Since the release of its first season back in 2019, The Boys has become an incredibly successful TV series. The show’s witty writing and memorable action scenes have certainly earned The Boys a devoted fan following – however, some of these fans don’t appear to be interested in the show for the right reasons.
Over the past few years, some fans have opted to worship some of the show’s detestable characters. This has become an incredibly problematic issue – one in which The BoysFunko Pop figurines certainly doesn’t rectify.
What is The Boys about?
The Boys is a twist on the classic superhero narrative. Typically, superheroes are shown to be ‘the good guys’. However, The Boys utterly reverses this well-known concept, so much so that The Guardian dubbed the show as a “welcome respite from Marvel overkill”.
In The Boys, superheroes are horrible and corrupt people, who abuse their power to harm others. Known as ‘The Seven’, The Boys’ superheroes trick the public into idolizing them, but their evil is quickly unearthed to audiences – especially in the show’s shocking opening scene. Season one introduced audiences to a group of vigilantes, known as The Boys, who fight against The Seven, desperate to bring the superheroes’ disgusting reign to a definite end.
All three seasons of The Boys have been widely celebrated by audiences. With a fourth season on the way, the show has definitely amassed a cult following. As well as providing gory action scenes and an abundance of witty humor, The Boys carries an important political message – one which targets corrupt political leaders. For example, many have perceived Homelander’s character to be a Donald Trump-like figure. Whilst the show itself has been vastly praised, its reception among fans has certainly caused some controversies.
The Boys’ main controversy surfaces from young fans idolizing the show’s horrible characters, particularly Homelander (Antony Starr), the leader of The Seven. Whilst this issue has been aggravated by social media, it seems like Funko isn’t helping to rectify the damage.
What are Funko Pops?
Funko Pops are a series of collectible figures which are known for their cute bobble heads and big eyes. Over the past few years, the figurines have become hugely popular, with some even becoming rare and valuable collectibles. For example, a Funko Pop of Alex, from A Clockwork Orange, was sold in 2022 for a staggering price of $32,439.
Funko has an incredibly wide range of Pop products, recreating the likeness of both celebrities and iconic fictional characters. From Bob Ross to Pennywise, there’s no doubt that Funko Pops have become extremely desirable collectibles.
Funko Pops are known for covering popular TV series, so it’s unsurprising that the brand decided to jump on the ongoing hype for The Boys. Since their release, Funko Pops of Homelander, The Deep (Chace Crawford), and A-Train (Jessie T. Usher) have become hugely sought-after. However, the popularity of these figures is representative of deeper issues.
The Boys Funko Pops Are Cute Versions of Terrible People
The actions of the majority of The Seven are unspeakable. Ranging from sexual assault to bestiality, these characters certainly aren’t figures to idealize. Shockingly, however, these vile actions haven’t prevented some fans from worshiping these detestable characters.
Since the release of season three, Homelander has become the face for toxic masculinity. Just like Patrick Bateman from American Psycho, Homelander quickly fell into the ‘he’s literally me’ social media spiral, in which young boys relate themselves to these vile characters. Despite his tragic backstory, Homelander’s actions are inexcusable, and are intended to represent the slimiest figures of society.
The issue has become so prominent that Homelander’s actor, Antony Starr, spoke out against the character’s problematic fan-base. In an interview with The LA Times, Starr dubbed the phenomenon as a “very strange thing” and emphasized that Homelander “is clearly not a good guy”.
Starr continued by stating that: “A lot of people have glommed onto him. There’s a weird element out there that actually kind of idolize him. I’ve seen some shit on Twitter and I’m like, ‘Wait, What? You are missing the point entirely!’”.
By creating cute figures of these vile characters, The Boys’ Funko Pops feed into this issue. Certainly, Funko has released figurines of problematic characters in the past, but The Boys’ Funko Pops specifically latch onto this pre-existing issue. For example, thankfully there aren’t many people out there who glorify the actions of Alex from A Clockwork Orange, but sadly there are an abundance of Homelander fans. Ultimately, his cute Funko Pop caters towards Homelander’s fan-base. Obviously, the welcome reception of Homelander is out of Funko's control, but his adorable figurine certainly doesn’t repel his problematic fan-base.
Although they are now valuable collectibles, Funko Pops were originally marketed as 'toys', and are still sold in numerous toy shops, with a reccommended 3+ age rating. By marketing The Boys' Funko Pops among popular children's characters, this sets a worrying precedent.
The same concept applies to The Deep – one of the most shocking characters in the entire series. It seems strange to want a cute figurine of somebody who has committed sexual assault and bestiality in your home. For a TV show like The Boys, Funko Pops certainly appear like a strange merch choice.