's beats. | partial | |
| The Bloody Doors Off (#66–72) | Black Noir, an identical Homelander clone, kills Homelander after revealing the truth; Butcher kills Black Noir and then most of his own team while pursuing a Compound-V genocide; Hughie kills Butcher atop the Empire State Building and ends the story with Starlight. | Season 5 (2026), the series finale | reordered; three beats recur, Homelander's downfall, Hughie killing Butcher, and Hughie ending with Starlight. Homelander's killer changes from a clone to Butcher, Butcher's death moves to the aftermath of the White House confrontation and comes from stopping a virus rather than a goaded rooftop duel, and more of the rest of the cast survives. | primary | strong |
| Herogasm (miniseries, 6 issues) | The Seven and other Vought heroes fake an off-world mission to attend a weekend of drug- and sex-fuelled superhero excess at a private island resort. | Season 3 (2022), episode 6, 'Herogasm' | condensed; the premise, a faked alien-threat cover story for a superhero orgy retreat, is kept and named on screen. Most of the set pieces are restaged around the season's other storylines. | primary | strong |
| Highland Laddie (miniseries, 6 issues) | Hughie returns home to Scotland to reconnect with his family and an old flame while Butcher searches for him. | omitted | omitted; the show's Hughie is American rather than Scottish, and this material has no on-screen equivalent of any kind. | strong | |
| Butcher, Baker, Candlestickmaker (miniseries, 6 issues) | A deep dive into Butcher's past, his CIA handler Grace Mallory, and Vought-American's Cold War-era history. | no direct screen equivalent | replaced; the show carries over the name Grace Mallory and a Cold War era Vought history, and writes the events of this miniseries anew. | partial | |
| No published comic material | No issue supplies Madelyn Stillwell's role running Vought's hero division, her affair with and death at Homelander's hands, or Translucent's membership on the Seven and on-screen death. | Season 1 (2019) | screen-original material built around the kept recruitment premise. The change log itemizes the beats this record counts against additions_restraint. | strong | |
| No published comic material | No issue supplies Stormfront's romance with Homelander and viral white-nationalist social-media campaign, Becca Butcher's survival in hiding and eventual death, or the Church of the Collective. | Season 2 (2020) | screen-original material; see the change log. | strong | |
| No published comic material | No issue supplies Soldier Boy's Cold War Payback-team history, his decades in Soviet captivity, his reveal as the genetic source of Homelander's powers, or Butcher's Temp-V dependency. | Season 3 (2022) | screen-original material apart from the Herogasm miniseries, which is mapped in its own row above; see the change log. | strong | |
| No published comic material | No issue supplies Victoria Neuman's secret career as a superpowered U.S. congresswoman, Sage's introduction as a supe strategist, or Butcher's black-tendril superpower. | Season 4 (2024) | screen-original material; see the change log. | strong | |
| No published comic material | No issue supplies Homelander's political seizure of the White House, his discovery of the V1 immortality serum, Kimiko's newly awakened depowering ability, A-Train's death at Homelander's hand, or Ryan's survival, childhood, and resolution. | Season 5 (2026) | screen-original material; see the change log. The finale's overlap with The Bloody Doors Off is recorded in that row, not here. | strong |
Change log
The argument. The mapping above is the evidence.- Identity / design changeHughie Campbell's nationality is changed from Scottish to American.The Boys #1; Highland Laddie miniseries → Season 1 onwardRemoves the Highland Laddie homecoming material, a six-issue miniseries, from the adaptation, and relocates his family and background to the United States.Attribution: Eric Kripke and the writing staff, per contemporaneous comparison coverage
- Identity / design changeStormfront's gender is changed from male to female.The Boys, backstory issues → Season 2 onwardKripke has said in interviews at the time that a woman who takes Homelander's spotlight and does not fear him reaches his ego more than a male rival would. On screen the character's white-nationalist politics run through a social-media persona rather than the comic's open slurs.Attribution: Eric Kripke, per contemporaneous interviews
- Identity / design changeHomelander himself, not an impersonator, is confirmed as the one who assaulted Becca Butcher.The Bloody Doors Off, #66–72 → Season 2 onwardDrops the comic's reveal that Black Noir, a secret clone, committed many of Homelander's worst crimes. The show's Homelander commits in person every act the comic assigns to the impersonator.Attribution: unknown / production decision
- OmittedJack from Jupiter, a founding, alien-styled member of the Seven killed by Butcher in the comic, does not appear on screen in any form.The Boys, throughout → no episodeRemoves one of the Seven's founding members and one of Butcher's on-page murders. Translucent, a screen-original character, occupies a comparable early death within the Seven.Attribution: Eric Kripke, who has said an alien hero felt too fantastical for a show whose public believes supes are naturally born
- OmittedHughie's Scotland homecoming, the subject of the entire Highland Laddie miniseries, is never adapted.Highland Laddie (miniseries, 6 issues) → no episodeFollows from making Hughie American. A self-contained six-issue arc has no screen counterpart.Attribution: unknown / production decision
- Tonal shiftBlack Noir's silence and full mask are reframed from a clone's disguise into the result of facial and vocal injuries inflicted by Soldier Boy.The Bloody Doors Off, #66–72 → Season 3, flashback materialReplaces a plot secret, the concealment of a clone, with a physical injury, and removes the concealment the comic's ending depends on.Attribution: Eric Kripke, per contemporaneous interviews
- Tonal shiftA-Train is rewritten from a sadistic bully into a character with an addiction and redemption arc.The Boys, throughout → Season 1 onwardGives a character the comic uses mainly as the target of Hughie's revenge an arc of his own across all five seasons, and removes the comic's uncomplicated cruelty.Attribution: Eric Kripke, per contemporaneous interviews
- Tonal shiftThe Female is rewritten as Kimiko, a named point-of-view character who communicates in sign language and has an on-screen interior life and a romance with Frenchie.The Boys, throughout → Season 1 onwardFour of her five attested traits change, which leaves her powers as the only one carried over and puts her character score at 20.Attribution: unknown / production decision
- Kept, unflinchingThe comic's graphic on-screen violence and gore are retained, and in places escalated, throughout the show's run.The Boys, throughout → Season 1 onwardCarries the source's level of on-screen violence into every season rather than reducing it for a streaming series.Attribution: unknown / production decision
- Kept, unflinchingThe Brooklyn Bridge plane-crash disaster, and the Seven's direct culpability for it, is kept on screen with the same basic mechanism.The Self-Preservation Society, #36 → Season 1, episode 1Keeps the Seven's own failure as the direct cause of the crash rather than an outside attack the heroes fail to stop, which is how the comic stages it.Attribution: unknown / production decision
- Kept, unflinchingHomelander's private cruelty toward subordinates and toward the public that adores him is kept.The Boys, throughout → Season 1 onwardPreserves the gap between the public persona and the private conduct that the comic's version of the character runs on.Attribution: unknown / production decision
- Ending changedHomelander's death is reassigned from Black Noir, his own clone, to Butcher, and staged in the aftermath of a White House confrontation rather than a clone-versus-original showdown revealed through a late twist.The Bloody Doors Off, #71 → Season 5, series finaleRemoves the comic's late reversal, in which Homelander is cleared of many of the crimes attributed to him, and leaves him guilty at the point of his death.Attribution: Eric Kripke, who has said directly he was never going to adapt the comic's exonerating twist
- ReorderedHerogasm is condensed from a six-issue miniseries into a single Season 3 episode and moved into a new position within the overall story.Herogasm (miniseries, 6 issues) → Season 3, episode 6One of the four source units that reaches the screen, and the only miniseries adapted under its own name.Attribution: unknown / production decision
- InventedMadelyn Stillwell's arc: Vought's head of hero management, secretly Homelander's lover, and the handler he kills at the end of Season 1.no published comic material → Season 1 (2019)Splits the comic's James Stillwell into two screen characters, Madelyn Stillwell and Stan Edgar, and gives Homelander a new personal relationship that ends in a killing.Attribution: unknown / production decision
- InventedTranslucent's membership on the Seven and his on-screen death at the Boys' hands.no published comic material → Season 1 (2019)Supplies an early death within the Seven that has no comic equivalent, in the position the comic gives Jack from Jupiter.Attribution: unknown / production decision
- InventedStormfront's romantic relationship with Homelander and her viral, social-media-driven white-nationalist campaign, ending in her defeat.no published comic material → Season 2 (2020)Builds a season-long plot from a romance, a hate movement, and its public collapse, none of which the comic gives the character.Attribution: unknown / production decision
- InventedBecca Butcher's survival in hiding with her son, her reunion with Butcher, and her eventual on-screen death during the Stormfront confrontation.no published comic material → Seasons 1–2 (2019–2020)In the comic Becca is dead before the story begins. The show gives her two seasons of on-screen life, one of its largest single inventions.Attribution: unknown / production decision
- InventedThe Church of the Collective, a Scientology-parody self-help movement that entangles the Deep.no published comic material → Season 2 (2020)Adds a satirical target and a subplot for the Deep that the comic does not contain.Attribution: unknown / production decision
- InventedSoldier Boy's Cold War Payback-team history, his decades of Soviet captivity, and his reveal as the genetic source of Homelander's powers.no published comic material → Season 3 (2022)Turns a minor legacy name into a season-long antagonist with a decades-spanning backstory written for the screen.Attribution: unknown / production decision
- InventedButcher's escalating, ultimately fatal use of Compound V and Temp-V in a desperate attempt to cure his own terminal illness.no published comic material → Seasons 3–4 (2022–2024)Gives Butcher a terminal-illness arc with no comic equivalent. The comic's Butcher never takes Compound V.Attribution: unknown / production decision
- InventedButcher's late-series black-tendril superpower, grown from his own Compound V overdose.no published comic material → Season 4 (2024)Gives a character the comic keeps powerless a superhuman ability in his final season, against his attested body_ability trait.Attribution: unknown / production decision
- InventedVictoria Neuman's entire arc as a secretly superpowered U.S. congresswoman and power broker.no published comic material → Seasons 3–4 (2022–2024)Introduces an antagonist and a political subplot with no counterpart on the comic page.Attribution: unknown / production decision
- InventedSage, a supe-intelligence advisor who becomes one of Homelander's key strategists.no published comic material → Season 4 onwardAdds a strategist to Homelander's inner circle, a role the comic does not depict.Attribution: unknown / production decision
- InventedHomelander's political seizure of the White House and his discovery of the V1 immortality serum in the final season.no published comic material → Season 5 (2026)Moves the finale's conflict to a political coup. The comic's ending stays within Vought and the Boys.Attribution: unknown / production decision
- InventedKimiko's newly awakened ability to strip other supes of their powers, used to depower Homelander in the finale.no published comic material → Season 5, series finaleSupplies the mechanism by which Homelander is beaten, in place of the comic's clone-versus-original confrontation.Attribution: unknown / production decision
- InventedA-Train's redemption arc and his death at Homelander's hand in the final season, after mocking him.no published comic material → Season 5 (2026)Replaces the comic's death of A-Train at Hughie's hands with a multi-season arc and a different killer.Attribution: unknown / production decision
- InventedRyan, Butcher and Becca's superpowered son, survives birth, grows up on screen across several seasons, and ends the series in Mother's Milk's care.no published comic material → Seasons 1–5 (2019–2026)In the comic Butcher kills the infant shortly after birth. The show gives the child a five-season arc on screen and a resolution in Mother's Milk's care.Attribution: unknown / production decision
People
Trait score = attested traits kept ÷ attested traits shown. Unstated traits are not rows.Billy Butcher · Karl Urban64
Keeps his marriage, his recruitment of Hughie, his genocidal endgame, and his death at Hughie's hand. Loses the identity of Becca's assailant, the steadiness of his CIA backing, and the staging of his final confrontation.
| Appearance | Heavyset, foul-mouthed middle-aged Londoner in plain civilian dress, never in a costume.The Boys #1 onward | preservedstrong |
| Identity | William 'Billy' Butcher, leader of a CIA-linked group that monitors and controls Vought-American's supes.The Boys #1 | preservedstrong |
| Body / ability | Has no superpowers of his own for virtually the whole series and relies on tradecraft, blackmail, and violence.the show eventually gives him Temp-V-derived powers, including a late black-tendril ability, and a terminal illness caused by his own Compound V use · The Boys, throughout | alteredstrong |
| Personality | Manipulative and willing to sacrifice his own team to reach his goal.The Boys, throughout | preservedstrong |
| Moral code | Ultimately resolves to use a bioweapon to kill every carrier of Compound V, supes and dormant carriers alike.The Bloody Doors Off, #66–72 | preservedstrong |
| Relationships | Husband of Becca (Rebecca) Butcher; her fate at Homelander's hands drives his crusade.The Boys, throughout | preservedstrong |
| Relationships | Recruits Hughie Campbell after Robin's death and shapes him into a weapon.The Name of the Game, #1–6 | preservedstrong |
| Vocation / role | Operates with full, near-constant CIA backing throughout the series.the show's Boys work with the CIA intermittently rather than under steady institutional backing · The Boys, throughout | alteredpartial |
| Arc | Blames Homelander personally, for years, for the attack on Becca, only for the crime to be revealed as the work of someone wearing Homelander's identity.the comic reveals the assailant as Black Noir, Homelander's clone, impersonating him; the show has no such reveal, and its Homelander commits the crime in person · The Bloody Doors Off, #66–72 | alteredstrong |
| Plot function | Dies at the hand of Hughie, the protégé he made, rather than by any outside enemy.The Bloody Doors Off, #72 | preservedstrong |
| Arc | The final confrontation is a rooftop duel atop the Empire State Building in which he goads Hughie into finishing him.the show moves his death to the aftermath of the White House confrontation, where Hughie shoots him to stop the release of the supe-killing virus · The Bloody Doors Off, #72 | alteredstrong |
Hughie Campbell · Jack Quaid44
Robin's death, the relationship with Starlight, and killing Butcher at the end all carry over. Nationality, the source of his powers, his temperament, and his method of avenging Robin do not.
| Appearance | A slight, unassuming young man; the artist has cited Simon Pegg as a visual reference for the character's design.The Boys #1 | preservedpartial |
| Identity | Hugh 'Hughie' Campbell Jr., a Scottish civilian recruited into the Boys.the show makes Hughie American rather than Scottish · The Boys #1; Highland Laddie | alteredstrong |
| Body / ability | Has no powers for virtually the entire series, aside from a late, involuntary injection of Compound V by Butcher.the show gives Hughie repeated, voluntary doses of Temp-V starting in Season 3, with visible physical effects · The Boys, throughout | alteredstrong |
| Personality | Shy and frightened, reluctant to use violence even once empowered.the show's Hughie becomes more assertive and more self-regarding once he starts using Temp-V · The Boys, throughout | alteredpartial |
| Relationships | His girlfriend Robin is killed when A-Train runs through her at superspeed, which is what pulls him into the Boys.The Name of the Game, #1 | preservedstrong |
| Moral code | Personally kills A-Train, in revenge for both Robin's death and A-Train's sexual assault of Starlight.the show's Hughie does not kill A-Train, who survives to Season 5 and is instead killed by Homelander · The Boys, throughout | alteredstrong |
| Vocation / role | A civilian electronics-shop employee with an interest in conspiracy theories before joining the Boys.the show gives him a music- and pop-culture-fandom hobby in place of an interest in conspiracy theories, and different pre-Boys job details · The Boys #1 | alteredpartial |
| Relationships | Ends the story paired with Annie January (Starlight), one of the series' few survivors.The Bloody Doors Off, #72 | preservedstrong |
| Plot function | Kills Butcher in the story's final confrontation.The Bloody Doors Off, #72 | preservedstrong |
Homelander · Antony Starr78
Look, powers, the split between public and private conduct, and dying at the story's end all carry over. The comic's clone twist does not, so the show's Homelander commits in person the crimes the comic assigns to an impersonator.
| Appearance | Blond, square-jawed, in a stars-and-stripes costume with a flowing cape.The Boys, throughout | preservedstrong |
| Identity | Public leader and figurehead of the Seven, Vought-American's flagship superhero.The Boys, throughout | preservedstrong |
| Body / ability | Superhuman strength, flight, heat vision, and near invulnerability.The Boys, throughout | preservedstrong |
| Personality | Publicly warm, patriotic, and heroic while privately a narcissistic sociopath.The Boys, throughout | preservedstrong |
| Arc | His origin traces back to a covert superhuman program predating the Seven.The Boys, backstory issues | preservedpartial |
| Moral code | Believes his own atrocities are justified because he is functionally a god among ordinary people.The Boys, throughout | preservedstrong |
| Plot function | Is blamed for years for the attack on Butcher's wife Becca.the comic ultimately reveals the assailant was Black Noir, Homelander's clone, impersonating him; the show's Homelander commits the crime in person, with no impersonator · The Bloody Doors Off, #66–72 | alteredstrong |
| Arc | Dies at the story's end after his crimes catch up with him.The Bloody Doors Off, #71 | preservedstrong |
| Arc | Is killed by Black Noir, his own clone, in a confrontation that also exonerates him of many of his supposed crimes.the show has no Black Noir clone; Homelander is instead stripped of his powers by Kimiko and shot by Butcher, with no exonerating twist · The Bloody Doors Off, #71 | alteredstrong |
Annie January (Starlight) · Erin Moriarty67
Identity, powers, the Deep's assault, and her break from Vought all carry over. Her junior-team history, the religious framing of her upbringing, and her level of narrative prominence do not.
| Identity | Rebecca Anne 'Annie' January, stage name Starlight.The Boys, throughout | preservedstrong |
| Body / ability | Powers manifest as photokinetic, light-based abilities.The Boys, throughout | preservedstrong |
| Relationships | Raised by a mother who pushed her into the hero industry from childhood, and a father who left the family over it.Good for the Soul, #15–22 | preservedpartial |
| Personality | Raised with a conservative-Christian framing of her powers as a gift from God.the show frames her upbringing around parental ambition rather than explicit religious conviction · Good for the Soul, #15–22 | alteredpartial |
| Vocation / role | Served on Vought's junior team, the Young Americans, before joining the Seven.the show skips this; the Seven is her first major team · The Boys, backstory issues | alteredpartial |
| Plot function | Is sexually assaulted by the Deep on her first day joining the Seven.The Name of the Game, #1 | preservedstrong |
| Plot function | Publicly exposes the Deep's assault of her.The Boys, throughout | preservedpartial |
| Moral code | Eventually turns against Vought and works with the Boys against her own teammates.The Boys, throughout | preservedstrong |
| Vocation / role | Remains a supporting figure in the Seven's story rather than a co-lead of the overall narrative.Eric Kripke said in 2022 that the show muscled up her story to make her one of the leads · The Boys, throughout | alteredstrong |
Queen Maeve · Dominique McElligott80
Status, powers, presence at the airliner disaster, and the despair under her public image all carry over. The comic's resignation becomes sustained resistance on screen.
| Identity | A senior member of the Seven, one of Vought's earliest and most powerful heroes.The Boys, throughout | preservedstrong |
| Body / ability | Superhuman strength and durability among the Seven's top tier.The Boys, throughout | preservedstrong |
| Plot function | Present when the Seven are sent to intercept a hijacked airliner and the rescue fails, contributing to the cover-up afterward.The Self-Preservation Society, #36 | preservedpartial |
| Personality | Grows disillusioned and alcoholic under the weight of Vought's compromises, largely resigned to her own despair.the show's Maeve moves from resignation to sustained resistance against Homelander · The Boys, throughout | alteredpartial |
| Moral code | Uses her public heroism to cover a private despair, including suicidal ideation.The Boys, throughout | preservedpartial |
| Relationships | Her sexuality and romantic relationships outside the team are not addressed in the main series.the show gives Maeve a sustained same-sex relationship; since the comic is silent on this, it counts as an addition against silence rather than an altered trait · The Boys, throughout | not depictedstrong |
Mother's Milk · Laz Alonso50
Role on the team and his personality carry over. The source of his abilities, his family history, and the danger he steers his daughter away from are all rewritten.
| Identity | Marvin T. Milk, second-in-command of the Boys, fastidious and disciplined.The Boys, throughout | preservedstrong |
| Body / ability | Superhumanly strong and durable, having inherited powers through generational Compound V exposure in his family line.the show's Mother's Milk has no powers at all · Good for the Soul, #15–22 | alteredstrong |
| Relationships | A family history of illness and death tied to Compound V exposure, through his mother's factory work and his brother's inherited condition.the show gives him a different traumatic family history: his grandfather is killed when Soldier Boy hurls a car through their home · Good for the Soul, #15–22 | alteredstrong |
| Personality | Meticulous and obsessive-compulsive, keeping detailed dossiers on the team and their enemies.The Boys, throughout | preservedpartial |
| Relationships | Tries to steer his daughter away from following her mother's self-destructive path.the comic's specific concern is her mother's pornography career and addiction; the show's is her stepfather's white-supremacist influence on her · The Boys, throughout | alteredpartial |
| Vocation / role | Functions as Butcher's most reliable second, the team's tactical planner.The Boys, throughout | preservedstrong |
Frenchie · Tomer Capone60
Role and personality carry over. The nature of his bond with Kimiko and his fate do not.
| Identity | French-accented explosives and chemical-weapons expert on the team.The Boys, throughout | preservedstrong |
| Personality | Volatile and criminal-connected, morally gray even by the Boys' standards.The Boys, throughout | preservedpartial |
| Relationships | Forms a close, protective, essentially familial bond with the Female, not depicted as romantic.the show develops this into an explicit romantic relationship · The Boys, throughout | alteredstrong |
| Vocation / role | Handles the team's underworld connections and weapons supply.The Boys, throughout | preservedpartial |
| Plot function | Survives to the story's very end.the show kills Frenchie in the penultimate episode of the final season, where he stays behind to hide Kimiko and Sage from Homelander · The Bloody Doors Off, #69 | alteredstrong |
The Female (Kimiko Miyashiro) · Karen Fukuhara20
Her powers are the one attested trait that carries over. Name, origin, inner life, and her central relationship are all rewritten, which makes her one of the record's largest character changes.
| Identity | A mute young woman known mainly by the functional nickname 'the Female,' with no personal name used regularly.the show gives her the consistently used name Kimiko Miyashiro and a fuller personal identity · The Boys, throughout | alteredstrong |
| Body / ability | Superhuman strength and a regenerative healing factor.The Boys, throughout | preservedstrong |
| Arc | Her powers originate from an accidental, unexplained childhood exposure to Compound V runoff.the show gives her a deliberate origin: experimental testing by a covert program, with her family and backstory shown on screen · The Self-Preservation Society and related issues | alteredstrong |
| Personality | Functions largely as a silent killing tool with little interiority shown on the page.the show gives her extensive interiority, communicated through expressive sign language and imagined song-and-dance sequences · The Boys, throughout | alteredstrong |
| Relationships | Her bond with Frenchie is close but essentially familial and protective, not romantic.the show makes the relationship explicitly romantic · The Boys, throughout | alteredstrong |
Black Noir · Nathan Mitchell20
The masked, silent presentation is the one attested trait that carries over. The clone identity, the reason for the silence, and the plot function are all rewritten.
| Identity | An identical genetic clone of Homelander, created by Vought-American as a secret fail-safe.the show's Black Noir is a separate person, a Black American supe who has served for decades · The Bloody Doors Off, #66–72 | alteredstrong |
| Appearance | Fully masked and silent for virtually the entire series.The Boys, throughout | preservedstrong |
| Arc | Never speaks or unmasks because doing so would reveal he is Homelander's clone.the show attributes his silence and masking to severe facial and vocal trauma inflicted by Soldier Boy, with no secret-identity angle · The Bloody Doors Off, #66–72 | alteredstrong |
| Plot function | Secretly commits many of the atrocities blamed on Homelander, including the attack on Becca Butcher.the show's Black Noir does not impersonate Homelander or commit his crimes · The Bloody Doors Off, #66–72 | alteredstrong |
| Plot function | Kills Homelander at the story's climax after revealing the truth to him.the show's Black Noir has no role in Homelander's death · The Bloody Doors Off, #71 | alteredstrong |
A-Train · Jessie T. Usher67
Identity, powers, killing Robin, and the Compound V dependency all carry over. The cruelty becomes a redemption arc, and the manner of his death and the person who kills him both change.
| Identity | 'A-Train,' the fastest man alive, a speedster member of the Seven.The Boys, throughout | preservedstrong |
| Body / ability | Superhuman speed.The Boys, throughout | preservedstrong |
| Personality | Takes a sadistic pleasure in using his power to hurt and humiliate people beneath him.the show gives him an arc built around addiction, guilt, and an attempt at redemption · The Boys, throughout | alteredstrong |
| Plot function | Accidentally kills Hughie's girlfriend Robin by running through her at superspeed.The Name of the Game, #1 | preservedstrong |
| Plot function | Is killed by Hughie, who kicks his head off in revenge.the show's A-Train survives Hughie's revenge entirely and is instead killed by Homelander in the final season, after mocking him · The Boys, throughout | alteredstrong |
| Moral code | Becomes dependent on repeated doses of Compound V to keep pace with younger speedsters, at increasing physical cost.The Boys, throughout | preservedpartial |
The Deep · Chace Crawford75
Identity and the shape of his disgrace and return carry over. His comparatively decent treatment of Starlight does not.
| Identity | Kevin Moskowitz, 'the Deep,' the Seven's aquatic-themed member.The Boys, throughout | preservedpartial |
| Body / ability | Enhanced strength and the ability to breathe underwater and communicate with sea life.The Boys, throughout | preservedpartial |
| Personality | One of the few members of the Seven who does not personally torment or exploit Starlight.the show's Deep coerces Starlight into a sex act in her very first scene with the team · The Boys, throughout | alteredstrong |
| Arc | Falls from the Seven's good graces after a public disgrace and schemes to claw his way back in.The Boys, throughout | preservedpartial |
Stormfront · Aya Cash40
Ideology and the deep Vought ties carry over. Gender, presentation, and team affiliation change.
| Identity | A founding-era supe with an outspoken white-nationalist ideology, tied to Vought's earliest Compound V testing.The Boys, throughout | preservedstrong |
| Identity | Male.the show recasts the character as female · The Boys, throughout | alteredstrong |
| Personality | Open and unsubtle about his racism, using slurs and cursing in German when provoked.the show's Stormfront hides her ideology behind a slick, social-media-savvy public persona · The Boys, throughout | alteredstrong |
| Relationships | A member of the historic Payback super-team rather than the Seven.the show has her join the Seven directly in Season 2 · The Boys, backstory issues | alteredpartial |
| Arc | Operated as a costumed operative going back decades, tied to Vought's earliest Compound V program.The Boys, backstory issues | preservedpartial |
Soldier Boy · Jensen Ackles25
The legacy hero name is the one attested trait that carries over. Power level, personality, and fate are all rewritten.
| Identity | Soldier Boy, a red-white-and-blue patriotic legacy hero name Vought has used since World War II.The Boys, backstory issues | preservedpartial |
| Personality | A cowardly pretender desperate to prove himself worthy of a spot on the Seven.the show's Soldier Boy is a World War II era veteran with substantial destructive power, arrogance, and PTSD rather than a coward seeking validation · The Boys, backstory issues | alteredstrong |
| Body / ability | Has no powers that rival Homelander's.the show gives him city-block-leveling explosive blasts and near-Homelander-tier strength · The Boys, backstory issues | alteredstrong |
| Plot function | Killed by Butcher after being exposed as a fraud.the show's Soldier Boy survives into later seasons, spends decades in Soviet captivity, and returns as a major antagonist rather than being quickly killed · The Boys, backstory issues | alteredstrong |
| Relationships | Has no attested biological connection to Homelander's creation.the show makes Soldier Boy the genetic source of Homelander's powers; since the comic is silent on any such link, this is an addition rather than an altered trait · The Boys, backstory issues | not depictedpartial |
Jack from Jupiter · does not appear0
Does not appear on screen in any form. Eric Kripke said in a September 2020 Reddit AMA that an alien member of the Seven felt too fantastic for a show whose public is told supes are born with their powers. Translucent, a screen-original character, occupies a comparable early death within the Seven.
| Identity | An alien-styled founding member of the Seven, a Martian Manhunter-style concept.The Boys, throughout | omittedstrong |
| Vocation / role | A minor, vapid celebrity-hero who turns a blind eye to the team's misconduct rather than acting maliciously himself.The Boys, throughout | omittedpartial |
| Plot function | Occupies a seat on the Seven for most of the series.The Boys, throughout | omittedstrong |
| Plot function | Killed by Butcher, who wrongly blames him for the death of Butcher's dog Terror.The Boys, later issues | omittedstrong |
Creator stance
Time-stamped. Co-creators are never collapsed.Garth Ennis
writer of the source comic
July 2019
Consulted, mixed
Said he took a hands-off approach after learning from his experience with Preacher not to worry too much, while the production kept him informed as it developed; praised the casting heavily, calling Karl Urban's Butcher 'terrific' and Homelander and Annie January 'precise translations that it's as if they simply stepped off a page.'
Given ahead of the show's July 2019 premiere, based on early rough cuts.
Darick Robertson
artist of the source comic; executive producer on the TV series
July 2022
Championed
Praised the show's costume and fashion choices for the cast — Hughie's soft-rock T-shirts, Butcher's Hawaiian shirts — saying the production 'really stepped it up' on character styling compared to the more subtle visual differentiation he used on the comic page.
Eric Kripke
developer and showrunner
2022 (to Rotten Tomatoes)
Participating adapter
Said the show 'mostly just muscled up' Starlight's story, explaining that she is a supporting character in the comic and the writers wanted her to be one of the leads because genuinely likable characters are rare in this world.
Eric Kripke
developer and showrunner
September 2020 (Reddit AMA)
Participating adapter
Explained that Jack from Jupiter was left out because the show is 'trying to make the show as grounded as possible' with the public told supes are simply born with their powers, and that an outright alien 'always felt too fantastic for the world' the show was building.
Eric Kripke
developer and showrunner
May 2026
Participating adapter
Said directly that he was never going to adapt the comic's ending, in which a late twist reveals Homelander 'didn't do any of the things that he thought he did' because the real culprit was his clone, Black Noir; said he wanted an ending that felt messy rather than one built on exonerating the character the audience had followed as the villain for years.
No other adaptation of this source is catalogued.
Sources
Every score note points here. Wikipedia is a lead, not an authority.- referenceThe Boys (comics) (Wikipedia)
Publication history, the nine-volume/72-issue structure with issue ranges, the three miniseries, and the WildStorm-to-Dynamite transition. - referenceThe Boys (TV series) (Wikipedia)
Premiere date, showrunner, studios, season/episode counts, and main cast. - referenceThe Boys season 5 (Wikipedia)
Season 5 premiere and finale dates, episode count, and the finale's plot resolution. - referenceList of The Boys characters (Wikipedia)
Stormfront's TV backstory (Klara Risinger, Liberty, joining the Seven in Season 2, her death), A-Train's TV arc and death, and Black Noir I/II cast credits. - referenceAnnie January (Wikipedia)
Starlight's comic backstory (Young Americans, religious upbringing) and Garth Ennis's account of reworking her within the comic's own run. - secondaryThe Boys ending explained: what happens to Butcher, Homelander, and everyone else (Popverse)
The comic's ending sequence: Black Noir killing Homelander, Butcher's rampage, and the Hughie/Butcher/Empire State Building climax. - secondaryThe Boys Ending Explained: What Changed From the Comics? (TheWrap)
Side-by-side comparison of the comic and show endings, including Kripke's stated reasoning for the changes. - primaryInterview: The Boys Comic Creator Garth Ennis (ScreenRant)
Garth Ennis's July 2019 stance on the adaptation, casting, and his own hands-off involvement. - primaryThe Boys: Darick Robertson Talks the Seven, Supes, and Shocking Scenes (CBR)
Darick Robertson's July 2022 comments on the show's costume and styling choices. - primaryInterview: Eric Kripke on Ending 'The Boys' at the Right Moment (Collider)
Kripke's May 2026 explanation of why the finale does not adapt the comic's Black Noir exoneration twist, and details of the show's actual finale. - secondaryThe Boys: 30 Major Differences Between The Comics & The Show (ScreenRant)
Compound V mechanics, Becca Butcher's fate in the comic versus the show, and Hughie's comic design reference. - secondary10 Biggest Differences Between The Boys Comic & Show (CBR)
Hughie's personality shift, Mother's Milk's and A-Train's comic-versus-show backstories, and Becca Butcher's fate. - secondary12 Ways 'The Boys' TV Series Differs from the Comics (Collider)
Queen Maeve's presence at the Flight 37 incident, Mother's Milk's inherited-powers origin, and Compound V's inheritability in the comic. - secondaryThe Boys Season 4: Biggest Changes From The Comics (SlashFilm)
Butcher's Temp-V-induced terminal illness and black-tendril power, and Victoria Neuman's and Tek-Knight's Season 4 fates. - secondaryAmazon's The Boys: Biggest Differences From The Comics (ScreenRant)
Hughie's nationality change, Susan Rayner's altered relationship with Butcher, Vought's expanded prominence, Ryan's survival, and the reassignment of Becca's assailant from Black Noir to Homelander. - secondaryThe Untold Truth of The Boys' Starlight (Looper)
Eric Kripke's quote about deliberately expanding Starlight's role, and Starlight's comic-versus-show origin details. - secondaryThe Boys Version Of Martian Manhunter Was Too Unbelievable For The Show (ScreenRant)
Eric Kripke's Reddit AMA explanation for omitting Jack from Jupiter. - secondary10 Major The Boys Comic Characters Who Never Appeared In The TV Show (ScreenRant)
Jack from Jupiter's comic identity, powers, personality, and death at Butcher's hands. - productionThe Beginning of the End: The Boys Releases Final Season (Amazon MGM Studios press release)
Season 5's premiere schedule and confirmation that it is the show's final season.
Record the-boys-comics-to-amazon · schema 0.2 · scoring 0.3-census · completeness census. Fidelity is not quality; the score is not a review.