Warning! The Boys spoilers ahead!The death that began Hughie Campbell’s story in The Boys is a lot darker than fans previously thought. Billy Butcher shines a light on a little secret about the series’ first death that makes it even more tragic.
The Boys is a satirical superhero comic that presents superheroes, or Supes, as uncaring jerks at best, and downright monsters at worst. To illustrate how awful the supposed heroes of the world can be, the series’ deuteragonist Hughie Campbell loses his girlfriend, Robin to one within the first few pages of The Boys’ first issue. During an average day for the couple, Robin is suddenly killed by the superhero speedster A-Train while he’s in the middle of a fight. The loss devastates Hughie and puts him on the path to join the titular Boys, a group dedicated to the surveillance and handling of Supe activity.
A-Train Killed Robin Cleaning Up Vought-American’s Mess
But there was more to The Boys’ first death, and it puts Robin’s untimely death in an awful new light. In The Boys #63 by Garth Ennis and Russell Braun, Billy Butcher has kidnapped A-Train and presented him to Hughie. Butcher wants Hughie to finally see his point of view on how irredeemable the Supes are, and to prove his point plays a conversation A-Train had with the Seven after the Robin incident. On tape, A-Train reveals that the Supe he fought was actually one of Vought-American’s that had gone off the deep end. A-Train and Homelander callously talk about Robin, calling her ‘collateral’ saying that it should be expected when Supes use their powers in the real world.
When Robin is killed, it’s assumed that she dies while A-Train is in the middle of a fight with a supervillain. But it’s revealed that there are no actual supervillains in The Boys’ universe (save for the ones Vought-American publishes in comic books). Robin died because A-Train was ordered by Vought-American to eliminate a problem Supe, something A-Train had never actually done and certainly wasn’t prepared for. Robin’s death wasn’t just the result of A-Train being in over his head. She died because Vought-American had no other way of policing the powerful Supes that they created. The negligence displayed by everyone in Robin’s killing reinforces The Boys’ core theme of the danger presented by unaccountable power.
The Boys’ First Death Proves Its’ Ultimate Point
The Boys isn’t so much a story about evil people with power, but rather the terrible things people can do with power when they’re left unchecked. Vought-American built an industry on creating Supes, but they had no way of making sure their products were accountable, other than using more Supes. Robin pays the ultimate price because Vought-American never bothered with keeping their Supes in line until it was too late. A-Train is never reprimanded for his role in Robin’s death, nor is Vought-American blamed for their sloppiness. It’s a tragic chain of events that ultimately reaffirms The Boys’ thesis about how dangerous power can be when nothing is there to keep it in check.
