The Boys: The One Superhero Team Even Butcher Wouldn’t Kill

Warning! Spoilers for The Boys comic and television series below!

There are few things Billy Butcher enjoys more than smashing in the heads of Supes in The Boys comic book series. However, there was one team that even Butcher couldn’t bring himself to kill, as Super Duper, a wholesome squad of teen heroes that was so innocent, the violent Supe killer surprisingly let them live on.

Super Duper was first introduced in The Boys #41, as a team filled with teenagers who, unlike a majority of Supes in the comic’s universe, actually wanted to do good. The group features a likable, yet a somewhat incompetent group of heroes including Auntie Sis, Black Hole, Bobby Badoing, Kid Kamo, Klanker, Stool Shadow, and Ladyfold. The group has an odd assortment of powers with Klanker becoming a literal Iron man, Black Hole being able to eat anything, and Bobby Badoing being a human bouncy ball. While the team is sponsored by Vought-American, they are very low priority, while often participating in harmless missions with low stakes.

In The Boys #41 by Garth Ennis, Darick Robertson, Simon Bowland, and Tony Avina, the Supe known as Malchemical (who is a shapeshifter) is demoted from his own team to Super Duper. This coincides with Hughie joining Super Duper, as he goes undercover to find out more about Vought. As Hughie grows closer with the team, Malchemical attacks the team and nearly kills him. This leads Butcher to light him on fire when he was transforming, burning him alive. After Klanker (who has Tourettes) swears at Butcher, he’s about to kill them but after Hughie begs him not to, he decides to leave them be.

In the comic, Butcher’s relationship with Hughie is what ultimately stops him from killing Super Duper. Given his penchant for brutally murdering every superhero he’s come across, Butcher leaving Super Duper alone shows how much (at the time) he cared for Hughie. Even Super Duper is surprised to survive the encounter, as a member says, “well, let’s just say we were very, very lucky.”

In a comic book series that’s so violent, Butcher opting to spare Super Duper was a nice change of pace for the oft-deadly character. Hughie developed a friendship with the superteam and didn’t want them to be killed since they were doing nothing wrong. Getting Butcher to agree shows how far he’s come in trusting Hughie, as he would have murdered them without hesitation at the start of the comic. Super Duper’s stay in the comics was short-lived, but they showed that not all Supes are ultimately bad. It would be cool to see how Butcher would handle the team in The Boys TV series and whether he’d spare them in the same way he did in the comics.

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Liam McGuire
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Lead writer for Screen Rant’s comic team. [email protected]. Find me on Twitter @LiamRMcGuire for comic news and reporting.

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