Season 3 of The Boys will see the show takes its clearest aim at the Marvel Cinematic Universe yet, and this satirical approach means the gory series is actually less likely to kill off of its main cast than before. Debuting in 2019, The Boys is the gory, twisted brainchild of Preacher creator Garth Ennis.
Intended to be a dark satire of superhero media, The Boys could not be further from the good-natured spoofing of Thunder Force. The unsparing, barbed black comedy series sees the titular group of vigilantes attempt to enact violent vengeance on “the Seven,” a group of amoral superheroes who use their powers and public approval to mask their horrific crimes and callous corruption.
In its first two seasons, the Amazon Prime series did not shy away from satirizing contemporary politics through the lens of its “supes” and the eponymous group trying to take them down. Season 2 villain Stormfront was a neo-Nazi with good publicity who served as a scathing condemnation of the changing face of fascism in the social media era, while The Boys mocked Tom Cruise and Scientology with its subplot about The Deep and his newfound “faith" in the same season. However, despite being a satirical series centered on the exploits of superheroes, The Boys has not focused its ire on the Marvel Cinematic Universe in a sustained, specific way... yet. This looks set to change with the third season, which will mock specific MCU figures like Captain America, and taking on the huge media franchise will mean that The Boys needs to change its approach to death, ironically becoming less violent to make a typically dark point.
In its first two seasons, The Boys has made a name for itself as one of television’s goriest, most boundary-pushing offerings. However, as Season 3 looks set to mock the MCU more pointedly through characters like Soldier Boy who has an MCU counterpart in Captain America, it stands to reason that The Boys will now need to mock the idea that heroes have to be killed off at the end of their arcs (like in Avengers: Endgame), and that death is somehow a uniquely redemptive, meaningful moment. In The Boys, death tends to be a gruesome, utterly empty fact of life — evidenced as early as the sickening death of Hughie’s girlfriend A-Train in season one.
In contrast, the MCU tends to use the death of its characters as a major, meaningful moment that can signify their redemption and a willingness to die for a cause, or even just provoke a reaction of tragic shock in the audience. As a result, having every main character live (while countless unfortunate civilian bystanders are still killed off constantly) just to prove that emotional pathos is not something that requires death is exactly the sort of subversive move that The Boys has repeatedly proven itself adept at. Stripping death of the emotional impact it has in the MCU would allow The Boys to stay as cynical and gory as ever while also satirizing the idea that even death could provide redemption for its most amoral, vicious characters.