Summary
- Ryan Butcher is a central character in The Boys TV series, but in the comics, he is killed shortly after his introduction.
- In the show, Ryan accidentally kills his mother with his powers and is now in Homelander’s custody.
- The show has deviated from the comics by keeping Ryan alive and potentially setting him up to kill Butcher, which would perfectly flip what happened in the original storyline.
Article contains discussion of sensitive content.
Ryan Butcher has become a central character Amazon’s The Boys television adaptation, but his comic book analogue had a radically different fate. The death of Butcher’s wife and child is one of the most gutwrenching scenes in a series which made gore and excess its business, but it also played an essential role in the plot of The Boys – in a way the TV show has significantly diverged from.
The Boys: Butcher, Baker, Candlestickmaker #4 by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson –featured the truly horrifying fate of the comic version of Billy Butcher’s family. In the process, the series’ creative team revealed the truth of Butcher’s deeply personal vendetta against Homelander, one that ultimately extended to all supes, and made Butcher the final antagonist of The Boys.
In one of its most significant divergences from its source material, Amazon’s The Boys not only revealed that Butcher’s son was alive, it recontextualized the complicated nature of his origin, and in the process made him one of the series’ most pivotal characters.
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Butcher Killed “Ryan” In One Of The Comic’s Most Gruesome Scenes
The Boys: Butcher, Baker, Candlestickmaker #4 – Written By Garth Ennis; Art By Darick Robertson; Color By Tony Aviña; Lettering By Simon Bowland
The death of Becky, and Butcher’s killing of Ryan Butcher’s infant comic book equivalent, in
The Boys: Butcher, Baker, Candlestickmaker
#4, ranks as one of
The Boys’
most challenging moments.
While the tragedy of Billy Butcher’s backstory had been alluded to in the main series, it was The Boys: Butcher, Baker, Candlestickmaker #4 that forced readers to confront it directly. Readers were shown, in shocking detail, the real reason why Billy Butcher became a founding member of the CIA-backed anti-superhero team, the Boys. His wife, Becky, was assaulted by Homelander, something that she hid from Billy, even through the resulting pregnancy. In a particularly graphic scene, the child’s powers manifested while he was still in the womb, killing Becky, and forcing Butcher to kill him.
However readers might feel about Garth Ennis, even his fans wouldn’t suggest that he handled The Boys‘ mature subject matter delicately; in fact, the series was deliberately abrasive in its approach. That said, while his critics might reduce his use of extremes to a matter of shock value, there is more to The Boys than that. As much as the comic indulged in crude comedy, all along, it was a potent tragedy – no more so than in the story of Billy Butcher himself.
The death of Becky, and Butcher’s killing of Ryan Butcher’s infant comic book equivalent, in The Boys: Butcher, Baker, Candlestickmaker #4, ranks as one of The Boys’ most challenging moments – as it should be. A moment like that should not be crafted frivolously by a creator, or taken lightly by audiences as an acceptable part of contemporary entertainment. Critical readers might disagree with Garth Ennis’ inclusion of the scene, or execution of it, but that is part of the reaction Ennis was courting by crafting art that routinely danced across the line of good taste.
Ryan Butcher’s TV Arc Is The Boys’ Most Dramatic Departure From The Comic
First Appearance: Season One, Episode Eight
The TV version of Ryan is an effective revision of the original
Boys
comic, so to speak, in that it offers the television audience a unique perspective on the battle between Homelander and Butcher.
As much as Amazon’s The Boys gleefully embraces the gore of the comic, and in many ways appropriately translates the satirical thrust of the series to the screen, there are some plot points that will never make their way to the screen. Chief among those is Butcher’s most horrifying kill, from The Boys: Butcher, Baker, Candlestickmaker #4. This presented a narrative problem to the creators of the TV adaptation, one they found a creative solution to that vastly alters the critical character dynamics of the story, and changes the trajectory of the plot as it races toward its climax.
Ryan Butcher was introduced in the final episode of The Boys Season One. Previously believed dead by Butcher, both he and his mother Becky were revealed to be alive. Much to Becky’s horror, Homelander discovered Ryan’s existence and decided to take an active role in his life. By the end of Season Two, Homelander’s interference in Ryan and Becky’s lives led to Ryan accidentally killing his mother with his powers, while trying to save her from Stormfront. Afterward, Ryan lived with Butcher briefly, before eventually being taken in by Homelander, who currently has custody of Ryan on the show.
The TV version of Ryan is an effective revision of the original Boys comic, so to speak, in that it offers the television audience a unique perspective on the battle between Homelander and Butcher. It also considerably weighs on the outcome, which is also set – based on the show canon up to this point – to be at least somewhat different than what readers of the comic are familiar with. While only time will tell what fates await Billy Butcher and Homelander, fans of The Boys can anticipate that Ryan will have an important part to play in both.
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Ryan Is An Endgame Character For “The Boys” TV Continuity
His Role Remains To Be Determined
In the original comic, the unnamed child killed by Butcher served a straightforward narrative purpose – to explain the unquenchable hatred for Homelander, and supes, that drove Billy Butcher’s every action…The TV version of
The Boys
vastly complicates this dynamic.
Over the past several seasons, following his introduction, Ryan Butcher has been maneuvered into a critical narrative position by the creators of Amazon’s The Boys. He faces a seemingly inevitable decision: side with Butcher, or side with Homelander. In the original comic, the unnamed child killed by Butcher served a straightforward narrative purpose – to explain the unquenchable hatred for Homelander, and supes, that drove Billy Butcher’s every action in the series. The TV version of The Boys vastly complicates this dynamic, in the best possible way.
Many fans will, naturally, expect Ryan to recognize Homelander for what he is – an unstable and cruel person, wielding unimaginable power he isn’t fit to possess. The Boys could make a stunning decision by doing the opposite, by having Ryan embrace Homelander and reject Butcher, setting up their confrontation as the true final conflict of the series. Not only would this be a heartbreaking turn for the character, it would also be a way of preserving Butcher as the series protagonist – though at an emotional toll he isn’t likely prepared to pay.
Alternatively, the TV series could play out a version of the comic’s ending by having Ryan help Butcher defeat Homelander, only to have Butcher turn on him, forcing the son to take down the father. In any case, it is worth noting that the comic book version of Ryan’s brief appearance in The Boys: Butcher, Baker, Candlestickmaker #4 featured the infant in a fight to the death with Billy Butcher. In the end, the TV adaptation could mirror this in the conclusion to their story, in an unexpected variation on The Boys darkest moment.
