This Is What The Boys Fans Prefer To See In The Show Over The Comics
Whenever a book or comic book is adapted for television or film, there are bound to be changes to the original story, whether that is eliminating characters or storylines from the narrative for time, or altering them to better fit a story that must play out onscreen rather than on the page. These inevitable changes mean there are bound to be fans who prefer the source material over the show, and vice versa. When it comes to Amazon Prime's popular anti-superhero show The Boys, which is based on the comic by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson and stars Antony Starr, Karl Urban, and Jack Quaid, among others, those opinions can run quite deep and get a little complicated.
A recent poll on Reddit asked fans if they would prefer the show, which is violent and full of great action, to become more like the comics in its upcoming third season — specifically referencing how the group functions more as a sort of "CIA black ops" unit on the printed page.
With Billy Butcher (Urban) being offered the opportunity to join Grace Mallory's (Laila Robins) taskforce to monitor Supes at the end of season 2, it seems like the show might be putting the character on a path that would eventually find him taking on a role similar to the one he played in the comics. But it seems that fans might not like for the show to follow the comics too much, in this regard.
The Boys fans prefer the show over the comics
Of the 289 people who voted in the fan poll on Reddit, 78 percent (226 votes) said they would prefer the show to continue on the same road it has been, with the Boys being scrappier and without access to all the resources the characters had on the page. But Reddit user dongma8 said they would actually prefer the show to move into something closer to the CIA storyline. "I think I'd rather see them portrayed more like the comics as they will have more resources and cooler gadgets/weapons," they wrote, going on to mention that this could potentially open up opportunities for more cool action scenes.
However, some users, like u/Feenster5, love both the comics and the show but admit that the show does more with less. "The characters have more depth. And the comic is definitely more edgy for the sake of edginess. Homelander in the comics is also a shell of a character that he is on The Boys. So is basically everyone on the 7 in the comics," they wrote. This doesn't say as much about the Boys as it does the Supes, but it speaks to the overall quality of the storytelling of the show versus the comics.
Given everything that went down at the end of The Boys season 2, including the fact the Boys are now free and no longer living in hiding, we know there are going to be changes to the show in season 3. However, at this point, it seems we'll have to wait to see exactly how those changes will affect our favorite characters and the narrative arcs they're currently on.