The Boys comics (four) endings explained: Breaking down how The Boys comic ends

The Boys’ comic book and the show are vastly different. One difference is how the show will end. While season 5 hasn’t even begun filming, showrunner Eric Kripke says the ending with Black Noir won’t happen. If you’re a fan of the source material, you may not like it, but you understand. However, The Boys had three parts that all felt like conclusions. Here they are in detail.

Homelander’s death and Black Noir reveal

Comic book source: The Boys: Over the Hill with the Swords of a Thousand Men

Long before Hughie joined the team, The Boys had blackmail pictures of Homelander doing atrocious things. The Seven met with The Boys and agreed that using the photos was mutually assured destruction. This left things up in the air. What neither team knew was that Homelander wasn’t in the pictures. It was Black Noir. Vought needed insurance against Homelander so they created a clone of Homelander. Vought made Black Noir powerful enough to take out the world's strongest "superhero".

Homelander and Butcher find this out together after Homelander tries to overthrow the U.S. Government. Black Noir takes his mask off and looks just like Homelander. Being created for a purpose and not allowed to do it drove Noir crazy. Noir says that he did all the things in the pictures hoping he’d be allowed to kill Homelander.

The other thing that Noir did was send Butcher on his path of hatred towards supes. He was the one who sexually assaulted Butcher’s wife Becky leading to her death (The Boys: Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker). The entire time Butcher thought it was Homelander, it was Black Noir. This ends with Black Noir killing Homelander and Butcher killing Noir.

Butcher finally avenges his Becky, but that isn't enough. Before the end of the issue, Butcher is crying and talking to Becky. He admits that what he did was for him and that she’d hate what he’s become, but she’ll hate what he’s about to do even more.

Butcher last move

Comic book source: The Boys: The Bloody Door's Off

What Butcher does next is awful. He believes, “With great power comes the certainty that you’re going to turn into a (censored).” With that in mind, Butcher starts his plan to kill anyone with Compound V in their system. That includes people who don’t know they have it and his teammates.

As bad as that is, it gets worse. Butcher tried to get The Boys to leave so he could finish things off without them knowing. Instead, he’s “forced” to kill them. The only person who escapes is Hughie. During the explosion that kills Frenchie and The Female (Kimiko on the show), Hughie realizes Butcher has been trying to toughen Hughie up because part of Butcher wanted to be stopped.

Hughie confronts Butcher on the Empire State Building and tries to stop Butcher by charging at him. Butcher dodges and catches Hughie before he falls. They both eventually go over the edge leaving Butcher crippled from the neck down. This stops the bombs from being set and leaves Hughie and Butcher to have one last conversation. Butcher tells Hughie to find Annie and never let her go. Then, in true Butcher fashion, he tricks Hughie into killing him

Butcher asks Hughie to kill him so he doesn't go to jail like he is. When Hughie says Butcher deserves it, Butcher says he killed Hughie’s parents. This sends Hughie into a rage and he kills Butcher. Hughie frantically calls his parent only to discover they’re alive. They say Butcher was there a little while back singing their son’s praises. Hughie is left stunned that Butcher got one over on him one last time.

Hughie ends things

Comic book source: The Boys: You Found Me

After Hughie heals up, he meets with the former head of Vought, James Stillwell. Hughie lets him know that if Vought tries to put supes in the military, he’ll set off the bomb that will kill anyone with Compound V in their system. James Stillwell leaves and goes to the new Vought (renamed American Consolidated) to consult on a new superhero team. He immediately realizes there’s no hope and that supes are a bad product.

Hughie and Annie meet at the rebuilt Brooklyn Bridge (destroyed after The Seven failed to stop a terrorist attack). Hughie is apprehensive about accepting happiness. Whenever he does, something tragic happens. Annie reassures him that things are okay. The last page is the two of them kissing and with the title of the issue, “You Found Me.”

This was the final issue in The Boys back in 2012. In 2020, writer Garth Ennis released another chapter to end the series.

The true ending

Comic book source: The Boys: Dear, Becky

After traveling the world, Hughie and Annie move to Scotland to start a new life. Out of nowhere, Hughie receives Butcher’s diary in the mail without a sender. While reading it, Hughie realizes the moment Butcher decides to kill supes. Eventually, Annie confronts him about the diary and tells him to deal with his past so they can have their happily ever after

 Time goes by and Hughie finds out that former Director of the CIA Susan Rayner sent the diary. She holds a grudge after Hughie and Kessler ruined her chance at the senate (The Boys: You Found Me). Rayner expected Hughie to get triggered. Instead, he kept it together with help from Annie.

Rayner says she deserves more after being with the government for 25 years. She subtly says she plans on bringing supes back to help put her in power. That forces Hughie to play incriminating audio of Rayner ordering the death of innocent people. This lets her know if she tries to bring supes back or use them herself, he’ll release the audio to the world. That was enough to stop Rayner.

After finally putting his old life to rest, Hughie and Annie get married. Later that night, Hughie takes one page from Butcher's diary and burns the rest. He writes, “Dear Becky. You were with him all the way.” He puts the page in a bottle and throws it out to sea.

The end.

What did you think of the many endings of The Boys comic book? Have you read the series?