PLEASE refrain from comments like this. The fact that you didn’t tell us who is more powerful doesn’t absolve the fact that you told that someone is more powerful than Homelander.
Please don’t post spoilers from the comic here; if you’d like to discuss the comic please start a separate thread.
My apologies, I wasn’t thinking.
You’re good people, Johnny; thanks.
Good news, everyone!
As of today, with 23,116 people rating the series, it stands at a solid 9/10. 
Finished it yesterday. It was all right, with a couple of annoyances.
Annie finding out about Hughie was annoying. I could see her being upset, of course, but once it was clear that he was telling the truth, talk to him and get the entire story. They don’t even have to show us, but at least give some indication that she knows the full story on what Vought was up to, and what the rest of the Seven are like. Even in the big reveal by Homelander, it’s not made clear to her that A-train killed Hughie’s girlfriend doing a drug run, laughed about it, or that Vought offered a paltry $45k in compensation.
The “fall” of The Deep. A week ago, the guy is one of The Seven, getting points on a billion dollar movie, and was one of the best paid Supes in the country for at least a decade (given Starlight’s childhood crush). Why, exactly, does he have to move to Sandusky, Ohio and live on $75 a day? Resign from The Seven, move to some beachfront property and live out his days in quiet comfort.
Really, that part went for almost all the Supes. It was never made clear why everyone was stuck being miserable in that tower, despite being wealthy, famous, and powerful. Black Noir, Translucent and Homelander, I get - no moral compass. It was still a step up for Starlight but given her background, she should definitely be quitting at this point. Maybe A-train still got off on being famous. But Maeve was a miserable alcoholic staying because…?
In contrast, what happened with the Boys was much more sensible and believable. Mother’s Milk’s wife leaving him, the government abandoning them when they discover they need Vought, etc.
So overall I found the show fun, and interesting, but also somewhat shallow and frustrating, and a lot of what made it “Mature Audiences” was juvenile. Maybe season two will go deeper into the whys. And I suspect we’ll discover that Black Noir is a woman o transgender. I don’t recall anyone using a pronoun for the character.
The comic had a different origin than that for Black Noir, though I don’t know if they’ll stick with it.
I think The Deep’s situation happened because they were trying to draw an analog with what happens to people IRL: they get put out to pasture. It doesn’t really hold up to scrutiny, maybe, but as commentary on our society it makes sense.
I was also annoyed at the way that the Hughie/Annie reveal played out, for the exact same reason. I’d have really liked him to say “okay, I gotta come clean but there’s a lot to tell”.
The only two of the 7 who were miserable (Annie doesn’t count here; she’s a noob) are Maeve and Homelander. Homeland can’t leave; he has nowhere else to go. He doesn’t even really have a regular name anymore (“It’s been a long time since anyone called me John.”), a family or any other notion of life that isn’t “I’m a supe.”
Maeve can’t leave for many of the same reasons, altho she wasn’t raised in a lab (that we know of yet) like Homelander. She tells us: “I gave parts of me away for so long there isn’t anything real left.” She’s compromised her morals, her sexuality, her relationship… and now she’s trapped in this life. All she’s got left is to be one of the 7.
And you’re supposed to get that many of these supes have no moral compass; it’s the central premise of the story.
Wow; could you please stop posting spoilers from the comic that may or may not become relevant in later episodes?
Are you serious? I didn’t give any details whatsoever except that in the comic, Black Noir wasn’t a transgender female. Given the time it was written, that doesn’t seem to be a spoiler.
“I didn’t give any spoilers EXCEPT this one!”
:rolleyes:
Yes, I’m serious. Please don’t discuss the comic in this thread; it’s for the show.
It’s not a spoiler at all. Would it be a spoiler if I told you Black Noir wasn’t secretly Bruce Wayne from an alternate reality? That he or she wasn’t Thomas Magnum gone bad after killing Ivan in cold blood?
For the Deep,
I would think he accepts the demotion for similar reasons to why some veteran professional athletes accept assignment to the minor leagues, or extend their careers in lesser leagues abroad at a greatly reduced salary, or why some big movie stars linger on for years after their peak appearing in crappy low-budget movies.
For one thing, it’s pretty clearly all he knows how to do. He doesn’t seem to have any real skills other than being the Deep, and, more importantly, he doesn’t seem to have any real sense of self other than being the Deep. He doesn’t even appear to have much in the way of day-to-day life skills. All he knows is being the Deep, and toeing the Vought corporate line, so he does. He also seems to have enough ego at first that he’s genuinely convinced this is a temporary setback, and the corporate honchos will realize they need him back soon enough. It seems like its only when the supes military contracting legislation passes, and he’s still relegated to an appearance at a second-rate theme park, that he fully realizes just how far he’s fallen. Also, he doesn’t seem to have much in the way of impulse control, or, again, day-to-day life skills, so like a lot of celebrities, he may well have squandered most of the money he made.
Or possibly Every cent of it is tied up in stock options. Of an Enron-esque nature, which he’s not allowed to cash in.
Interesting to see what they kept and what they changed. I never felt like the comic gave enough of a backstory to the Female or the Frenchman, and the TV series addresses some of that. I was nervous about MM meeting Madelyn Stillwell, who wasn’t in the comic, but apparently they are going in a different direction with him. They name-dropped Tek Knight, one of my favorite Ennis characters ever, so seeing him will be a treat. The show puts more thought into the crew’s dubious legal status than the comic did.
I would not have thought this would work so well on TV and am glad I was mistaken. I hope someone will consider adapting *Marshal Law *and Top Ten.
The Deep was obviously still highly interested in being a super hero, retirement would be even worse than Sandusky, Ohio. Witness his excitement the moment he thinks he is being called up? he is sitting around hoping to get back into the team.
I liked how he thought he was being sent down to the minor league, only to find that he had been put out to pasture.
I like how it points out that he isn’t really in control of his life, despite his superpowers. The dichotomy is fascinating, and at the heart of Homelander’s story.
Yeah, all the supers tend to have the old “And leave show business?” Attitude. It’s even mentioned that Starlight could become a cop instead of a hero, if she only cares about helping people, a comment she never answers.
I thought is was a great series. I don’t know anything about the comics, but I thought everything was enjoyable in every episode, except the plane crash. Homelander could have done something, he just didn’t want to.
Also, I learned a valuable lesson - don’t assume a new series is 10 episodes. If you don’t you won’t be extremely pissed off when the season ends after 8 episodes 
Aye:
Amazon did a good job with this, I think. Reading some comments about the comic series, that author made the Supes stupidly and insanely over the top evil. Amazon toned that down quite a bit. You can almost feel sorry for The Wave- yes, he’s a total jerk, but we know people like that (and he does love Dolphins, so that’s something…). He’s *believable *in his jerkitude and sexual harassment. He’s almost…human.