The Boys introduces us to the Seven, a group of superheroes managed by a company named Vought International. Although it might sound pleasant, it becomes quickly apparent that the Seven are obsessed with their own powers, egos, and have committed some truly heinous acts that are more fit for supervillains than heroes. Homelander, at the helm of the group, is particularly bad, with enough horrible acts in his past to give the Joker a run for his money.
But not all members of the group are heartless. One particularly complex character is Queen Maeve. A seemingly morally corrupt version of Wonder Woman, she goes along with the acts the Seven commits but often seems to have doubts about whether or not they're justified (spoiler: they're not). A lot of the time, we find ourselves disgusted with what she's willing to get up to, but there have been times she's tugged on our heartstrings too.
Updated on February 1st, 2021 by Scoot Allan: Amazon Prime Video's adaptation of Dynamite's The Boys comic series has continued to draw in fans with the show's unique take on the superhero genre that is filled with shocking moments from both Billy Butcher's crew and Vought's corporate team The Seven that make it hard to root from some of the characters. Thankfully, there are some glimmers of hope with characters like Queen Maeve, who has begun to move away from her own sometimes unforgivable acts to begin her own path of redemption, which has divided fans due to the character's many sympathetic moments.
13 Felt Bad: Homelander Took All The Credit
Queen Maeve was actually the first member of The Seven who appeared on The Boys, when she dramatically stopped an armored car robbery by jumping in front of the moving vehicle and letting it crash around her, highlighting her strength and invulnerability as one of the most powerful characters on the series.
However, as she is about to capture the few remaining robbers, Homelander swoops in and takes them out before taking all the credit with the public and reporters. It's a small thing to feel bad about given later more serious events, but it definitely teased how Vought's superteam works.
12 Felt Bad: When She Talked About Who She Once Was
Maeve has a moment with Starlight when she sees her very beaten down and comments that she used to be just like her, implying that Starlight should not let herself become who Maeve has. It's a touching moment and a reminder that Maeve can clearly see the difference between right and wrong and see that Annie January is actually a good person behind the supe mask.
Unfortunately, she is just too far gone to even think about stepping away from what the Seven want. It's frustrating that she feels so trapped, but does make us feel a bit sympathetic towards her because she's obviously going through her own struggles with her identity.
11 Unforgivable: Turned A Cold Shoulder Towards Starlight
While Queen Maeve and Starlight eventually found common ground first as female members of the Seven and later as allies in the fight against Vought, their relationship initially started out fairly rocky, when they first met after Starlight's abuse at the hands of The Deep on her first day with The Seven.
They encounter each other when Starlight is getting sick in the bathroom, and instead of reaching out to her new teammate, she basically told her to toughen up. Queen Maeve has come a long way and her friendship with Starlight has grown, but her brush-off at an important moment may be too much to forgive.
10 Felt Bad: The Plane Scene
The plane scene was harrowing, to say the least. One episode shows us Homelander and Maeve taking over a hijacked plane to take down the terrorists and return the passengers to safety. Unfortunately, the plane is beyond repair and it seems as if the whole thing is going to crash. Maeve asks Homelander if he can fly a plane and when he points out that the damage means it'd be impossible, she asks him to try and save the passengers some other way.
Homelander says it's impossible, but it's implied that he's simply too lazy. When she asks him to simply save a mother and child, he walks away from her and says they can't risk them telling the world that they left people to die. Maeve has no choice but to abandon them to their deaths, though she's clearly absolutely devastated to do it whereas Homelander doesn't seem to have the slightest bit of remorse.
9 Unforgivable: Letting Homelander Murder Innocents Without Protest
Maeve, however, goes along with Homelander far too much. There's a scene in which he murders some criminals— okay, so not quite innocent, but not necessarily people deserving of a gory death.
He tells Maeve to lie and inform Vought and the press that they struck first and although there's the barest flicker of disquiet in her eyes, she seems very used to lying for him and doesn't raise a protest. Most of the audience definitely wanted her to tell Homelander where to stick his lies.
8 Felt Bad: When She Stuck Up For Starlight
She seems to come to her senses and stand against Homelander when he threatens Starlight, though. He rounds on her unfairly and seems to be threatening a slow, bloody death when Maeve stands up and tells him to back off. She slides up to him, borderline seducing him — and it works. He tells her Starlight is her responsibility, but he backs off.
It seems that Maeve does have a little bit of influence she can exert over Homelander. Perhaps this could be used in season two, Maeve?
7 Felt Bad: When She Visited Her Ex
There's one night where Maeve seems to be at her wit's end with the Seven. Drunk, she shows up to the apartment of an ex-partner and is visibly distraught. Her partner initially tells Maeve to leave but, seeing her upset, ends up comforting her.
It's a sobering reminder that the tough attitude Maeve puts on is probably just so she can get through her days with Vought International without having a breakdown and that she's definitely struggling with the morals of the company as much as anyone else.
6 Unforgivable: Brushing Her Off Afterwards
But when her partner attempts to check up on her later, Maeve brushes her off because they're near cameras and she can't have her image ruined. As much as we understand, it's still frustrating to see her take a step towards understanding that she needs to get away from the influence of the Seven and then two steps back towards Vought.
Especially since it's obvious Queen Maeve isn't necessarily a bad person, and Elena ultimately gave her a second chance in the second season, but it was still pretty cold and exactly what Elena was worried was going to happen again.
5 Felt Bad: When She Snapped At Homelander
After the plane incident, Homelander gives a speech full of lies and false sympathy, and Maeve powerfully tells him he's boring her before she storms off. It's a cover-up for how upset she is, but it's still perhaps the only time we see her completely disrespect Homelander to his face and walk off.
Notably, she does it without consequence too, and it's another sign that she may actually be able to have an influence over him— or at least get away with more than the rest of the Seven because of their many years together.
4 Felt Bad: Homelander & Queen Maeve's Romantic History
The intense relationship between Homelander and Queen Maeve began to make more sense when Homelander brought up their past as a couple, which caused a visible reaction in Queen Maeve that alluded to some likely problems with the relationship.
While not much is revealed about their time together, Homelander has continually displayed not just his inability to maintain a healthy relationship, but also his abusive nature and dangerous jealousy, which makes it unlikely that their time together was very pleasant for Maeve.
3 Unforgivable: Careless With Sensitive Information
Queen Maeve is responsible for a lot of secrets on The Boys regarding the sometimes criminal activity of the team and her hidden relationship with Elena, which she becomes careless with when she takes a call from Elena at Vought, which is overheard by Homelander. Queen Maeve was keeping Elena a secret to keep her safe, which became clear after Homelander discovered her.
She was then careless again when she left the incriminating footage of the plane disaster that she planned to use to blackmail Homelander for Elena to find, which ultimately drove her away. However, as she begins to work more with Starlight against Vought and has more secrets to keep, carelessness is definitely an unforgivable trait.
2 Felt Bad: Outed On Live Television By Homelander
Upon Homelander discovered the truth about Queen Maeve's relationship after overhearing her phone call to Elena, he publicly outs her on television without warning in one of the most shocking moments of The Boys' second season.
What's even worse, is that the marketing team at Vought (the real villains of the series) begin to run with Homelander's big news drop, and create an exploitative marketing campaign that Queen Maeve is forced to go along with in order to keep Homelander happy and Elena safe.
1 Unforgivable: Continuously Going Along With The Seven
It's pretty unforgivable that Maeve is continuously going along with the Seven in their various horrific crimes considering they are supposed to be superheroes. Whatever her doubts and fears, however good her heart is beneath it all (or was), she's let people die time and time again, and even been the cause of deaths herself.
Yet she still stuck with Vought International and Homelander through all of it. Thankfully, the second season saw of The Boys saw Queen Maeve begin to take back her power and regain a bit of control over the Seven from Homelander to start steering the team in more heroic directions.