History Characters / TheBoys2019SoldierBoy

** While he hates black people, he thinks the icon of the perfect and ideal American dad, and [[SlippingAMickey a wonderful drink mixer]], is Creator/BillCosby, though Creator/BillCosby was known for mocking black people, and he ''did'' [[spoiler:crack down on Civil Rights protests during the 1960s, and later verbally accosted and brutalized Black Noir when he wanted to break out on his own, including callously saying he shouldn't try to "move on up", which is a reference to LiveActionTelevision/TheJeffersons and a clear jab at Black Noir's race. Soldier Boy has also shown to be quite negligent in handling problems in black communities, as a group of kids stealing a Mercedes Benz resulted in the Supe hurling the car through an apartment building and killing M.M's grandfather in the process.]]

** While he has a lot of DeliberateValuesDissonance around him, his bigotry is a bit more nuanced than is typical for the series. Though he took part in squashing civil rights activists and was excessively violent at crime fighting in black neighborhoods (leading to the deaths of MM's family), he admired Creator/BillCosby as "America's dad", though this could be because Creator/BillCosby was known for pandering to white people and mocking black people, and is proud of his role in raising publicity for the Afghans' resistance against the Soviet invasion, calling them "the good guys" and being very confused to why the US invaded Afghanistan.

* TheFriendNobodyLikes: Believe it or not he UsedToBeASweetKid who became a super-hero to earn his fathers respect. This failed as his father despised him viewing him as weak and unworthy to carry his name, even saying this to his face. This caused him to hyper compensate with TestosteronePoisoning, worse the public loved him for it, reinforcing his behavior. Consequentally, 40 years of enabling, insecurity, zero accountability for his actions, and ''heavy'' drug use resulted in a raging jerkass who lashed out at everyone and everything. [[spoiler:His behavior got to the point where just about everyone from his agent, to his girlfriend, his teammates, and Vought had enough and handed him over to the Russians to be rid of him. Despite the danger of them reverse engineering Compound-V, knowing he would suffer, be experimented on, and presumably killed in horrific fashion was worth the price to everyone for him to be gone.]] Zigzagged with Gunpowder; despite receiving a torrent of physical and emotional abuse at his hands (to the point Billy assumes that it even involved sexual abuse, but Gunpowder denies it) Gunpowder remained loyal to him, and even was the only one who didn't take part in the scheme to send Soldier Boy off to Russia.

* UnreliableExpositor: Beside being the FakeUltimateHero, [[spoiler:he lied to Hughie about how much he fought for his country in the [=WW2=], when in fact he went there just for a photo shoot]]. Hughie took him at face value.

* UnwittingTestSubject: [[spoiler:He was sold out to the Russians by his own team, with Vought's full approval]], and ended up being experimented on by them. His trip to Russia was not a nice experience for him, to say at least.

* WellDoneSonGuy: [[spoiler:He constantly yearned for the approval of his father who constantly saw him as a disappointment. Not even becoming America's idol Soldier Boy earned him any points as Daddy considered it cheating. To quote Tony Stark, everything special about Ben came out of a bottle.]]
* WhoShotJFK: [[spoiler: The Legend implies that Soldier Boy may have been involved in the Kennedy assassination.]]
* WildCard: What makes him so dangerous despite being the best means to take down Homelander is that he's just too unpredictable. Whilst he is someone who honours their agreements, they're still often shady and unscrupulous, and ultimately his personal issues cannot be ignored. His PTSD and his new explosive powers make him a literal time bomb, and his mental state is severely unstable thanks to being experimented on by the Russians, to the point he apparently can't remember [[spoiler: what parts of his life were fabricated for the sake of PR]]. All these mean it's highly undesirable to leave him to his own devices, since one of the sources of conflict in season 3 was the people he put as risk with his presence and rampage alone.
* TheWorfEffect: [[spoiler:Downplayed at first; At Herogasm, he doesn't defeat Homelander, but he's the first character in the show that's shown capable of ''keeping up'' with him and actually gives him trouble during their brawl. With help from Hughie and Butcher, he's able to almost kill him and manages to give Homelander his first ''bruise''. This is played straight in the finale when he's at full power; He holds Homelander still by the face with one hand long enough for Butcher and Maeve grab him, easily knocks Ryan and a Temp V-enhanced Butcher unconscious, and tosses around Starlight and Kimiko like ragdolls.]]

* AdaptationalAttractiveness: Jensen Ackles ranked up the character's attractiveness a lot. In the comics, he is at best, average looking and not even that after Billy leaves him without nose. Here, he has the charms of the rough around the edges seasoned soldier. It's also worth noting that the comic version of Soldier Boy wears an embarrassing, brightly colored spoof of the classic Captain America costume, complete with uncomfortably short shorts.

** In the comics, both incarnations of Soldier Boy were careless and incompetent as they were just military-themed superheroes and not actual soldiers. The first incarnation of Soldier Boy allowed his fellow supes to fly around the area and didn't consult the other soldiers or even consider the idea that the enemy might notice several men flying around the area and might follow them back to their base. The second incarnation of Soldier Boy never served in World War 2, was a coward who fled from fights as soon as he realized he was losing, he had no knowledge of military tactics, and was overall naive and easily manipulated. He had sex with Homelander under the belief that it was a test to join The Seven and would often grovel to other well-known superheroes in the comics. The covers of the comics even show Soldier Boy wetting himself in fear and Butcher made a point of insulting Soldier Boy by calling his backstory of serving in World War 2 an insult to the people who really did serve in it.
** In the series, Soldier Boy is far more competent and dangerous as he did serve with the military, and is shown to be manipulative with Hughie, who later learns the truth about Soldier Boy from the Legend. [[spoiler: He also easily spots one of Mindstorm's brainwashing tricks when Hughie himself was completely fooled. While Soldier Boy did not serve in World War 2, The Legend has stated that Soldier Boy just didn't fight in Germany, instead using a hose on civil rights protestors, participated in the Kent State Massacre, and is rumored to have been involved in Kennedy's assassination. Soldier Boy also revealed that he flunked boarding school in his youth and only became the first test subject for Compound V through his father's connections. However, he said he failed out because he "was a fuck up", suggesting that he flunked boarding school because he didn't apply himself enough.]]

* AdaptationalSexuality: PlayedWith. His comics version often had sex with Homelander, believing it is a test for him to join The Seven. Here, he is as straight as you could get from a man born in the '20s or '30s.

* AmazonChaser: PlayedWith. Perhaps it was just bluffing since he was trying to flirt with a [[ActionGirl young Mallory]], but he stated he likes the assertive ones like her, and is genuinely impressed that she is leading the Nicaragua mission.

* FightsLikeANormal: Soldier Boy's powers are quite mild compared to the other heroes as he only gets his radiation powers after the Russian experiments. So far, he has superhuman strength, superhuman durability, various immunities to poisons and toxins, superhuman speed and reflexes, a regenerative healing factor, and longevity. [[spoiler:He might not have been trained for World War 2 but he appears to have some level of combat training, either through Vought or when he assisted the military in repressing some civil rights activists in the 1960s and he personally murdered anti-war protesters at Kent State. He could have also received training with Payback when they went to Nicaragua as part of a publicity stunt.]]

* HeCleansUpNicely: In his first appearance, Soldier Boy looks like a stray, with unkept hair and long beard and dirty clothing. After visiting The Legend who gives his costume back, he goes after his ex wearing his costume, with his hair trimmed and a PermaStubble.
* HearingVoices: PlayedWith. As a sufferer of PTSD, Soldier might be hearing voices, given that he constantly asks Hughie and Butcher if they said something. As he's on a ''lot'' of weed by this point though, it's possible that its just aggravated his paranoia.

** Despite his philandering Soldier Boy did apparently genuinely love Crimson Countess, based on [[spoiler:his heartbroken reaction to her betrayal]]. He later admits he wanted to start a family with her; "I wanted some rugrats of my own with Countess...a couple little boys, raise them up to be men." Subverted though by the fact he abused all of Payback, likely her included, so whatever love that existed was probably not healthy and ''definitely'' not reciprocated.

* LostInCharacter: Soldier Boy was only supposed to be the mascot of the United States military during World War 2 and Vought never allowed him to see any actual combat despite having the means to survive it. In the upcoming years, he did fight against the civil rights protestors and eventually fought in Nicaragua but was knocked out by his own team and given to the Russians to endure over 40 years of torturous experiments. When the boys inadvertently rescued him (they were expecting a superweapon, not Soldier Boy himself), Soldier Boy started genuinely believing that he served in the Second World War instead of just being the lead actor in a series of propaganda works.

* MilesGloriosus: [[spoiler: Not by his own decision, Vought never allowed Soldier Boy to actually fight in World War 2 and solely made him a propaganda hero to represent America's role in the war. By the time the Boys rescued him from Russia, he genuinely believed he served in World War 2 and gets very defensive when confronted over it by Hughie.]]
* MilitarySuperhero: Deconstructed. [[spoiler:Soldier Boy was created as a mascot for the United States military and Vought marketed Ben as a working-class, all-American hero who fought for his country as soon as he was able. However, Ben never took anything seriously and was seen as a disappointment by his father after being expelled from boarding school. Ben joined the military through his father's connections and became the first test subject for Compound-V to be a supersoldier, but Vought only used him for war propaganda instead of actual combat, something that only further disappointed his father. Ben never performed in World War 2 and only stormed Omaha Beach two weeks ''after'' D-Day for a photo op. The only experiences he was confirmed to have had with the military were in quelling civil rights movements and participating in the Kent State massacre. He was only in Nicaragua to promote Payback and was betrayed by his own team after abusing them for so long. Vought also wanted to get rid of him so they could replace him with Homelander and gave him up to the Russians, who experimented on him for 30-40 years. After enduring the experiments, Ben actually starts believing that he served in World War 2, something that disgusted Hughie and he loses any remaining respect for Ben in the process.]]

** As Kripke puts it, 'Soldier Boy was Homelander before Homelander', and used to be the world's most famous superhero until he disappeared. Both of them are Vought's most successful creations, and strongest men in the world, each in their own era, depicted as charismatic, patriotic Americans, who exist to protect the people; and none of them are what is presented on TV, as in reality, they're bigoted, violent bullies with a HairTriggerTemper who's greatest heroics are mostly faked propaganda. They reflect everything wrong with America from the eras they come from.
** He's also this to Stormfront. Both Supes are TheAgeless who represent the ideals of their time, but while Stormfront represents Nazi ideals from World War 2 era Germany, Soldier Boy represents American jingoism from the same era. Both Supes are intrinsically tied to Homelander's origin (Stormfront is one of the original Supes and the research that she inspired helped create Homelander, while Homelander descends from Soldier Boy directly as his son), and holds an important relationship with him (Stormfront is the closest Homelander has gotten to a genuine girlfriend, and Soldier Boy is his father) but while Stormfront sees Homelander as the culmination of her vision, Soldier Boy sees him as a disappointment. Both Supes even get a moment to directly tell Homelander how they feel; but while Stormfront gives Homelander a RousingSpeech monologue about how he represents everything she's hoped for, Soldier Boy gives him only a few sentences that consist of [[WhamLine Wham Lines]] that destroys any hope that he could see Homelander as anything other than a failure.

* MovieSuperheroesWearBlack: His costume is a lot darker and more muted in color than most superheroes. His World War 2 outfit, though only shown in a black and white photograph appears to have been a black trenchcoat over a black tactical outfit with a black cloth mask.

* NotGoodWithRejection: When Mallory rejects his advances in Nicaragua, he looks like he's on the verge of tears before bottling it up and telling her to be nicer before calling her a homophobic slur.

* OldSuperhero: PlayedWith. Ben carries with him the immense bigotry of the time period in which he grew up. However, being TheAgeless, being 103 years old only makes him more dangerous due to the amount of experience he's had to master his powers.

* PaedoHunt: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]]. According to a complaint found by Butcher, Soldier Boy was [[spoiler:extremely abusive towards Gunpowder while Gunpowder was his 14 year old sidekick. Butcher assumes the abuse was sexual, though Gunpowder denies it, claiming that he was only being hazed. Soldier Boy is later shown in flashback and current time to be into women, preferring older ones in part because it was weird to the public he dated women not close to his age even if legal, thus showing Gunpowder was telling the truth. Soldier Boy was indeed extremely abusive physically to Gunpowder and the rest of Payback, but never sexually]].

* PropagandaHero: [[spoiler: Soldier Boy was designed to be a symbol of America's efforts during World War 2 but considering that he had superpowers, he was vastly underutilized and a waste of potential. Soldier Boy was eventually used in military services to quell civil rights protestors in Birmingham and he eventually participated in the Kent State Massacre. When he took part in the Contra War as part of Payback, he was meant to fight the Soviet-backed Sandinistas, but this was actually a ruse to have Homelander succeed him and Soldier Boy only participated in one battle against the Sandinistas before being overwhelmed by his own team.]]

* ThinSkinnedBully: Implied. Soldier Boy was very abusive towards his teammates during his time in Payback but when Mallory rejects his advances in Nicaragua, he looks like he's on the verge of tears before bottling it up and telling her to be nicer before calling her a homophobic slur.

* AllTakeAndNoGive: He expected loyalty and respect from his team Payback while giving none to them in return, and [[spoiler: assaulted and threatened them whenever any of them, like Black Noir, tried to "take the spotlight" from him. Ultimately this selfish attitude led to both them, and Vought, to betray Soldier Boy to the Soviet's.]]

* TookALevelInCynism: Flashbacks depict Soldier Boy as a jovial and gregarious individual who thrived in the spotlight. He actively participated in the celebrity lifestyle, engaging in lighthearted musical performances and being a movie star. However, he is betrayed by his own team and sold to the Russians which tortured and experimented on him for 38 years, which acted as a CynicismCatalyst for him. When the Boys encounter Ben in the present day, he became jaded, bitter and disillusioned, his personality reflecting the emotional toll of his experiences.

* HeroicBuild: While the heroic part is questionable, he is shows being well built even after four decades in Russia, in contrast to Homelander's [[FakeMuscles fake]] HeroicBuild.

** Don't touch or break his shield.