Amazon Prime’s The Boys has never been subtle in its mockery of superhero fiction. It doesn’t discriminate between Marvel and DC, often pulling directly from scenes and scenarios from the two franchises, like the reference to the Synder Cut in Season 3.
One plot line that clearly parodies the MCU also occurs in Season 2, as Vought tries to introduce a “girl power” narrative when they put three female heroes in The Seven for the first time. While shooting one of Vought’s new films, Starlight (Erin Moriarty), Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott), and Stormfront (Aya Cash) team up, and Stormfront declares that “girls get it done.” This is a pretty clear reference to the scene in Avengers: Endgame where all the female heroes assemble on screen in the battle against Thanos in a “girl power” moment without a hint of irony. But The Boys doesn’t stop there. In a full circle moment in the Season 2 finale, the show offers a moment of genuine teamwork between three female Supes in a much grittier and more satisfying way as Starlight, Queen Maeve, and Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) come together to fight Stormfront.
‘Avengers: Endgame’ Missed the Mark With Its Girl Power Moment
Marvel movies have been fielding accusations of fan service and pandering for years, but some examples are more overt than others. The release of Avengers: Endgame was obviously a huge moment for Marvel, becoming its highest-grossing film and bringing an end to several important story arcs for various main characters in the MCU. Though the film had its moments, Avengers: Endgame definitely benefits from the experience of watching it in a packed theater as opposed to at home on Disney+ a few years later when the hype has worn off. One of the most memorable moments is the “Avengers assemble” scene, as dozens of MCU’s heroes unite to battle Thanos. But, a bit later, we get another scene of the heroes assembling, but this time just the women. From Gamora (Zoë Saldana) to Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), all the major and secondary female heroes in the MCU appear on screen together for a brief moment.
This example of obvious fan service received some praise from fans of the MCU women but was largely seen as a pretty transparent move to pander to female fans. The scene has no real impact on the plot and essentially just puts a bunch of women in one frame in a vacuous attempt at yelling “girl power!” at the audience. It’s an interesting misstep considering there is a scene in Avengers: Infinity War that was clearly also meant to be a “girl power” moment but is incorporated more naturally into the events of the film. As Scarlett Witch is being attacked by Proxima Midnight (Carrie Coon), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Okoye (Danai Gurira) show up to help her, with Black Widow stating “she’s [Scarlett Witch] not alone.” The “girls get it done” scene from the Season 2 finale of The Boys more closely resembles this one, but the show pokes fun at this general trend throughout the season.
‘The Boys’ Gives Us a Critical Take on How Women Are Treated in Superhero Stories
The Boys’ critical take on the superhero genre also extends to the way female Supes are treated, not only by their male Supe counterparts but by men in the general public and fans of Vought’s films. Starlight is mistreated and exploited from the moment she joins The Seven, and Queen Maeve, who at first seems too jaded to care, later has her bisexuality used as a marketing tool when Homelander (Antony Starr) outs her on live TV. When Stormfront joins the squad at the start of Season 2, she seems like a breath of fresh air, projecting the image of a badass, confident woman, too cool to care about playing Vought’s faux feminism game and shirks the “girls get it done” narrative entirely. It later becomes clear that she has this attitude not because she’s above the empty feminist messages Vought is trying to peddle, but because she’s truly evil, and has absolutely no sense of solidarity with the other women in The Seven.
The series is pretty clearly mocking the “girl power” scene in Avengers: Endgame in the fifth episode of Season 2 as they shoot the Vought movie “The Dawn of the Seven,” when Starlight and Stormfront arrive to assist Queen Maeve and Stormfront says the infamous “girls get it done” line. It’s an equally empty scene as the one from Avengers: Endgame, and since The Boys also gives us a look at Vought’s executives behind the scenes, we know just how meaningless the phrase is, spouting messages of girl power while their heroines are suffering behind the scenes. It’s a clever jab at Marvel, but the way the “girls get it done” throughline of the season culminates in the Season 2 finale is an even more satisfying parody of these cringe-worthy “girl power” scenes.
‘The Boys’ Season 2 Finale Does Girl Power Right
As the season progresses, we discover that Stormfront is a Nazi who has committed hate crimes and earnestly talks of white genocide, becoming the main villain of the season along with Homelander. Starlight works as a double agent for the Boys, turning against Vought, Homelander, and Starlight specifically. When she helps the Boys rescue Becca (Shantel VanSanten) and Ryan (Cameron Crovetti), Stormfront shows up to stop them. This leads to a battle between Stormfront and Starlight and Kimiko, the only Supes who are part of the Boys. It’s an exciting fight because it’s brutal and violent; instead of just zaps of lightning there’s punching and kicking, with plenty of blood splattering and bones snapping. As Stormfront overpowers them and all hope seems lost, Queen Maeve shows up out of nowhere with a hard punch to Stormfront’s face, leading to an all-out ambush by the three women, who work together to mercilessly beat her up.
This scene appears to be more of a direct reference to the “she’s not alone” scene from Avengers: Infinity War which features just three women battling another female villain, fighting in a manner that more closely resembles hand-to-hand combat and gets about as brutal as the film’s PG-13 rating will allow. The Boys’ take on this scene is far more satisfying, not just because the show doesn’t hesitate to lean into violence and gore when it comes to Supe fights, but because the villain feels real. Marvel villains can be menacing but remain fantastical, but villains like Stormfront and Homelander in The Boys represent real threats in society taken to the extreme. Neo-Nazis and far-right hate groups are already terrifying, but to have these dangerous ideologies touted by people with superpowers and a platform to spread and enforce their rhetoric produces a truly horrifying supervillain.
The one to actually say “girls get it done” is Frenchie (Tomer Capone), as he and the Boys look on in wonder, so it’s not the women who are drawing attention to all the “girl power” going on. It makes a call back to this previously meaningless phrase in an actually compelling moment of teamwork between Starlight, Queen Maeve, and Kimiko to take down a dangerous enemy with the brutality she deserves. It’s not yelling “girl power” at you through the screen, but showing women being powerful and savagely joining forces to fight a villain that represents real evil. And Starlight yelling “Eat my sh*t you Nazi bitch,” is just the cherry on top.
Source: collider.com