Highlights
- The Boys offers a dark and gritty take on the superhero genre, highlighting morally gray characters and corrupt systems.
- Characters like Queen Maeve and Stormfront showcase extreme levels of arrogance and superiority complexes.
- The main antagonist, Homelander, stands out as the apex egomaniac, showcasing unbalanced narcissism and a thirst for power.
The rise of superheroes has swept through pop culture like a hurricane, with fans having access to an enormous wave of new movies, cartoons, and television series that draw inspiration and lore from the genre. Since the box office blasts from both the Marvel and DC respective universes, there have been countless iterations of adaptations of lesser-known comic book franchises. One of the wildest takes on the superhero genre is the Amazon original, The Boys, which debuted in 2019 and has already released its fourth season.
The Boys is a hard contrast to most superhero-esque properties, turning the magnifying glass on the everyday hero and corrupting the lens with capitalism and authoritarianism. The show is filled with morally gray and outright sinister individuals who play the cards they’ve been dealt as superpowers become the norm, and bloodshed constantly spills into the streets from the realization that superheroes can be just as flawed as anyone else. Many of the characters in The Boys display some of the most arrogant personas in media, leaving little space in any room they occupy to fit their big egos. That said, it’s hard to deny that some characters from The Boys are easily more arrogant than others.
8 Mother’s Milk
Righteous But Sometimes Conceited
- Series Debut: Season 1, Episode 3: “Get Some”
Mother’s Milk is a member of the renegade opposition who sets out to check the balance of power between human beings and “Supes.” On top of that, he is easily one of the more eccentric members of the Butcher’s team in the show.
Mother’s Milk usually serves as the group’s focus and voice of reason, always bringing the high-strung Butcher back down to earth when things become too volatile. However, on several occasions, Mother’s Milk has let his own ego go unchecked, allowing his emotions to get the best of him when it comes to vengeance or his family. Ego is a prime requirement when dealing with Billy Butcher’s radical ideas twenty-four-seven, and Mother’s Milk has a pretty big one.
7 Queen Maeve
Powerful And Often Overbearing
- Series Debut: Season 1, Episode 1: “The Name Of The Game”
Queen Maeve is the dawning female lead of the Seven, taking much of her inspiration from Wonder Woman of DC Comics. Maeve has served as the number two of the Seven alongside Homelander and, on the surface, was committed to the cause until she was pushed too far and eventually rebelled against her fearmonger colleague.
While Maeve does understand right from wrong, she has spread her fair share of wrong and has shown a consistent aura of thinking herself better than most others. As a proud warrior, it is only natural for someone as powerful as Maeve to have a bit of a chip on her soldier, but sometimes, it can get the better of her.
6 Stormfront
An Extreme Case Of A Superiority Complex
- Series Debut: Season 2, Episode 1: “The Big Ride”
Stormfront is a particularly volatile subject when it comes to most of the characters in The Boys. From the moment she arrives on screen, it is clear that she is no one’s knight in shining armor, instead filling the role of everyone’s problem. She stepped into the spotlight, replacing Queen Maeve, and took her position right next to Homelander.
Her prideful undertones were only the surface-level issues, as Stormfront’s long history with Vaught revealed that she had been a firm believer in some highly negative personal opinions about superiority. Needless to say, Stormfront almost takes the cake when it comes to arrogance, especially when she thought she could take on three of the most powerful Supes in the show at once.
5 Butcher
A Wild Ball Of Narcissism
- Series Debut: Season 1, Episode 1: “The Name Of The Game”
Butcher is the thorn in every superhero’s side in The Boys and makes it his business to tear down the corrupt regime in any way he possibly can. Butcher normally throws caution to the wind and does whatever is necessary to put it to the man and take a few heroes down while he’s at it.
The level of borderline narcissistic arrogance it takes for an ordinary person to step into the ring against individuals who can take down skyscrapers with their bare hands speaks for itself. But even among normal people, Butcher exudes an aura of certainty that he’s the best and that no one can do anything about it, not even Homelander.
4 Soldier Boy
A Proud Sufferer Of Megalomania
- Series Debut: Season 3, Episode 1: “Payback”
Soldier Boy’s debut on The Boys came with an earth-shattering nuclear realization when he and Homelander’s relationship was put into the light of day. Soldier Boy, being the first to hold the title of “America’s Hero,” embodies the negative traits that hang over the country in The Boys, coming off as a bully and a pool of toxic masculinity.
It doesn’t matter who it is; Soldier Boy treats everyone like the dirt underneath his shoe, whether they be a man, woman, or child. It doesn’t help that he’s a walking, indestructible tank with super strength and the ability to cause a massive explosion that can turn any hero to ash.
3 Victoria Neuman
An Indestructible Ego
- Series Debut: Season 2, Episode 1: “The Big Ride”
Victoria Nueman’s presence in The Boys was once shrouded in confusion. Her political career set her up as being blatantly against Superhero free rein, but her close relationship with Stan Edger suggested there was more to her than fans initially thought. Everything slowly comes to light when her mind-blowing secret is revealed.
When this happens, Victoria sheds her well-crafted, upstanding political figure persona and reveals herself to be a cold, calculated, and invulnerable subject of Compound V. Victoria shows her more arrogant side, boasting and taunting multiple characters in the show, including Homelander. On top of that, Victoria has every right to be arrogant as she is proven to be invulnerable to all harm.
2 Stan Edgar
A Power Suit-Wearing Boss
- Series Debut: Season 1, Episode 8: “You Found Me”
From the moment Giancarlo Esposito debuts in a series, his role is sure to be legendary. The seasoned actor lends his talent to the role of Stan Edgar, who is the CEO of Vought. The intimidating presence of Edgar echoes throughout the base of the Seven and can bring any wild asset into line.
Stan Edgar’s poise and class is overshadowed only by his sheer arrogance. He is always the smartest in the room, and this has yet to be proven wrong. Even when standing face to face with Homelander, Edgar can hold him in a vice without lifting a finger, seeing the Supe as little more than a child throwing a tantrum.
1 Homelander
The Apex Egomaniac
- Series Debut: Season 1, Episode 1: “The Name Of The Game”
Homelander is genuinely the worst of the worst when comes to the wide variety of characters in The Boys. The charismatic, unbalanced, unstable narcissist does what he wants when he wants, believing that being the poster child of Vought and the leader of the Seven allows him to do so.
Homelander is many things, from a raging weapon to a proud public figure who truly believes the world revolves around him and that he is god’s gift to the planet. As such, he believes that the world should belong to him. In every frame where Homelander is on the screen, his blatant egotism almost blurs the picture, whether he is intimidating a regular citizen or scolding a colleague. He is the most arrogant character in The Boys by far, and his sense of superiority often leads to catastrophic outcomes.
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