Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) doesn’t care about anything else besides his own sadistic need for vengeance, but every now and then The Boys can’t help but show his softer side. He’s been through a lot of dark things and his past is riddled with the type of traumatic events that would send most people into a deep dark depression. His childhood was abusive. His marriage to Becca (Shantel VanSanten) was both loving and tumultuous before her mysterious disappearance prior to the Amazon Prime show. Billy has spent most of his adulthood trying to break the spell around Vought-based superheroes (aka Supes).
Part of it is because he’s sick of seeing the so-called good guys get away with treating others like trash. A bigger part of it, though, is his one-man mission to get back at Homelander (Antony Starr) for what he did to his wife. Billy’s gone through so much, yet he still manages to push through and keep fighting for what he believes in. It’s almost inspiring until one remembers the monstrous parts of himself that Billy has nurtured in the process. Yes, his past has severely messed him up as a person. It might’ve messed anybody but. But Billy’s choices are still his own and no amount of trauma can excuse how he’s treated others. . . or can it?
What did Billy Butcher do before The Boys?
Prior to The Boys, Billy was a happily married man. He and Becca had their issues and many of them revolved around his persistent anger issues. Still, they were making a loving home for themselves when Becca earned what seemed like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work for Vought International. Her job as the senior director in digital marketing had her rubbing shoulders with the very Supes Vought employed. Too bad this put her in the position to be assaulted by Homelander and silenced by Madelyn Stillwell (Elisabeth Shue) after the fact. If that wasn’t bad enough, Billy didn’t find out the truth until after she was already gone.
His partnership with Grace Mallory (Laila Robins) began with her showing him video footage of a distraught Becca leaving Homelander’s office late one night only to never return home. Even then, Billy didn’t find out the truth of her assault or the superpowered child it left her with until Season 2. When all Billy knew was that Homelander might’ve assaulted his wife and then killed her, he made it his personal goal in life to bring the flag-covered demon to ruin. After he found out the ugly truth, his desire for vengeance lost all limitations. Billy went on a rampage to make Homelander suffer no matter the personal cost to his soul and that’s actually part of the problem.
Again, however, Billy’s anger issues and violent tendencies were a thing way before Supes ruined his life. They started before he’d even left the UK, in fact. Season 3, episode 7, “Here Comes a Candle to Light You to Bed” finally spells out what The Boys had been alluding to since day one. His father Sam (John Noble) was an abuser who would beat Billy and his little brother Lenny (Jack Fulton). Billy did everything he could to protect his brother until he just couldn’t take it anymore and left for the Royal Marines. By the time he returned, Lenny had died by suicide. The helplessness of losing his little brother drove Billy to the United States.
Perhaps the same helplessness of losing his wife and watching Vought defy all odds against them led him to chase after his own superpowers. Regardless, The Boys has never claimed that Billy is a good guy. He’s got a volatile temper and a load of unmanaged childhood issues. Playing protector for Lenny and later for Hughie Campbell (Jack Quaid) hasn’t tempered it. His relationship with Becca only temporarily slowed him down. He is who he is and it seems like nothing can stop him. At the same time, sinking into his worst behavior and seeing it reflected in Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) in Season 3 seems to have gotten through to him.
Is Billy Butcher's story different in The Boys comics?
Billy in the comic version of The Boys is both exactly the same and totally different from his TV show counterpart. He’s still an ornery son of a gun that his teammates Mother’s Milk (Laz Alonso), Frenchie (Tomer Capone), and Kimiko Miyashiro (Karen Fukuhar) struggle to put up with. He’s also still got a chip on his shoulder a mile wide. But Billy gets his own superpowers in season 3, episode 2, “The Only Man in the Sky”. Meanwhile, he’s been in possession of super strength and durability since inception in the comics. Billy’s father was still abusive but only toward his mother Connie (played by Lesley Nicol in the show).
It’s Becca who encourages her to leave Sam for good and start a life with someone who actually loves her. His brother still died but via a tragic car accident instead of suicide. The biggest difference, though, is that Billy doesn’t have a beard in the comic. He’s clean-shaven, which is weird because most fans of the TV show version of The Boys just assumed he always had facial hair. That may not be the most important deviation from the comics, but it certainly is visually shocking for anyone expecting Karl Urban in comic form.
Billy is undoubtedly undergoing a serious evolution of character in The Boys. While many fans consider A-Train (Jessie T. Usher) the most complex person in the show, Billy took a little longer to hit rock bottom where he finally realized that something has to give. He can’t keep pushing the people around him to fulfill his goals without considering what they have going on or what they’re working toward. He can’t be trusted to lead The Boys if he’s going to employ his father’s relentlessly selfish methods of ‘my way or the highway’.
Ryan (Cameron Crovetti) has fallen under Homelander’s spell now that he’s been disappointed by Billy one too many times. Will Billy’s new demeanor remain? No one will know for sure until The Boys returns for Season 4. Even then, a lot can happen in the meantime. Unpredictable events in Gen V, for example, might throw a wrench in Billy’s development that changes his whole trajectory. The only thing rockier than his past is Billy’s future. Come what may, though, The Boys will definitely keep fans on their bloody toes.