Highlights
- Payback, led by Jensen Ackles’ Soldier Boy, was Vought’s flagship superhero squad in the 1980s.
- Most Payback members faded into obscurity after an internal coup and the release of Soldier Boy.
- The TNT Twins, Swatto, Gunpowder, Crimson Countess, Mindstorm, and Black Noir were notable Payback members with unique abilities.
Long before the Seven burst onto the scene, Vought’s flagship superhero squad during the 1980s was a group dubbed “Payback”. Led by Jensen Ackles’ Soldier Boy, the eight-strong team possessed an array of distinctive abilities ranging from energy generation to full-on mind control. While they might have been a match for the Seven on their strongest day, times had changed by the time the group was introduced in The Boys Season 3.
With the notable exception of Black Noir, time was decidedly not kind to the vast majority of Payback. After an internal coup saw the group dispose of their violently unpredictable leader in Nicaragua, most of the team’s former members faded into obscurity. Things didn’t get much better for them from there; after the Boys accidentally released Soldier Boy in Russia, Payback’s vengeful leader soon came a-knocking for his one-time team members.
7 The TNT Twins
Sibling Superheroes Turned Herogasm Hosts
- Unique ability: Energy generation
The TNT Twins weren’t just the least impressive members of Payback, they were front-runners for The Boys’ weakest pair of supes to date. In their heyday, the siblings were able to produce a burst of energy by joining their hands together – an ability that allowed them to help overpower Soldier Boy during the ill-fated Operation Charly mutiny.
Unfortunately, the twins swiftly sunk into a morbid sinkhole of substance abuse, orgies, and mutual loathing after Payback disbanded. Their powers were always dependent on the pair being able to join hands, but years of resentment meant that their abilities literally faded over time. Possessing no other superpowers to fall back on when confronted with their murderous former leader at Herogasm, the pair’s final attempt to produce a burst of energy fizzled out before they were abruptly incinerated.
6 Swatto
Payback’s Airborne Attention Seeker
- Unique ability: Flight
The owner of a pair of retractable wings, it’s somewhat surprising that Swatto finds himself so low on this list. The power of flight is always an enviable asset in a superhero context, with names like Homelander and Stormfront demonstrating the awesome levels of power that such an ability can imbue the owner with.
Sadly, comparing the arrogant Swatto to his airborne peers in this context is like trying to compare a housefly to a Boeing 747. Cowardly fleeing a massacre that he precipitated during the mutiny in Nicaragua, Payback’s flying representative was easily blasted into bloody fragments by a missile. Demonstrating none of the trademark durability – or courage, for that matter – possessed by The Boys’ more formidable supes, Swatto’s most apparent power was his ability to attract the enemy’s attention.
5 Gunpowder
Soldier Boy’s Firearm-Toting Sidekick
- Unique ability: Preternatural firearm proficiency
While Gunpowder was still a deadly opponent for the average foe, Soldier Boy’s former punchbag wasn’t exactly Superman 2.0. The gun-wielding superhero was blessed with superhuman marksmanship, giving him the ability to perform spectacular feats of accuracy. He was also capable of withstanding a significant amount of damage, enduring years of savage beatings from Payback’s leader without displaying any visible physical injuries later in life; a feat that even the fearsome Black Noir could not attest to.
However, take away his bullets and Gunpowder is suddenly a much less imposing individual. Butcher was able to effortlessly beat him to a pulp after Temp V rendered him immune to gunfire, while the super’s aforementioned durability did precisely nothing to prevent the Boys’ leader from slicing his head in two with his newly acquired laser vision.
4 Crimson Countess
The Singer Who Brought You “Chimps Don’t Cry”
- Unique ability: Fireball creation
While Crimson Countess may have been reduced to humiliating Voughtland appearances and online sex shows by the time she was introduced in Season 3, Lauren Cohan’s duplicitous character was still a force to be reckoned with. The superheroine was able to generate large explosive fireballs with her hands, allowing her to blast Homelander mascots unfortunate enough to be in her path into something resembling a ruptured meat piñata.
Despite her impressive pyrotechnic abilities, the Countess’ main weakness was her need to bring her hands together in order to produce her fiery blasts. The Boys were able to restrain Soldier Boy’s one-time lover with relative ease after chaining her hands apart. Robbed of her only defense, the unfortunate supe was utterly helpless for the explosive arrival of her vengeful former beau.
3 Mindstorm
A Powerful Psychic Driven Mad By His Own Gift
- Unique ability: Telepathy
While his psychic abilities had reduced him to a quivering wreck by the time Soldier Boy caved his skull in, Mindstorm owned some of the most devastating superpowers ever seen on The Boys. A powerful telepath, the agoraphobic Mindstorm was able to influence people into obeying his commands even in his weakened state, allowing him to set a murderous nun on Hughie and Soldier Boy as they hunted for him.
At his whim, the paranoia-riddled supe could imprison his enemies in a state of dream paralysis; endlessly trapped in a coma and forced to live out their worst nightmares on repeat until they eventually starve to death. If his mind hadn’t eroded from the sheer pressure of his powers, it’s terrifying to imagine just how formidable an individual the former Payback member could have been.
2 Black Noir
A Terrifying Mute Ninja With A Child’s Mind
- Unique ability: Enhanced stealth and combat prowess
It speaks volumes to the terrifying aura of Black Noir that the silent assassin didn’t actually possess a unique superpower in the vein of super speed or flight but was still considered one of the most formidable members of two separate superhero teams. In terms of sheer murderous mastery, the immaculately dressed Noir made John Wick resemble Homer Simpson; effortlessly reducing the vast majority of his foes to bloody chunks of viscera without uttering a single word.
That’s a pretty harrowing notion, considering that Amazon’s version of the character isn’t even as powerful as his comic book counterpart. Despite his terrifying reputation, there were still a few chinks in this supe’s seemingly impenetrable armor. Soldier Boy brutally disfigured and crippled Noir during Operation Charly, permanently brain-damaging and leaving him in a state of perpetual childhood. The masked assassin also possessed a violent tree-nut allergy, allowing Maeve to overpower him with an Almond Joy in Season 2.
1 Soldier Boy
The Most Powerful Superhero Bar Homelander
- Unique ability: Depowering radiation generation
Father to the most powerful being on the planet, Soldier Boy’s place atop this list can come of little surprise. The only individual capable of rivaling Homelander’s powers of strength and durability, Payback’s apparently ageless head honcho was a force to be reckoned with long before the Russians turned him into a walking-talking nuclear science experiment.
Soldier Boy’s prolonged exposure to radiation in Soviet captivity effectively supercharged his already formidable abilities. His Season 3 introduction revealed that he now possessed the ability to produce colossal bursts of radioactive energy; bursts that were quite literally powerful enough to blast Compound V out of a supe’s veins. Factor in his superhuman strength and apparent immortality and the end result is one of the most powerful fictional individuals in recent memory.
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