The Boys: A Major Comic Hero Got A Gross Cameo In The Show

A Russian superhero with a unique endowment featured strongly in The Boys comic got a quick – but gross – cameo on the Amazon adaptation. The Boys has an averse relationship to subtlety and tends to be in favor of the graphic rather than implied school of artistic depiction, and this hero’s debut in both the show and comic was no exception. The comic, by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, spent more time developing the fan-favorite character the Love Sausage who bonded with Hughie and saved The Boys several times.

In The Boys #11, the gang of antiheroes travel to Russia to spy on and thwart a suspected coup by supervillains, organized by a Russian crime boss. Billy Butcher, the leader of the leather-clad superhero killers, meets with the former superhero that goes by the codename Love Sausage. The burly, vodka-swilling Russian stereotype would play a large role in protecting The Boys from being killed by super-powered villains in future issues.

Related: The Boys Theory: Who Killed Raynor (& Why It Wasn’t Who You Think)

Vasilii “Vas” Vorishikin gives The Boys a boozy operation base while they spy on the operations of a mob boss, and provides them with food as well as exposition. The character helps spy and lay the preparations, but the mission is pretty quickly compromised. Before the failed operation, Vas explains his superhero origins in the former Soviet Union on a team called “The Glorious Five Year Plan.” Not only equipped with super strength Vas has an… appendage that is also incredibly long, durable and strong. In the TV show a member of The Boys, Mother’s Milk, notices a large, bearded Russian man is being held captive and there is a presumptuous outline in the man’s grey sweatpants. Mother’s Milk says “goddamn, brother’s got a love sausage” in a nod to the comic book character. Forgoing understatement, M.M. is later strangled by the tentacle-like prehensile penis in quite possibly the grossest super power ever shown.

Vas has greater import in the comics, as well as even more groin-flattering closeups. Vas bonds with Hughie and even saves him from eating poisoned borscht. Vas also helps The Boys kill a few mob henchmen and thwart a supervillain coup. Vas dons his (now ill-fitting) superhero uniform and Hughie learns how Vas gained his eponym after witnessing his prodigious… girth. Superhero costumes rarely leave anything to the imagination, though typically artists used the costumes to objectify and accentuate the figures of female heroes. The Boys flips that dynamic by making a male superhero grossly underlined by his prominent member.

The Boys leave Russia but Vas shows up a couple more times throughout the series. He arrives just in time to save The Boys from being killed by the overpowered Nazi supe Stormfront. Vas was called in as backup to pummel Stormfront and prevent the villain from killing any of the crew. With the addition of Vas, the scene is a nod to Russia aiding the Allied powers that defeated Nazi Germany since the members of The Boys hail from the U.S., England and France. He arrives just in time to bloody his boots with Nazi brains and later tells The Boys he despises corporate-backed superheroes.

But Vas is still a supe, and therefore vilified by Butcher, who has no sympathy for heroes. Butcher hunts down and mortally wounds Vas by shooting him with a rocket launcher and it takes three RPGs to down one of the most endearing superheroes in the series. He serves as an example of Butcher’s failure to empathize with even “good” heroes in his quest to eliminate every hero, good or bad. While the show just gives the Love Sausage a one-off in an episode, Vas served an important piece to the overall story of The Boys and was beloved by fans.

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