How does that quote go again? “You either die a satire, or you live long enough to see yourself become the thing you satirise.” As much as Eric Kripke’s The Boys, and its college-set spin-off Gen V, present themselves as the barbed alternative to modern comic book monotheism, they’ve been around long enough that we’ve—gasp!—started to care about this world and these characters beyond what they can serve to us as a punchline.
It’s not that Gen V’s second season has filed down its teeth, particularly. In the aftermath of last season’s attack on campus non-Supes (as in superheroes), the media narrative has been rewritten to paint Homelander (Antony Starr) and his fascist Supe-supremacists as the real victims in all this, a tactic which, in the real world, is essentially authoritarianism’s favourite hobby.
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Meanwhile, blood-bender Marie (Jaz Sinclair), free from the Elmira Adult Rehabilitation Center, where she was dumped alongside bi-gender shapeshifter Jordan (London Thor and Derek Luh), the Ant-Man-esque size-shifter Emma (Lizze Broadway), and master of magnetism Andre (Chance Perdomo), discovers more about her past.
These kids were given the superpower-inducing Compound V without their consent, and yet someone like Marie has spent her entire life blamed for the death of her parents at the hands of powers she never asked for and had no means to control. One generation wrecks the climate and the economy, and then chastises the next for not having the savings to pump out babies or invest in property.
But, this season’s story is a pretty familiar one if you’ve ever picked up a comic book (and, granted, Gen V takes very loose inspiration from Garth Ennis’s much, much darker storyline “We Gotta Go Now”). This time around, Godolkin University sees the arrival of a suspicious new dean, Cipher.
He’s suspicious immediately because he’s played by Hamish Linklater in full Midnight Mass cult leader mode, suspicious later because he starts referring to those who oppose Supe-supremacy as “race traitors”. He’s also a little too invested in unlocking Marie’s full potential.
Will Marie fall under the spell of this potential new mentor, or will she resist her powers being weaponised for an agenda that’s not her own? It’s not so hard this season to guess where things are headed, but Sinclair makes for an impassioned lead who gives Marie’s anger a real heartbeat of its own.
In fact, the jokes here feel more accessory to the main plot than the main plot itself—though, fear not, that doesn’t mean a total absence of dicks and sexual kinks. One character has entire quantum portal hiding up his ass. Yet, Marie and Cipher’s relationship is played entirely straight, almost conventionally so, and the season has been made to carry the difficult burden of acknowledging offscreen grief. Shortly before filming on season two began last year, Perdomo was killed in motorcycle accident.
I’m never sure what we should deem the most “appropriate” way to move forward under these circumstances—everything pales in comparison to the real loss suffered by cast, crew, and the actor’s loved ones—but Gen V has written around his character’s absence in a way that’s both practical and respectful to the inevitable impact it’s had on his co-stars. There is a mourning on screen to accompany what’s happened off of it.
But it doesn’t particularly feel like Gen V’s tone here is purely a matter of circumstance. With the ascension of James Gunn’s raunchier, more politicised vision of the DC cinematic universe in the likes of Superman and Peacemaker, it’s becoming apparent that The Boys is losing its grip on its title of “anti-comic book” show. There’s a fifth and final season ahead for the main series, plus a prequel, Vought Rising. Those outings have two choices: step it up or give in to the mainstream.
