As in the
The Boys comics, the characters are mostly clear expies of existing characters from other comics, mostly Marvel and DC,
who are twisted to be far more unscrupulous and viler than the characters they are based on. In some cases, they've altered the expy a bit or made it more clear.
They're clearly modeled on the Justice League, with most of their members being clear corruptions of the League's most well-known lineup. The Justice League legitimately fights crime and saves the world, The Seven do little but be famous and advance Vought's sinister corporate agenda. The Justice League is often based in The Watchtower, which depending on the adaptation can be an actual tower, a space station, or a moon base. This gives them a secure location from which to monitor for problems they need to intervene in. The Seven are based on the top floor of Vought Tower, and while there is a Crime Analytics department also in the Tower, the Seven rarely go down there in person. In the case, working and living in the Tower highlights how out-of-touch they are with the people they're allegedly here to protect.
- Homelander, Superman Substitute with the same powers and heroic image, but pretty much as a straight-up villain. In addition to his sins from the comic, the show also focuses on his corruption of the All-American Face persona of Superman and Captain America, portrayed as a militaristic fascist, fundamentalist Christian (publicly; in reality he's a Hollywood Atheist}, and (in season three) Angry White Man who reflects every awful stereotype of Boorish Eagleland. He's essentially what happens if Superman wasn't raised by loving parents who would instill a love for humanity, or if Superman had an Expy of William Burnside.
- Queen Maeve, expy of Wonder Woman. She's a Multi-Melee Master whose costume draws a lot of inspiration from Wonder Woman (2017) (albeit with a Celtic theme instead of a Greco-Roman one), though she can't fly and relies on Homelander to carry her when needed. Maeve started out idealistic and gung-ho to save the world, but eventually gave it all up one compromise at a time, and is now a rude, apathetic alcoholic who isn't going to her meetings.
- Black Noir, expy of Batman. Dresses all in black, good at close-quarters combat with knives, never speaks, mysterious. Unlike Batman, he is a remorseless mass murderer happy to cover up Homelander's atrocities and helps kidnap Starlight, her mother, and later Maeve.
- The Deep, expy of Aquaman, complete with perceived uselessness and fish jokes. He pulls a Casting Couch on Starlight, it's stated that he's sexually assaulted (or at least harassed) several other women, and he suffers a Trauma Conga Line when it comes out. His one redeeming trait is his genuine love of all marine creatures, leading to the aforementioned fish jokes, and every time he tries to push this issue forward he's rebuffed (he wants to "shine a light" on Oceanland's questionable animal handling practices, but is told to just go along with the ad campaign Oceanland signed him up for).
- A-Train, expy of The Flash. Repeatedly called "The Fastest Man Alive". Fear of losing that title leads to him juicing on Compound V to the point that he has a heart attack. As in the comics, he's responsible for reducing Hughie's girlfriend to Ludicrous Gibs and doesn't really feel that bad about it. He repeatedly fails to recognize Hughie, even after they met face-to-face and A-Train delivered a Vought-mandated apology. He's also the key in Homelander's plan to spread Compound V through the world and create supervillains for The Seven to fight, and murders his girlfriend Popclaw when she proves to be a weak link in this plan.
- Starlight is made more a mix of Supergirl and Carol Danvers. While her comic counterpart was a basic Flying Brick with some Light 'em Up powers, here her light blasts are her go-to primary ability, though she still has Super-Strength enough to beat large ordinary men senseless and can take two .50-caliber rifle rounds to the chest with only moderate discomfort. She's the kindest, most sincerely heroic character on the show, but dangerously naive, and while she doesn't go through as bad a Break the Cutie as she did in the comics, she still gets put through the wringer and has to give up on a lot of her idealism.
- Stormfront is Storm from the X-Men with super strength to go along with lightning powers. Except Ororo Munroe has all sorts of weather control, Stormfront is limited to lightning, and where Storm is an African princess, Stormfront is literally a Nazi.
- Given Stormfront was a man in the comics who resembled Captain Marvel and filled the role of Mighty Thor, she could also be considered a CCC to Mary Marvel and Jane Foster.
- Lamplighter is both an inversion and subversion. He is similar to Pyro from X-Men, in that while he can shape, control, and magnify fire he cannot create it (both use Zippo lighters as a flame source for their powers, Pyro at the start of his story and Lamplighter at the end). Pyro has pretty much always been a villain, with the X-Men Film Series showing him as always having a grudge against humans and quite ready to join Magneto's brotherhood. Lamplighter, however, is pretty much stated to have come to the Seven in much the same manner as Starlight, ready to be a hero, do good, and make his dad proud, and when he killed Mallory's children it was unintended and left him wracked with guilt (the inversion, Lamplighter is a "good" version of Pyro, at least relatively speaking). The subversion is that Lamplighter didn't manage to cling to his moral compass like Starlight, turning into the same selfish hedonist the rest of the Supes are, which gave Mallory the blackmail evidence that started this whole mess in the first place (he started trying to be good, that didn't last long, and while he felt horribly guilty for killing Mallory's children it didn't lead him to do anything positive until the Boys cornered him and convinced him to testify against Vought, and even then he elected for suicide instead of trying to really atone).
CCCs of The Avengers, with a similar revenge-themed name and led by a Captain America CCC. While the Avengers rarely intervene in ordinary conflicts because they don't have the authority to, Payback is sent to intervene in the conflict in Nicaragua specifically to try and get them the authority to keep doing it (thus making Vought more money by having super soldiers instead of just super heroes). Like the Avengers, Payback presents a front of being
True Companions, but while this is true for many iterations of the Avengers, behind the scenes the members of Payback can barely tolerate each other, or actively hate each other.
- Soldier Boy is blatant expy of Captain America and, being an empowered Super-Soldier from World War II. However, while Steve Rogers is a polite and humble hero who earns the respect of his fellow superheroes, Soldier Boy is a gloryhound and bully who ends up alienating his peers. He was such an asshole, in fact, that the rest of Payback sold him out and let him get captured by the Soviets just to be rid of him, something that never happened to the inspiring Steve. Also, like Steve Rogers (and his former sidekick-turned successor, Bucky Barnes, A.K.A. the Winter Soldier) Soldier Boy is a Fish out of Temporal Water, but while Steve and Bucky are remarkably egalitarian for their time, Soldier Boy is a crass bigot who scoffs at the idea of men not fitting his definition of masculinity. Essentially Soldier Boy is what you'd get if the recruit who bullied Steve Rogers during training became Captain America, if you take John Walker's Jerkass traits to the extreme, or if William Burnside, the "Commie Smasher" Captain America, really was Steve Rogers rather than a right-wing Loony Fan who tried to become Steve without sharing any of Steve's progressive values or really understanding who Steve was.
- Gunpowder is The Punisher — or rather, the Flanderized version of the Punisher whose iconography was embraced by a Misaimed Fandom of right-wing Gun Nuts. He's introduced speaking at a gun show and espousing all manner of right-wing talking points, especially concerning American Gun Politics, and a flashback to a secret mission in Nicaragua that Payback was sent on in The '80s shows him as a Sociopathic Soldier who gleefully tried to gun down everybody he saw, friend and foe alike, simply for kicks. He also finds out the hard way that a superhero whose main powers are his arsenal of firearms and his Improbable Aiming Skills would not fare well against somebody with actual superpowers who's Immune to Bullets, as Billy Butcher, juiced up on a dose of Compound V24, shrugs off Gunpowder's attacks and utterly tears him to pieces.
- Crimson Countess to Scarlet Witch. As in the comics, her costume looks like something Wanda from the comics would actually wear, and she has a red-tinged ranged attack much like Wanda's Hex Bolts. While Wanda may stumble and make mistakes (especially in the MCU), she does want to be good and help and protect people (most of the time). In contrast, Crimson Countess doesn't seem to particularly care about her actions or the people she hurt. When Wanda caused a friendly fire incident, she was doing her best to protect people and felt horrible about it. When Crimson Countess caused a friendly fire incident, she just picked a random running person and blew him up because she didn't bother to check who's side he was on. Countess does have a drive for ape conservation, though.
- Swatto to The Wasp. While most incarnations of the Wasp have been just as brave and skillful with their powers as any other Avenger, Swatto is an idiotic Dirty Coward whose refusal to not fly around gave away the camp's position, and his attempt to flee the battle got him blown up by a missile.
- TNT Twins to the Wonder Twins. They need to touch and call out a catchphrase to use their powers. But while the Wonder Twins are wholesome, caring brother and sister, the TNT Twins can barely tolerate each other, sniping and arguing constantly, and despite that may be a bit closer than most would consider comfortable.
- Golden Boy/Luke Riordan is one to the Human Torch from the Fantastic Four. Both are lovable jocks with the ability to combust at will, but ultimately he lacks the emotional fortitude needed to be a superhero in the type of world that actually needs superheroes.
- Ezekiel has powers similar to Mister Fantastic, but beyond that, they're complete opposites rather than one of them being specifically a subversion of the other. (Ezekiel is still a right bastard, though, make no mistake.) Ezekiel is a charismatic religious leader and hypocrite, while Reed Richards is an Absent-Minded Professor of pure science.
- Ryan is Jon Kent Jr, being the son of a Superman Expy conceived with an ordinary woman. But while Jon was raised by parents with good values, Jon only had his mother for most of his life before being raised by Homelander, who doesn't have any principles whatsoever. The result is that Ryan is gradually succumbing to Homelander's Cult of Personality.
- Termite is Ant-Man as a drug-fueled party boy who mostly uses his shrinking ability for Power Perversion Potential. . . sometimes with messy results.
- Nubian Prince and Nubia from "Nubian Vs. Nubian", an episode from The Boys: Diabolical (confirmed by Word of God to be canon here
), are Expies of Black Panther and Storm respectively. Like their inspirations, they were married, but while Black Panther and Storm are genuinely heroic, Nubian Prince and Nubia are Sadists who get off on beating people to bloody pulps and only feel attracted to each other during said beatings. - Tek-Knight is Tony Stark or Bruce Wayne, being a slick, suave ace with fame and fortune added to the mix. Under that veneer, he's a manipulative bully who delights in breaking emotionally fragile individuals of lower status than himself and he's fully aware that his privileges will protect him from any self-inlficted consequences.
