The Boys Season 5 Can Put a Twist on the Most Iconic Death From the Comics

One of the biggest changes from The Boys comics in Eric Kripke’s series adaptation revolves around Black Noir. The character’s background, personality, and even the entire reason for his existence are different in the comics created by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson. In the original source material, Noir ends up being the true madman of the entire story, committing many deplorable acts and even causing Homelander’s descent into his villain era after framing the Supe for numerous awful crimes. He is also Billy Butcher’s true nemesis, responsible for the terrible things Noir framed Homelander for, and Butcher gets his revenge when he finally kills Noir in gruesome fashion.

While there is unlikely to be a showdown like this between Butcher and Black Noir in the Prime Video version at the end of The Boys Season 5, an iteration of the memorable moment could still play out before the final season comes to an end. Only, instead of Black Noir, it would be Butcher taking out Homelander on the lawn of the White House, where he finishes off Noir in the comics.

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A huge twist in the comics is that Black Noir is a clone of Homelander who can only be described as a violent psychopath, guilty of heinous crimes like rape, torture, murder, and cannibalism. He was created by Vought as a fail-safe to one day kill Homelander, but when the order never came to take out the Supe due to Homelander essentially being a good person, Noir has something of an existential crisis and loses his mind. He then frames Homelander for a number of horrific crimes, including the rape and impregnation of Butcher’s wife, Becky (who dies during childbirth in the comics).

Noir, using photographs as evidence of this and other crimes, manages to convince Homelander he is guilty, causing the Supe to spiral into madness since he has no memory of committing such gruesome acts. It’s only then that Homelander becomes similar to the violent, sociopathic villain we know onscreen and is later killed by Black Noir at the White House. During this confrontation, the truth about Noir as the true big bad of The Boys, who orchestrated Homelander’s demise and committed those crimes, is revealed. After taking significant damage during the fight with Homelander and the barrage of artillery from the U.S. military, Noir’s body is damaged enough that Butcher is able to use his signature crowbar to crack open Noir’s skull through his eye socket and squish his brains, ripping a chunk out and finally killing him.

The Boys series adaptation altered Black Noir’s character and story from the source material, completely removing the clone narrative and having Antony Starr’s Homelander kill the show’s first iteration of Black Noir in Season 3. The Black Noir introduced in Season 4, still portrayed by Nathan Mitchell, is entirely different from the silent and stoic soldier fans knew in the first three seasons. The new Noir is an actor hired to pretend to be the mute Supe and is now far more talkative, often at a loss at how he’s supposed to play the part. This Noir is mostly just going with the flow as one of The Seven while trying to carry out Vought’s goals of making the public believe this is the one and only Black Noir and not a replacement. (Until he settles into his purpose after The Deep encourages him to embrace his violent nature.)

Since Homelander is and always was the true Supe villain of The Boys in the series and Butcher’s greatest enemy, and no twist to complicate that, the most obvious course of action would be for Butcher to kill Homelander at the White House, similarly to how he helped finish off Black Noir in the comics. With the end of Season 4 setting up Homelander’s takeover of the United States, keeping his and Butcher’s climactic faceoff at the White House feels like an appropriate setting for their endgame and a way to pay homage to the iconic death in the comics.

The Boys Season 5 is expected to launch on Prime Video in 2026. The first four seasons are available to stream now, along with Season 1 of the spinoff Gen V, and the animated series The Boys Presents: Diabolical.