The Boys fans were treated to some big news at the show’s Comic-Con panel. In addition to giving us a new look at Season 2 of the spinoff series Gen V, the panel also brought the news that Jensen Ackles is reprising his role as Soldier Boy both for the upcoming fifth and final season of The Boys and for a new prequel series called Vought Rising. The series will also bring back Aya Cash as Stormfront.
As two of the most popular villains of The Boys to date, it’s exciting to see Soldier Boy and Stormfront making their big comeback in a series that also explores the rise of the sinister Vought corporation. But what if you’re having trouble remembering what happened in The Boys: Seasons 2 and 3? What happened with Stormfront and Soldier Boy? How do they fit into the sordid history of this superhero universe. Here’s a quick refresher on both characters to help get you prepped for what’s coming next.
Aya Cash as Stormfront
Cash’s Stormfront made her debut in The Boys: Season 2 as a new recruit to The Seven, replacing Translucent. Homelander initially viewed Stormfront as a threat, given her similar powers and the fact that she had such a large social media following. However, the two quickly became lovers. It didn’t hurt that Stormfront, a barely closeted Nazi, viewed Homelander as the ultimate ubermensch.
Over the course of Season 2, we learned that Stormfront and her husband were members of the Nazi Party during World War II and that she was the first human test subject successfully injected with Compound V. The two moved to America as part of Operation: Paper Clip, and she adopted a new superhero identity as Liberty. She later transitioned to the Stormfront identity, hiding the fact that Compound V made her immortal. We’re expecting to learn much more about her move to the US and her time as Liberty in Vought Rising.
Stormfront’s public standing collapsed by the end of Season 2 after her Nazi past was exposed, and she was nearly killed while trying to steal Ryan away from his mother. That act caused Ryan to lash out and unleash his heat vision for the first time, brutally injuring Stormfront and killing Becca.
As revealed in Season 3, Stormfront was kept alive on life support for a time, but she eventually committed suicide after being rejected by Homelander.
Jensen Ackles as Soldier Boy
If Homelander is the twisted Superman of the Boys universe, then Soldier Boy is its Captain America. Soldier Boy was one of the first successful test subjects for Compound V during World War II, at which point Vought wasted no time into turning him into a propaganda figure. Despite his claims, Soldier Boy did little actual fighting during the war, as he was far too valuable to the company to risk losing.
Soldier Boy’s propaganda value continued to soar after WWII, as he became a poster child for American exceptionalism during the Cold War. He also first encountered Stormfront during the ‘50s, where the two would go on to form the infamous superhero orgy Herogasm (another story we’ll no doubt see told in Vought Rising).
Soldier Boy later went on to found the superhero team Payback in the ‘70s, where he developed a reputation for extreme force. This made an enemy out of his teammate (and future Seven member) Black Noir, and this was also the era in which Soldier Boy caused the death of Marvin Milk’s grandfather. It was during this time that Vought took genetic samples of Soldier Boy and used them to create the baby who would become Homelander.
Following a botched mission in Nicaragua where he was betrayed by his own team, Soldier Boy was captured by the Soviets and subjected to years of experimentation. This transformed him into an even more dangerous living weapon, one capable of building up incredible amounts of radiation and releasing it in destructive blasts.
Soldier Boy is freed by The Boys in Season 3, with Billy Butcher seeing him as a living weapon capable of killing Homelander. Butcher breaks from the team in his single-minded quest to kill Homelander. But ultimately, he chooses Ryan’s life over revenge. Soldier Boy nearly kills the Boys in a chaotic final battle, but Maeve knocks him out of a skyscraper before he can detonate. Soldier Boy is tranquilized and returned to government custody, his once sterling reputation now in tatters.
Season 4 ends with a tease of Soldier Boy’s return, as Homelander approaches the tube containing his father. And now we know Soldier Boy will play a key role in Season 5. Will he succeed this time in killing his son?
For more on The Boys, check out our full review of The Boys: Season 4 and find out how the finale sets up Season 5.
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.
