The following article contains spoilers for The Boys season 3.Fans of The Boys will have to wait until next year for the show’s fourth season, but the good people behind Vought International's social media handles are doing their best to keep up the show’s image of being the exact opposite of Disney/Marvel and Warner/DC, now with a blast from the past courtesy of Soldier Boy.
It was just last week that The Boys' corporate social media account posted a tweet promoting Vought's streaming overhaul to give fans laugh at the expense of Warner Bros. Discovery's handling of Batgirl's cancellation and its ongoing plans for DC. This latest effort focuses on the supes’ other competitors, or at least their corporate overlords, with the trailer for Soldier Boy's fictional "Red Thunder" throwing some shade at Disney's usage of newly-inserted disclaimer warnings in old movies like Dumbo.
With the kind of copy that would make Ashley Barrett proud, Vought's meme account says the company has heard fan feedback to make the “brave choice” of bringing back an old classic from its disgraced hero, Soldier Boy. The “Red Thunder” films was briefly shown in The Boys season 3 as one of the many marketing tie-ins Vought had planned out for their own Captain America. Of course, the show does reveal Soldier Boy to ultimately be a flawed PTSD-ridden macho and pot-smoking homophobe, making him the first flawed supe experiment.
The clip itself isn’t anything too special, besides a brief appearance from the TNT Twins, whose chemistry is already showing some cracks in the few seconds they get. However, it does cement the anti-Soviet sentiment Soldier Boy was supposed to have, despite ending up “radicalized” by Russians. Naturally, the real punchline here is the actual disclaimer, which continues the trend of making fun of other studios' LGBTQ stories as being mere cash grabs, exactly like Vought's “bravest lesbian” Queen Maeve.
The Boys' showrunner Eric Kripke has never been shy about the series’ social and political commentary or how it embraces the criticisms of politically correct culture, just like the original comic book did, so seeing the Vought International Twitter account matching the tone of the show with the same messaging is hardly surprising. As for the two supes alluded to in the faux "Red Thunder" trailer, Kripke has stated it’s very likely both Soldier Boy and Queen Maeve will return, though in the case of the latter that will probably take a bit longer.
Jensen Ackles as Soldier Boy was a highly-praised casting addition, completely turning the power balance between The Boys and Homelander, at least for a moment. Now, while a lot of new supes will be joining the cast in season 4, there’s also a lot of promise in picking the established story arcs and seeing how the series will adapt some of The Boys most famous comic book moments.
The Boys is available exclusively on Amazon Prime Video.
Source: Vought International/YouTube