Michael Foster-Manders
editor in chief

White supremacy, xenophobia, sexism, homophobia, abuse of power, rapists and a dash of love.                

 This is not your Marvel summer blockbuster fluff superhero movie. It’s the return of “The Seven” for season two of Amazon’s “The Boys.” Action-packed is the only word that can describe the season debut.                

 America’s most infamous superhero killing team “The Boys’’ have been regulated to a Haitian gang hideout after Billy Butcher, played by the rugged actor Karl Urban, is framed for killing Madelyn Stillwell, thus landing the team on the fugitive list by the superhero-creating company Vought Enterprises.                 

Billy, now knowing his wife is alive, imprisoned is hell-bent on finding her and getting the love of his life back. Throwing caution to the wind, he embarks on a journey that might leave him and his team more broken than they can possibly be.                 

The leader of “The Seven,” Homelander, is completely out of control now knowing that the company lied to him about his child conceived through sexual assault is still alive and goes to try to be a father to his son. Becca Butcher is caught off guard by his appearance to where she was promised by Vought Enterprises and vows not to let their son become like him. Becca is still in love with Billy.                 

“The Seven” are going through their own changes. A-Train, who played Jessie T. Usher. is still recovering from his heart attack from Compound V abuse and worried about losing his spot on the team. Starlight is going through all kinds of complex emotions finding out her mother volunteered her to be a guinea pig for Vought with their Compound V, being in love with Hughie who happens to be a member of the boys and worried about being outed for exposing Vought’s hand in superhumans.                

 What makes “The Boys” work as a show is it shows the real-life consequences if superhumans were real and had real emotions and issues. Families are affected by their fights and left homeless or dead from the aftermath. Abuse of having unchecked powers with sexual assault, robberies and other crimes. 

The dark humorous tone is what sets this show apart from other comic book adaptations is the cherry on top for this sundae of massacre and destruction. The team of “The Boys” get into all kinds of funny situations, trying to avoid being captured and trying not to kill each other in the process. Mother’s Milk played by the charismatic Laz Alonso plays the yang to Billy Butcher’s as the logically sound co-leader to Butcher chaos. 

Instead of releasing all the episodes for the season at once, Amazon decided to release the first four episodes and then offer the rest on a weekly basis.