Comic vs Tv Show Fates: Comparing Every Major the Boys Character to Garth Ennis' Original Ending
By Marcus Vance
In Ennis's comic run, the showdown between Billy Butcher and Homelander arrives with an intentional anticlimax inside the Oval Office. Homelander seizes Washington, kills the President, and sits among decapitated corpses waiting for Butcher. Before their fight truly starts, Black Noir steps forward, peels off his mask, and reveals himself as a psychopathic clone of Homelander engineered by Vought to execute the supe leader if he ever lost control. Noir confesses that he committed the atrocities Homelander thought he did, including the sexual assault and death of Butcher’s wife, Becky, driving Homelander into an identity crisis before tearing him apart in a savage brawl.
The Prime Video series abandoned that clone twist entirely back in Season 3 and Season 4, establishing Noir as a distinct individual named Earving before replacing him with an unhinged replacement actor. Consequently, the Season 5 series finale focused directly on the bitter rivalry between Karl Urban's Butcher and Antony Starr's Homelander. Butcher, physically deteriorating from the parasite born of temp-V and driven by the manifestation of Joe Kessler, faced Homelander directly without third-party deception. The television series stripped away the identity gaslighting of the comics, forcing Homelander to face the reality of his own crimes and upbringing rather than outsourcing his sins to an identical duplicate.
Marcus Vance is a cybersecurity auditor and technology writer dedicated to educating the public about online safety, data privacy regulations, enterprise security, and emerging cyber threats.
