‘The Boys’: how one of the best political satires of the year has come from the most unexpected place

‘The Boys’ has always been politicized. When the villain of the series is a white blond and smiling, omnipotent and controlled by a pharmaceutical corporation and with a cape it is the American flag, and the heroes are literally a group of terrorists who want to end the most powerful beings in the country, it cannot be said that he is spinning very fine. It is effective and hilarious, but of course the subtext is not its thing.

But this third season has tightened the nuts to the real references. Oddly enough, there were those who had doubts about whether Patriota was a genuine national hero or a narcissist with serious daddy (Y mommy) issues, but this season has finished setting the record straight: Patriot is a dangerous sociopath with a terrible amount of power in his hands. Patriot is Donald Trump.

And although the second season already launched its ideological missiles with a villain (who had relations with Patriota) who was literally a Nazi, this third season – for which the pandemic break has been great to recharge her strength after a year in which it seemed that ideas began to loosen- has put all his cards on the table. And it makes perfect sense since the original Garth Ennis comic was initially a satire of celebrity culture.

Ennis envisioned his superheroes as celebrities superpowered, and that’s what comic book satire was all about (that’s why Herosgasm works better on paper, its target is more accurate). And although the series started like this, those responsible soon made it evolve and saw that there was a juicier target in the politicians who are both celebrities. And from there to the political component of superheroes, in examining the implicit discourse in any superheroic creature, no matter how inane it may seem. Because Marvel movies have ideology. Batman has an ideology, Iron Man has an ideology, and of course Captain America has an ideology.

The ideology of ‘The Boys’ is “hold on, curves are coming”

For this reason, the arrival of Soldier Boy has been a great idea to reinforce the multiplicity of possibilities of political satire that the genre has. He is clearly a look-alike of Captain America, but here things go further: he clashes with Patriota, becoming a fight in which it is not clear who should win. EITHER, In immortal words from the publicists of ‘Aliens vs. Predator’, “Whoever wins we lose”. In other words, quite possibly this clash that forms the backbone of the second season is the choice between a bad option and an even worse one that Americans have in their bipartisan electoral system.

Although no idea this year has as much power as the magnificent revelation that Patriota has, in the initial stretch of the season, when he realizes that saying the first barbarity that crosses his mind, he is praised for his sincerity and for saying ” things as they are”. Although “things as they are” are terrible racist and class prejudices. The fact that in ‘The Boys’ the measure of superhero power is popularity polls says a lot about this thorny issue.

This idea continues until it reaches a season finale where the conflict between Patriot and Soldier Boy is resolved, and the parallelism with Trump is accentuated in a practically explicit way: between the public that cheers the superhero, even when he commits a crime in front of everyone, there is someone dressed as the famous ‘shaman’ who stood out among the assailants of the Capitol in 2021. And people with signs supporting the Nazi superheroine and insulting Starlight in slightly misogynistic terms.

This season ends with a return to the tense status quo of the main group and with a look at a new villain for the third season, which will lead the group to face, now directly and without symbolic alibis, politicians: that is, The Boys are now openly becoming a terrorist group. One wonders what those fans who protested the politicized direction the series was taking would say. (possibly because they felt they were the target of the darts), but that controversy is definitely behind us. Especially when we have before us the most combative, radical and punk superhero series in recent years.