Things You Never Noticed In The First Episode Of The Boys
Amazon Prime's The Boys has now taken us through two seasons of superheroes behaving badly in an interesting take on what a world filled with supes would actually look like. It's a reality where superheroes are used to build profits and political power and where those heroes have the same personality traits as regular humans. They're not all righteous defenders of mankind — power goes to their heads, they get angry and go out of control, they have wants and needs just like everyone else, and it causes problems.
The action in the show is often comical and gruesome. The drama has transformed the characters, but they had to start somewhere. In the TV world, that "somewhere" is usually in the pilot. The Boys' first episode, "The Name of the Game," introduces us to the world of supes and the normal people who fight against them, while building the world and setting the stage for the remainder of the series. We're going to assume you've at least seen the pilot episode, but you probably didn't catch everything when you did. Here are a few details you likely missed in the first episode of The Boys.
Stillwell's G-Men reference
The G-Men were only mentioned once in a brief moment during the pilot episode, but it's definitely worth looking into. The scene takes place after Starlight is offered a position within the Seven. Madelyn Stillwell, played by the talented Elisabeth Shue, is up on stage to announce the induction of Vought's newest hero, but not before plugging some hype for VoughtStudios' upcoming film, G-Men: World War.
G-Men, as the name suggests, is a spoof of Marvel's mutant superhero team X-Men. The mention might just sound like another small detail used to make The Boys reality feel more real, but it's actually a callback to the original comics. The team is yet another one of Vought's creations and, according to ComicVine, was just about as popular as the Seven in their day, which has long since passed. They do still show up periodically in the comics, and the mention of the G-Men by Stillwell could possibly set up the team for an appearance in the future. Don't get too excited, though — there hasn't been any discussion that we know of when it comes to including them in future seasons.
Robin may be a Batman Easter egg
Robin is likely the most unlucky character in Amazon Prime's The Boys. She doesn't even make it past the first few minutes of the first episode before being turned into a bloody splatter when A-Train speeds straight through her. Of course, the show needed this to happen so it could set up the way we view the supes and get Hughie started down his anti-Vaught path with the Boys. Robin may not have done much in life, but her name could very well be a nod to Batman's trusty sidekick.
It's not only the first name that points to the crime-fighting duo. Robin's full name on The Boys is Robin Ward. The actor who played Robin/Dick Grayson on the '60s Batman TV show was Burt Ward. Ward's performance as Robin was so iconic that he's continued to make cameos in DC productions, the most recent being the CW's Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover event. In short, naming a character in a superhero story Robin Ward seems like a pretty clear nod to Burt Ward's work.
Hughie's dad looks exactly like Hughie from the comics
You wouldn't have noticed this little detail if you're not familiar with The Boys comics. When Hughie returns home after his girlfriend is killed in A-Train's hit and run, we meet his father, Hugh Campbell. Hugh is played by British actor Simon Pegg, and it was no accident that he made it onto the show. Pegg looks suspiciously like the Hughie from The Boys comics, mostly because Pegg is the Hughie in the comic books.
The comic book character doesn't just share a likeness with Pegg — his whole look is based on Pegg's likeness. The Boys artist Darick Robertson has openly admitted that he based the character on Pegg after seeing his performances in Spaced and Shaun of the Dead. Of course, by the time the Amazon Prime series was put in motion, Pegg was too old to play Hughie, since the character is supposed to be in his early 20s. Still, that didn't stop him from appearing on the show as the older Hugh Campbell. After all, fans wouldn't have been happy if they left him out completely.