As The Boys continues to pursue its Invincible -like storyline of a virus that can wipe out the strongest supes on the planet, this season has been a bit all over the place in terms of quality. One point keeps coming up, however, something I can’t shake, that this all seems like one big ad for Vought Rising.

Vought Rising is the upcoming spinoff focused on the first generation of organized supes, something that was introduced in past seasons, but has latched itself full onto this season, distracting from the “kill Homelander” narrative repeatedly, and often, degrading it.

The issue here is Soldier Boy, who has been an all-consuming presence in season 5 after being de-iced by Homelander with the main goal of him feeling less lonely. Instead, his “father” continues to berate, mock and humiliate him at almost every turn. This past week, he passed up a chance to kill him outright when he was rendered completely incapacitated by some random supe. Right now, Homelander isn’t even the strongest hero on the planet because Soldier Boy can survive the super virus and Homelander can’t.

None of this is to say that Soldier Boy is a bad character. The problem is that Soldier Boy is too good of a character, one with more depth than Homelander, and aided by a very funny, charismatic performance by Jensen Ackles. I’m sure he’s going to be a great lead for Vought Rising , but he is taking over The Boys in what’s supposed to be the culmination of a storyline that has little to do with him, outside of his original “creation” of Homelander. But the season has now made V1, the thing that makes Soldier Boy ageless and almost immortal, the big MacGuffin to find, and we’re going on a trip down memory lane from the Vought Rising years, this week meeting up with Bombsight, another OG hero that will have a big presence in the prequel spinoff.

Homelander has just gone off the deep end in a not-fun way, getting this very lame “I am God” idea in his head and working on a national marketing campaign to convince the public of that. Soldier Boy thinks it’s all very stupid, as it is, and honestly, he’s practically become the audience stand-in, given his opinions and screen time. That used to be Hughie or Starlight, for the most part.

Look, I’m interested in watching Vought Rising, and I get that Amazon does not want to let The Boys universe die (despite, stupidly, cancelling Gen V ), but it does not need this much setup, and as good of a character as he is, Soldier Boy did not need to be in this season at all and he’s making it worse by overshadowing Homelander at every turn.

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