The Black Noir Weakness Theory That Could Make Him More Dangerous On The Boys
There was a moment in The Boys season 2 that changed everything fans thought they knew about Black Noir (Nathan Mitchell), seemingly altering his entire backstory from the comic book source material. However, there's a theory that integrates what we know of Black Noir from the comics with what we know of him from the TV series that could prop him up as a serious threat moving forward — and it all hinges on his nut allergy.
In the show so far, Black Noir has been a deadly martial artist with super strength and agility who dutifully follows the superhero company Vought's orders. He's shown moments of a softer side, like when he didn't kill a child, or when he cried upon learning that he was not born with superpowers. By the end of the season, though, Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott) subdues him by shoving an Almond Joy in his mouth, sending him into anaphylactic shock. Kind of a weak sauce Kryptonite for a badass Supe, eh? Maybe not.
Screen Rant posited a theory that this allergy was actually given to him on purpose by Vought.
The allergy could be a failsafe to control an incredibly powerful Supe
In the comics, it's revealed that Vought created Black Noir as a clone of Homelander, specifically so he could take out the Supe in case the need arose. However, since we get a glimpse of Black Noir's face in the Amazon series, we know he isn't identical to Homelander (Antony Starr) like he is in the comics. Despite this, there's still the possibility that Vought created him for the same purpose they did in the comics. Comics-Homelander was made from Stormfront's DNA, but they don't look the same, so it could be a similar case with Black Noir. If that is true, the nut allergy, which was actually inspired by Mitchell's own allergy, could be a programmed weakness.
It's a bit of a plot hole in the comics that Black Noir was created as this incredibly powerful failsafe for Homelander, but there was no failsafe for if Noir himself went off the rails (which he does). So theoretically, in the series, Vought could have purposefully given him a weakness in the form of an allergy in case they needed to take him out, too. With Homelander set to explode next season, someone needs to take him out, so maybe Black Noir is still that person.
Well, as long as he recovers from his hospital stay, which showrunner Eric Kripke has teased that he will. In any case, it's clear that intentional weakness or not, Black Noir is simply a Mounds person, not an Almond Joy person.