The Boys' Compound V Use Originally Gave Them Much Different Powers
Warning! Spoilers for The Boys television series and comic book below.
Compound V has transformed The Boys into temporary superheroes, but in the comics, the powerful super-serum that Hughie and Billy Butcher take has an entirely different advantage. While temporary Compound V has been revealed to have deadly long-term effects on its user in The Boys streaming series, in the stories that inspired the show, the drug actually has the opposite effect. Instead, it increases the lifespan of whoever takes it.
In The Boys comics and television series, some of the most powerful Supes in the universe gained their powers through Compound V. The super-serum, developed by Nazi-geneticist Frederick Vought, gave normal humans incredible abilities and created the age of superheroes. In the show, during the 1940s, Soldier Boy was given one of the first doses of Compound V, making him a powerful and deadly American hero. His powers were later passed on genetically through his son, Homelander. To fight back against the Supes, Hughie and Butcher gained their own powers by taking Compound V — but instead of the powerful serum taking years off their lives like in the show, it extended their lives in the original story.
Related: The Boys: Black Noir's First Words Prove He's Homelander's Worst Nightmare
In The Boys #52 by Garth Ennis, Darick Robertson, John McRea, Keith Burns, Simon Bowland, and Tony Avina, Hughie pays a visit to Greg Mallory, who initially led The Boys and recruited Billy Butcher to the team. While the two discuss the history of The Boys squad, Mallory reveals that despite looking like a middle-aged man, he's actually 91 years old. Furthermore, Mallory tells a shocked Hughie that while using Compound V doesn't make him
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