The Girls Of The Boys Got It Done
How The Boys earned its big shot at the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Although it took millennia, it feels like women are finally starting to get the respect they deserve. While still not quite there yet, thanks to sexist dipshits in charge of the free world, it seems now more than ever that girls are, indeed, getting it done.
So when somebody hears that a series called “The Boys” is premiering on TV, it’s understandable to think that the show will be about, well, a bunch of dudes oozing with testosterone or something like hideous like The Man Show. However, Amazon Prime’s The Boys isn’t just a boys club, and the women stole the show during the second season.
Throughout season two of The Boys, one of the subplots is how Vought is trying to make the women of The Seven a more prominent force following The Deep’s sexual assault of Starlight. Along with this push comes a replacement for The Deep while he’s on sabbatical in the form of a new hero named Stormfront. Gaining popularity through her social media accounts, Stormfront is the most woke of heroes, standing up for females and anyone who’s being persecuted. Her addition to the team bolsters Vought “Girls Get It Done” campaign as she, Starlight, and Queen Maeve take center stage to promote how the females of The Seven are empowered but behind the scenes, there’s a whole lot of fuckery going on.
Each of the females goes through their own shit as the season progresses. Homelander dickishly outs Maeve’s relationship with Elena, leading Vought to take advantage of the situation and market her towards the LBTQ community. In addition to that, she’s still dealing with an immense amount of guilt over her involvement in season one’s plane crash. Starlight is working with The Boys to expose Vought and Compound V, a risky endeavor that could not only cost her her spot on The Seven but her life as well, and dealing with trying to repair her relationship with her mother. Kimiko, The Female of The Boys, was reunited with her brother only for him to be killed by Stormfront right in front of her and now her quest for revenge consumes her. For her part, Stormfront begins a twisted relationship with Homelander, which quickly makes her one of the most popular members of The Seven until she’s revealed to be a Nazi.
All of these situations come to a head during the season finale, as The Boys try and save Butcher’s wife’s son Ryan from Stormfront and Homelander. She stands in the way of The Boys and Starlight and blows up the only weapons, and seemingly only hope, they have of standing a chance against her. This prompts Starlight and Kimiko to spring into action but the two are no match for the super Nazi, and Stormfront even snaps The Female’s neck. Thankfully, Maeve arrives on the scene and the three women proceed to kick the holy living shit out of Stormfront, who eventually flies away. The beatdown is not only one of the best fights in the show’s two seasons, but it’s also one of the best scenes period. All the frustration and tension that Maeve, Starlight, and Kimiko had built up over their separate situations were finally released on the one asshole that deserved it the most and, best of all, the moment was earned, unlike that one cringe-worthy scene in the biggest movie of all-time.
Anyone who’s seen 2019’s Avengers: Endgame could immediately see this as a direct shot at one of Marvel Studios’ most infamous scenes, and it was even confirmed to be by the showrunners during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. After The Snap is undone and Captain Marvel arrives to save the day, all the female heroes gather for one big A-Force(d) pose as they head into battle with Thanos. While there’s no doubt that Marvel Studios has helped make strides to push equality in its characters with Black Panther and Captain Marvel at the forefront, the moment in Endgame, much like a similar moment between Black Widow, Okoye, Scarlet Witch, and Proxima Midnight in Avengers: Infinity War, felt unearned and forced. Stormfront’s glorious beatdown during ‘What I Know’ was the result of a season-long build that more than paid off not only for the characters but for everyone watching as well. Forced moments of equality only set things back and are incredibly transparent, and The Boys proved that it can be done organically and entertainingly, and still push the plot forward.
In a show full of watercooler moments, the female fight remains one of the biggest talking points. As Vought pushed their females to the forefront for good publicity, The Boys pushed its women to the forefront because they earned and deserved it. Here’s hoping there are more big moments for the women on The Boys to come just as long as, you know, they’re not forced.
