WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for the first four episodes of The Boys Season 2, available now on Amazon Prime Video as well as the The Boys comic, by writer Garth Ennis and artist Darick Robertson.
One of the greatest achievements The Boys makes as an adaptation is its ability to stay so true to the spirit and character of its source material while feeling completely free to innovate, update, and deviate from it for the betterment of the story. While many moments from the comics remain preserved in the TV show, there remains lingering questions about the direction of the show's plot and just how similar its ending may be to its source. Chiefly, fans are already burning with curiosity over whether the show will utilize the central twist involving Black Noir. But even if the twist worked for the comics it definitely would be a mistake in the show.
Much as in the show, the comic puts at its centerpiece Billy Butcher's mission of vengeance against the super powered member of the Seven, Homelander, for what the star-spangled Supe did to Butcher's wife, Becca. Homelander commits various other atrocities alongside the Seven and essentially serves as their figurehead, so much of Butcher and the Boys' focus goes toward exposing him and bringing him down. Except the shocking twist in the comic's climax comes when Black Noir unmasks himself, revealing that he is a clone of Homelander who framed the original for many of the atrocities of which he was accused.
While Black Noir remained as mysterious and silent through much of the comic as he has thus far in the show, it was all to conceal that the government crafted him as a contingency option were they to ever lose control of Homelander. They created Black Noir to be more powerful than Homelander himself, but the plan went awry when years of patiently waiting to fulfill the purpose he was created for drove Black Noir to insanity. The comics' finale pits the two in combat before Butcher and the U.S. military clean up by finally putting Black Noir down.
It certainly comes as a cunning twist in the comics, but in the context of the Amazon series it would only serve to undermine much of what the show builds toward. An overarching difference between the adaptation and the original is that the show is not quite so garish or heavy-handed in the depths that it sinks to or the places it explores. The TV series opts for nuance over hyperbole, and the result of that is characters far less villainous and far more human. As awful as the Seven members like Homelander, A-Train, and the Deep undoubtedly are, the show still humanizes them by exploring the motivations behind their actions.
Even with how little is known about Black Noir thus far the show has gone to extensive efforts to humanize him as well, in the latest season alone giving him vulnerable moments like offering a toy to a traumatized child or weeping after hearing the news of Compound V's origins. Sharing powers with Homelander would certainly explain why Black Noir survived a point blank explosion in Season 2's debut episode, but turning him into an even more twisted and psychotic version of Homelander would undermine anything endearing, relatable, or human about him.
As is, there's something softly comical about Black Noir's presence and determined silence, just as surely as Butcher's personal grudge against Homelander brings a passionate purpose to the show's plot. The comics' Black Noir twist would undermine both and cheapen much of what's been so great about the show overall. The Amazon series has thus far succeeded in using its source material as a jumping off point rather than feeling tethered to it, and this would be a major step backward for the series' progress. Instead, there could well be a whole new twist -- one which can surprise new viewers and comic fans alike. The hope is that such a twist could be perfectly tailored to the series it serves.
Amazon Studios' The Boys stars Karl Urban as Billy Butcher, Jack Quaid as Hughie, Laz Alonso as Mother's Milk, Tomer Kapon as Frenchie, Karen Fukuhara as the Female, Erin Moriarty as Annie January, Chace Crawford as the Deep, Antony Starr as Homelander, Aya Cash as Stormfront and Simon Pegg as Hughie's dad. New episodes of Season 2 release Fridays on Amazon Prime Video.