Summary
- The Boys parodies popular superheroes, including Webweaver as a twisted Spider-Man.
- Webweaver's mention in the comics led to the formation of The Boys team.
- The TV show expanded Webweaver's role, showcasing his addiction and dark side.
The Boys comic book and TV series are both built around the core question: what if superheroes were secretly terrible people? Instead of being heroic characters, the Supes in The Boys' version of Spider-Man, Webweaver.
Both The Boys comic by Garth Ennis and Darrick Robertson and the Amazon series feature parodies of iconic superheroes. Homelander is flawed, whole team known as the G-Men which are the X-Men with a dark secret - the list goes on and on. The whole point of Ennis and Robertson's series was to flip how superheroes act and are perceived in comics on its head. Unlike the Marvel or DC Universe, The Boys doesn't have any boundaries or limits on how messed up the series can get.
Who is Webweaver, The Boys' Version of Spider-Man?
Webweaver's Only Physical Comic Appearance Was In A Variant Cover
In The Boys miniseries, 'Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker" a character named Webweaver is mentioned during a meeting between Butcher and Mallory. While Webweaver never physically appears, he's referred to in the meeting by The Legend as the "thwipster" while it's revealed he has an uncle much like Uncle Ben. Given his name is Webweaver, he's referred to as "thwipster," and has an uncle, it's pretty clear Ennis and Robertson were hinting at their own version of Spider-Man.
Webweaver actually has a pretty strong connection to the formation of The Boys team in the comic. The reason Butcher and Mallory meet with The Legend is to get information on a superhero they could take down in order to get funding from the government. Webweaver is the name that comes up, and it's later revealed that the job to take him down "went like clockwork," and helped spawn the creation of The Boys.
Ironically, there actually is a superhero known as Web-Weaver in the Marvel Universe. The character, Cooper Coen, was a classmate of Peter Parker's who was bitten by a mutated spider in his place, as explained in Edge of Spider-Verse (Vol. 2) #5.
The Boys TV Show Finally Gave Webweaver An Actual Story
Webweaver finally appeared in Season 4 of The Boys, and while his role was still minimal, it was very important. Instead of being the first Supe that Butcher takes down as he was in the comics, he allows Hughie to infiltrate a high-profile party at Tek-Knight's mansion (where Homelander is setting up his nefarious plans for the future). Webweaver has gained a crippling heroin addiction and happily trades his superhero costume to the Boys for another fix of heroin. But it seems that Webweaver's predilections don't stop at just drugs, as Hughie found out the hard way.
Clearly the show had no intention of giving Webweaver any more integrity or dignity than the original comics, going even farther to play on the Marvel movie universe's version of Spider-Man, not just the comics. In the TV world, Webweaver's potential role as a new sidekick to Tek-Knight (The Boys' version of Iron Man) is revealed to have... an entirely different meaning than Marvel would ever approve of.
Webweaver didn't appear much in the comic, and he hasn't appeared much in the show either, but the writers of the Prime Video series have managed to use him much more effectively. Instead of simply being a once-mentioned fight that formed The Boys, Webweaver helped writers adapt a scene from the comics where Hughie is assaulted by Black Noir. It also let the writers get Hughie into Tek-Knight's mansion, even if everyone regrets knowing what they found inside.
The Boys
- Release Date
- July 25, 2019
- Showrunner
- Eric Kripke
- Directors
- Jack Quaid, Eric Kripke
Cast
Billy Butcher
Hugh Hughie Campbell
WHERE TO WATCH
The Boys is a gritty and subversive take on the superhero genre, focusing on a group of vigilantes who confront powerful superheroes abusing their abilities, exploring themes of corruption and moral ambiguity in a world where heroes are not always what they seem.
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