List of The Boys characters


The following is a list of fictional characters from the comic series The Boys, created by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, and subsequent media franchise developed by Eric Kripke, consisting of a live-action series adaptation, the web series Seven on 7, the animated anthology series The Boys Presents: Diabolical, and the live-action spin-off series Gen V.

Overview

; Key
Main cast
'''Recurring cast'''

The Boys

The Boys are a CIA black ops team created by Col. Greg Mallory to observe, record and sometimes liquidate Supes created by the mega-conglomerate Vought. Ostensibly assembled to help prevent & avenge the immoral and illegal actions of the largely out of control "supe" community, they also seek to ensure that Vought lacks the stability or the platform to push for use of superhumans in national defense. Due to Billy Butcher's increased instability, the team's focus gradually changed from one of management & containment to the total elimination of all Supes. As Mallory notes in issue #55, 14 people were killed by the Boys from 1987 to 1995 and "nearly three times that number" between 1995 and 2002, after Butcher gained more influence. This coincides with Mallory's belief in issues #54–55 that despite the seductiveness of the concept of special forces teams, the application of them can often go wrong as they try to justify their budgets and create their private conflicts. As a result, Mallory feels that the original concept for the team has gone awry and would never have created the unit as it currently stands.
The first iteration of the Boys was decommissioned after a disastrous confrontation with the Seven in 2001 that resulted in the deaths of Mallory's grandchildren. The unit was reformed a few years later – indicated in issue #1 to be soon after the 2004 Presidential election – and has carried on where they left off. All the members have enhanced strength and durability due to injections of Compound V to support direct confrontations with Supes. Aside from Hughie, none of the Boys show restraint when on the attack, although they will attempt to avoid killing when it complicates matters.
Though they are not as powerful as the corrupt superheroes they fight, the team compensates with their blue-collar grit, their willingness to fight dirty, their access to high military grade weaponry and explosives, and their fearlessness to kill as necessary. Thanks to Butcher's, Frenchman's, and Mother's Milk's military backgrounds, the Boys also gained elite military combat and weapons training to make them an even deadlier team. They also became master hand-to-hand combat specialists thanks to Mother's Milk's background as a former boxer.

Billy Butcher

Hughie Campbell

Mother's Milk

The Frenchman

First seen in issue #2, The Frenchman is one of the original Boys, and displays a penchant for extreme violence within a few frames of his first appearance. As his name suggests, he is French. His spoken French uses incorrect phrasing, though whether this is an intentional plot point remains unknown. He takes an immediate liking to "Petit Hughie." He and the Female provide the physical strength of the team, and he is prone to violent outbursts, although he can control them better than the Female. According to Mother's Milk, however, it is better for the rest of humanity in general if they are in the team rather than in the outside world.
Like Billy and Mother's Milk, the Frenchman possesses military experience, particularly in ballistics, to the extent that Butcher defers to him on that matter. The Frenchman also possesses an incredibly strong sense of smell. When his sense of smell is first shown in the Glorious 5 Year Plan arc, a confused Hughie asks why Terror is not sniffing around. Butcher replies that "Frenchie has the better nose for it," implying that The Frenchman's sense of smell is greater than that of a dog.
The Frenchman appears to be quite shy and caring until someone provokes him, particularly with insults towards France and the French. In response he will attack or even kill in a gruesome manner; he batters three American businessmen in a coffee shop for calling him a "Goddamn surrender monkey" and a "fucking cheese-eater." In issue #55, Mallory notes that cruelty to children makes Frenchie "livid," which renders him hard to control when such scenarios are encountered.
In issue #37, his origin story is told, though the story may be the Frenchman's delusions. Returning from military service, he is welcomed home by residents in his native town of Franglais, but he soon learns that his lover has taken off with his childhood rival, Pierre. Renouncing violence, he refuses to confront Pierre. Months later, at a local festival featuring jousting on bicycles with baguettes, the Frenchie's father challenged Pierre to restore the family's honor. Pierre, fearing certain defeat, topples the challenger's bicycle with a stale croissant, killing him. Renouncing his newfound pacifism, the Frenchman exacts his revenge on Pierre and starts drifting from place to place, until he gets into a bar fight with an American and is seen in action by Billy Butcher, who promptly recruits him. Issue #37 leaves unclear how much of this story is factual versus clouded memories of the Frenchman. Factually, Butcher had a folder on the Frenchman's membership in the French Foreign Legion; along with his characteristically British usage of the words "mum" and "wanker" and his hometown's name literally meaning "French-English," suggest a British origin.
The Frenchman displays fondness for the Female, bonding by playing games with her; the Frenchman is the only person who can safely wake her. In issue #38, it was revealed that he took on the task of humanizing her and was the first person to treat her with kindness and civility. He also takes offense to when Butcher or Mallory refers to the Female as an it. In issue #16, he forced the New York Mafia to stop hiring the Female as a hitman. In an effort to stop the Female from killing for the mob, he attempted to hold her back, which she viewed as a threat. The Frenchman told her, "I'd rather die than not be your friend, and if it has to be by your hand, so be it," to which the Female walked away.
In issue #63, the Frenchman loses his right arm in battle. He survives due to Vought-American medical treatment. After the events in Washington, he takes to wearing a Napoleonic hat with his jacket.
In #69, while searching their HQ at the Flatiron Building, the Frenchman hears something odd and finds a high-yield bomb with a few seconds left on the timer. Knowing there is no chance to escape, he turns and expresses his love for the Female "from the first." He and the Female are killed in the subsequent explosion.
/ The Frenchman / Frenchie appears in the live-action television series adaptation, portrayed by Tomer Capone. This version was brought into Mallory's services after being caught for bank robbery and aggravated assault on a Supe via "weaponized xanax". He suffered abuse from his bipolar father, who once attempted to smother him with a Hello Kitty duvet, kidnapped him while evading the police, and forced him to kneel in broken glass, all of which Frenchie attributes to a pathological need to follow someone, regardless of who they are.

The Female (of the Species)

' is one of the earliest members of the Boys and the only woman of the group. First appearance is issue #2. She is known for her animalistic brutality, and suffers from selective mutism. When not working for the Boys, she used to do freelance work for the Mafia.
The Female has a reputation for "explosively eviscerating" her victims. In issue #3, it is implied that she may be triggered to attack when another person touches her, possibly as a result of past trauma. This does not appear to apply to the Frenchman. She is shown to have a tendency for ripping off people's faces. In issue #16, the Frenchman states that she 'does these things because cannot not do them'. Issue #24 states that she has continued killing for hire, despite The Frenchman forcing the mob to back off. Issue #38 shows that, as an infant, she found her way into a pail of discarded Compound V waste, slaughtering scientists in the building and eventually being captured. She escaped years later, when Butcher and the original team of Boys rescued her. She is beaten into a coma by Stormfront in issue #31, but not before ripping out one of his eyes. She recovers in issue #34.
Despite her response to other humans, the Female is fond of and kind to animals. She freed Jamie the hamster out of his wrapping after he emerged from the Blarney Cock's anus and subsequently took care of him during Hughie's hiatus from the team, ostensibly as a deterrent to being subjected to the same treatment again. She had a particular bond with Butcher's English bulldog Terror, often tickling him or playing with him. The Female took his death extremely hard, lying down next to Terror mournfully after he is killed.
The Female occasionally shows signs of responding to the Frenchman's treatment with genuine human reaction. She smiles when enjoying her favorite candy; she chooses to restrain her murderous urges rather than hurt the Frenchman; and she speaks for the first time in issue #66, due to her amusement over Hughie stealing Doc Peculiar's file on Queen Maeve for the purpose of masturbating to the photos contained inside. She laughed, and spoke for the first time with the word "Ha!"
During a meeting of the Boys discussing how to stop Butcher, Hughie suggests including the Female, since she has not spoken for herself. The Frenchman disagrees, saying this would halt or even reverse her positive development, and Mother's Milk voices his opinion that she deserves the opportunity to walk away more than anyone else. Hughie concurs, then tells the Female it is okay to stay behind. However, as the others start to walk out the door, she says to them, "I hate mean people," the only time she has ever spoken a complete sentence. She then puts on her trench coat and walks with them.
In issue #69, she and The Frenchman are killed when Butcher bombs The Boys' headquarters, the Flatiron Building.
' / The Female appears in the live-action television series adaptation, portrayed by Karen Fukuhara as an adult and by Ai Bennett as a young girl. At a young age, a liberation army captured and experimented on Kimiko and her brother Kenji after soldiers killed their parents. In the process, she gained super-strength and a healing factor that allows her to heal from fatal injuries, though she stopped speaking and communicated with her brother using sign language. After Kenji's death, she teaches it to Frenchie. Despite choosing not to speak, she still dreams of being able to talk and sing, as seen in season three.
During season four, Kimiko pushes Frenchie away due to guilt of her past murders, and he does the same due to his own guilt. She is injected in the left leg by Dr. Sameer Shah's virus, causing Frenchie to amputate it before it can spread to the rest of her body. With the severed leg on ice, Kimiko's left leg grows back, and Frenchie is able to generate a dose of the virus from the leg. Kimiko and Frenchie eventually come to terms with their pasts and admit their romantic feelings for each other. Their happiness is short-lived as the Boys, with the exception of Annie and Butcher, are apprehended by Homelander's new regime after Butcher assassinates Victoria Neuman with his new supe powers. As Frenchie is brainwashed and kidnapped by Cate Dunlap, Kimiko speaks for the first time in the series, screaming "no" as she is held back.