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‘The Boys' Comic's Brutal Ending - Homelander and Every Character's Final Fate

By Judah Carroll Men's Journal

The Boys, Amazon's dark adult superhero show, quickly became a fan phenomenon upon premiering in 2019. The series that has followed "the Boys" attempting to eliminate evil "Supes" will come to an end next month at the conclusion of the fifth season. Fans are ready to see the ragtag group's final shot at taking down Homelander and how stories end for characters they have loved for seven years now.

If you are overwhelmed with anticipation to know how fates will unfold, there is always the source material, which ended in 2012. The show has not been an exact 1:1 adaptation of the comic by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson but has followed key plot points and could be an indicator of where the series finale is heading.

Full spoilers ahead for The Boys 72-issue comic run and what could end up as spoilers for the show.

Main characters that are not in the comic: Ryan Butcher, Sister Sage, Firecracker and Ashley.

Soldier Boy - There are several Soldier Boys throughout time in the comic, but the one in-story is killed by Billy Butcher in issue #34.

Queen Maeve - She is killed by Homelander in issue #63 defending Starlight from his attack.

The Deep - A very different characterization from the show, The Deep is one of the few characters that survive. After the disbandment of the Seven, he joins a new superhero group called "True."

Now for the rest of our characters, this is where the story gets insane.

In The Boys comic, Black Noir is secretly a clone of Homelander but stronger, as he was designed by Vought to be able to destroy Homelander if he ever went rogue. After years of waiting to complete his mission and having to suppress his true self, Black Noir goes insane. To speed up the process for his sole purpose of living, Noir starts committing atrocities as "Homelander" and documenting them to be seen by the public. Homelander, who believes that he has done these evil acts during blackout episodes, snaps, kills the president and takes control of the government and the White House.

In issue #65, Black Noir reveals his true identity to Homelander and Butcher. In a final showdown in the Oval Office, Black Noir kills Homelander.

Winning the fight but still nearly beaten to death, Black Noir is finished off by Butcher, killed with a crowbar in the same issue.

After both Homelander and Black Noir are dead, Butcher decides that it is still not enough. He plans on using a biological weapon to commit a global genocide of every person with "Compound V" in their blood. To do this, he must eliminate anyone who may try to stop him.

In issue #68 of The Boys, after his plan is revealed, Butcher kills Mother's Milk by exploding a grenade in his face and then suffocating him.

In issue #69, Butcher kills the Frenchman (Frenchie) and the Female (Kimiko) with a bomb at the Boys HQ.

In issue #71, as Butcher tries to release his weapon on the world, he begins his final fight with Hughie on top of the Empire State Building. Hughie kills Butcher and stops the supe-killing weapon from being used.

In the comic series' final issue, #72, Hughie starts a life with Annie (Starlight) in Scotland as two of the only remaining characters left at the end of the story.

It will be interesting to see how darkly close show creator Eric Kripke chooses to stay to the extremely morbid and brutal ending of the comic.

The Boys season five airs weekly on Amazon Prime Video, with the series finale airing on May 20.

This story was originally published by Men's Journal on Apr 14, 2026, where it first appeared in the Entertainment section. Add Men's Journal as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

2026 The Arena Group Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved.

This story was originally published April 14, 2026 at 4:00 PM.

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