The Boys Season 3 Flips Butcher & Hughie’s Most Important Comic Scene

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WARNING: Spoilers ahead for The Boys season 3, episode 4

The Boys season 3's V-24 storyline perfectly flips Hughie and Butcher's roles from the comics, turning a crucial moment into something darker. Throughout the entirety of The Boys seasons 1 & 2, Karl Urban's Billy Butcher and his cohorts fought supes the old-fashioned way — with guts, blackmail, and copious amounts of explosives. A surprise gift from Queen Maeve prompts a change of strategy in The Boys season 3, however, as Butcher starts injecting a temporary brand of Compound-V as a performance enhancer, giving himself super strength and laser vision.

V-24 is a concept ripped straight from the pages of The Boys' original comic series, but rather than wait two volumes, Butcher's crew are already pumping blue stuff when the story began. Though not all of his pals require the boost, comic Butcher injects himself with diluted V before virtually every battle against a supe, and when Wee Hughie Campbell joins their club, he too reaps the benefits of Compound-V injections as a pre-game ritual.

Related: The Boys Just Hinted At Queen Maeve Dying In Season 3

Here's where The Boys season 3 does a complete mirror image of the comic story. During their mission to locate «BCL Red,» Hughie realizes Butcher is doping with V-24 and begs for a hit himself. Butcher refuses the request, telling Hughie he's better than sinking to such a grim level, but Starlight's frustrated boyfriend goes behind Butcher's back and takes a dose regardless. The complete opposite transpires in The Boys' comic books. Here, Hughie has only recently been recruited when Butcher abruptly sticks him with a Compound-V injection sans consent. A horrified Hughie is aghast at being forcibly prescribed this