The Boys season 2 finale spoilers follow – including its ending.
Phew. They weren’t lying when they said that girls get it done.
October 17 (Digital Spy) – The Boys‘ second season made great strides in expanding its female representation, giving Kimiko’s character arc the care and attention it always deserved and expanding Maeve’s impact on The Seven in a much more meaningful way.
Erin Moriarty recently told us that she doesn’t believe Amazon’s superhero show quite fits within the comic-book genre, instead living very much in its own space outside the confines of that box.
But it’s hard not to draw parallels, and the series itself does just that too.
Whether through overt plays on DC and Marvel characters (Deep, Aquaman wants his suit back), buckets of shade aimed at the Snyder cut or more subtle themes surrounding the pressures of maintaining a spandex-ready physique, it’s all there if you look closely enough.
The controversial and explosive season two finale also echoed a highly talked-about scene from Avengers: Endgame – only, yeah we’ll say it, The Boys did it better.
Having been rescued from the grip of Homelander and Stormfront, Ryan and his mother Becca were making their getaway. A very pissed-off Stormfront (who had finally been outed as a literal Nazi) came crashing down to stop it, demolishing the car and causing chaos for nearby Starlight, Hughie, Mother’s Milk, Kimiko and Frenchie.
As Butcher made off with Becca and Ryan to get them to safety, Stormfront was left to face the rest of the gang. In what became a refreshing switch on what we’re used to seeing, the men were relegated to the sidelines while Starlight and Kimiko drew on their powers to kick some baddie butt.
Before long, Maeve arrived and we were treated to a three-on-one scenario, with Starlight, Kimiko and Maeve all kicking the living daylights out of Stormfront. To say it was satisfying is, to put it mildly, a severe understatement.
While it might have reverted to a kicking – why not utilise those superpowers, ladies? We’d have given anything to see Kimiko ripping Stormfront’s face clean off – it turns out that the moment in question was a direct nod to frames from the graphic novel on which the series is based.
As you may already know, Stormfront, with the same backstory, was originally male in the comic strip. Scenes in the source material show the boys (along with the now-infamous Love Sausage) stomping and kicking him in anger.
This suggests that the Amazon series deliberately went all-in with the role changes, making sure that the female characters had their moment of power and catharsis.
Many have noted that this female-focused scene was reminiscent of a sequence in Avengers: Endgame, which famously saw a string of the MCU’s women, including Shuri, Pepper Potts and Valkyrie, standing in a line to help Captain Marvel as she flew with the Infinity Gauntlet.
The trouble was, they didn’t actually do very much of real consequence. As you might recall, there was a lot of fighting going on at that particular time (cheers, Thanos) but Endgame did little more than pan the camera across its female heroes to make a point that, yes, they were there too.
By comparison, Kimiko, Starlight and Maeve gave the show’s biggest villain a bloody and violent dressing down. And once they were done, they ran over to their men – who were watching safely from the sidelines – to check whether they were okay.
The Boys not only gave its girls their time to shine but, at the very end, they were the ones responsible for thwarting Stormfront and – at least for now – keeping Vought’s plan to release Compound V to the masses at bay.
Then we come full circle to Maeve. Having been exploited and beaten down by the patriarchy, heteronormativity and the corporate machine for the entirety of the show to date, she finally got her moment of empowerment and autonomy.
For it was Maeve (and the threat of that compromising video footage) that finally silenced Homelander, arguably a symbol of all of those aforementioned constructs that had been holding her to ransom for so long.
For a show that’s called The Boys, we love everything that it’s doing for female rep in the superhero space. Let’s hope it continues in season three.
The Boys season two is now available to watch in full on Amazon Prime Video.
