Generally, every supe from The Boys is a fairly unsubtle parody of a Marvel or DC staple. The members of the Seven aren’t hiding their inspirations. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and The Flash have perfect comedy copycats. Some of the satirical takes are a bit less obvious. The Boys has a parody of Iron Man, one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s flagship characters. With such interesting source material, why did the series keep Tek Knight in the background?
The Boys might be the strongest argument for creators taking liberties with adaptations. The original comic is an unmitigated disaster that puts every aspect of decent storytelling to one side in favor of grotesque, insufferable, edgelord garbage. It’s a troubled eleven-year-old’s idea of maturity, in which gross sex stuff, gratuitous violence, and meaningless brutality are the only available languages. The Boys gets a lot of flack for falling back on pointless gore and nudity, but it manages to pack in strong social commentary, excellent characters, and stirring emotional moments. It’s a tremendous improvement that should silence anyone claiming that adaptations should stay faithful.
Who is Tek Knight in The Boys comics?
Robert Vernon is the third person to carry the name Tek Knight. He’s a supe who works for Vought, but he is a rare example of a supe without superpowers. Each Tek Knight wears a suit of technologically advanced super armor that grants a variety of superhuman abilities. He’s a broad parody of Marvel’s Iron Man, with a dash of Batman for fun. Tek Knight can fly, launch EMP blasts, wield flamethrowers, and emit an electrical charge from his armor. He has a young sidekick called Laddio, who is also regularly replaced. Robert’s Laddio is the fourth young man to wear the costume. Tek Knight was initially the leader of the Maverikz, a minor team of young superheroes who lost relevance after Tek left. A new leader replaced Tek, and Billy Butcher and his Boys delivered the team a savage beating after Tek’s replacement murdered a sex worker. They all presumably died after Homelander’s failed coup. Tek joined Payback, but his career there wasn’t especially long.
Robert is a comparatively decent supe. He doesn’t kill a ton of people or abuse his powers in nightmarish ways. Soldier Boy goes out of his way to describe him as one of the few people ever to be nice to him. Robert is homophobic, but that’s a consistent element of the comic series. The Boys only cross paths with Robert because he comes up as a suspect in the murder of a young gay man. He was innocent, and the Boys later found his former protégé, Swingwing, guilty of the crime. Robert is, however, suffering from a massive tumor in his brain. Because this is The Boys comic, this terminal growth causes Robert to develop intense paraphillia. He engages in inexplicable and uncontrollable sexual actions with objects and people, seemingly with little input of his own. His bizarre actions leak to the press through his butler, ending his superhero career. Shortly thereafter, Robert dies trying to save a woman and her child from a wheelbarrow full of falling bricks. His presence is limited, embarrassing, and grim.
Who is Tek Knight in The Boys show?
|
Actor |
Derek Wilson |
|---|---|
|
First Mentioned |
The Boys Season 1, Episode 6: “The Innocents” |
|
First Appearance |
Gen V Season 1, Episode 4: “The Whole Truth” |
Robert Vernon plays a slightly different role in The Boys on the small screen. The show mentions him in the first season. When Butcher and Hughie attend a support group meeting for victims of superheroes, a woman explains that Tek Knight saved her life, but his carelessness also left her paralyzed. She expresses gratitude while wishing he’d been more gentle, disgusting Billy Butcher. Tek Knight’s armor has never appeared in the series. He appears to have superpowers in this iteration, almost certainly provided by Compound V. He properly appears in Gen V, where he conducts a bogus investigation to bury Vought’s complicity in Golden Boy’s suicide. Tek Knight’s superhuman senses allow him to sniff out several hidden truths, including the fact that Jordan Li stopped Golden Boy instead of Marie Moreau. He attempts to lay the blame on Dean Indira Shetty, but Shetty blackmails him into changing his story. This version of the character still has paraphillia, leading to him frequently pleasuring himself with various inanimate objects. Whether a tumor is involved remains unknown. His most recent appearance saw him promote his upcoming film, a parody of Matt Reeves’ The Batman.
Could Tek Knight become more important in The Boys?
The Boys season 4 is quickly becoming the turning point in the franchise. The most recent episode (at the time of this writing) depicts Homelander proudly informing his allies that the supes will no longer be celebrities. They’ll now be “wrathful gods.” Homelander has finally abandoned his desire to be loved, choosing instead to impose his will upon the world through brute strength. Tek Knight popped up a couple of times in season 4, and he’s set to appear again in future installments. This could finally be the season that fans get to see Tek Knight in action.
Tek Knight is a one-off joke character in The Boys comics. He exists to make a bunch of jokes about men having sex with objects, then die in an embarrassing way. The Boys and Gen V series handle him in a slightly more interesting way by leaning into the Batman-style detective gimmick. With him back to join Homelander’s campaign of terror, Tek Knight might suddenly become much more important. Someone should probably recommend he get an MRI while he’s there. It would be pretty ironic if the guy with superhuman senses died from failing to notice a fist-sized tumor in his head.
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