Butcher's Superpowers Avoid A Major Boys Season 3 Problem

Compound-V, although Ryan Butcher is the only living example.

The Boys' line between supe and non-supe has, until now, remained crystal clear - especially in the mind of anti-Vought crusader, Billy Butcher (Karl Urban). A March 2022 teaser for The Boys season 3 took great delight in blurring those lines. That early footage showed Butcher wielding Homelander's trademark power of heat vision, bloodlust heating up his soul as he struggled to control the twin beams. Annoyingly, the marketing material didn't elaborate on whether Butcher's powers were permanent or temporary. Had The Boys' esteemed leader transformed into a full-time supe?

The Boys' season 3 trailer definitively smashes this show-breaking theory to pieces. Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott) is shown handing Butcher several vials of green chemical (as opposed to Compound-V's traditional blue), specifying the effects will only last 24 hours. This line has likely been dropped into The Boys season 3's trailer to address any lingering confusion regarding Butcher's newfound abilities, and although temporary powers aren't quite as a dramatic, Eric Kripke and co. have dodged a narrative bullet here.

Butcher taking Compound-V and transforming into a permanent supe - as we've seen previously with Kimiko and Naqib - would completely break his characterization. Since The Boys began, Karl Urban's character has stood staunchly against supe-kind, even discriminating against morally-intact heroes like Starlight and Ryan. Living by the hardline philosophy "a supe's a supe," Butcher choosing to their ranks in The Boys season 3 would represent an unrealistically hypocritical leap for a single season. It'd be like Hughie suddenly deciding Billy Joel sucked, or Frenchie revealing himself as a secret German - a completely left-field development impossible for the show to justify. Because Butcher's powers in The Boys season 3 are only temporary, the Cockney vigilante can maintain his mental separation of "us" and "them." In his mind, Compound-V doping doesn't make him a dirty, nasty supe like the other dirty, nasty supes under Vought's banner.

Averting the mistake of granting Billy Butcher permanent superpowers also sets up his eventual redemption. Judging from The Boys season 3's trailer, Butcher will embark on a downward spiral of Compound-V abuse until his face eventually meets rock bottom. He's then ready to be dragged back up by Hughie, MM, Frenchie and Kimiko, realizing he doesn't need a chemical boost to spank some supes after all. Had Butcher's powers been as permanent as The Boys' season 3 teaser originally hinted, there'd be no way back, and no eventual redemption for the man who brought a whole new level of foul-mouthed vigor to the English language.

Of course, The Boys season 3 also adheres more closely to the comic books this way. In Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson's source material, Butcher and Hughie juice themselves with inferior doses of Compound-V from the very first volume, claiming to "level the playing field." Now this element is making its way to Amazon's live-action realm, creating a more authentic jump from page to screen. Had Butcher's laser eyes stuck around, The Boys would've been dragged further away from its roots.