Soldier Boy is the name of three superhero characters in the comic book series Herogasm and The Boys, created by Garth Ennis and John McCrea. The first character introduced (but the third Soldier Boy in the timeline, with his two predecessors having died) is the elected leader of the Vought-American-sponsored superhero team Payback. He is depicted as one of the only "Supes" (i.e. "superpowered" or "superhuman" individuals, often acting as "superheroes") with selfless, benevolent motivations, who detests the use of profanity. However, Soldier Boy annually has sex with Homelander alone at the "Herogasm" orgy, under the mistaken hope that the "test" of doing so will convince Homelander to let him join his own superhero team, The Seven. After his most recent dalliance with Homelander, Soldier Boy is captured by CIA black ops agent Billy Butcher and brutally tortured and murdered by him for information on Homelander's recent activities. The original Soldier Boy is later revealed to have been mercy killed by Mallory during his first mission at the Battle of the Bulge, after his "Avenging Squad" inadvertently caused Mallory's men to be massacred, and been replaced by the second for the remainder of the war. In the Amazon Prime Video television adaptation, Soldier Boy (Ben) is introduced in the third season, portrayed by Jensen Ackles. A composite character of the comic book characters, this Soldier Boy is depicted as the first American non-aging Supe, created by Frederick Vought during World War II, whom Mother's Milk deems responsible for his family's downfall. A vulgar, arrogant, chauvinistic "bonafide war hero", while working with the CIA during the Cold War as the leader of Payback, Soldier Boy was betrayed to the USSR and experimented on for forty years. He is inadvertently freed by the Boys in the present-day while they were seeking the "superweapon" B.C.L. RED to use to kill Homelander, which in actuality is Soldier Boy himself, who, due to experimentation, can now emit an energy beam from his chest (Big Chest-Laser) which negates the superpowers of any other Supes with whom it comes in contact. It is later revealed that Vought used Soldier Boy's sperm to create Homelander without his knowledge (he was told to provide a sample for research purposes), thus making them father and son. Ackles returned in the 2023 spin-off series Gen V, portraying a Supe's imaginary friend Soldier Boyfriend, modelled after Soldier Boy. The character has received a positive reception.
Appearances
Comic book series
Soldier Boy III
Soldier Boy is introduced in Herogasm as the "elected" leader of the Vought-American-sponsored superhero team Payback. At the titular annual orgy of Supes, he is said to have had sex with Homelander alone every year out of the belief that he will let him join his own superhero team the Seven (a promise which Homelander has no intention of fulfilling), primarily existing as comic relief. As Homelander is inspired to begin planning a "Supe revolution" against Vought and their puppet rulers in the White House shortly after having sex with him for the most recent time, Soldier Boy remains obliviously standing by Homelander's side as he prepares to announce his plans only for him to be interrupted by the Guy from Vought. In The Boys arc "The Self-Preservation Society", Soldier Boy participates in Payback's ambush on the Boys, along with the rest of his team. Initially he manages to pin Billy Butcher, the Homelander's archenemy and leader of the Boys, against a wall with his shield. But being inexperienced in real combat, he loses the initiative and eventually the battle, having his nose bitten off by the CIA black ops agent before being beaten unconscious. Later, Butcher brutally beats and tortures him for information on the Homelander and his activities over the next few days, mocking him for having claimed to be the same Soldier Boy who fought in World War II, kept alive by being frozen in suspended animation, an identity he was forced to assume and impersonate by Vought. In the "What I Know" arc, Butcher is revealed to have killed Soldier Boy, with a public funeral being held for him and members of the Seven (including the Homelander) serving as his pallbearers.
Soldier Boy I
In The Boys arc "Barbary Coast", in precedence of telling "Wee Hughie" Campbell about the true sadistic nature of Billy Butcher, Lieutenant Colonel Greg D. Mallory tells him about his own history with Supes, beginning with his captaincy during World War II, when his company was made by government and Vought officials to supervise the "Avenging Squad", a team of the first American-made Supes, led by the first Soldier Boy, during the Battle of the Bulge. While eager to serve, Soldier Boy had little military experience, and ordered the flying members of the team to inspect the area for a Nazi presence, oblivious to the fact that doing so would expose their position. Realizing what Soldier Boy had done, Mallory only had time to give his men a brief warning before the enemy (a nearby Waffen-SS platoon) attacked, massacring both his and Soldier Boy's men. After coming across a mortally wounded Soldier Boy, near-vertically bisected by a blast, in the aftermath, Mallory had then dropped a grenade by his feet before walking away, mercy killing him.
Soldier Boy II
Continuing to tell Hughie about his own past in The Boys arc "Barbary Coast", Mallory reveals that by 1950, he learned that new versions (new Supes under the same designs and branding) of Soldier Boy and his brethren had been created by Vought to replace them, fighting elsewhere, known as "Crimefighters Incorporated" after the war and making propaganda films for the United States government. This second Soldier Boy would eventually later die in unknown circumstances, and be succeeded by the third in modern times, presented by Vought (like the second) as the first still-alive Soldier Boy.
Television series
The Boys (2019–2026)
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