Jensen Ackles’ Soldier Boy has finally awakened in The Boys season 3, and his arrival carries a major parallel to the MCU’s Captain America.
WARNING: Spoilers ahead for The Boys season 3
The Boys season 3 draws a massive narrative link between Soldier Boy and the MCU’s Captain America. From Superman to Scarlet Witch, no comic book character is safe from parody in The Boys, and lampooning Marvel’s uber-patriotic propaganda machine presented too good an opportunity to resist. Soldier Boy is a ruthless rip on Captain America. Both were super-soldiers created to fight Nazis during World War II, and both become military legends in their respective worlds. In addition to eerily similar costumes and shields for weapons, The Boys‘ comic Soldier Boy is painfully naive and completely over-the-top with his patriotic gimmick.
Jensen Ackles’ live-action Soldier Boy takes a slightly different approach. First establishing himself on the battlefields of WWII, Soldier Boy became a Vought celebrity before returning to military action in 1980s Nicaragua. Despite his clean-cut public reputation, Soldier Boy was actually a violent hedonist who thought himself above the rules – not quite on par with Homelander in terms of evil, but also not someone Steve Rogers would share a root beer with. Captured by Russians during his return to service, Soldier Boy has spent almost 40 years locked in a secret Kremlin lab, but The Boys season 3, episode 4 sees Billy Butcher finally set Vought’s patriotic prisoner free.
In the final moments of “Glorious Five Year Plan,” the Boys accidentally set Soldier Boy loose after finding him languishing inside a metal chamber. The former Payback leader then smashes through a nearby wall and disappears, before episode 5 (“The Last Time To Look On This World Of Lies”) reveals Soldier Boy stowing away on a plane back to Uncle Sam. Now on U.S. soil, The Boys drops Soldier Boy in the middle of New York, deeply confused by his surroundings – a mural of an all-American supe he doesn’t recognize, unfamiliar technology and fashions, a poster of some eejit politician, open displays of homosexuality, etc. The entire scenario perfectly mirrors Chris Evans’ Captain America in the MCU. Frozen in ice during World War II, Steve Rogers is rescued by SHIELD and held in a room some 70 years later, but breaks out through a wall and finds his way onto the New York streets in Captain America: The First Avenger. Immediately taken aback by the bright lights, technology, and unfamiliar surroundings, Rogers realizes just how long he’s been absent from civilization.
The dates are slightly different and the Arctic has been replaced by a Russian lab, but The Boys copies Captain America’s MCU arc almost beat-for-beat. Both heroes disappeared in their prime and presumed dead, then revived in the modern day. Upon first awakening, Jensen Ackles’ Soldier Boy and Chris Evans’ Captain America both smash through the nearest wall to escape, and both experience a confusing moment of shock realization when they first stand on a modern New York street. Even the reasons for their respective awakenings are closely attuned, with Nick Fury defrosting Captain America to help The Avengers fight otherworldly threats, and Soldier Boy freed because Billy Butcher needs someone to handle Homelander.
The Boys‘ comic targeted Marvel’s comic Captain America, so it makes sense for the live-action TV series to focus on Chris Evans’ MCU character, keeping the joke relevant to a modern audience and helping cement Soldier Boy as the darker twin of live-action Steve Rogers. Speaking of darker, one element of Soldier Boy’s comeback couldn’t be more different compared to his Marvel counterpart’s. When Captain America finally reunited with Peggy Carter in the modern day, he found an old woman near the end of her life. They enjoyed a peaceful, happy meeting before Rogers cheated time to marry Peggy in the past – a beautiful MCU love story. The Boys opts for a slight change of tone. Soldier Boy finds one true love, Crimson Countess, stripping on camera for Seth Rogen and kills her after discovering it was she who alerted the Russian soldiers back in Nicaragua – a beautiful The Boys love story.
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The Boys continues Friday on Prime Video.
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