The Boys Originally Had Aliens (And Should Have Kept Them)
While Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson's The Boys is one of the finest and slyest spoofs of superhero comics, it ultimately rejects a rich source of parody in the form of alien superheroes. While a pair of popular characters in the comic series are initially believed to be aliens, The Boys later walks back these narratives. In doing so, the ultimate impact of the series is reduced.
The absurdity of The Boys can be found in its skewering of the overpowered, squeaky clean, but rather shallow characters who populate superhero comic books. The one trope that Ennis and Robertson do not get to fully explore is the abundance of alien heroes in comics who give up their allegiance to their home planets in order to protect Earth and its human inhabitants. The two most obvious alien turnaround arcs like this are found in the origin stories initially presented for two members of the Seven, Jack From Jupiter and Lamplighter.
Related: The Boys' Shocking Homelander Twist Doesn't Actually Make Any Sense
Jack From Jupiter is widely perceived as The Boys' iteration of the DC Comics character Martian Manhunter. He is presented as alien whose superpowers are not based on Compound V or Vought, but rather due to his Martian physiology. As initially depicted, Jack From Jupiter would theoretically be able to operate independently of Vought should he deem it necessary. Similarly, Lamplighter is portrayed as a Green Lantern-like extraterrestrial assigned to Earth as part of his interstellar duties to “service and protect” all the planets on with his cosmic beat. As with Jack From Jupiter, the untold implication of an alien Lamplighter is that he is a super-powered being outside of those created, developed, and controlled by Vought. If these
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