Characters / A Supe of a Man

Characters from A Supe of a Man. For the original canonical characters of Superman, see here. For the canonical characters of the The Boys (2019), see here, and for the comic book, see here.

---

Main Characters

Superman / Kal-El / Clark Kent

The Man of Steel himself. Born on Krypton, the baby Kal-El was sent into space by his desperate parents on the eve of their planet exploding. He lands on Earth, but with one change: instead of landing on Earth in the DC Universe, he lands in the world of The Boys. After being found and taken in by the Kents, he's thrown into the world of corporate heroism by his aunt. Clark Joseph Kent never asked to be a hero, or be a source of inspiration, or to feel the weight of Heaven and Earth on his shoulders, but as Superman, he is all of these things. Yet he will not balk as he is pulled deeper into the dark underbelly of his profession. Clark will be the hero his loved ones, the world, and mankind desperately need. Because if he can't do it, who else will?

---

A-H

• Above the Influence: When Annie shows up at Clark’s house drunk and tries to have sex with him, Clark is able to leave her to sleep it off in his room.
• Acquired Situational Narcissism: During his college years, Clark did briefly get a tad prideful about the rapid progress he was making in his career and idly fantasized about becoming the next number-one hero, replacing Homelander, thinking that "the man wasn't getting any younger." A cold splash of reality hit him after being dragged to a rave by Alex, which snowballed into the destruction of an orphanage and the death of children. Realizing just how toxic the underbelly of the Supe community is, he lost all interest in the lifestyle and began focusing purely on the job.
• Adaptational Backstory Change: Downplayed. Clark is still an alien from Krypton, found and adopted by the Kents. However, he begins his heroic career in childhood due to ending up in a world where superheroes are marketed as celebrities and never works as a reporter alongside Lois Lane.
• Always Someone Better: Clark Kent might be a relative newcomer to the superhero scene, but he's faster than A-Train and stronger than Homelander; Annie muses that she's always known that Clark is better than other heroes from when they were in the Young Americans together. More importantly, his moral compass is entirely intact.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: Superman, using his Super-Senses, can read the emotions of others based on how their vital signs behave. He tells Stillwell that the senator she wants to manipulate is deadset on voting against a bill that would benefit Vought.
• Beneath the Mask: Clark's reputation is sterling even by Supe standards, and he's frequently looked to as the very model of what a superhero should be. Under the surface... he's still exactly that, but he's both disgusted and worn down by the toxic and corrupt underbelly of the superhero culture he's been dragged into. Even Annie eventually sees that while Clark is every bit the Nice Guy he projects himself as, he has plenty of human flaws he tries to keep people from seeing.
• Best Friend: With Annie. They met each other when he was nine at a Vought sporting festival, and they've grown close over the years, with Annie seeing Clark as a brother.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Superman might be just about the only true hero with a heart of gold in a world as cynical and dark as The Boys, but that doesn't mean he's a pushover. After A-Train turns Robin into red paste, he demands to Stillwell that Hughie be taken care of properly and threatens to meet with Reggie personally if he doesn't.
  Superman: There is a man, Hugh Campbell Junior. The person killed was his girlfriend and the love of his life. I want you to make sure he is taken care of, A-Train apologizes publicly, and this doesn't happen again. EVER. Or A-Train will wish it was just words.
• Beware the Honest Ones: Look, Clark's a fairly straightforward guy. He grew up on a small farm and doesn't like getting involved with politics. He's quite possibly the only Supe in the world with no skeletons in his closet. But he's not stupid and his commitment to doing his job right means that Vought's usual discouragement tactics simply won't work when he's on the warpath.
• Big Brother Mentor:
  • While not actually related, he acts this way towards Ryan (who probably believes Homelander's assertion that they're family), guiding the young Supe through a lot of the trials of his Coming of Age Story.
  • To a lesser extent, Annie also looks to him for guidance.
• Big Good: He's got the power and the influence to back up his moral and ethical standards, which has a positive impact on other people's lives (like Annie, Maeve, Hughie, Lois, etc.).
• Broken Ace: Clark has money, power, fame, connections, smarts, and a functioning moral compass... but he's also troubled by celebrity life and the corruption around him.
• The Cape: A Decon-Recon Switch. Initially invoked by Vought's PR as part of his Superman identity—he's got the kindly "big brother" charisma down to a science—but his private moments show that it's only mostly an act–Clark is a big guy with an even bigger heart who genuinely enjoys helping people, and he's a great example of an honest and noble hero fighting For Great Justice. Though he's far more realistic about it than Annie.
• Captain Patriotic: Aunt Mary personally wrote Clark's catchphrase–"Truth, Justice, and the American Way"–to ape this image. His current suit downplays it, with its blue, red, and yellow color-scheme, likely to avoid treading on Homelander's territory.
• Celebrity Is Overrated: Clark dislikes being marketed and having to put on a show for the public most of his life. He avoided the worst aspects of celebrity life thanks to his loving parents and aunt.
• Chick Magnet: Clark gets a lot of attention from the opposite sex due to his fame, power, and looks. However, he doesn't enjoy it because some of the women he meets want to use him for advancement, or are under the spell of his celebrity status. It's noted a few times that even when he's Clark Kenting, women constantly flirt with him. When the two start dating, Lois has to chase them off a few times.
• Clark Kenting: He's the Trope Namer, so naturally Clark relies on it, aided by the fact that most heroes are so public nobody could imagine any of them doing something that takes them out of the public eye.
• Composite Character: He takes on a bit from the comic book version of Black Noir and show version of Ryan Butcher as Vought's secret backup plan against Homelander, though he's not a clone of the Supe.
• Country Mouse: Clark is uncomfortable with city life and big competitions and prefers the quiet cornfields of Kansas.
• The Dutiful Son: Clark loves his parents enough to save them from losing their farm with a generous loan.
• Do Well, But Not Perfect: One of his big lessons to Annie–true heroism can be as small as helping somebody smile after a horrible tragedy, but that doesn't make it any less meaningful than fighting a bunch of monsters. Just helping is more heroic than anything a multi-billion dollar media machine can cook up.
• Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones:
  • Clark is a Nice Guy down to the bone and he tries to give people the benefit of the doubt, but as A-Train quickly learns, you do not want to be on his shit-list.
  • Homelander is added to that list when it becomes clear to Clark what a narcissistic sociopath he truly is, and does his best to protect Becca and Ryan Butcher from him.
• Excellent Judge of Character: Clark may be idealistic but that doesn't stop him from being able to accurately peg others as good or bad. After meeting her once, he immediately wants nothing to do with Stillwell. Though it takes a while for him to catch on how sick Homelander is.
• Expy Coexistence: He is the Superman sharing space with the Corrupted Character Copy, Homelander.
• The Fettered: One of the traits that makes Clark stand out in the Supe community is that he exercises extreme self-restraint with his powers and stringently uses non-lethal tactics. So much so that in all the years that she's known him, Annie can't recall a time when he was ever truly angry. Clark later explains that when he was young he accidentally killed his pet cat when he was trying to save it from being snatched up by an eagle. Seeing first-hand the consequences of losing control of his powers, he's trained himself to have an iron-grip on his emotions. Though the stress of dealing with Vought and The Seven has caused him some slip-ups.
• Genius Bruiser: Clark doesn't just get by on physical force alone. He keeps from casually using his heat vision to stop some robbers in a public area so he doesn't accidentally cause their guns to explode and disarms them using his speed. He analyzes crime data and evidence to deduce where he's needed most. He also impresses Homelander by figuring out how to build a system of barriers to protect New York from storm surges. While stopping a plane hijacking, he keeps Homelander from killing a hijacker with his heat vision by punching the air hard enough that it creates a shockwave with such precision that it knocks the hijacker out from meters away. And using some quick math, he figures out a way that, Maeve and Homelander can save a plane from crashing despite the controls being destroyed. He can also design a computer algorithm to locate specific people.
• Gentle Giant: Clark is a big guy ^note He's noted to be taller than Hughie, who himself towers over most of the cast. with a big heart... until you make him mad.
• Goo-Goo-Godlike: Even as a baby, Clark was strong enough to break his adoptive father's finger and lift Mary's couch (which was bolted to the floor).
• Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: After Clark learns the real nature of how Vought covers up the heroes' indiscretions, he is naturally horrified at the scale of the corruption in the system, and is swiftly reassured by his father that his parents both know Clark would never do such things.
• Good Is Not Dumb: Clark may be a decent guy but he's no idiot:
  • He is very much aware of the opportunism and corruption around him. While most Supes are dangerous, the non-powered Vought higher-ups like Stillwell can still manipulate them because they are hedonistic nutjobs who only listen to what they want to hear. Stillwell can't manipulate Clark because, unlike said Supes, he isn't a hedonistic nutjob who can be so easily controlled.
  • Also, his willingness to not kill isn't just for moral reasons: a rather tragic incident involving a pet taught him if he loses control of his emotions he might accidentally kill someone else.
  • As much as he wants to confront Homelander over his more ruthless actions, he doesn't have enough support from the public and the Supe community to get away with it.
• Happily Adopted: As in most takes on Superman, the Kents are loving parents to their adopted alien son.
• Hates the Job, Loves the Limelight: Inverted. Clark does like being a superhero and helping others but is worn down by the avarice, corruption, and superficiality of the Supe community.
• He Is All Grown Up: Clark goes from being a skinny farm boy to a muscular Hunk with a Heroic Build in his late teens to adulthood.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Zig-Zagged; while Superman is a beloved hero to the public, due to the corruption and cynicism in the world of The Boys, Clark is seen by Vought (including his aunt) and those who are aware of the true nature of Supes in general as a corrupt monster who hides behind a clean facade.
• Hope Bringer: Clark has the ability to bring out the best in people once they let go of their preconceptions of him and see his genuine good nature. Maeve starts regaining some of her passion for heroism after working with Clark.
• Humble Hero: Even after becoming Los Angeles' premier hero, Clark does his best to avoid publicity in favor of saving lives, only attending interviews or events if he absolutely has to (although Mary has learned enough to realize that he'll only accept certain public appearances on her behalf, such as appearing at children's birthday parties). Annie lampshades this at one point, remarking that Clark is the only guy she knows who can do what he does and not boast about it.

I-W

• I Am Not Left-Handed: Clark initially struggles against the superpowered terrorists because he was so used to dealing with human criminals that he holds back more than he should. When he stops holding back, he No-Sells El Diablo's strongest fire blasts before breaking her hands, stops Atomic Skull in his tracks with his freeze breath, and cows Chemo into surrendering by intimidating him with his heat vision.
• I Love You Because I Can't Control You: A rare positive example. What immediately interests Clark about Lois is that she isn't fawning all over him or trying to use him to advance her career, and generally treats him like a regular person. Their relationship hits a snag when he finds out she's part of The Boys and believes she was just using him to get dirt on The Seven. Lois has to affirm that she genuinely grew to love him.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: A platonic version of this; Clark at least strongly suspects that the Seven aren't what they appear to the public, but he pulls what strings he can to get Annie a spot on the Seven to guarantee her dream.
• Ideal Hero: A Reconstruction. Superman is practically the only true hero in a world filled with superpowered, indulgent assholes, and in contrast to what Vought and his aunt believe, he's not putting on an act. Clark is genuinely that nice and selfless, and takes being a superhero and role model very seriously. Despite being put in a world as dark and cynical as The Boys, a combination of loving parents and a protective aunt helped keep Clark the Big Blue Boy Scout that we all know and love, and will do the right thing regardless of what others think. Annie briefly thinks about this in a later chapter, and while Clark isn't the inhumanly perfect angel that she often thinks he is, she eventually concludes that his very human flaws don't detract from his heroic qualities at all.
• Internal Reformist: Clark wants to be this. He can't kill Homelander or the other evil Supes, so he plans to change how Supes behave in order to end the suffering and injustice that drove people like Hughie and Lois to The Boys. However, Clark reluctantly concludes that Vought and the Supe community might just be rotten to the core, and be too big of problems for him to fix alone.
• Junior Counterpart: Superman is very much seen as this to Homelander. Barely into his mid-twenties, and he's already considered to be as powerful as the older Supe, but Clark is kind, compassionate, empathetic, and idealistic. Not dissimilar to how Homelander was when he initially started out, but Clark's loving upbringing keeps him from being corrupted and falling down the path that Homelander did. Homelander himself is aware of the similarities, which, for a time, made him positively furious–Homelander 2.0, without the wear and tear–but now has started taking a liking to the idea of mentoring the young Supe into becoming as tyrannical as he is.
• Knight in Sour Armor: Downplayed. He's still the idealistic crusader, but he's a bit jaded by the corruption and superficiality in the Supes community.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: How Vought views Clark; they think he's an immoral jerkass like every other Supe and is just very good at hiding it, but because he's a million times more stable than Homelander, and just as, if not more, powerful, they're perfectly willing to support him as Homelander's eventual replacement since he'll be much easier to deal with. In reality, he's not a shade of black at all, but rather a very, very light shade of white.
• Living Emotional Crutch: In many ways, Clark is this for Annie, as she gains the courage to stand up for her religious beliefs and say what she believes rather than what Vought wants her to say through Clark's support.
• Martial Pacifist: Clark's first disagreement with Homelander is over a bill that would turn him and Homelander into military assets. Clark doesn't want to become a weapon of war, preferring to use his power to keep the peace rather than kill people, while Homelander wants an excuse to indulge his ultraviolent fantasies.
• Military Maverick: When he's drafted into the military, he makes it very clear that he is not a weapon and sticks to tracking down and destroying the rogue Compound V labs Homelander helped set up. And when he's not doing that, he "appropriates" (taking without permission) rations from military bases to give to Third World countries. Clark himself notes this basically amounts to treason, but Edgar casually makes it a non-issue.
• Mirror Character: Outside the obvious differences, there are some similarities between Clark and John. For example, Clark confesses to Lois that despite his best efforts, he still often feels like he's swooping in to save the day from a bubble, and it's hard to feel a part of humanity or the supes because of the distance he has from both groups. Quite similar to how so many of the supes are also rather isolated from their humanity through the wealth and privileges. Clark's good parenting and desire to hold onto friends is one of the few things that keep him sane, grounded, and different from all the rest.
• Morality Pet: He is this for Homelander and Maeve. Aside from being able to bring out the humanity in the former, he manages to prod the two into stopping Flight 37 from crashing. For Maeve, Clark represents what she was like before the hedonism, corporate crap, and sociopathic behavior of the Supes ruined her. Maggie sees Clark for who he is: a good person who wants to help people. Deconstructed with Homelander because while he later takes up Clark's Martial Pascifism, it's purely to get emotional validation the Supe desperately craves and isn't interested in analyzing Clark's motivations any deeper than that.
• My Greatest Failure:
  • Clark mentions how he has maintained a hold on his emotions, and thus his powers, ever since he decimated several fields with his heat vision after an eagle took his pet cat when he was seven, killing both the eagle and the pet cat he was trying to save.
  • His inability to save the children in the orphanage he crashed into during his college years certainly left an impact on him as he works doubly-hard to ensure he can find a way out of seemingly impossible situations.
  • Then when he finds out that his father is dead from a heart attack, (provoked secretly by Homelander), Clark truly considers his failure to notice his pain as his moment where he felt the weight of his failures more than ever since It's Personal.
• No-Sell: Clark is strong enough that not even El Diablo's fireballs can stun him.
• Only Sane Man: Among the Supes, Clark is easily the most well-adjusted, being a legitimate Token Good Teammate in stark contrast to monsters like Homelander, and without having any of the baggage that Maeve and Annie have. It's heavily implied that Clark's status as both this and the only Supe who hasn't taken Compound V is not a coincidence.
• Non-Idle Rich: Edgar himself notes that as opposed to other Supes in the business Clark has managed his finances well. The Kents’ farm holdings are very impressive, and Clark’s own investments are such that the passive income alone would allow him to retire young with no significant drop in his living standards. Of course, Clark doesn’t care about money and donates a large share to various charities. This makes him immune to Vought’s usual strategies of control through financial dependence. So Edgar resorts to threatening to reveal Clark’s alien nature to the public if he doesn't learn his place.
• Oh, My Gods!: Though Annie claims Clark doesn't necessarily believe in a god, he internally invokes the name of Rao when confronted by Compound V empowered terrorists, and occasionally swears to him, suggesting that he's a follower of Raoism.
• Outside-Context Problem: Clark is an anomaly because he's not a product of Vought's Compound V, an idealist in a world of cynics, and might be the most powerful superhero in existence.
• The Paragon: Goes with being an Internal Reformist. He wants to be a positive role model, not just for regular people, but especially other Supes.
• Point of Divergence: This version of Superman follows the classic origin of him landing on Earth as a baby after Krypton's destruction but with one drastic change. Instead of landing on Earth of the DC Universe, he lands on Earth in the world of the live-action version of The Boys. Thanks to him being a part of this world, several events that would've happened without him either don't occur or change entirely.
  • Flight 37 is saved because Clark joins Homelander and Queen Maeve in the rescue.
  • Thanks to a much-needed talk from Clark, Annie avoids going through a Crisis of Faith and stays religious.
  • Due to the surprising rapport between him and Homelander, and The Deep's low numbers and his accident with the dolphin, Clark ends up taking The Deep's spot as a member of The Seven.
• Pragmatic Hero: Clark is fully aware of how corrupt the system is, but affirms that he can't fight Homelander at this point as Superman doesn't have the necessary connections and support to achieve anything more than turning himself into the villain by killing Homelander.
• The Prima Donna: Downplayed. Clark loathes making movies because he knows he doesn't have the talent to be an actor (Clark Kenting notwithstanding), and the movies he's contracted to do for Vought are usually horribly cliched blockbuster thrillers. So he generally demands a few rounds of rewrites to tone down the sex, violence, and swearing before he'll agree to it, and even then, he'll just about do the bare minimum. This comes around again when he becomes part of The Seven and he's roped into being part of the Dawn of the Seven film and immediately starts butting heads with the director on basically everything whereas the rest of the team would normally not care enough to argue.
• Rank Up: In Chapter 10, The Seven give The Deep the boot due to his low numbers and the dolphin incident. Homelander says that Clark might be taking his spot and that Mary will get a call about it. Five chapters later, he's The Seven's official newest member, and they give him Translucent's old room.
• Reassigned to Antarctica: A rare positive example. Mary sends Clark to work on the West Coast, an area without any Supes. This is because she's terrified if he works in New York, Homelander might kill him in a fit of envy. Within a few years, Clark becomes the superhero of the West Coast, with L.A. crime being at an all-time low.
• Reluctant Warrior: Superman doesn't enjoy conflict or violence, nor is he pleased to be an agent of the U.S. military to stop the spread of Compound V. That doesn't mean he can't finish a fight.
• Samaritan Syndrome: Vought as well as Homelander and A-Train exploits Superman's need to do good, sending him after supervillains to distract him from their attempt to wipe out The Boys.
• Sanity Has Advantages: Superman being more put together than the other Supes means he's less inclined to the kind of hedonism and the collateral damage they cause. This alone makes Edgar and Stillwell want to work with him over Homelander.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Clark is not only a very rich man, but he's also possibly the most powerful Supe in the world, Vought's current golden boy (and is potentially being groomed to be the new leader of The Seven in the future), and he has an aunt who is basically the Number Two to the CEO of the largest MegaCorp in the world. As such, Clark can pretty much do and say anything he wants and get away with it. Thankfully, Clark's a rare benevolent take on this, as he only uses his connections to try and make life better (or at least more manageable) for people around him; he gets Annie back her old costume, it's implied he pulls strings to have Lois' wardrobe changed to something more sensible, and he offers to help Maggie and her girlfriend with Vought's obnoxious "Brave Maeve" campaign. Interestingly, despite what people think, Lois is not one of these connections, and she gives Superman generous news coverage because he earns it.
• Sheep in Sheep's Clothing: Most people (particularly those at Vought) see Clark's Nice Guy persona as a fabrication cooked up by his Aunt Mary and that he's as hedonistic and corrupt as the other Supes. Lois is taken aback to see Clark actually talking respectfully to her. Annie even points out to Clark that people can't help but think that someone as good and powerful as him is hiding something.
• Sherlock Scan: When Superman is forced to attend an event intended to push a bill allowing Supes to take part in military conflicts, his enhanced senses let him spot various clues to confirm that a key senator will never approve the bill based on his reactions to certain questions.
• Silk Hiding Steel: Rare male example. Clark is kind, polite, compassionate, gentle, well-mannered, humble, patient, highly ethical, and moralistic, and as Superman, he exudes a "big brother" charisma that makes him more approachable and inspiring. But beneath that courteous exterior lies unbreakable willpower and inherent goodness, backed up by an array of powers that make him possibly the World's Strongest Man, as his fight with the Supe-terrorists best demonstrates.
• The Sleepless: He mentions to Donna that due to his physiology, he doesn't need to sleep.
• Small Steps Hero: Clark takes every task given to him with the same degree of attention and skill as the big ones. Saving people from crime or natural disasters is just as important as dealing with Homelander.
• So Beautiful, It's a Curse: Rare male example. Clark is a bonafide Hunk, with the Heroic Build, jaw-line, and impossibly blue eyes that go with it. Even Annie–who's practically his sister–can't help but be slightly attracted to his Adonis-like features. The drawbacks come in when he has difficulty finding a meaningful relationship, or when his best friend drunkenly tries to force herself on him.
• The Stoic: Played With. Clark has had to keep a firm grasp on his emotions because he's aware of the damage he can do if he loses control, but he is also very emotive and highly sensitive depending on the context.
• Strong and Skilled: What sets him apart from other Supes is that he's not only powerful but sufficiently trained in how to use that power. Best demonstrated when he saves Flight 37–he calculates the exact speed and trajectory to level it out by ramming into his and supersonic speeds.
• Strong Family Resemblance: He's evidently the spitting image of his biological father, Jor-El, as when Kara sees a billboard of Superman, she initially thinks she's looking at her uncle.
• Superior Successor: Edgar and Stillwell, despite their doubts about Clark's true nature, are aware that he is a more stable version of Homelander and hope to one day put Clark in charge of the Seven.
• Thou Shall Not Kill: He takes being a superhero very seriously, and that includes using non-lethal tactics to apprehend criminals. He’s extremely disturbed by The Seven’s use of violence to solve problems (especially Homelander) and is firmly against being involved with the military. When he's eventually forced to, he outright refuses to go on assassination assignments and only goes on missions primarily dealing with Compound V labs, and even then he doesn't even bother fighting back against the terrorists because nothing they do hurt him in any way. He does, however, recognize that Homelander is too dangerous to be ignored or reasoned with, but Clark can't make any moves because how much influence the Supe still has.
• Token Good Teammate: Clark is just about the only Supe (besides Annie and Auntie Sis, and potentially Maeve) who isn't a complete trainwreck of a person. Justified since Clark actually had a decent upbringing with loving parents and an aunt who shielded him from the worst aspects of Supe life. It's implied the fact that he isn't empowered by Compound V is also a factor.
• Tranquil Fury:
  • He is completely calm when he demands to Stillwell that A-Train apologizes for accidentally killing Robin, properly take care of Hughie, and makes sure something like that doesn't happen again, or he'll meet with Reggie personally.
  • Clark is nothing but calm when confronting Lois and Hughie over them being part of The Boys but that only puts them on edge even more.
• Upbringing Makes the Hero: It is the healthy, moral upbringing Clark received from his parents, as well as his aunt shielding him from the worst of the backroom backstabbing of the Supe community, that prevented him from becoming a corrupt asshole like many other Supes. This is in direct contrast to virtually every other Supe, who has parents selfishly forcing them into the spotlight like Annie at best, or, at worst, Homelander, who was raised in a lab with no parental affection whatsoever.
• Urban Legend Love Life: Despite, or perhaps because of, Clark's spotless reputation, there are tons of rumors about him hosting orgies or sleeping with A-list celebrities/supes. In truth, Clark has only dated about three women in his life and is deeply in love with Lois.
• What You Are in the Dark: After A-Train has a heart attack while trying to capture the Boys and kill Starlight and Superman, Clark is able to convince Hughie, Lois, and Annie to help him save A-Train's life and get him to a hospital, as they won’t just let someone die.
• Wild Card: Clark is this to Stillwell. She knows how to deal with average hopelessly-corrupt Supes by playing to their egos and smoothing out politics, but Clark is immune to her usual tactics by virtue of being completely honest, and powerful enough that he can't simply be ignored.
• Working-Class People Are Morons: Averted. Many people look down on Clark for his rural roots, but he's far from an idiot.
• World's Strongest Man: Homelander is considered the strongest superhero in the world, though many believe that Clark will eventually surpass him as he grows older. After the Time Skip to Clark's adulthood, people are still uncertain which of the two is stronger; Clark's physical abilities match and/or exceed Homelander's, but Homelander still has decades of experience with him.
• Would Hit a Girl: Clark may be the perfect gentleman, but he'll break the arms of a villainess who threatens public safety.

The Seven

General

• Adaptational Heroism: Marginally. Mainly because Superman helped save Flight 37, the group became known for doing something actually heroic for once.
• Beware the Superman: With the exception of Starlight and later Superman, most of them are (or have become over time) malicious corporate agents. The Boys only exist because of The Seven's horrible abuses of power.
• Broken Pedestal: Hughie, Annie, and Clark were big fans of The Seven growing up, with Clark, in particular, looking up to Homelander as a role model. To put it mildly, they were all thoroughly disappointed by the reality of the situation.
• Corporate-Sponsored Superhero: The modern poster-children. Their jobs basically boil down to making Vought money through very public acts of "heroism," parroting pre-approved talking points, and selling merchandise. Beyond that, most are not interested in making a difference in society. And they lack the skills and training needed to do so if they tried.
• Fallen Hero: Most did start as heroes with noble intentions (help aquatic animals, escape poverty, and do the right thing), but Vought's business practices numbed all their ideals or put them on such a tight leash that they had to play along whether they like it or not.
• Foil: As a whole to Superman. While he's also a superhero employed by Vought who chafes under their leash, it didn't stop him from trying to help people, and he had enough support to get away with it. The Seven are Vought's premier Supes, so the company's more focused attention and management corrupted them all into Fallen Heroes.
• Gilded Cage: Another contributing factor to The Seven's laundry lists of neuroses. All of the luxury and privileges that Vought awards The Seven separate them from the rest of humanity far more than their abilities do, isolating them from friends and loved ones, and feeding into innate fragile ego problems. Other Supes who maintain close relationships with regular people–Clark, Annie, Maeve, Auntie Sis–are comparatively more sane and grounded and don't let the power go to their heads. Clark later concludes this system was devised on purpose as part of an Ancient Conspiracy to make Supes a kind of Master Race.
• Powerful, but Incompetent: Part of the Seven's problems is that they are powerful but poorly trained in how to use their powers, resulting in many unnecessary deaths, injuries, and collateral damages that could have otherwise been avoided. Superman being Strong and Skilled is what makes him an outlier.
• Slave to PR: Due to the profit-based nature of Vought International, the Seven have all turned into image-obsessed celebrities surrounded by Vought executives, who try to script their every word and tailor every little thing towards marketing the superheroes at the expense of, y'know, actually helping people.

Homelander — "John Gillman"

Homelander

• Adaptational Nice Guy: Downplayed. He is still a self-centered narcissist, but he shows genuine friendliness to Clark. By chapter 20, he takes up a No-Killing policy in a misguided attempt to bond with Clark, seeing it as a more entertaining challenge than simply indulging in kill-happy slaughter.
• Affably Evil: While normally too unpleasant to come across as personable, he plays this straight with Clark, enjoying his company and seeing Superman as an actual friend.
• Arch-Enemy:
  • Billy Butcher has made it his life's mission to kill Homelander for raping and murdering his wife (he's right about the first part), though for the longest time, Homelander didn't even know he existed. When he does finally find out about him, he's more amused by the little man's attempts at revenge and enjoys toying with him.
  • He becomes this to Superman when the latter realizes his true nature, and everyone knows that a confrontation between them is inevitable, but they quietly fear the damage a fight between two of the most powerful Supes in the world could leave behind.
  • It doesn't take much prompting for Ryan Butcher to want nothing to do with his father, and commits himself to train with Superman so he can protect his mother from him.
• Bait the Dog: He is initially murderously jealous of Clark. When he and Clark meet when the latter is a young adult, Homelander is surprisingly magnanimous towards Clark–a Supe he can actually relate to. However, Homelander quickly reveals his selfish nature to Clark and eventually causes Johnathan to suffer a fatal heart attack, proving he is still a heartless psychopath at his core.
• Berserk Button: Anything that could threaten the "love" he feels he's entitled to. He was blisteringly enraged by Clark's fast rise in fame as a potential successor to Homelander's position as the most powerful and beloved Supe in the world, and almost murders Ashley Barrett for suggesting taking a young Clark as a sidekick. He even confronts Stormfront for beating him in popularity polls using her astroturf campaign. In an odd twist, he's not angry at Clark for keeping Ryan away from him because he interprets it as the young man's ruthless side coming out, which he is proud of.
• Big Bad Friend: He is this to Clark, genuinely seeing Superman as a potential friend and equal while still being a tyrannical manbaby behind closed doors.
• Child Of Rape: Strictly speaking, it's all-but said in a recent chapter that he is Kara Zor-El's son that Vought artificially created without her consent.
• The Corrupter: He is trying to invoke this by sending Compound V infected terrorists after Clark, hoping that fighting them will turn Clark into a Blood Knight like himself.
• Dark Messiah: Diana resignedly notes to Clark that while people love Superman for being one of the few real heroes in the industry, they'd still support Homelander over him because of what the Supe represents; being free of consequences and keeping the good-times rolling.
• The Dreaded: To those who know his true nature. Mary is terrified of Homelander hunting down and killing Clark in a jealous rage.
• Evil Hero: The Evil Hero. The influence he has over the Supe community is so profound that everyone–Vought, Lois, the government, and even Clark–is forced to admit they can't realistically act against him while he looms so large in it. His popularity is his biggest shield against consequences.
• Evil Knockoff: When Clark discovers that Compound V is derived from Kryptonian DNA, that means that every Supe gets their unique powers from a heavily modified and mutated strain of alien gene-splicing. But so far, Homelander is the only one who seemingly has the full array of natural Kryptonian powers.
• Entitled to Have You: A platonic example. Homelander eventually becomes convinced that Clark is his biological son that Vought somehow conceived without his knowledge and immediately begins addressing him as "son" despite Clark's frequent protests. This gets even worse when Ryan comes into the picture and the narcissistic Supe starts trying to claim him as well, calling the boy "mine."
• Green-Eyed Monster: He is incensed at the idea of Clark usurping his position as the world's greatest hero. He also resents the fact that Clark was raised by an actual family. This just gets worse when he becomes convinced Clark is his biological son, and he attacks Jonathan Kent for raising his supposed son.
• Hidden Depths: For all his cruelty and immaturity, Homelander is surprisingly self-aware of the shortcomings of his powers, the superficiality of his hero career, and is genuinely hurt by his lonely upbringing. Despite his jealousy of Clark, he manages to strike up a rapport with Clark over the shared frustrations of their enhanced senses.
• I Just Want to Be Loved: Homelander laments his own lack of support system as a child and is jealous of Clark for having a loving upbringing. He explicitly thinks privately that he wants a family more than anything, subtly motivating his efforts to bond with Superman due to acknowledging their similarities. By Chapter 20, he's desperately trying to bond with Clark, which just illustrates how much the public scrutiny he's under is unraveling his mind.
• Jock Dad, Nerd Son:
  • Having been raised in a loveless and sterile laboratory, Homelander only really bonds with people based on power. So he finds it incredibly frustrating that Ryan's interests lie more in creative pursuits (stop-motion animation) than in developing his abilities.
  • He's incorrect that Clark is his son, but the dynamic is there in that he thinks Clark's morals make him act like a "namby-pamby liberal."
• Like a Son to Me: A dark Deconstruction. After years of seeing him as a threat to his position as the top superhero, Homelander genuinely bonds with Clark upon meeting him in person and begins idly toying with the remote possibility that Clark is his son. Normally, this fantasy would inspire some form of self-reflection on his part, or even unearthing a Hidden Heart of Gold. Nope. The fantasy quickly devolves into a full-blown delusion that Superman is his true son which Vought somehow created (despite zero evidence for this and Clark's firm denial of it); it's clear he regards Clark with little-to-no authentic care for him as a person, openly attempting to make Clark forsake his morals and act more like him (considering it his "birthright") all as an extension of his own malignant narcissism. By Chapter 20, Clark actually becomes disturbed by the way Homelander looks at him, recognizing it as a very warped look of fatherly love that he was used to seeing on Pa Kent. It all comes back to how much he sees of himself in Clark, nothing more.
• Nominal Hero: While Homelander is genuinely friendly to Clark, he has no interest in the virtues of heroism, mainly the glory and fame it will bring him. He has to be prodded by Clark into saving the plane from crashing, and his reaction to Clark coming up with a way to help save thousands of lives from storms is to happily whisper that people will worship them for it. After he accidentally causes Pa Kent to suffer a fatal heart attack, kills Stillwell, and shacks up with Stormfront, he fully crosses over into Villain with Good Publicity.
• Not So Similar: What truly causes friction between him and Clark; at his core, Homelander is The Sociopath who absolutely hates everyone and considers himself practically a Physical God that should be worshipped no matter how petty or cruel he is. His mistake is that he thinks Clark is the exact same way due to his powers. Not knowing that the young Supe is one of the few real superheroes, who's both horrified and disappointed by Homelander's true nature.
• Pet the Dog: Deconstructed. Homelander is shown to enjoy Clark's company genuinely... but it doesn't change the fact that he's a selfish maniac who at best does the right thing when it suits him and his goals. His twisted worldview even drives him to threaten Clark's father into a fatal heart attack.
• Performance Anxiety: He doesn't respond well to people who aren't immediately intimidated by him–he needs the power trip of people being terrified of him to be properly violent. Edgar knows this and has used it to keep him in line in the past. Homelander actually becomes incensed when Jonathan Kent starts standing up to him on Clark's behalf, thus becoming less frightened, forcing the Supe to go for a mild Neck Lift to try and assert dominance (but even then he wasn't really trying to kill Pa Kent and was shocked it caused a fatal heart attack). After that, Clark catches him on the back-foot at the Vought Estate when he doesn't back down from Homelander's challenge and prepares for a fight. Though he quickly rationalizes it away and leaves without incident.
• Pragmatic Villainy: To Clark's dismay, Homelander only saw The Deep as a liability to his image and doesn't feel any moral indignation over the latter's behavior.
• Psychopathic Manchild: He has to be talked down like a bratty 8-year-old to keep him from murdering Clark in a jealous rage.
• Sadist: Queen Maeve notes that Homelander relishes the opportunity to kill people, which gives him an outlet to vent his violent frustrations onto something.
• Secret Identity: Subverted. Vought did give him the name "John Gillman" (and Clark refers to him as "John" under this impression), but it's not on any official documents, so it can't even qualify as his legal name. For all intents and purposes, "Homelander" is his name.
• Selective Obliviousness: Even as he starts to bond with Clark, Homelander ignores Clark's attempts to explain how he feels about issues such as the idea of Supes serving in the military if it doesn't fit Homelander's views. After he announces his belief that he is Clark's father, Homelander continues to believe this even after Clark insists that they're not related, believing that Clark has just fallen for Vought's lies rather than listen to whatever evidence Clark might have that they're not father and son.
• Serial Rapist: When reminiscing about Becca Butcher, Homelander idly thinks back to his short list of previous sexual partners. Considering his level of power and influence, and the fact that he interpreted Becca's actions as "playing hard-to-get," any consent involved with them is dubious at best.
• Shadow Archetype:
  • Naturally serves as one to Superman, demonstrating how Clark could have ended up if he had been raised by Vought instead of the Kents.
  • Could also serve as one for Jonathan Kent–they're both older men named "John" who try to take on paternal roles for Clark. However, Pa Kent was a wonderful father, who always put Clark's well-being first, listened to his son's issues, and encouraged the best in him, and their relationship was mutually loving. Homelander's attempts at being a father is incredibly toxic as he only relates to Superman (the Supe who could be his equal in power) rather than Clark Kent (the Nice Guy), is actively trying to make him forsake his morals, mold him into his own image, so that they could rule the world together as Physical Gods.
• The Sleepless: Just like Superman, thanks to his powers, Homelander doesn't need to sleep if he doesn't want to.
• Spotting the Thread: He has poor impulse control, but he's not as stupid as most people think. Demonstrated when he's able to see the discrepancies in Stillwell and Vogelbaum's accounts of how his child died, concluding that he's being lied to again.
• Straight Edge Evil: While he has disturbing sexual interests in the women of his life, he has a low opinion of the hedonistic abandon his fellow Supes indulge in. But that’s mainly because his drug of choice is the adulation he gets from his fans. In his POV moment at the Believe Expo, the applause he gets from the crowd is said to run through his veins like a powerful narcotic. Giving him almost sexual pleasure.
• Super Supremacist: His resentment towards Vought and the emotional manipulation and gaslighting they've put him through has slowly eroded his sanity and warped his worldview into this; he thinks that powerful beings such as himself should be above human morality and use that power as they please and that any showing of kindness, altruism, or mercy is just part of the limitations lowly mortals impose on them. He quickly takes to compelling Clark, and later Ryan, to become as violent and depraved as he is in a twisted way of freeing them.
• Unskilled, but Strong: This, along with being The Unfettered, is what makes him so dangerous–he's undoubtedly one of the most powerful Supes in the setting, and he's still in his prime. While he doesn't have the same level of training that Clark has, in truth, he doesn't really need it because Clark doesn't fight to kill. Homelander has no such reservations.
• Villain Respect: In chapter 16, he actually respects Clark for standing up to him and telling him to keep away from Ryan and Becca because he interprets it as the young man's selfish and tyrannical side coming out.
• Villain with Good Publicity: To the point when even after Clark learns the truth about him, he can't simply fight him since Homelander is too popular, and a "clash of the titans" match would most likely tear the country apart.
• Villain Takes an Interest: After spending literal years fantasizing about murdering him and his family, Homelander quickly warms up to Clark upon first meeting him, bonding with him over their similar powers and even trying to be a kind of mentor to the young Supe.
• Virtue Is Weakness: While Homelander enjoys Clark's company, he dismisses Clark's moral code as a Vought-induced weakness holding him back. He attacks Jonathan for "softening" Clark, and unleashes superpowered terrorists hoping Clark will have opponents who will force him to ditch his moral code.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Maeve acknowledges to Clark that Homelander wasn't always the heartless monster he currently is and seemed genuinely motivated to be a hero when she first met him, but then something happened, and he became addicted to the fame his position automatically awards him.
• Would Hurt a Child: Perry stresses to Lois how dangerous it is to cross Supes by telling her that Homelander most likely secretly murdered a journalist and his wife and children just because the journalist wrote an unflattering story about him, and the autopsy report showed they were literally ripped apart by hand. He also has no qualms about murdering a teenage Clark out of envious rage.

Queen Maeve — Margaret "Maggie" Shaw

Maggie Shaw

• Adaptational Heroism: It's implied that she's putting up more resistance to Vought's "Brave Maeve" campaign than she did in-canon.
• Byronic Heroine: Maeve has a lot of faults–alcoholism, pessimism, vulgarity, apathy, etc.–but at her core, she's just a broken woman who did genuinely want to make a difference, and she won't tolerate any threats to her loved ones.
• Cynical Mentor: Downplayed. She likes Clark and is glad to have him on The Seven, but she warns him about how unhinged Homelander truly is.
• Dare to Be Badass: When they're saving Flight 37, Maeve gets so overwhelmed and scared she's tempted to just ditch the plane with Homelander and leave the passengers to crash. She's stopped when Superman gives her a confidence boost, steeling herself to see the plan through to the end, giving her the biggest win she's had as a superhero in a while.
• Friendly Address Privileges: Maeve eventually insists that Clark refer to her as "Maggie", but the young hero continues to call her by her codename seemingly out of habit.
• Jaded Professional: Even back when she was the newest member of the Seven, Maeve had long since been exhausted by the heroism business to the point that when she overhears Mary talking with Jonathan and Martha about getting a 9-year-old Clark into sidekick and TV work, Maeve assumes the two would go along with it only to be surprised when they shut Mary's ideas down. Being around Annie and Clark helps bring about the idealism she used to have.
• Neutral No Longer: Homelander dragging Elena into Vought's orbit was the last straw for her, and she tells Clark to include her in taking down the corrupt Supe for good.
• Queer Establishing Moment: In Chapter 3, Maeve idly entertains herself by mildly ogling Mary Clark, which is how she ends up eavesdropping on her conversation with the Kents.
• Shadow Archetype: It's heavily implied that she was in a similar situation as Annie in the previous generation of superheroes. However, Annie had someone like Clark to rely on for support. Meanwhile, Maggie was stuck with Homelander.
• Took a Level in Idealism: She's still got her Jade-Colored Glasses, but Annie and Clark's influence has certainly had a positive impact on her. Notably, she's with Elena earlier than in canon. When Homelander "outs" her as a lesbian on live TV, it's enough that she finally decides to forgo her fears of the man and join Clark's anti-corruption faction.
• What the Hell, Hero?: When they're saving Flight 37, Clark's horrified look after she killed one of the hijackers was enough to genuinely shame her, even make her feel sick.

The Deep — Kevin Moskowitz

Kevin Moskowitz

• Adaptational Jerkass: When he still coerces Annie into oral sex just like in the show, he spins a lie that he and Superman are friends and would back him up if she tried to tell anyone about his behavior. Leading to a brief Broken Pedestal moment for her, thinking that her best friend is just as bad as he is.
• Serial Rapist: Just like the show, and from his POV we see he's very skilled at coercion, having worked out the right words and picking the best moments to get what he wants. After Annie reveals her trauma at the Believe Expo and the Dolphin incident (when his numbers plummet and Vought no longer has a reason to protect him), it's noted that The Deep has had multiple complaints thrown at him from women he's worked with in the past.

A-Train — Reggie Franklin

Reggie Franklin

• Adaptational Jerkass: In the show, Annie and Hughie saving his life from a V-induced heart attack was enough to make him cooperate in helping them take Stormfront down. This time, Reggie shoots down any possibility that he owes them or Clark anything.
• Addled Addict: He's a habitual Compound V user, which was originally just for performance-enhancing, but he quickly became hopelessly addicted to it. His POV moments show he has to actively fight the impulse to take it whenever he's presented it, and he'd be completely willing to lick it off the ground if he had to.
• Arch-Enemy:
  • To Hughie. At first, Hughie is an Unknown Rival to A-Train, due to A-Train's attitude toward Robin's death. However, after A-Train is forced to kill Popclaw, he blames Hughie for it and makes it his priority to hunt the man down.
  • He's on the other end of this with Superman, who punishes him for Robin's death by threatening and utterly humiliating him in a televised race. Officially stealing the title of "Fastest Man Alive" from him.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: As part of his Psychological Projection, for Reggie, running into Robin high on V was an accident, and he just wanted to forget about it and move on with his life. Hughie refusing to let it go and trying to ruin A-Train's life in revenge makes him the worse of the two.
• Career-Ending Injury: By Chapter 20, it's revealed that due to his latest heart attack, Reggie is getting sacked in favor of Shockwave. Making everything he did to maintain his position on The Seven pointless.
• Fastest Thing Alive: He holds the title of the fastest speedster alive, and keeping it is his biggest priority. Clark obliterating his record on national TV is when he starts unraveling, and his hatred of Clark and his friends begins.

Translucent

Translucent

• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Despite being an Invisible Jerkass, he had a son named Maverick who he seemed to genuinely care for.
• The Ghost: He's only mentioned, but it's clear he ended up sharing the same fate as his canon counterpart.
• Plot-Triggering Death: His disappearance starts Clark's investigation into The Boys, and eventually clears the way for Annie to join The Seven (and later Clark himself, taking his old room).

Black Noir — Earving

Earving

• Adaptational Badass: While still very strong and capable on the show, he was limited in terms of his equipment to his smoke bombs and skurikens. Here, he dual-wields a pair of katanas, and manages to overpower Deathstroke with them.
• Demoted to Extra: Not that there's much for him to do, as his character only really gets focus in Season 3 of the show, and the fic has only covered the first half of Season 2 so far.
• Implacable Man: Getting shot at by Deathstroke didn't even slow him down him.
• The Reliable One: Stillwell notes that Stan Edgar specifically wants to keep Noir on The Seven and won't let him be replaced.
• The Quiet One: Only really communicates through chicken-scratch notes on his notepad. Clark finds it surprising he can even do that considering how brain-damaged he is.
• Weaksauce Weakness: Normally, he's a nigh-unstoppable assassin that can kill just about anyone in the world while silent as the grave. But he's deathly allergic to nuts. This is taken advantage of by Maeve when she jams an Almond Joy into his mouth to cover for Hughie, Diana, and Deathstroke when they break into Vought Tower.

Starlight — Annie January

Annie January

• Adaptational Angst Downgrade: Having a committed friend like Clark in her life certainly made things a little easier for her than in canon. Notably, she doesn't go through her Crisis of Faith, and starts trying to take down Vought much earlier.
• Best Friend: To Clark. They met at a Vought sporting festival when they were young and have become very close, with Annie seeing Clark as a brother and trusting him with almost everything.
• Classical Anti-Hero: Lacking much of the rougher edges of her canon counterpart, she retains a lot of her heart but suffers from serious self-doubt, and usually lets Clark take the lead.
• The Cape: Slightly deconstructed as, like Clark, she believes in the ideals of what a superhero should be, but she too often leads with her heart which causes her to make rash decisions without thinking them through.
• Composite Character: Her relationship with Clark is very reminiscent of Supergirl's, being approximately his sidekick and main confidant in his superhero life. Becomes a Decomposite Character when Supergirl is actually introduced.
• Gold and White Are Divine: Clark notes that gold and white are her favorite colors, befitting one of the few genuinely good and religious Supes in the story. The religious connotations are played up in the Believe Expo, where murals of both she and Clark are displayed, presenting them as divine beings, to their dismay.
• Human Alien Discovery: She's on the other side of this when Clark finally confides in her that he's Kryptonian. He notes that while she's been pacing in her room for hours internally freaking out, she's taking it better than he expected her to.
• Jerkass Realization: After getting shit-faced drunk, she breaks down and tells Clark how much of a bad friend she's been to him in Chapter 13. She realizes it wasn't fair to put all her anger onto him and try to force herself onto him as he buried his father not long ago, and getting pissed at him is the last thing he needs. She had forgotten he was human (not really) like the rest of them and was prone to mistakes like everyone else. How could he have known Hughie and Lois were part of an anti-super vigilante team?
• Kissing Under the Influence: After Homelander outs The Boys to The Seven and humiliates her for dating Hughie, she gets drunk and flies her private jet all the way to Clark's mansion in Los Angeles and tries to force herself onto him. Luckily, Clark is Above the Influence and lets her sleep it off in his bed. She apologizes the next day for crossing a boundary like that (though a small part of her is a little disappointed nothing happened).
• Religious Bruiser: Her faith is very important to her, and luckily, having someone like Clark in her life for emotional guidance, she holds onto her beliefs and resists Vought's attempts to corrupt them for profit, but she does temper it with some God Before Dogma. Firmly taking a stance against the conservative proselytizing she was meant to support.
• Reluctant Fanservice Girl: Like in canon, she is uncomfortable with the sexier costume she's required to wear as part of the Seven. When a young fan greets her wearing a copy of the old Starlight costume and mentions she's saving up for the new one, Annie takes time to assure her fan that she likes the old costume better. When Clark joins The Seven, he's able to pull some strings to get her back into her old suit.
• Sparing Them the Dirty Work: After Clark gets drafted into the military, Annie does her best to try and take down Vought from the inside by leaking info to Hughie, and is explicitly keeping Clark out of it. She's doing this mainly because she wants to exercise some independence from him, but also because she needs his reputation to remain completely clean and spotless so he can take over the Supe community for the better.
• Sweet Tooth: She mentions to Clark that her dad, before he left, used to bring her doughnuts after Supe events. She also really likes Almond Joys, but her mother keeps her from eating anything with processed sugar. When Annie visits Clark in L.A., he greets her with a bag of doughnuts.
• Urban Legend Love Life: Annie's biggest market is young girls due to her wholesome personality, but even during their time in the Young Americans, rumors abounded that she and Clark were having an affair behind Drummer Boy and Lana Lang's backs. When Clark recommends Annie to Stan as the newest member of The Seven, Seth and Evan assume it's because she's having sex with him. While Annie is neither the chaste virgin nor the sex-pot bad girl that Vought markets her as, during her Rage Breaking Point at the Believe Expo, she maintains that having premarital sex is "human", and not something you go to Hell for. This hasn't stopped members of The Seven–especially Homelander–from attempting to slut-shame her by implying she's sleeping with Clark for protection.

Stormfront — Klara Vought (née Risinger)

Klara Vought

• Composite Character: Her electrokinesis and Bad Influencer tendencies are reminiscent of the Superman villainess, Livewire.
• The Corruptor: As in the show, Stormfront is actively trying to be this for Homelander, and pulling double-duty in offering Homelander advice on how to provoke Clark into "accepting his true nature" as a "god" to the weak sheep that she sees the rest of the world as, utterly incapable of recognizing that Clark is genuinely good enough that he won't fall as easily as she believes he will.
• Evil Counterpart: To Wonder Woman. They're both long-lived Supes with potent powers who now live under different aliases after a brief stint as a Captain Patriotic. The difference is that Diana was a good person who casually disregarded the prejudices of her time and tried to be a proper hero until she was forced to back down and fade away. Meanwhile, Klara basically epitomizes the worst cultural aspects of her time and continues to push her disgusting ideology in the modern age under a new name.
• Girlboss Feminist: Just like the show, she's quick to point out sexism and pick fights with men in power, but she has no interest in advancing causes for women and already hates Annie. Because she's a Nazi.
• Shadow Archetype: She's very similar to Annie in that they both are powerful superheroines who wield similar elemental powers (lightning and light), have a close relationship with an influential Flying Brick, and aim to change society. The difference is that Annie is a Nice Girl who genuinely wants to help people, her relationship with Clark is loving but strictly platonic, and is determined to change the world for the better. Stormfront is secretly a Nazi who shacks up with Homelander so she can use him to start a Race War.
• Super Prototype: She was the first Supe, and she's still recognized as an incredibly powerful one by modern standards.
• Villainesses Want Heroes: She's already entered her relationship with Homelander, but she does mildly flirt with Clark, and Annie can't help but notice a twinkle in her eye as she does so. No doubt for her Darwinist Desire.
• Villain with Good Publicity: In addition to her potent AstroTurf campaign, the supervillain attack in Los Angeles have people praising her killing of Kenji, which deeply disturbs Superman.

The Boys

General

• Adaptational Heroism: With L.L. on the team, Butcher's overt toxic influence is kept in check and called out more frequently.
• Anti-Hero Team: While they have noble goals, they do some pretty heinous things, but as Lois points out, they don't have the luxury of ethics if they're trying to fight corrupt superheroes.
• Cape Busters: As in canon, the general point of The Boys is a combination of holding Supes responsible for their actions and getting personal revenge, particularly against the Seven.
• Five-Man Band:
  • Billy Butcher is The Leader of The Boys and keeps them focused on their mission.
  • L.L. arguably has the role of The Lancer, possessing some of Butcher's ruthlessness but tempers it with rationality and objectivity. She even resignedly asks if she's the Team Mom to Butcher's Team Dad.
  • M.M. is The Big Guy, a Gentle Giant and Family Man who was explicitly recruited to help keep Billy grounded.
  • Frenchie naturally falls into The Smart Guy as the resident Renaissance Man.
  • Hughie serves as The Heart, being the New Meat and inspiring protective instincts in Billy and Lois, bringing out their better selves.
  • The Female/Kimiko would be the Sixth Ranger, becoming a member later in the story as their Token Super.
  • Annie would arguably be a Guest-Star Party Member, a nominal member of the group acting as The Mole on The Seven, leaking information to Hughie.
  • And Clark could be the 11th-Hour Ranger, having known about the team for a while and only deciding to join them when all else has failed.
• Two Girls to a Team: L.L. and Kimiko are the only female members of the team. Lois even complains to Hughie that the original team was a "sausage fest" with her being the sole woman there.

William "Billy" Butcher

Billy Butcher

• Aloof Ally: Though he accepts Clark's help, it's clear that his Fantastic Racism includes the famous hero.
• Anti-Role Model: Lois uses him as an illustrative example of what happens when vengeance completely consumes you. Every one of The Boys are there to settle a score with the Supe community, but Lois notes Butcher's near-fanatical hatred of them, and how there's very little chance he'll come back from it.
• Badass Normal: Lois explains to Hughie that's why he's the leader of The Boys; his almost psychopathic thirst for vengeance drives him further than it would any lesser mortal. However, she does admit there are some drawbacks to this.
• Everyone Has Standards: He cannot bring himself to badmouth Superman, despite his hatred for Supes as a whole (though that doesn't mean he likes him at all). Even he finds Sam Lane's hatred of Supes to be extreme.
• It's All About Me: Lois notes that this is his biggest problem as a leader; he's so fixated on going after Homelander that he doesn't consider that it might be better to deal with lesser Supes first.
• Loving a Shadow: Accused of this by Becca when they finally reunite–he put her on an unrealistic pedestal, and their relationship wasn't as perfect as he chooses to remember.
• Not in This for Your Revolution: While most of the team are there to free the world from the influence of the Supes, Butcher is there because of his burning desire for revenge as well as his Fantastic Racism. When he learns that Becca is alive, he immediately plans to abandon the team to rescue her so they can go into hiding.
• Revenge Before Reason: A big believer in this, and it costs him. When he tells The Boys that even though they have proof that Vought has been creating Supes with Compound V, the CIA still won't support them. Lois quickly deduces it's because Billy wouldn't settle for anything less than killing Homelander. For which she calls him a Manchild and they almost come to blows.

Wee Hughie — Hughie Campbell Jr.

Hughie Campbell

• Adaptational Angst Downgrade: Having people like Clark and Lois in addition to Annie makes things slightly more bearable for Hughie here. It also helps that Lois begins acting like a Cool Big Sis during his time in The Boys; trying to give him a more empathetic mentorship compared to Butcher.
• Book Dumb: Hughie is the first to admit that his knowledge of the world is limited by how it relates to Supe trivia, of which he has a borderline encyclopedic recall.
• Butt-Monkey: Just like in canon, very little goes right for Hughie. For example, after The Boys are captured, Hughie proudly reveals he snuck a lock-picking tool into his permanent retainer, planning to give it to Frenchie so they can escape. Unfortunately, it gets stuck in his mouth. M.M. has to knock out a few of his teeth just to get it loose.
• Decomposite Character: Although Jimmy Olsen gets a brief cameo as Cat Grant's cameraman, Hughie fills his approximate role here with his relationship with Lois and Clark, and his romance with Annie is reminiscent of Jimmy's dalliances with Supergirl.
• Morality Pet: He serves as this for both Butcher and Lois, with the latter looking after him and advising him not to end up like Butcher.

L.L. — Lois Lane

Lois Lane

• Adaptational Badass: In most iterations, Lois Lane is a civilian reporter and occasional Damsel in Distress. In the fic, Lois is a member of The Boys and has no problems executing a Supe because she prepared for it.
• Adaptational Intelligence: Lois, in canon, is mainly a good journalist. In this fic, she's an extremely competent vigilante, capable of hot-wiring cars, taking on fake identities, and evading detection by the authorities.
• Adaptational Jerkass: Downplayed. She is still trying to do the right thing, but she's willing to resort to more ruthless methods than in canon, such as killing Mesmer to prevent him from giving away the Boys' secrets.
• Adaptational Job Change: In the comics, Lois Lane is a newspaper reporter. This story reinvents the Daily Planet as a news station, and Lois having her own primetime show. However, when Vought buys them out, she's forced to change it from investigative journalism to a softballing talk show about Supes.
• Adaptational Backstory Change: Downplayed. She's still a reporter for the Daily Planet. She's also a member of The Boys and is distrustful of superheroes after one superhero killed her college roommates.
• Byronic Hero: Rare Female Example. She comprehends the moral bankruptcy of what she does, but it's the only way she can deal with the moral bankruptcy of the world Vought has created, and she's genuinely trying to keep as many people from suffering as possible.
• Crazy-Prepared: She apparently doses people with a radioactive liquid so she can remotely track them with a satellite in case they're captured or in some way separated. Both M.M. and Frenchie say it's the reason they don't go out for coffee with her anymore.
• Dark and Troubled Past: She has had issues with other Supes ever since her college roommates invited another Supe for a threesome and he left them to die in the atmosphere after a mid-air sexual encounter.
• Dating What Daddy Hates: Unintentional example. Her father, General Sam Lane, is a noted anti-Supe. But that didn't stop her from dating Clark, and later having his baby.
• Even the Girls Want Her: Nubia Taylor discreetly propositions Lois for a threesome with both of them and Clark, going so far as to seductively squeeze her thigh and wink. invokedLois has to work extra hard to keep her smile on and give a non-committal answer.
• Fatal Flaw: Wrath. While she can temper her anger with rationality, she simply can't make herself back down from going after Vought, even if it means holding the man she loves at arms length. In fact, it's for this very reason she can't promise to never use Kryptonite against Supes, even to assuage Clark's concerns.
• Hidden Depths: Despite her hatred of most Supes, she makes some off-handed comments that imply she was a fan of Wonder Woman.
• In Love with the Mark: Although Lois is working with The Boys to expose the corruption of the Supes, she admits in a conversation with Hughie that she has genuine feelings for Clark.
• Intrepid Reporter: Deconstructed. Lois wants to expose the truth behind Vought but Perry warns her that Supes aren't afraid of murdering journalists (or their families) to cover up their crimes and tells her she's going to get herself killed if she doesn't let go.
• Iron Lady: Lois is a fierce anti-Supe vigilante who is tough enough to assassinate a Supe in cold blood. Her fierce glares cow even Hughie into sitting down like a kid who broke one of his mom's plates.
• Knight in Sour Armor: She wants to use reporting to fight against corruption but is worn down by the toxic underbelly she encounters. Still, her hopes are slightly rekindled when she meets the genuinely kind Clark.
• The Lancer: Shares this with Hughie and M.M.. While Hughie is basically Butcher's protege and briefly takes over The Boys in Butcher's absence, Lois is the one who usually stands up to Butcher and calls him out on his behavior (and unlike Hughie, she isn't intimidated by him).
• The Last DJ: As much as Lois wants to be this and refuses to tow the Vought line, Perry warns her that not only would this jeopardize her ability to make a living, but she could be surreptitiously murdered by a corrupt Supe.
• Last Girl Wins: It should come as no surprise that of Clark's relationships, from Lana Lang to Lori Lemaris, Lois Lane successfully steals Superman's golden heart and later has his child.
• Mama Bear: She hides her yet-to-be-born baby from the public, even Clark, because she's terrified of Vought getting their hands on her.
• Only Sane Woman: Although she can be just as ruthless as Butcher, she lacks a lot of his toxic '90s Anti-Hero tendencies so that she can be more logical and reasonable about their objective.
• Pragmatic Hero: She wants to be an honest journalist, but ultimately the political and professional realities of her position mean she has to play ball with Vought and their bottom line. As a member of The Boys, she's perfectly willing to execute a superhero to protect herself and her colleagues.
• Pregnant Badass: Lois eventually becomes pregnant with Clark's child, but she still commands the respect she previously had in The Boys, and has vowed to never let Vought get their hands on her baby.
• Reluctant Fanservice Girl: As part of her new contract with Vought, Lois is forced to dress sexy when conducting work on their behalf, even for an interview with Superman, where nobody involved would care if she dressed up.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Lois begins to fall for Clark after seeing he is a genuinely good guy.
• Took a Level in Cynic: After she's forced to work for Vought and sell out her integrity to meet their low standards. She is so bitter, that she (initially) sees Clark's politeness as an act.

Mother's Milk — Marvin T. Milk/M.M.

Marvin T. Milk

• The Big Guy: Physically the largest of The Boys, and he knows how to use it. Luckily, he's mostly a Gentle Giant.
• Family Man: He has a wife and child, and their safety always takes precedence over The Boys' mission. When Lois comes back to The Boys pregnant, M.M. notably makes her tea and gets in front of her whenever there's potential danger.
• The Heart: Shares this with Hughie. He's the one who usually steps in and de-escalates when Butcher is fighting with either Lois or Hughie.

Frenchie/Serge

Frenchie

• Chivalrous Pervert: He and Lois have pretended to be a couple in the past to take down a Supe, and he flirts with her on occasion, but he doesn't mean anything by it.
• Functional Addict: He's the resident Ace of The Boys, and he accomplishes many of these tasks high on something. This makes it all the more hilarious when Clark is able to track the team down by shaking down one of his dealers. The Frenchmen can only look sheepishly during one of the few times he genuinely messed up.

The Female — Kimiko Miyashiro

Kimiko Miyashiro

• Cute Bruiser: Hughie idly thinks how non-threatening she is you almost forget she can literally tear groups of grown men apart.
• Token Super: As in the show, she's the only one on the crew with Compound V in her veins.

Vought International

General

• Adaptational Backstory Change: In canon, Frederick Vought made Compound V during World War II by himself; in this story, he created the serum from Kara's blood.
• Adaptational Dumbass: Not to the extent of the original comics, but their Incompetence, Inc. is more emphasized than in the series, showing most employees as out-of-touch narcissists or amoral sycophants.
• Ancient Conspiracy: Going all the way back to WWII, Frederick Vought somehow got his hands on a living Kryptonian still in suspended animation, all thanks to a silent partner that helped him develop Compound V from their blood; seemingly with the end goal of Supes replacing humanity wholesale.
• Evil, Inc.: It's clear in the fic that Vought is the true rot at the center of this Crapsack World, and the Supes they enable are just a symptom of their toxic influence.
• MegaCorp: They were already The Dreaded by the beginning of the story, with them having developed monopolies in several industries, but when Supe-Terrorists attack Los Angeles, they essentially become powerful enough that the government is forced to kowtow to basically every single one of their demands. Whatever Vought wants, Vought gets.

Stan Edgar

Stan Edgar

• Corrupt Corporate Executive: He can put on a pretense of professionalism, but he's complicit in covering up the cruelty and excesses of the Supes. His desire to work with Clark stems from a desire to have a more stable Supe be Vought's premier hero than any real morality. He's even willing to use Clark's alien heritage as leverage against him.
• Dissonant Serenity: He's the picture of cordiality, and is completely calm at all times, whether he's negotiating with the Defense Department over how Vought's Supes are deployed on the battlefield or he's being threatened by a sociopathic superhuman like Homelander.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Stan Edgar is an amoral businessman, but he finds Lana Lang to be an unpleasant presence in Clark's life and tells her to scram. He also probably knows that Stillwell hired her specifically to ruin Clark's reputation, so he puts a stop to it.
• It's Personal: Mary eventually realizes Stan Edgar's helping of her, Clark, and their family goes well beyond the company's interests; he has a personal stake in helping the Kents. When Mary asks him why, he looks at her as if she touched a nerve, something that you wouldn't get out of the cold-hearted and stoic CEO of Vought. It's not until she leaves the office that he gives his reason: he owes his father.
• Mysterious Past: He somehow knows that Clark is an alien, and has seemingly been in contact with Jor-El.
• Nerves of Steel: Stan Edgar can remain calm and collected no matter the situation. Clark notes while Aunt Mary's heart rate rises at the mention of Homelander, Edgar's vitals remain normal. In a meeting with military officials, he stuns them with his incredible calm and certainty toward potential Supe misbehavior.
• The Omniscient: His knowledge of the dirty secrets of Vought's Supes borders on this. Even Clark's alien background doesn't get past him.
• Pet the Dog: While he wants to use Clark for his own gain to the point of holding his alien heritage over his head, he still helps him deal with his unpleasant relationship with Lana and genuinely admires his good nature.
• Pragmatic Villainy: He's helpful to Clark because he would rather work with him than with the unstable Homelander.
• Properly Paranoid: He holds nearly omniscient knowledge over the major Supe community, once somehow knowing that Homelander was listening to him with his super-hearing and coldly told him to knock it off. And knowing that Clark is an alien.
• Tranquil Fury: As in canon, Stan Edgar's strength is his ability to get what he wants without raising his voice. He manages to get Lana off Clark's back with a short but firm warning.
• The Un-Smile: Goes along with being a pathological stoic; on the rare occasions where he makes even the slightest of smiles, everyone is unnerved by its artificiality–as if his facial muscles no longer remember how to properly do it.
• Villain Respect: He's a Corrupt Corporate Executive, but he shows some genuine respect for Mary Clark and her nephew. He'd rather work with Superman over Homelander because the former has demonstrated moral scruples that make him easier to manage.
• Villain Takes an Interest: He takes an interest in Clark when he displays record-breaking strength and speed at just nine years old, seeing him as a more stable alternative to Homelander.

Madelyn Stillwell

Madelyn Stillwell

• Adaptational Heroism: A very minor example as in the show, Madelyn was privately ecstatic over Homelander’s false flag operation to smuggle V to terrorists, and wished she’d thought of it herself. Here, she’s horrified by the Supe's actions, and genuinely fears the fire storm that could come to giving uncontrollable extremists superpowers.
• Big Bad Wannabe: Stillwell controls the entire corporate aspect of the heroes and gets them to toe the line more than once with subtle threats towards their money and positions, with Homelander as her Dragon-in-Chief. Her death by Homelander, as well as his accidental murder of Pa Kent, is what cements him as the true Big Bad of the story.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: She's even worse than Stan. Her image of politeness doesn't fool Clark for a minute.
• Deceased Fall-Guy Gambit: As in canon, any issues that Vought faces, mostly regarding the Compound V leak to the public, are pinned onto her after her death.
• Even Evil Has Standards: When Homelander reveals he's been injecting terrorists with Compound V and is responsible for the attack in Los Angeles, she’s utterly horrified by the madman's actions.
• Faux Affably Evil: She has a very warm and personable demeanor, despite being completely morally bankrupt. Clark sees through it almost instantly and is very disturbed by the relationship she shares with Homelander.
• Female Misogynist: Slightly Downplayed, but Stillwell was very quick to write off Mary Clark as an office bunny with no future while considering herself "Vought born and bred." Stillwell is later furious when Mary starts rising in the corporate ranks and attributes it to Sleeping Their Way to the Top rather than any hard work or aptitude on her part.
• Green-Eyed Monster: It doesn't take much prompting for her to hate Mary Clark for somehow being related to a Supe that could be stronger than Homelander, and rising quickly in the ranks of Vought.
• I Control My Minions Through...: Sex, money, and power. She's able to cow most of the Supes she encounters through their jobs because, in her experience, they're desperate to be famous. For Homelander, it's a combination of power and sex, playing on his narcissism and his Mommy Issues, though, that eventually wears out. She hits a brick wall with Superman because he isn't interested in any of those things.
• Obviously Evil: Superman immediately pegged Stillwell as corrupt and thus wants nothing to do with her.
• Opportunistic Bitch: She very quickly hitched her ride to Homelander from an early age and has been coasting on his success ever since. When she realizes that Clark could actually eclipse her Supe in the future, she does everything she can to sabotage him. When that fails, she tries to steal him away from his aunt.
• Pædo Hunt: Being the only real mother figure he had growing up, Stillwell also groomed a young Homelander into being her sexual partner, and it's heavily implied that their sexual relationship likely began while he was underage. It's one of the things that led to the Supe becoming the monster he is now. Superman almost instantly recognizes how toxic and manipulative it is, and is shocked that Queen Maeve is so desensitized to it.
• Pragmatic Villainy: She ceases her smear campaign against Superman because she realizes it would make more sense to bring him over to her side.
• Shadow Archetype: Clark internally compares Aunt Mary to Stillwell and notes that while Mary does care for him while trying to advance her own career, Stillwell cares for no one but herself and her own needs. In fact, Stillwell's relationship with Homelander could be seen as Mary's relationship with Clark if it had turned completely toxic.
• Ungrateful Bitch: Despite owing her entire career to Homelander's massive success, she absolutely hates putting in the effort to manipulate him as she finds the Supe both unstable and pathetic. It's all but stated that she would drop Homelander without a second thought if she got her claws into Clark.

Aunt Mary

Mary Clark

• Aloof Ally: To her nephew Clark: while she does her best to shield him from the worst aspects of Vought, she is mainly interested in the wealth and fame his celebrity can bring her.
• Aloof Big Sister: Inverted. Mary is the aloof younger sister who largely ignores her older sister Martha as a way to escape her rural roots. Also, she only helps Martha adopt Clark out of pure self-interest.
• Ambition Is Evil: Downplayed. Mary isn't evil, but her thirst for success causes her to neglect her family, use her nephew for personal gain, and do a lot of Vought's dirty work.
• Cool Aunt: Zig-Zagged. While she treats her adopted nephew as a tool for personal advancement, she acknowledges Clark's genuinely good nature and tries to shield him from the worst excesses of Supes.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Downplayed. Mary is willing to bend the rules and falsify documents to claim relations with a potential superhero. While she's mostly helpful to Clark, she is complicit in covering up the corruption of the Supes and Vought as a whole, and is prepared to sweep any of her nephew's wrongdoing under the rug. As an adult, Clark knows he can rely on her to smooth out the bureaucratic red-tape that he's forced to contend with; she's one of the main reasons he's been allowed such freedom and leeway in his career that other Supes would kill for.
• Everyone Has Standards: While she treats her adopted nephew like her show pony, she uses her connections to make his life a little easier and still lets him live a relatively functional childhood. She's also completely willing to scrap her initial plans for him to start his official career on the East Coast so he won't be in Homelander's cross-hairs and indeed seems intent on delaying a confrontation between the two of them for as long as possible once she learns Homelander hates Clark. She later furiously fires her own producer for trying to use Jonathan's funeral for publicity.
• Family Versus Career: Mary is heavily implied to have put her career above her family life. In her middle age, she is divorced from her husband and her children rarely speak to her.
• Green-Eyed Monster: She envies Madelyn Stillwell for using her connections to manipulate her way to the top. She also holds a bit of resentment toward Martha because Jonathan fell for her older sister instead of her.
• Like a Son to Me: A Reconstruction. A combination of losing touch with her real children and Clark's stabilizing influence in her life has inspired some mild self-reflection in Mary and caused her to see her nephew as a loved one rather than a meal ticket. It comes as a shock even to herself how protective she's become of him, valuing him as the one good thing in her life she hasn't completely ruined.
• Lonely at the Top: Years of partaking in the rat race have left Mary bereft of any family connections aside from Clark. She laments not getting an invite to her daughter's wedding.
• Older and Wiser: By the time Clark is a young adult, Mary's self-centered ambitions have cooled and she's more open to spending time with her family, regretting her choice to put the corporate ladder before her loved ones.
• Opportunistic Bitch: To a lesser extent than Stillwell. She initially had zero interest in helping the Kents fraud their way into adopting Clark until she sees he's a powerful Supe, and begins planning his future career.
• Original Character: Mary, Clark's maternal aunt, has no canon counterpart in either IP (Hughie does have an "Aunt Mary" in the comics... invokedbut she's a decidedly different character). Through her job at Vought, she plays a crucial role in setting Clark up for his career as a celebrity superhero.
• Seen It All: Played for Drama. Mary sees all the devastation and damage superheroes leave in their wake as just a business day for her, much to Clark's shock.
  Mary: You want the truth, Clark; this is my job covering up the shit your kind leaves in its wake. Every day it's another fuckin' trainwreck, dead hookers, drugs, people injured in botched saves, and actual bloody fucking trainwrecks!
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Mary and Martha are sisters, but wanted vastly different things from one another. Mary was an ambitious career woman who wanted out of Kansas as soon as she could while Martha was happy settling down in Smallville. Also, Mary is largely contemptuous of her rural roots while Martha is content being the traditional wife of a local farmer.
• Small Town Boredom: She was quick to get out of Kansas as soon as she could, breaking as many ties to her rural life as she could, and not even returning to Smallville to see her sister.
• Smooth-Talking Talent Agent: She quickly becomes the defacto manager of Clark's brand, using her skills to push his career forward while coasting on his success. Even at nine years old, she demanded only the best placements and endorsements for her nephew, and Donna January immediately recognized her as a force of nature in the Midwestern hero circuit who could make or break a career with a phone call.
• Superior Successor: Instead of Ashley Barrett as in canon, Mary eventually succeeds Stillwell as Stan Edgar's Number Two, not only for her aptitude for corporate politicking, but also for helping bring up Superman, who himself is a superior successor to Homelander, both in terms of raw power, intelligence, and morality. She also demonstrates more genuine attachment to Clark than Stillwell ever did with her Supe, seeing him as the closest thing she has to a true child after burning her bridges with her real children–showing that she's not the heartless corporate shark her predecessor was.
• Took a Level in Kindness: By the time Butcher's campaign against the Supes has picked up, she has lost much of her selfish ambition; coming to regret losing touch with her children and chooses to go to the Kent farm for Thanksgiving as at least then she'll be with people she likes rather than spending the holiday alone. At Jonathan's funeral, she calls the publicity department ghouls and furiously fires them for trying to get footage of a private event when everyone present just wants to be allowed to mourn in peace. When Stan Edgar later questions her attachment to Clark, she surprises herself over how fond she's become of her nephew as she sees him as more of her child than her actual children.

Ashley Barrett

Ashley Barrett

• Beleaguered Assistant: She's low in the Vought pecking order, and gets very little respect. Homelander almost murders her after she thoughtlessly suggests he take a teenage Clark as a sidekick. Her Rank Up still doesn't help her get any real respect, with even Clark giving her the brush-off.
• Demoted to Extra: Since Mary Clark succeeds Stillwell, Ashley doesn't become The Seven's manager. However, she does get a mild Rank Up and becomes Edgar's Number 3. It's still very much Authority in Name Only though.

The Government

General

• Big Good: For your given value of "good" in this situation, they're at least trying to keep Vought and their Supes in check using The Boys.
• Eagleland: A mixture of Types 1 and 2. The federal government is a flawed organization, and is already horribly intertwined with Vought, but the MegaCorp is the more significant issue here.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: The US government has been and is currently involved in a lot of shady, if not outright evil, activities, but everyone knows that Vought becoming a Private Military Contractor with literal Super-Soldiers is an absolute disaster.

General Sam Lane

General Sam Lane

• Adaptational Heroism: Only by association. He's still a fanatical anti-Supe, but considering the world he lives in, his Fantastic Racism seems far more justified here, and he's cordial with Superman when they finally meet. Becomes a straighter example when it's revealed he's this world's version of Deathstroke.
• Arch-Enemy: It's revealed he has a murderous grudge against Black Noir over what happened in Nicaragua.
• Composite Character: It's eventually revealed that he's also Deathstroke the Terminator. He also has a little bit of General Wade Eiling in him.
• The Dreaded: Butcher wants as little to do with him as possible, and is more scared of him than the prospect of fighting Homelander naked with a spoon.
• Empowered Badass Normal: While already a capable fighter, the experimental program he was a part of made him a literal Super-Soldier. He's not to the standards of a Supe like Soldier Boy or even Black Noir, and the program was considered a failure, but he's still incredibly strong, tough, and intelligent for a man his age.
• Eye Scream: He gets one of Black Noir's swords through his shoulder, and the other through his eye.
• Fantastic Racism: He hates Supes more than Billy Butcher, and he's responsible for the original formation of The Boys.
• Four-Star Badass: When they meet, Clark can't help but notice that Lane's chest is positively covered with distinguished medals.
• General Ripper: He has a vocal and (in)famous hatred of Supes (to the point that Butcher thinks he's crazy) and is utterly against them serving in the military, but he's also been called a "true patriot." According to Butcher, Lane has his hands in just about every black operation in the US military.
• Lack of Empathy: Annie eventually concludes that General Lane is simply devoid of empathy–he just doesn't care.
• Politically Incorrect Hero: Well, "hero" might be stretching it, but he's one of the people who helped create The Boys. That said, it's implied he holds some conservative–if not homophobic–views, considering Lois befriended a polyamorous bisexual couple in her sorority just to piss him off.
• Psycho for Hire: Pretends to be one as Deathstroke–acting as one of Sam Lane's "assets" for important missions.
• Shadow Archetype: Serves as this for Billy Butcher, as while both men hate Supes (especially one particular) with a burning passion, Sam's eclipses Butcher's. This single-minded contempt is implied to have eroded his marriage, and damaged his relationship with his daughters. And it's revealed he participated in a super-soldier program, possibly with the goal of fighting Supes, similar to Butcher using Temp-V to kill Homelander in the series.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: He does not enjoy working with Superman, but it's mollified slightly when he learns the Supe's not happy about the arrangement either. He even asks Clark if he's willing to kill Homelander for him.

Susan Raynor

Susan Raynor

• Reasonable Authority Figure: Just like in the show, when Butcher gives her the proof that Vought is manufacturing Supes using Compound V, she puts aside their tenuous relationship and gives him everything he needs with one exception: no Homelander. He and Superman are the only Supes the government won't let them touch.
• Your Head Asplode: Same as in canon.

Grace Mallory

Grace Mallory

• Break the Badass: It seems she lost her kids the same way in this canon, which Butcher feels responsible for.
• The Team Benefactor: As in the show, Mallory (along with General Lane) is the founder, mentor, and original leader of The Boys.

Lucy Lane

Lucy Lane

• Badass on Paper: Loosely applies; while she is in the military where her sister Lois is officially just a reporter, Butcher reflects that between the two, Lois is the stronger of the two where Lucy is basically just another soldier whom Butcher could find hundreds of if he wanted.
• The Cameo: She's one of the passengers on Flight 37, and in her POV moment, she's internally debating on fighting the terrorists herself.
• Fantastic Racism: Suggested; when she learns that Superman is an alien, her immediate reaction is to panic about her sister's pregnancy and insist that they "get that thing out of [her]", even though there has been nothing to indicate that Lois's pregnancy is dangerous.
• The Team Benefactor: She apparently supplies The Boys with CIA safe-houses, and she's the one Lois goes to when she needs to put together an artificial paper-trail for an unlicensed gun she used to stage a suicide.

Other Supes

Ryan Butcher

Ryan Butcher

• Broken Pedestal: At first, Ryan is overjoyed to have Homelander for a father, but Clark can tell he's more excited by having a father as a concept. After Homelander throws him off the roof, Ryan begins to believe that superheroes aren’t real. The pedestal is slightly rebuilt when he has a heart-to-heart with Clark, who is very much the superhero he acts like.
• Child Of Rape: The result of Homelander assaulting Becca Butcher. While a Supe committing SA is nothing new, the fact that it resulted in a viable conception of a natural-born Supe is seen as a Game Changer and could be a key component in a seemingly century-long conspiracy for Supes to replace baseline humans.
• Coming of Age Story: A straighter example than his canon-counterpart. His idyllic yet sterile life with his mother on the Vought estate is shattered when Homelander arrives, bringing Superman along with him. At first, he's ecstatic about this development before his father's true personality begins to show, leading to his first loss of innocence, and a greater understanding of the dangers the wider world holds. Finding a mentor in Clark, he realizes he'll need to quickly master his new powers to protect those he loves, and figure out who/what he wants to become.
• Composite Character: Clark's relationship with Ryan brings to mind both Connor Kent (a science experiment and superhero-in-training) and Christopher Kent (the superpowered son of a mortal enemy).
• Disowned Parent: In one of his POV moments after the incident with Homelander, Ryan mentally corrects himself when he briefly thinks of the Supe as his father.
• Extremely Protective Child: As in canon, Ryan loves his mom and becomes extremely upset when Homelander threatens her, and asks Clark to train him so he can properly protect her.
• Hero-Worshipper: He's a big superhero fanboy, but it's revealed that Superman was his favorite hero, even managing to instantly recognize Clark when first meeting him in spite of the hero not wearing his costume at the time. When he's taken to the Kent Farm to hide from Homelander, he treats staying in Clark's old room with almost religious reverence, and tries on his old Superboy suit.
• Like Father, Unlike Son: As in canon, having been raised by a mother who genuinely loved him, the kid really is every bit as nice and cheery as he appears.
• Mistaken Identity: Kara Zor-El mistakes Ryan for her long-lost cousin Kal, as all Compound V originates from her blood, and he has the same genetic code as her, technically making Ryan a member of the House of El. A later analysis confirms that genetically, Ryan could be considered Kara's grandson.
• Unskilled, but Strong: He's a child with no fighting experience, but he’s able to throw a baseball that shatters the sound barrier after a little coaching from Superman and shoves Homelander clear off his feet. Clark notes that he’s quickly growing into his powers.
• With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility: Defied. Ryan is shocked to hear Superman of all people say that he doesn't have to be a superhero if he doesn't want to.

Great Wide Wonder

Great Wide Wonder

• Addled Addict: Like his canon counterpart, he's a hopeless heroin addict.
• Karmic Death: He dies similarly to his canon counterpart after Frenchie and Lois (whose college roommates were killed because of him) give him an extra-strength heroin enema, but this time he blows straight into a mountain.
• One Degree of Separation: Downplayed. The two college girls he murdered by leaving them up in orbit? Those were Lois' sorority sisters. Their deaths were what inspired her to become one of The Boys, which ultimately resulted in his own death.
• Zero-G Spot: His favorite pastime, and the best way for him to get away with murder.

Lamplighter

Lamplighter

• Adaptational Villainy: He does not get the chance to display any real remorse for his actions before he's killed.
• Boom, Headshot!: How Deathstroke repays him for getting them into Vought Tower's V-lab.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation: Once he gets Hughie, Diana, and Deathstroke into Vought Tower, he's unceremoniously shot in the head by Deathstroke to avenge Mallory's grandchildren.
• Logical Weakness: He can control fire, but he can't make it himself and needs an external source, so he carries around a few zippo lighters. Sam Lane knocks one out of his hand before he can make a move, rendering the Supe helpless.
• Super-Toughness: Downplayed. Sam Lane points out that even the average Supe is more resistant to damage than a regular human, but that toughness just requires slightly heavier ammunition and aiming for weak spots like the eyes. When Deathstroke shoots Lamplighter in the eye, he notes that the bullet exited the back of his skull just fine.

Soldier Boy — Ben

Ben

• The Ghost: Aside from a brief flashback to WWII, he's only been mentioned in passing and is believed to be dead. He's not, but he doesn't factor into the plot until Season 3.
• Hated by All: Steve Trevor ruefully noted that Soldier Boy was essentially everything that was wrong with superheroes, which made him impossible to work with.
• Hypocrite: Rather tellingly, he sided with Liberty to blackmail Diana into disappearing after she murdered a group of racists in revenge for lynching Steve. While what Diana did was wrong, the fact that Ben was willing to side with (whether he knew it or not) a literal Nazi who was guilty of far worse crimes is galling.
• Our Founder: He's recognized as the original superhero, and carried out missions during WWII. Though a majority of his accomplishments are embellishments by Vought, and it's noted that the few missions he and Wonder Woman went on were pretty much just throw-away assignments in Italy that wouldn't really hurt the war effort if they failed (mainly because he was such an asshole that he couldn't be trusted with important tasks and nobody wanted to work with him).
• Shadow Archetype: To Diana, who was also one of the original test subjects for Compound V. While it's unknown how she exactly got involved in it, Diana at least tried to be a good superhero, was serious about destroying the Nazis, and only really participated in the super-celebrity lifestyle to help raise a family. Meanwhile, Ben used his father's position to pull strings and become part of the V trials and was the very definition of a Fake Ultimate Hero; not only was he riddled with just about every vice you can imagine, he was also a violent bigot and bully who terrorized civil-rights protestors, and used his fame as a superhero to overcompensate for his inner insecurities to a toxic degree.

"The Girl In The Pod" (Major Spoilers)

Kara Zor-El

The Girl of Steel. Superman's long-lost cousin and the source of Compound V.

---

• Big Sister Instinct: As soon as she's awoken, she immediately flies to search for Kal-El, and ends up mistaking Ryan for her cousin.
• Buxom Beauty Standard: When Clark and The Boys are rescuing her, Frenchie can't help but comment on her large breasts. M.M. even calls her "jumbo-tits." While in Las Vegas with Ryan, she is continuously catcalled and propositioned for sex.
• Composite Character: She's introduced in a very similar way to Soldier Boy in Season 3, being a powerful Supe who is released from a prison where they were experimented on for decades. Also, while her name is revealed to be Kara Zor-El, one of her notable features being her ample chest and her outfit being white bring to mind Power Girl, even donning the latter's costume when Ryan suggests changing her clothes to better blend in with Earth's Supes.
• Dramatic Irony: Due to some really unfortunate miscommunications, Kara blasts Clark through a wall when she first meets him and flies off to look for Kal-El, unaware that her beloved cousin was the man she just blasted. It gets worse when she finds Ryan and takes him away from Martha and Becca, thinking he's Kal.
• Leotard of Power: After getting some directions from prostitutes, she and Ryan go to an erotic clothing store and she reprograms her flight suit to change into a leotard.
• Mistaken for Prostitute: After she takes Ryan, they eventually find themselves in Las Vegas, where Kara's form-fitting Kryptonian flight suit causes several men to proposition her. When she asks some prostitues on how to get clothing better suited to blending in, they assume she's a fellow working girl.
• Monster Progenitor: Compound V was created using her blood.
• Poor Communication Kills: After getting free, Clark and The Boys try to calm her down and help, but because she only knows how to speak in Kryptonese and Clark barely knows the language, she blasts him through a wall and flies away to search for Kal-El. In Kara's defense, she was finally freed from her pod after God knows how long and was likely disoriented from the long sleep.
• Related in the Adaptation: Zig-zagged, since Compound V was synthesized from her blood, every Supe got their powers by having their DNA spliced with hers, and it's heavily implied Homelander and Ryan inherited their blond hair and blue eyes from her, essentially making them her genetic children; a genetic analysis confirms that Ryan, in particular, has so many Kryptonian genetic markers that he could essentially be considered Kara's grandson.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Downplayed, but her suit's translator apparently works through direct translation, making her speech come off as stilted and robotic.
• Translator Microbes: Being in her pod for so long she only knows how to communicate in Kryptonese, which causes some difficulties when Clark and The Boys attempt to rescue her (as the former can barely speak it). Eventually, the AI in her suit is able to decipher and translate her speech into English.
• Wild Card: She's not on Vought's side nor is she really on The Boys' side–she's just a refugee looking for her cousin. Whether she has any larger role in the Ancient Conspiracy has yet to be revealed.

Super-Terrorists

General

• Create Your Own Villain: Invoked In-Universe by Homelander. He deliberately distributed the drug to several criminal and terrorist organizations for the express purpose of creating supervillains for The Seven to fight, and the hope that Clark would have an enemy that forced him to "cut loose."
• Superhero Paradox: The supervillains were made by Homelander deliberately to create an answer to this.

El Diablo

El Diablo

• Adaptational Superpower Change: The El Diablo in the source material derived his power from being the host of an Aztec god. Here, she gets it from a dose of Compound V.
• Adaptational Villainy: In the comics, Chato Santana is The Atoner with a Superpowered Evil Side. This El Diablo is a domestic terrorist who's trying to kill Superman in revenge for decimating her gang, and aims to take it over.
• Deceased Fall-Guy Gambit: She's blamed for Translucent's death.
• Full-Frontal Assault: Her clothes burn off when she cranks up her fire powers.
• Gender Flip: A man in most adaptations. Here a woman.
• Gratuitous Spanish: She peppers her sentences with Spanish phrases and curses.
• No Name Given: Her name is never revealed.
• Playing with Fire: Her Compound V injection gave her incredibly potent pyrokinetic and heat-resistant powers, enough to instantly turn non-Supes to ash. Even significantly tough Supes like Annie get mild burns and blisters just from the backwash of her flames.
• The Queenpin: What she plans to become after she kills Superman.
• Sinister Nudity: She's on too much of a Power High to notice that her clothes have burnt off. Although it's apparently not evident she's naked until her flames die out when Superman breaks her arms.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: In-Universe. In the aftermath of the Los Angeles attack, she completely disappears. Since there's not a lot of places for a naked domestic terrorist with broken arms to hide, Clark cynically concludes Vought had her surreptitiously killed to silence her.

Atomic Skull — Joseph Martin

Joseph Martin

• Atomic Superpower: What makes him such a dangerous villain is that he can generate deadly levels of radiation powerful enough to knock Superman on his ass. The authorities hand him over to Vought because they're the only ones who can build the special prison needed to contain him.
• Adaptational Villainy: In the comics, most of the time Martin is basically delusional rather than evil, thinking that he's a character in an old film series and only attacking Superman because he thinks the Man of Steel is the villain from the same series. Here, he's an outright terrorist.
• Evil Luddite: He and Chemo are eco-terrorists, but he has a much more outspoken disdain for the pollutions of modern life.
• Large Ham: He verbosely monologues as he fights Superman, throwing in dramatic gesticulations, with Annie dryly comparing him to a 1960s TV sitcom villain.
• Skull for a Head: Downplayed. He still has skin, but his face is so sunken in that it looks like a skull.

Chemo — Robert Kanigher

Robert Kanigher

• Child Soldier: When he surrenders, his sludge recedes revealing a young boy somewhere in his mid-teens.
• Eco-Terrorist: Like Joseph, he's a militant environmentalist. Though he seems less fanatical than his partner.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: Seeing that El Diablo and Atomic Skull have been soundly defeated, he surrenders to Superman.
• Muck Monster: He can create a massive amount of toxic sludge around his body, which he controls from the inside.
• Tuckerization: As Chemo in the comics doesn't have an official name, he's named after his creator, Robert Kanigher.

Naqib

Naqib

• The Ghost: Mentioned, but never directly seen. It's said that he shares the same fate as his canon counterpart, but the government initially asked Superman to do it. He declined when he learned that they weren't interested in taking him in alive.

The Superdupers

General

• Foil: As in-canon, to The Seven. Their powers aren't great, a few may be disabled, and they don't have a lot of wins under their belts. Despite all of that, they still support each other and do good where they can, compared to pretty much every other hero (except Clark and Annie), who, despite all their powers and prestige, are miserable, self-serving bastards who only care about themselves.
• Hero-Worshipper: The entire house is overjoyed when Clark comes to visits (and it's implied he does so often), likely because he's the only big name in the industry that gives them any acknowledgment.
• Nice Guy: More in the Good Is Dumb variety, but they're all good kids who want to do their best, and they're encouraged by their leader, Auntie Sis, who is a Reasonable Authority Figure.
• Orphanage of Love: If the young Supes there have parents, they're never referenced, and they treat Auntie Sis as their Team Mom.
• Super Zeroes: They all have rather unimpressive or uncontrollable powers, which is why Vought uses the team as a dumping ground for unmarketable Supes. Auntie Sis tries to keep their spirits up and get them involved in public works.

Auntie Sis

Diana Prince

• Adaptation Deviation: Here, she is not an immortal Amazon from Themyscira–she's the daughter of Greek immigrants and a survivor of the first V trials alongside Soldier Boy.
• Adaptational Badass: While Auntie Sis in the comics had her heart in the right place, she never really did anything of note, and the comic treated her as much of a joke as the rest of her team. Here, she's this world's Wonder Woman.
• The Ageless: She's currently 101 years old, and hasn't aged a day since she took Compound V.
• Back in the Saddle: Downplayed, but she does agree to help Hughie and Deathstroke destroy a Vought V-lab (though she and Hughie were there under the impression it would help Clark), and Hughie notices she actually has fun fighting the Vought security squad sent to stop them.
• Boring, but Practical: Similar to Soldier Boy, she doesn't have any real flashy powers like Stormfront, but, she doesn't really need them. She's still considered one of the greatest Supes to have ever lived, and being over a hundred years old and spending decades in semi-retirement hasn't slowed her down at all.
• Broken Ace: She's about as strong, tough, and fast as Soldier Boy (and has Super-Hearing) on top of being a much better person than he ever was, but she lost her battle against Vought a long time ago and is now just trying to eke out a living away from their corruption, as well as take care of the Supes Vought wanted to toss aside.
• Celebrity Superhero: For a time, she was Vought's poster girl, and even participated in a few Hollywood movies to help pay for her life with Steve. However, after Steve's death and her semi-retirement from heroics, most people have forgotten she even existed. Currently, she's fine with having faded into obscurity because it means she'll have as little to do with Vought as possible.
• Cigarette of Anxiety: She quit years ago because she didn't want to smoke around her charges, but Clark, Annie, and The Boys asking her about her past causes her to get them out. Specifically, she hid a pack and an old Army zippo lighter under the kitchen stove, which she can easily lift.
• Cosmic Plaything: How Diana sees herself, especially when Clark, Annie, and The Boys show up at her house, and Annie figures out she's Wonder Woman–Diana can't help but roll her eyes over having to deal with a potential fan.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Her husband Steve Trevor was lynched for being a black man in a relationship with a white woman in the 1940s. Liberty was the one who tipped them off, making even her name a Trauma Button for Diana.
• Excellent Judge of Character: She's good at reading people, so she knows that Clark is one of the few genuine Nice Guys in the Supes community, which is why she allows him to be around her charges. This takes a darker turn when she tells Clark he simply can't count on other Supes supporting him in his fight against Vought and Homelander because they're too warped by the power and prestige their position allows them, and won't let Clark jeopardize the system they've become adjusted to.
• Expecting Someone Taller: She's shocked to discover that Clark is a member of the alien species that Compound V is derived from and expected his kind to be blue or have tentacles.
• Expy Coexistence: She's the Wonder Woman (minus the magical background) sharing space with the resident Wonder Woman Wannabe, Queen Maeve.
• Friend to All Children: She looks after the Superdupers because she knows Vought doesn't give a shit about them and will probably hurt them if she tries to get involved again.
• Humble Goal: Deconstructed. All she wants is to protect her kids from Vought's toxic influence and look after the neighborhood she and her team live in. Unfortunately, this just illustrates how badly Vought crushed her spirit. While she didn't turn out like Queen Maeve, Vought did convince her she lived in a Crapsack World and that fighting them just wasn't a battle worth losing.
• The Lost Lenore: She has an old photo of a pilot whom she deeply loved; specifically this universe's Steve Trevor, who died from racial violence.
• Military Superhero: One of the original. She and Soldier Boy went on clandestine missions together during WWII and was part of the propaganda circuit to sell war bonds. She does not look back on that time fondly.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: She mentions that in the past, she's held raw plutonium, been buried under volcanic ash, and been exposed to just about every kind of toxic gas imaginable, and is no worse for ware.
• Noodle Incident: She mentions having been buried under volcanic ash at one point to demonstrate her Super-Toughness.
• Old Superhero: She was one of the first batch of Supes Vought made and fought in WWII. She was essentially in the same position as Clark is now; the difference is she lost her war against Vought.
• Outliving One's Offspring: Supes aren't generally able to have children, but the child she had with Steve, Lyta, was born with a medical disorder. It's unknown how long she lived, but it's safe to say that Diana outlived her.
• Precision F-Strike: When Clark, Annie, and The Boys show up at her house and ask her about the Supe Liberty, she lets out a couple of F-bombs, which shock her charges.
• Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior!: Normally, she's a Reasonable Authority Figure and the picture of politeness, but when Clark, Annie, and The Boys show up and start digging into her past, the centenarian doesn't even try to hide her annoyance.
• Shadow Archetype: She was once in a position similar to Clark–trying to be an Internal Reformist and push the Supe-community in a positive direction. Unfortunately, the deck was too stacked against her, so when Vought finally had sufficient leverage over her, she gave up.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: When her charges are out of ear-shot, and she has no reason to hide, she lets out curses worthy of the bitter veteran she is.
• Sleeps in the Nude: Implied. When Bobby barges into her room to tell her Clark has arrived, she pulls her bedsheets up to cover herself and calmly reminds Bobby of the house rule to knock on her bedroom door if it's closed.
• Strong and Skilled: In stark contrast to Soldier Boy, Diana showed far more restraint and care with powers, which proved to Steve Trevor that she could be invaluable as a Super-Soldier.
• Superman Stays Out of Gotham: Enforced. She and the Superdupers only patrol a small neighborhood and stay out of the larger conflicts Vought is dealing with, mainly because they're so pathetic and embarrassing that the company just likes to pretend they don't exist. There's of course the other reason for this policy–Diana specifically looks after the kids and keeps away from Vought's corrupting influence. She's furious when Clark, Annie, and The Boys show up and potentially jeopardize their safety.
• Team Mom: She looks after her "charges" and treats them with patience and respect, even when they absent-mindedly break her rules. In turn, everyone on the team loves her.
• These Hands Have Killed: She fought in WWII, but what truly broke her was killing the white racists in revenge for murdering Steve Trevor, which included literally ripping them apart. Liberty managed to take pictures of this event and send them to Vought as her victims were sheriffs and congressmens' sons. This proved to be enough dirt to get her to quietly disappear.
• Walking Spoiler: It's hard to talk about her given that she's another Canon Immigrant from DC Comics.
• Where da White Women At?: She fell in love with Steve Trevor, who was a black pilot, and they settled down in Alabama after the war. They tried to keep their relationship a secret, but somebody (most likely Liberty) leaked the info to a group of racists who lynched Trevor while Diana was away.
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: Similarly to Stormfront, everyone she's ever loved has grown old and died, including her daughter. The only thing that's keeping her going is rescuing and taking care of the disabled Supe children that Vought leaves in its wake.
• Wig, Dress, Accent: She wears a short red wig to cover up her natural jet-black hair, and she doesn't like the orange and yellow costume Vought has forced her to wear, missing her old red, blue, and gold costume.

Ladyfold — Joy

Joy

• Number Two: Officially, she's Auntie Sis's sidekick, and Diana considers the young lady her "right-hand woman."

Bobby Badoing — Bobby

Bobby

• Keet: He's easily excitable and full of energy which causes him to bounce up and down, shaking the room with his mass.
• Kind Hearted Simpleton: He doesn't seem to have a lot going on upstairs, but he's got a big heart and he's very earnest.

Shadow Stool — Rachel

Rachel

• Forgetful Jones: As with the comics, the repeated head injuries she's suffered due to her Intangibility not functioning properly causes her to lose her train of thought. Even forgetting her sentences as she's speaking them.

The Young Americans

General

• The Ghost: Aside from Clark, Annie, and Alex, they're only mentioned in passing.
• Kid Hero: This mixed with Teen Idol–the Young Americans were the preeminent team for teenage Supes. Though, like The Seven, they hardly did anything heroic; Clark and Annie were seemingly the only ones actually interested in helping people.
• The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: What made Clark stand out was that he used his incredible powers to save people on a regular basis, even in a non-official capacity, which Vought spun as him taking on a "leadership role" in the team.
• Two Girls to a Team: Of the six members, Annie and Patricia were the only females on the team.

Drummer Boy — Alex

Alex

• Adaptational Jerkass: Zig-Zagged. This version of Alex takes more inspiration from the comics (where he was just as bad as every other Supe there), namely his relationship with Annie ending because of him cheating on her, as opposed to the show version, where he's presented as an unambiguously good person and Amicable Exes with Annie, although it was mentioned that he had a rather long stint in rehab.
• Addled Addict: He's addicted to something that makes him full of energy, and he frequents underground Supe raves. Clark tries to get him to a hospital when he notices that he's on the verge of overdosing.
• Make Some Noise: He has some vaguely defined sound-based power.
• Old Flame: He was Annie's boyfriend until they broke up for his constant infidelity and drug addiction.

General Issue — Dwight

Dwight

• Superhero Packing Heat: He had a reflex-based power which allowed him to do some pretty impressive trick-shooting.

Holy Mary — Patricia Highsmith

Patricia Highsmith

• Mind Control: She had the power to put multiple men under a hypnotic trance and command them to do things such as dance.
• Nun Too Holy: Her costume gimmick.

The Standard — Cameron

Cameron

• Token Flyer: According to Annie, he had impressive aerial acrobatic skills, but they were not to the standards of Clark.

Other Characters

Kelex

Kelex

• Benevolent A.I.: Part and parcel with being The Jeeves of the House of El, he is fiercely loyal to Clark, and continues to help him through his career as a superhero. The way Clark casually mentions him to other people probably means they think he’s some kind of sophisticated personal assistance AI.
• Master Computer: Kelex assists in a lot of aspects of Clark’s life, having him linked up with his California mansion (even having interfaces linked in Clark’s suit). Averted in that Kelex is nice, compliant, and only wants to help his master. He even sets alarms in case Annie is in trouble at Seven Tower.

The Kents

Johnathan and Martha

• Adaptational Jerkass: Downplayed; they are still a loving couple and Good Parents to their adopted alien son, but they do have moments of weakness. Jonathan destroyed the nursery he built when he discovered he and Martha couldn't conceive a baby. They are also worn down seeing their son used as a commodity–pushing Jonathan to drink and smoke, and Martha to binge-eat, just to cope.
• Affluent Ascetic: By the time that Clark is an adult his parents have become extremely wealthy, with their financial holdings being the most impressive in the state. However, they only really spend money to hire workers to manage their farm while putting the rest of it into trusts for Clark, and haven't really changed their lifestyles in any significant way. In Chapter 8 Jonathan grouses about the $20 price for hotel coffee, even though Clark had already paid for their expenses.
  Pa Kent: It was still too darn much for coffee.
• Beware the Nice Ones:
  • They are a decent couple, but Mary finds out they will not allow her to exploit Clark for her own gain.
  • Martha has no problem threatening Billy Butcher with a gun and even getting the drop on him the first time he "visits" the Kent farm, and she mentions a time Jonathan shot a religious group who came to try and abduct Clark in the belief that he was their messiah.
• Formerly Fit: Both Jonathan and Martha have lost their figures by the time Clark is a young adult. Jonathan admits he can't do farm work anymore due to his heart problems and that modernizing his farm is keeping him alive.
• Good Parents: Jonathan and Martha Kent. When Mary tries to get Clark into TV and side-kicking despite him being 9 at the time, Martha immediately shuts those plans down, pointing out that Clark is too young and hasn't fully controlled his powers yet. They also refuse to take any of the money Clark gets from contests for himself. Queen Maeve, who had been listening in on their conversation, is surprised to see the parents of a Supe not milking their child for all they're worth.
• Just a Kid: Martha displays a rare justified example of this trope: she refuses to let Clark be a sidekick or star in a TV show because he's too young for that.
• Mama Bear: Martha is very protective of her adopted son. She firmly shuts down Mary's attempts to get Clark into TV and side-kicking work when he's 9.
• Papa Wolf: Jonathan is very protective of his adopted son. When Mary tries to shoot down Clark's "S" symbol over petty marketing issues, he gets incensed and can silently cow her into acquiescing. In their fatal encounter, what really makes Homelander furious is realizing that Jonathan was becoming less frightened of him when the farmer started defending Clark.
• Rags to Riches: The Kent Farm originally started as a small family operation that made just enough to make ends meet, but after Pa Kent grew old and debt began to pile up, Clark chose to help out his adopted parents with a large loan despite his dad's protests. In a few years, the Kent Farm became one of the largest in the country, with hundreds of employees working on thousands of acres.
• Shipper on Deck: Jonathan recognizes Clark's attraction to Lois and half-jokingly offers to help him plan a wedding.

Becca Butcher

Becca

• Adaptational Angst Downgrade: Homelander still forces himself on her and he still discovers and invades her home to try and corrupt her son, but Superman's protection somewhat eases her fears, and temporarily moving into the Kent Farm greatly lifts the burdens she's been shouldering on her own. After Clark's talk with Ryan, she's so grateful for what he's done for her and her son she just starts crying tears of thanks.
• Differing Priorities Breakup: As in canon, she refuses to leave Ryan to be with Billy and calls him out for his warped perception of her. She has to threaten to call Superman with her signal watch to convince him to leave.
• Good Parents: Her only priority is keeping Ryan safe and making sure he doesn't turn into a second Homelander. With Clark being the kind of positive role-model and mentor Ryan needs, she's become even more committed to her goals.

Elena

Elena

• Adaptational Relationship Overhaul: Downplayed, but Maeve working with Superman and Homelander to save Flight 37 inspired her to reach out to Elena, and they were able to rekindle their relationship with no problems.
• Brutal Honesty: She's not afraid of speaking her mind, and she briefly bonds with Clark over their shared misgivings towards Vought and their strict PR team.
• If It's You, It's Okay: Averted. When she meets Clark in person for the first time, she can't help but comment about how tall and muscular he is, but Clark is able to decern that she's just in awe-struck admiration, rather than the "head-over-heels in lust" reaction he typically gets from women.
• Lipstick Lesbian: Just like Maeve, her ex-girlfriend, her hair and clothing style are quite feminine. When she and Maeve are Forced Out of the Closet, she grouses that Vought's forcing her to dress like a "lesbian Ken Doll" to be a less challenging Masculine–Feminine Gay Couple.

Pete Ross

Pete Ross

• Adaptational Job Change: It's mentioned that he becomes a senator when he grows up.
• Best Friend: Until Clark moves to LA, Pete was Clark's best friend in his civilian life, and tried to keep the Supe grounded and cheer him up when the celebrity life would get too for him.

Lana Lang

Lana Lang

• Adaptational Jerkass: While canon-Lana could be a bit obnoxious and vain, this Lana intentionally causes public spats with Clark and sells secrets to gossip magazines to milk the publicity. The drama helped her status as a beauty queen. It's later revealed that Stillwell worked through a few middlemen to seemingly bribe her into acting that way to ruin Clark's reputation.
• Fiery Redhead: Clark notes she can turn on and off the charm like a light switch, and has screamed at him in the past over his supposed unfaithfulness.
• Forced into Evil: Zig-zagged. It's unknown how willing she was in Stillwell's scheme to hurt Clark, and how much she benefited from it. Years later, it's mentioned she becomes Miss USA, seemingly on her own merits and without the executive's help.
• Ms. Fanservice: She was an accomplished beauty queen in her youth, and when they reunite years later in Chapter 20, Clark can't help but notice that she's gorgeous as an adult.
• The One That Got Away: Clark is this for Lana it seems as by Chapter 20 it's revealed she still has feelings for him and it didn't take long for her to start lusting for his Mr. Fanservice features, seemingly trying to engineer a Romance On Set situation when she's cast as his girlfriend in the Dawn of the Seven film.

---