Hughie Beat The Boys' Real Villain by Rejecting Butcher's Philosophy
While the entire purpose of the supe-stomping team the Boys is to punish superpowered people who use their powers for debaucherous, and even criminal reasons, there was another villain lurking behind the scenes of the entire series the whole time–one Hughie defeated by rejecting Butcher’s philosophy.
Hughie Campbell was recruited to join the Boys by Billy Butcher after his girlfriend, Robin, was accidentally killed by the superhero A-Train while the supe was chasing a supposedly dangerous villain. From that moment on, Butcher manipulated Hughie into carrying out any number of dangerous tasks for the sake of his own anti-supe agenda by constantly reminding him of the rage he felt after Robin’s death. In fact, Butcher did such a good job keeping Hughie focused on hunting supes that he and the rest of the Boys neglected to see that all along, Butcher himself was their true villain.
Related: The Boys: Frenchie's Last Words Reveal His Secret Purpose on the Team
During the final arc concluding the story of The Boys by Garth Ennis, Russ Braun, and Darick Robertson, it is revealed that Butcher has created a bomb of sorts that would release a toxin into the atmosphere and kill any and all supes who breath it in–effectively wiping superhumans from the face of the Earth. When the other members of the Boys discover his plot, Butcher proceeds to kill them all one at a time until Hughie is the last man standing. At that point, Butcher decided to focus entirely on his genocidal plan and let Hughie twist in the wind as he didn’t think his newest recruit would be able to stop him. However, in The Boys #70, Hughie does the one thing Butcher would never do and that one thing leads him to victory: he asks for help.
In the issue, Hughie
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