The Boys premiered in 2019 on Amazon Prime and it made a huge impression on fans and newbies alike. Based on the comic by writer Garth Ennis and artist Darick Robertson, the show utilized the pair's madcap stylings, mixing the violence, humor, and pathos in equal measure. It also proved it had no problem changing things from the source material, tweaking things to make the show work better.

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The Boys has proven that a comic TV show can be faithful to the original work, even with changes to the material, by keeping the same spirit and not being afraid to spill a little blood. It's probably one of the best comic-based TV shows ever. But is it the very best?

10 The Special Effects

Starlight using her powers on The Boys

A superhero show is going to need to look good and The Boys looks great. Every episode isn't a special effects bonanza, like an MCU film, but when the episodes call for it, the special effects never disappoint. Things like Homelander's eye beams, Stormfront's lightning, the way A-Train will zoom in and out of the frame, and capturing the devastating consequences of a battle between two super strong heroes all look great and, most important, real.

In this day and age of amazing big-screen special effects, The Boys has a lot to live up to and it consistently does in every episode.

9 The Costumes

Stormfront, Starlight, and Queen Maeve on the set of the latest Seven movie in The Boys Season 2

The superhero costumes in The Boys serve two purposes-- first off, they have to look realistic, like something a corporation would put on its focus-grouped superheroes. Secondly, they have to give subtle nods to the heroes the characters are based on, the similar iconography letting readers know who these characters are based on. They do a great job in that regard.

The costumes for the Boys are pretty great, too, with each one having an item or type of clothing they always wear, almost like they have their own costumes as well.

8 Updating, Not Changing

The Boys Episode 7

The Boys comic was originally written at the height of the Bush Administration and the world was a different place. Ennis captured the tenor of the time very well in the book but some of those things just wouldn't work as well in today's political and social climate. So, the writers of the show had to do a lot of tweaking and changing, sprucing things up and making them contemporary.

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However, at no point did they lose sight of what made the original comic so good, and all of their changes felt more like updates than anything else, which is the best way to do an adaptation. It's still familiar to old fans but new enough to surprise them and not turn off newer fans.

7 The Show's Politics

Victoria Neuman

The Boys never shies from wearing its politics on its sleeve, regardless of what audience reaction is going to be. The show has done a great job of hitting on issues that are rather hot buttons, from corporate overreach and the power corporations have compared to government to the way someone like Stormfront uses the Internet and her faux-populism to influence public opinion and move things in a more racist direction. Both seasons have hit on things that play on what's happening in the real world.

Not only does this stay true to the comic but it also makes a statement about the world the viewer lives in, which is always a good thing for a TV show.

6 The Acting

Hughie and Starlight in The Boys Season 2

Acting is important to any TV show and luckily, The Boys kills it on the acting front. Each actor inhabits their character, doing a wonderful job with each scene they are in, whether it be Erin Moriarty's Starlight growing more disillusioned with the Seven and her relationship with Hughie and the Boys, Dominique McElligot's Queen Maeve and her crisis of confidence, Karen Fujikawa capturing all the emotion and nuance of Kimiko even though she's mute, Jack Quaid's Hughie and his optimism and goodness, and just so much more.

The actors inhabit the characters, presenting all of their foibles for the audience to love... or hate. The acting was top notch from everyone, especially, Anthony Starr, Karl Urban, and Aja Cash.

5 Homelander

Homelander and Ryan Butcher

Homelander really came into his own in this season. The first season presented a man who had never been told no because he was one of the most powerful beings on the planet. He was adored by the public but held them all in contempt because he had no idea how to deal with that sort of thing due to his upbringing. His only experience of love was Madelyn Stillwell using it to manipulate him.

This season saw him take a role in his son's life, trying to give the young boy something he himself never had-- a father. It saw love used against him again, with Stormfront trying to co-opt him into her quest. Homelander knows what's wrong with him. He knows what he is and the scary thing is the last shot of the season saw him truly embracing it. Homelander is one of the best villains on TV right now.

4 Billy Butcher

Billy Butcher

Fans got to see another side of Butcher, as he was finally reunited with Becca... and then lost her again. On the whole, though, Butcher was a softer man than he was in the first season... although soft is a relative term with him. Karl Urban stole every scene he was in, his emotive acting really nailing who Butcher is and how he felt about the world.

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Fans got to see him in nice, quiet moments and react to things that they didn't in season one and it made a better, more rounded character. Without getting too spoiler-y, something happens in the last episode that would have sent the Butcher of season one into a murderous rage, but the Butcher of season two is able to see that it was no one's fault and control his rage. It's a wonderful scene, beautifully acted by Urban, and shows just how much the character has grown.

3 Stormfront

Stormfront from The Boys

Stormfront is the dark heart of this season and Aja Cash plays her to a tee. When fans first see her, she seems like just another woke feminist caricature, an Internet-savvy young superhero who seems like the others- out to expand her brand and make a name for herself. While all of these things are true, she has a sinister secret that blows everything wide open and lets viewers see the true nature of Vought and the actual point of Compound V and its dark origin.

Stormfront plays on a lot of contemporary issues and is a straight-up brilliant character. The way the season slowly reveals who she is amazing and makes for wonderfully gripping watching.

2 The Rest Of The Characters

the boys butcher hughie starlight

While those three characters get the most shine, The Boys doesn't skimp out with the rest of the cast either, giving each of them a place to shine. All of the main characters get some fleshing out, little snippets of backstory that make them more well rounded and get some kind of character moment, some meat for the actors to chew on.

No show can survive without great characters and The Boys is full of them, giving the show the strong backbone it needs to thrive. The characters feel real, which is an achievement for a show like this, one that features superpowered heroes and the humans who hate them.

1 The Writing

The-Boys-Season-2-Blood-Header

Everything would be for naught in The Boys if the writing wasn't up to snuff. The show's writers strike a delicate balancing act, mixing over the top violence, black humor, deft plots, and character work. The Boys can be a big dumb superhero show but it also can be a nuanced look at humans and how they deal with trauma, while also skewering real-world events. And it can do all of those things in the same episode.

That's a big deal and it's done adroitly. Every Friday, The Boys dropped an hour-long banger of an episode leaving fans salivating with anticipation for the next episode. That's no easy feat in today's world.

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