Gen V Episode 7 has revealed the true secret behind one of the biggest superpower mysteries in Amazon’s The Boys main series, and no one saw it coming!
Videos by ComicBook.com
(MAJOR SPOILERS FOLLOW!)
In Gen V Season 1’s penultimate episode “Sick” series lead Marie Moreau (Jaz Sinclair) gets a visit from none other than Congresswoman Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit) who has come to Godolkin University under the cover of a peace talk to settle the increasingly agitated superhuman youth community. Neuman pulls Marie aside and has her use her blood manipulation powers to sense Neuman’s deepest secret: that she is a super.
However, Gen V Episode 7 goes a step further to advance the larger mythos of The Boys, by having Neuman cut herself and reveal to Marie that she, too, is a blood manipulator!
The Boys: Victoria Neuman’s Powers & Abilities Explained
The fact that Victoria Neuman is actually a blood manipulator completely reframes what viewers had assumed about her. Neuman’s powers first showed up in The Boys Season 2 as mysterious head explosions that couldn’t be explained, until it was revealed she was the cause. In The Boys Season 3 we clearly saw Neuman causing heads to explode, and even causing Starlight (Erin Moriarty) to have a nosebleed as a more subtle demonstration of her power.
However, The Boys‘ manifestation of Victoria’s power (clouded white eyes) is distinctly different than how Marie cuts herself and fights as a ‘blood bender,’ making the connection hard to piece together. Many viewers assumed that Neuman must have some form of psychic ability (telepathy, telekinesis) that she could weaponize as ‘head bursting’ – now we know that it’s much more than that.
What Marie and Victoria Neuman’s Connection Means
As Victoria Neuman indicates, Marie has only just begun to scratch the surface of what her blood manipulation abilities can do. Over the course of Gen V Season 1, Marie has gotten creative at key moments to slow someone’s blood loss or keep their pulse up at a safe level after injury. She also made another student’s genitals explode when threatened with sexual assault – a controversial gross-out moment that was ironically our biggest visual clue about the connection between Marie and Neuman’s powers. Well done, The Boys, well done.
Even though Marie was initially labeled as haivng a power that would never make her a public superstar hero, it’s clear that blood manipulation is much more powerful and important than that. It’s also clear there are plans for her advancement in the hero world – but whether it’s a good agenda or a nefarious one remains to be seen.
The Boys and Gen V are streaming on Prime Video.