Billy Butcher
William J. "Billy" Butcher is a fictional character and one of the two main protagonists of the comic book series The Boys, created by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson. He is the leader of The Boys, a group of CIA-sponsored black ops agents who observe, record and sometimes eliminate superheroes artificially created by the mega-conglomerate Vought. He is the Homelander's archenemy, whom he blames for the rape and death of his wife Becky, while also developing an obsessive, intense hatred for all superhuman beings, which transforms him throughout the series from an anti-heroic figure into a villainous one. Butcher also appears as one of the two protagonists, alongside Hughie, in the Amazon Prime Video television adaptation of The Boys.
Butcher is primarily portrayed by Karl Urban in the Amazon Prime Video streaming adaptation and its spin-off, Luca Villacis and Josh Zaharia portraying him as a youth in the third season, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan portraying his inner self in the fourth season. Butcher is also voiced by Jason Isaacs and Kay Eluvian in animation. Karl Urban's performance as Butcher in the television series has received praise from critics and fans alike.
Appearances
Comic book series
''The Boys'' and ''Herogasm''
As a boy growing up in London's East End, Butcher watched his father physically abuse his mother on a daily basis, developing an overwhelming hatred for the older Butcher and almost leading him to murder. His younger brother Lenny talked him down, but only because of the impact it would have on their mother. Butcher went on to serve in the Royal Marines and was wounded in the Falklands War. Following his deployment, Butcher became self-destructive, drinking excessively and assaulting friends and strangers for little reason. This changed the day he met his future wife, Becky Saunders. Following that, there was no record of any assaults; Mallory believes Becky's presence had a calming effect on Butcher. Conversely, the cause of Butcher's campaign against superheroes stems from the rage he felt after the rape and death of his wife at the hands of a "supe". Following a strange period of emotional distance between the two of them, Butcher awoke to find his wife disemboweled on their bed, with her prematurely born, superpowered child floating above her; after it attacked Butcher with its heat vision, Butcher beat it to death with a lampstand. The loss of his wife shattered Butcher's tranquility and re-awakened his old demons. After being taken into custody, he read Becky's diary and discovered that his wife had apparently been raped by the world's premier superhero Homelander. After blinding a U.K. government official who threatened Butcher with incarceration if he did not go along with a cover story for Becky's death, Butcher was recruited to join Mallory in the enterprise that would later evolve into the Boys.According to #50: At the time of the Boys' original disbanding, taking place some months after the events of 9/11, Butcher had stated that he had been working for Mallory for 15 years. This indicates that he began around 1986. Butcher and Mallory operated as a pair for several years, until an operation against a high-profile target, Web-Weaver, resulted in increased support in the team. In #55, Mallory tells Wee Hughie that Butcher recruited Mother's Milk, and subsequently the Frenchman and the Female. As time passed, Butcher slowly began to take control of the group, gradually increasing the level of violence the Boys used against Supes, often manipulating events until lethal force was the only option.
Butcher is now teetotal, preferring to drink Club Soda, and avoiding the unnecessarily self-destructive behavior of his youth, semi-regularly checking in with his sponsor and former drinking buddy Proinsias. Butcher also seems happy to help out a friend in need, even if it means he takes a beating in the process, telling M.M. after one such beating "It only hurts when I laugh... Hahahahaha". At the same time, M.M. has noted that Butcher never brings this up, instead leaving it hanging over M.M.'s head. He seems genuinely fond of Hughie, but at the same time he has deliberately put Hughie into situations where he would have to use violence or kill an opponent and rarely keeps him in the loop or will engage in one-upsmanship with him. Later, Hughie figures out that it was meant to toughen him up in the face of what the Boys do and the mental games are likely due to Billy's awareness of Hughie's intuition and skill as an amateur detective. While Butcher seems at times callous with how he deals with his team, openly referring to the Frenchman and The Female as insane, Butcher is willing to take on a job by himself rather than risk losing the team on an operation, as seen when he takes on Payback by himself to cover the team's escape and his unwillingness to allow anyone else accompany him into the White House to confront the Homelander.
A bulldog named Terror is his constant companion; this dog has been trained to have sex with anything at Butcher's command Butcher is extremely protective of Terror, even going as far as threatening the Homelander with breaking a truce after the Homelander moves to attack Terror for urinating on his leg in #20. In that same story, the Homelander questions Butcher's motivations and, although Butcher does not verbally respond, the Homelander examines Butcher's pulse and heartbeat and hypothesizes that the Boys' war against superheroes is all that Butcher has to live for - a war that he does not expect to survive. Similarly, Mallory sees that what he unintentionally gave Butcher upon his recruitment into the Boys was a never-ending war which would constantly allow him to exercise the violent part of his being.
In Over the Hill with the Swords of a Thousand Men, at the final clash in Washington, Butcher learned that it was Black Noir who'd killed his wife rather than the Homelander and he finally gained his revenge. In issue #68, it was revealed that he'd secretly been making more of the modified Compound V from #11–14 so that, if he survived, he could kill vast numbers of potential superhumans. The battle for Washington was won because Butcher had information about how to guide missiles towards the neurons in superhuman brains; that and the Compound V made Mother's Milk suspect that Butcher had faked Vogelbaum's death and was using him to develop more for himself.
In The Bloody Doors Off, after Washington, Butcher reveals his plans to use his Compound V to kill all potential superhumans in an act of genocide, numbering billions of people. Butcher murders their ally Vas to cover up his plan, then murders the Legend to prevent any information from reaching Hughie. Butcher suddenly announces a three-month leave for the team, revealing his intention to make Hughie his second-in-command, which Hughie admits to having forgotten about previously asking for. It also comes out that he killed Milk's ex-wife in front of his daughter in order to prevent Milk from journeying to Los Angeles to deal with her. After confirming with Milk that he would not be on board with Butcher's plan, Butcher apologises to Milk and kills him before using an explosion to kill Frenchie and the Female.
Having discovered his plan, Butcher is later confronted by Hughie on top of the Empire State Building and, after a brief fight, they both fall onto a lower platform whereupon Butcher breaks his neck, becoming paralyzed from the neck down. After a brief conversation with Hughie wherein he acknowledges his past and admits to having killed Mother's Milk, Frenchie, and the Female, a police helicopter shows up. Knowing he will be locked away for life as an invalid, Butcher deceives Hughie into killing him by falsely claiming he had murdered Hughie's parents. Hughie, in a fit of rage, rams a metal spike into Butcher's chest, killing him. True to character, Billy dies smiling.