The universe of The Boys just gets darker and darker, especially when it comes to spin-off Gen V. Focusing on a bunch of college kids at Godolkin University – a Vought sponsored establishment – the show exposes some real grim truths about the characters, and there’s one in particular that’s gone unnoticed.
Not totally unseen, just fans of The Boys might not understand the complete relevance of an offhand comment in one of the best TV series of the year. During the commercials for God U, A-Train is credited as the first Black member of the Seven. That makes sense until you remember that Black Noir joined the team before A-Train.
Now, Black Noir’s identity and such were a mystery for a lot of The Boys, but in season 3 it’s revealed he’s Black. He wanted anonymity for a variety of reasons, chief among them being that he was in an incident where he lost a chunk of his brain (The Boys might be one of the best sci-fi series to get way with such violence). However, when you consider we learn a lot of this from Homelander, it takes on a darker inflection.
Within the The Boys cast, nobody’s more sinister and unpredictable than the Superman analogue, and everything he says must be taken with a fistful of salt. Sure, he says Black Noir chose these things, but perhaps he was coerced or intimidated?
A Reddit thread has gone back and forth on this. Vought is ruthlessly protective of its own investment, and a recurring theme is how to package things to get the widest audience possible. There’s a distinct possibility that Black Noir was sidelined in favour of A-Train in terms of representing diversity in the Seven, because A-Train was an easier candidate.
A hard, bleak truth, but one that fits entirely within the overall moral core of the universe. Which is to say: capitalism rules all, even when it comes to caped superheroes who could demolish the planet. Hopefully the characters of Gen V can change the paradigm somehow, but we won’t hold our breath.
They have their own issues, like The Woods and such. The first three episodes of Gen V are available on Amazon Prime Video now. Have a look at our Gen V release schedule guide for when the rest is out, and our article on The Boys season 4 release date.