Superheroes never stay dead for long . . . even in the hyper-violent world of The Boys. Here's how this character got resurrected—sort of. Spoilers for The Boys Season 4 ahead.
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00:00Superheroes never stay dead for long, even in the hyper-violent world of The Boys.
00:06Here's how this character got resurrected, sort of.
00:10Spoilers for The Boys Season 4 ahead.
00:12When The Boys Season 4 begins, The Seven is down to just The Four.
00:16Starlight quit for good last season, Queen Maeve is presumed dead by the team, and the
00:21seventh slot is like a rotating door of short-lived soups.
00:24Aside from Homelander, The Seven is now just A-Train, The Deep, and Black Noir.
00:29Wait, what?
00:31Black Noir met his end in The Boys Season 3 finale, The Instant White Hot Wild.
00:35A long time ago, Noir was on the superhero team Payback, led by the thuggish Soldier
00:40Boy.
00:41Noir helped bury Soldier Boy, but in The Boys Season 3, Johnny came marching home and looking
00:46for Payback.
00:47Soldier Boy and Homelander discovered they were, biologically, father and son, something
00:51Noir knew all along.
00:54For this betrayal of trust, Homelander, who always wanted a real family, gutted Noir.
00:59So how is Noir back in The Boys Season 4, and working for his murderer?
01:04Is his healing factor just that good?
01:06Nope, this isn't the same Noir as before.
01:09As The Boys creator Eric Kripke previously confirmed, and which becomes apparent across
01:13these three new episodes, it's a new character in the old costume.
01:18Since Noir's costume completely covers his body and face, it's easy to slip someone
01:22new in with the public none the wiser.
01:24Plus, as Homelander killed the original Noir, Vought International has a vested interest
01:28in covering up his death by pretending he never died.
01:31In the original The Boys comics by Garth Innes and Derek Robertson, Black Noir is just as
01:36silent and even more mysterious than in the show.
01:39In issue number 65, he reveals himself as a clone of Homelander, designed as a failsafe
01:44against the real thing.
01:45It was Noir who committed Homelander's most heinous crimes, which in turn drove Homelander
01:50evil because it convinced him that he had done those things.
01:54Will the new Black Noir take off his mask and reveal Anthony Starr's terrifying grin
01:57staring back at Homelander?
01:59Sorry, The Boys comics fans, but no.
02:02Kripke has said in the past he isn't a fan of how the comic's Black Noir twist marginalizes
02:07Homelander and that the show probably won't adapt it.
02:10The Boys season 4 stays true to Kripke's word.
02:13In the season premiere Department of Dirty Tricks, Noir 2 initially stays silent like
02:18his predecessor, amping up the mystery.
02:20After he and the Deep kill Todd in order to frame Starlight, he exclaims,
02:24Yo, what the f**k?
02:26That was so f**ked up, you guys.
02:29In the opening of episode 2, Life Among the Septics, Noir 2 asks A-Train if murder is
02:34something the Seven does regularly.
02:35Just keep your mouth shut.
02:37Here's your f**king total.
02:39Black Noir 2 is just a soup actor who accepted the role of a lifetime.
02:43He struggles with the part, though, because Noir is a silent cypher.
02:47He can't find his motivation, and his teammates, who barely knew Noir 1, aren't forthcoming.
02:53Kripke has said that when making The Boys season 3, killing off the OG Noir was a late
02:57call.
02:58That might explain his decision to keep the character around in spirit.
03:02Even so, this resurrection works because it satirizes how superheroes can never truly
03:06die.
03:07In The Boys, soups are brands and celebrities, not heroes.
03:11Life Among the Septics even shows how Vought preps most of the Seven's public heroism ahead
03:15of time, with green screens and stuntmen, like how Marvel Studios digitally designs
03:20its movies' action scenes years in advance.
03:23The Black Noir IP is valuable, so why would Vought let it go to waste just because someone
03:27died wearing the costume?
03:30The same logic follows in comic books.
03:32It's pretty common these days for superheroes to die for a few years of publication, then
03:36return.
03:37In that interim, another character almost always picks up their mantle.
03:41After Steve Rogers was assassinated in 2007's Captain America No. 25, Bucky Barnes briefly
03:46became the new Captain America.
03:49The Marvel Cinematic Universe did a similar trade-over, so Chris Evans could bow out his
03:53cap.
03:54Sam Wilson is the leading man of Captain America Brave New World instead.
03:58In the meantime, we'll just have to see how well Black Noir 2 can live up to the original.
04:03The Boys is streaming on Prime Video, with new episodes released on Thursdays.