WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for The Boys Season 2, Episode 5, "We Gotta Go Now," available now on Amazon Prime Video.
Subtlety isn't exactly in the repertoire of a show like The Boys, and in its irreverent path of destruction through the superhero genre, it's only natural that the series targets the biggest names in the business. With some of its biggest characters serving as straightforward pastiches of DC's catalog and their latest season heavily featuring a plotline about a movie titled "Dawn of the Seven," there has been no question about the show parodying the DC Extended Universe, but the latest episode makes it clear that the Marvel Cinematic Universe is just as ripe for the picking.
The parallels between The Seven and the Justice League are blatantly obvious. Everything from the powers to the costume of Homelander, Queen Maeve and the Deep are clear sendups to Superman, Wonder Woman and Aquaman, respectively. Black Noir fills the Batman role, while A-Train takes Flash's, and with the team's movie, "Dawn of the Seven," mimicking the format of the DCEU's (intended) launchpad feature, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, none of this parallels really fly under the radar.
The shakeups on the set filming the fake movie even mimic those of real life, with Justice League's infamously troubled production transferring over to the Amazon series. Queen Maeve's bisexuality gets wedged into the script alongside A-Train's departure from the team, both of which were mandated by Homelander for his own personal reasons regardless of how well they fit into the film. To bring a fine point to things, one character even drops a mention of the movie's "Joss rewrite," which is a clear shoutout to Joss Whedon's controversial involvement with Justice League.
But Joss Whedon's reputation stretches beyond just the set of the DCEU film, and he only came to the production years after making history with 2012's The Avengers. The MCU proves to be no less of a target for The Boys, although the way the show takes aim at is not immediately apparent. The MCU's radical proliferation of superhero media, branding and celebrity status is a far more apt fit for the world of The Boys, where the Seven are treated as sponsors, idols and action figures with carefully cultivated public images and personal lives. Where the show proves particularly critical is in its side-eyed way the commercialized politics put on by its production.
In particular is the "Girls Get It Done" slogan that the show keeps pushing, wheeling its way into "Dawn of the Seven" with a cheesy "girl power" moment that sees the female members of the team fight side by side in a way that clearly calls out the same sort of moment in Avengers: Endgame. The MCU film's final battle featured a similar sequence of credibility-straining female empowerment where the action seemed to contrive itself for the benefit of allowing over a half dozen women to fight through the spotlight. The moment came under derision following the film's release, and now, draws needling from the Amazon series.
With its superhero team so intrinsically tied up with the corporation that controls it, Vought International, the parallels to Disney, Marvel and the MCU may only increase as the show continues to provide its subplots involving corporate interference. However, as much it may be exhausting to see fans of Marvel and DC exchange jabs over their respective favorite franchise, it's refreshing to see a voice in the center equally critical of both.
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.