10 Reasons Why The Boys Was Better As A TV Series
Amazon haven’t Butchered the source material - somehow they’ve made it even better.
"Why have average when you can have extraordinary?"
The Boys has finally hit the big time thanks to Amazon Studios and so far the consensus is very good, becoming one of the most watched shows on Amazon Prime in just over two weeks.
In a world where super-hero media is bordering on suffocating these days, it's quite refreshing to have a show that's not afraid to show that maybe having super-heroes in the real world would be a terrible, terrible idea. Instead of incorruptible paragons of justice, the super-heroes of The Boys are image-obsessed, spoilt celebrities with lamentable behaviour including exploding innocent civilians while on a bender, acts of bestiality and actual war-crimes, which is where our team of lovable(?) rouges comes in.
Based on the 2006-2012 comic series by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, the comic is somehow even more extreme than the show, with several key plot points being toned down or removed entirely.
While some removals are truly diabolical (Terror will always be the best boy in all fans' hearts), most of the changes to the source material benefit the show, and in some cases actually improve on the source material.
10. The Lack Of Compound V Keeps You On Your Toes
When fighting superheroes, it's best to fight fire with fire, but what happens when you don't have any fire? Well, then you fight fire with water, which leaves you with a nice doused solution to your problem, rather than everything around you being on fire.
Tired metaphors aside, the availability of Compound V, the powerful steroid used to give Supes their powers, is one of the bigger deviations of the series from the source material.
Compound V in the comics was much more widespread, with the chemical being used by The Boys in order to stand toe to toe with the Seven without being folded in half like a map. This lead to some hugely violent battles, with regular humans exploding into red mist left and right. The super serum is far less prevalent in the show, only being used by Vought International to create their own super-heroes to market to the masses, and as a steroid to increase a Supe's existing powers.
However, the lack of the Compound forces the show Boys to be a bit more inventive with their fights, knowing they can't handle a Supe one on one, amping up the tension and bringing a real sense of danger to proceedings.