The Untold Truth Of Stormfront From The Boys
Contains major spoilers for The Boys season 2
Social-media-savvy Stormfront (Aya Cash) came into The Boys with a brash attitude and huge online following in all her 5'2” glory. Unfortunately, as we soon learn and as comics fans might have guessed, she's just as bad as (if not worse than) the show's resident psychopath, Homelander (Antony Starr).
Over the course of The Boys season 2, Stormfront joins the Seven, kills Kimiko's (Karen Fukuhara) brother, and incites racially charged violence. She originally clashes with Homelander, but bridges their gap by helping him strengthen his public image. From there, they develop a unique relationship that involves disturbing sex scenes, manipulation of Homelander's son Ryan (Cameron Crovetti), "patriotic" racist rallies, and weaponized memes. However, in the end, even Stormfront's carefully crafted image can't protect her when the Boys out her as a Nazi.
At first glance, Stormfront was a cool, edgy feminist that was going to shake up superhero company Vought International. By the end, she was a bigoted Nazi bent on creating a Supe army to continue Hitler's legacy. So, what exactly was Stormfront hiding from everyone? Here's the untold truth of Stormfront from The Boys.
Stormfront's name is Klara Risinger
We rarely (if ever) see the Seven out of their costumes and almost never hear their real names used, but Entertainment Weekly's October 2020 cover on The Boys season 2 revealed new information about Stormfront: Her name is Klara Risinger. It's a very German name, which makes total sense since Stormfront was actually born in Berlin in 1919, pre-World War II. She may not look it, but she's over a hundred years old.
In season 2, Stormfront reveals to Homelander that she was married to Frederick Vought, who developed the very first batches of Compound V, the chemical that gives superheroes their powers on The Boys. He gave her the first successful injection, and she became the world's very first super-powered human.
In Germany, Vought and Stormfront were apparently deeply involved in the Nazi party, as they used to attend social functions with its high-ranking members. Later, they had a daughter named Chloe, who grew old and died while Stormfront stayed young. It's unclear if Stormfront changed her name when she married, or what name she might go by now, as she's changed her identity at least once since coming to America.
Stormfront and Vought's move to America was inspired by the very real Operation Paperclip
In fiction and in real life, wartime breeds technological advances. According to writer Annie Jacobsen, author of the book Operation Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program That Brought Nazi Scientists to America, after World War II, the United States and Soviet Union competed over Nazi scientists that had been developing advanced weapons for Germany (via NPR). The U.S. government pardoned many and brought them into the country to work, obfuscating their dubious pasts in the process. One of the most infamous of these scientists was NASA's Wernher von Braun, who was crucial to the rocket designs of the Apollo missions. The public didn't learn about his Nazi past until far later (the space race had a lot of shady stuff going on).
According to EW, The Boys' Frederick Vought is inspired by von Braun. Just as the Apollo missions were revolutionary in the real history of the United States, Compound V changed everything in The Boys' past. However, on the show, the public originally didn't know about Compound V for a very long time, so we can only guess what Frederick Vought's public image was, if he had any. All we know is that he has some autobiography that doesn't tell his real story, and his name lives on with the massive superhero-slash-pharmaceutical company Vought International.
Klara Risinger's pre-Stormfront Supe persona
Early on in season 2, the Boys get a tip to look into the second-tier Supe named Liberty. She was fighting crime in the 1970s, but apparently disappeared by the end of the decade. In search of answers, Hughie (Jack Quaid), Mother's Milk (Laz Alonso), and Starlight (Erin Moriarty) go to North Carolina. After interviewing a woman who had seen Liberty kill her brother in a brutal hate crime, they find out that Stormfront and Liberty are actually the same person.
Vought paid the family $2,000 to keep quiet about the murder. At some point, they must have retired Klara's Liberty persona, probably to keep people from realizing she wasn't growing old. Then, some years later, they rebranded her as Stormfront. While we don't know much about this history, that might change in season 3.
The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke told EW that the next season will dive into Vought International's past, America's history, and the secondary superhero team Payback. We know this is how the much awaited Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) is coming into the story, but based on everything we know about Stormfront, it could include her as well. In the comics, Stormfront and Soldier Boy were both members of Payback.
Stormfront was a man in the comics, but faces a similar ending
The Boys, based on writer Garth Ennis' comic books of the same name, has kept the iconic bloody gruesomeness and explicit content of its source material, but it's made a few changes. One recurring alteration is the gender-swapping of characters — with a title like "The Boys," it's clear that the comics were dominated by male characters. Originally, Stormfront was a man.
Stormfront was a spoof of Marvel's Thor, as he used lightning powers and told the public he was a Viking god, but he played a relatively small role in the books. As part of the supergroup Payback, Vought charged him and his team with capturing the Boys. When he ambushed the Female (Kimiko on the show) and brutally injured her, she managed to take out his eye in the process. Later, Billy, Hughie, Mother's Milk, and Frenchie beat and kick Stormfront to death.
Does that sound familiar? Despite all their differences, TV- and comic-Stormfront share similarities in their beginnings and ends. Both were Nazis and the world's first Supes. Plus, their final battles play out similarly. At the end of season 2, a furious and formidable Stormfront faces off against the Boys. Despite being one against five, she's winning the battle until Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott) shows up out of nowhere. Like a gritty, grown-up version of the Powerpuff Girls, Starlight, Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara), and Maeve proceed to beat Stormfront to the ground in a scene visually similar to comic-Stormfront's death. But TV-Stormfront, bruised and bloody, manages to get away.
She follows Billy Butcher (Karl Urban), Becca (Shantel VanSanten), and Ryan into the woods. It turns out to be a huge mistake, though, as Becca takes advantage of a weakness and gouges her eye out, much like it happened in the comics. Then, Ryan very nearly kills Stormfront with his laser eyes. She's left lying on the forest floor looking like Anakin Skywalker at the end of Revenge of the Sith. As the season ends, she hasn't died, but she's definitely not in good shape.
While much of their stories are different, there's still one thing we're wondering if the show will bring over from the comics: Stormfront's connection to Homelander's origins.
In the comics, Homelander is made with Stormfront's DNA
Stormfront and Homelander's relationship was central to season 2. At first, she seemed to be threatening his standing as the most popular and powerful Supe, while she both flirted with him and goaded him. But instead, they decided to become a team.
In the comics, the two Supes don't work together and they're linked in a wholly different way: Homelander was created in a lab, with Stormfront's DNA, to make him the most powerful Supe on the planet. Now, we can't entirely rule out that TV-Homelander was made this way, but it would certainly make aspects of their relationship even more uncomfortable. However, it does seem like the show traded this literal DNA relationship for a more figurative one.
TV-Stormfront has some sort of "motherly" feelings toward Homelander, considering she and her husband Vought are essentially the parents of the superhero revolution. Stormfront talked to Homelander like a proud parent when she said to him, "You are everything that we dreamed of. So, I love you with all of my heart. How could I not?" Well, it's certainly in Homelander's character to go for that sort of dynamic.
Throughout The Boys season 2, Stormfront hid a lot of information from the public and her peers. Unfortunately for her, but fortunately for the Boys, it didn't end so well. Now, we're just left wondering if that really was the last we'll see of her, or if she'll make a comeback in season 3.