In case you haven't read this series here is a summary:he series is set in a contemporary world very much similar to the real one, with one notable exception: a number of people have some form of superpower. The series follows a superpowered CIA squad, known informally as "The Boys", whose job it is to keep watch on superheroes (who by the way are a bunch of intolerant assholes) and, if necessary, intimidate or kill them.
Here's a description and casting for the members of the Boys:
Billy Butcher
He is an Englishman who leads the current Boys, who were disbanded for as-yet-unstated reasons. At the beginning of the series, he works to reassemble the old team, with a new member filling in for the original team leader, Mallory. He is physically large and incredibly violent, and, like all of the Boys, possesses super strength. He is perfectly happy to blackmail, brutalize, torture and murder if it achieves his goals; he can also be very sociable, to the same ends. The character Mother's Milk has stated that every word Butcher says is calculated to further his own goals; an example of this is making director Raynor believe that he is easily led by his desire for sex, while in reality this is just so she underestimates him. He seems to get pleasure from killing superheroes; the slaughter of 150 of them in issue 14 left him humming Ode to Joy all day, in #33 he continued to attack Mind Droid and Soldier Boy when they were trying to flee, and in #43 he intended to brutalise Superduper because of an unintended insult.
The cause of his campaign against superheroes stems from the rape and death of his wife, Becky. Butcher woke up to find his wife disemboweled on their bed, with her prematurely born, superpowered child crawling out of her. After it attacked Butcher with its heat vision, he killed it by beating it to death with a lampstand. After reading Becky's diary he learned the identity of his wife's rapist, who is described as "one of the big boys".
Butcher previously served in the Royal Marines. He is also tee-total, preferring to drink Club Soda, and it was implied during a conversation with The Legend that he (Butcher) is a recovering alcoholic. Butcher seems happy to help out a friend in need, even if it means he takes a beating in the process, telling M.M after one such beating "It only hurts when I laugh... Hahahahaha". At the same time, M.M. has noted that Butcher never brings this up, instead leaving it hanging as a motivation. He seems genuinely fond of Hughie, saying in #6 that one of the reasons for hiring him is that he "always wanted a little brother", but at the same time he has deliberately put Hughie into situations where he would have to use violence or kill an opponent, and rarely keeps him in the loop.
A bulldog named Terror is his constant companion and the dog has been trained to have sex with anything on Butcher's command. He is very protective of Terror, even going as far as threatening the Homelander with breaking the truce after Homelander moves to attack Terror for urinating on his leg in #20. In that same story, the Homelander questions Butcher on his motivations and, although Butcher does not verbally respond, the Homelander, based on Butcher's pulse and heartbeat, ventures that the Boys' war against superheroes is all that Butcher has to live for, and that he does not expect to survive it. He also declares that Butcher is genuinely insane. Butcher denies none of these charges.
Casting:Christian Bale,Clive Owen, or Vinnie Jones
Hughie Campbell
A Scotsman nicknamed "Wee Hughie". His girlfriend was accidentally killed by a superhero named 'A-Train' who was traveling faster than the speed of sound. Butcher recruits him for the Boys, and to that end, injects him with Compound V, without Hughie's permission. Hughie is still an innocent to the Boys' world and after killing someone in combat by accident, he was worried about doing so again. He was also disgusted by Butcher's easy willingness to torture their enemies and the others' lack of caring about it, and grew angry with Butcher's dismissal of the constant violence ("big boys' rules") after the Female was hospitalized; in #34 he admitted to a comatose Female that he can't stomach the violence, and has thought about quitting.
He has made friends with Russian hero Vas and, unknowingly, the superheroine Starlight, the latter of whom he has developed a sexual relationship with. Despite an early embarrassing accident where he had oral sex with her when she was menstruating, their relationship is ongoing.
In Herogasm #3, he was sexually assaulted by Black Noir. While he was left shocked and sickened over it, he did not say what happened to the other Boys.
Hughie is viewed as a genuinely nice guy by most people who know him, and he has several times risked himself to try and help people who were vulnerable or victimised: his rage over Swingwing callously killing a young man in #10, his attempts to save G-Wiz, and trying to fight the horrifically powerful Malchemical to defend Superduper in #43. Butcher was confused and irritated by the latter incidents.
He intentionally resembles the British actor and writer Simon Pegg.
Casting: can ONLY be played by Simon Pegg....nuff said
Mother's Milk
A large, African-American man, he first appears in issue 2. He is a highly patient and methodical man, taught by his father to check every possible angle and means of attack, and can be somewhat fussy (getting annoyed whenever anyone doesn't put a drink coaster under their glasses). His nickname was apparently because he is the "purest", i.e. most goodhearted, member of the team. In issue #35, however, he reveals that his mother worked in a factory that had previously been a Vought-American lab and hadn't been sanitized afterwards, leading to her being contaminated with Compound V; as a result, his brother was retarded and he himself was born needing regular doses of his mother's breast milk to survive. #17 hinted at this, and showed him throwing up and feeling disturbed by the constant need. At the same time he finds the nourishment highly energizing, adding to his discomfort.
His father worked tirelessly to sue V-A over this and eventually succeeded, but was left shattered by the experience; MM was aware that Vought's lawyers were shrugging the loss off, but never told him. MM's brother Michael died soon, killed by the manifestation of superpowers, and his father died under the stress of trying to sue V-A again; his mother was left broken and unwilling to fight anymore, and become morbidly obese. To support his mother and his new wife and daughter, he joined the United States Army, volunteered for the Rangers, and became an army heavyweight boxer. In a championship match, he manifested powers suddenly and punched an opponent's head off. He was subsequently released from the military and was recruited by Butcher and Mallory for the first incarnation of The Boys.
After Mother's Milk had been with The Boys for a year, Butcher accompanied him to rescue MM's infant daughter Janine, whose mother, a drug addict, was incapable of raising her properly; MM and Butcher rescued Janine from her mother's then-residence, a drug house whose addicts smoked crack cut with Compound V; Butcher suffered a savage beating from the addicts in the process. MM was later present at the destruction of Brooklyn Bridge where he attempted to help a woman from a falling car but accidentally killed her. He subsequently quit to perform community work and raise the increasingly rebellious Janine who, now a teenager, shows MM great disrespect but regards Butcher with affection, calling him "Uncle Billy."
MM has now returned to the team, where he acts as Butcher's second-in-command, possibly in part so that he can restrain Butcher from going too far in pursuit of their goals. He is one of the few people who receives any consistent level of civility (at least to his face) from the pathologically rude Butcher, who thinks very highly of him. The only one of the Boys who thinks that a few superheroes might be acting out of genuine altruism (as mentioned in issue 6).
After discovering that Butcher had been manipulating Hughie into dangerous situations and not informing the rest of the team, Mother's Milk ended up at odds with Butcher and disgusted by the man's willingness to continue manipulating Hughie. (#43)
Casting: Ving Rhames or Michael Jai White
The Frenchman
First seen in issue 2, he is one of the original Boys, and displays a penchant for extreme violence within a few frames of his first appearance. His spoken French uses incorrect phrasing, though whether this is an intentional plot point is not yet known. He takes an immediate liking to "Petit Hughie". He and the Female are the 'muscles' of the team - and mad. While the Frenchman is merely crazy, the Female may be psychotic. According to Mother's Milk, however, it's better for the rest of the humans if they are in the team rather than in the outside world.
In #37, his possible origin story is told, though it is also possible they are but delusions. Returning home from military service, he is welcomed by the residents of his native Franglais (who curiously refer to him as Frenchie), but soon learns that his lover has taken off with his childhood rival, Pierre. Renouncing violence, he refuses to confront Pierre. Months later, at a local festival that featured the sport of jousting on bicycles with baguettes while screaming exaggerated Maurice Chevalier impression laughter, his father challenged Pierre to restore the family's honor. Pierre, fearing certain defeat, topples the challenger's bicycle with a stale croissant, killing him. Renouncing his newfound pacifism, the Frenchman exacts his revenge and drifts from place to place, until he gets into a bar fight with an American and is seen in action by Billy, who promptly recruits him. In the issue, nobody is sure how true most of this is. What is known is that Butcher had a folder on the Frenchman's membership in the French Foreign Legion; hat, along with his characteristically British usage of the words "mum" and "wanker" and his hometown's name literally meaning "French-English", would suggest a British origin.
He seems to have a fondness and bond with the Female, playing games (like reverse-strip poker and snowball fights, which he always seems to lose) with her and being the only one who can safely wake her. In #38, it was revealed he took on the task of 'humanising' her, and was the first person to have actually treated her with kindness and civility. In #16, he forced the New York Mafia to stop hiring the Female as a hitman. In an effort to stop the Female from killing for the mobs, he attempted to hold her back and was viewed as if she was about to attack; the Frenchman told her "I'd rather die than not be your friend, and if it has to be by your hand, so be it" to which the Female just sadly walked away.
Like Billy and Mother's Milk, the Frenchman possesses military experience, particularly holding knowledge in ballistics, to the extent that Butcher refers to him on that matter. The Frenchman also possesses an incredibly strong sense of smell.
The Frenchman appears to be quite shy and caring until someone provokes him, to which he will attack or even kill in a gruesome manner, for example battering three American businessmen in a coffee shop for calling him a "french faggot".
Casting:Jason Statham
The Female (of the Species)
One of the earliest members of the Boys. First appearance is issue 2. She is known for her brutality (which visibly shocks even Butcher), and is a mute. When not working for the Boys, she used to freelance for the Mafia. Her nickname is derived from the Rudyard Kipling poem of the same name. She has a superficial resemblance to Yelena Rossini from Darick Robertson's artwork on the previous long-running series Transmetropolitan. This would probably be because of the similar hair styles they share, or lack thereof.
She is in the habit of "explosively eviscerating" her victims and it is implied in issue three that she may be triggered to do so merely by someone touching her, possibly as a result of past trauma. This does not appear to apply to the Frenchman. In issue 16, the Frenchman states that she 'does these things because [she] cannot not do them'. Issue 24 states that she has continued killing, despite The Frenchman forcing the mob to back off. Issue 38 shows that, as an infant, she found her way into a pail of discarded Compound V waste, slaughtering scientists in the building, and eventually getting captured, only to escape until years later, when Butcher and the original team of Boys rescue her and Frenchie adopts her. The way she gained her superstrenght by falling into a receptacle containing a "magic" formula is a homage to Obelix. In fact, the doctor responsible for the Compound V was called Uderzo, the name of the creator of Asterix and Obelix.
She was beaten into a coma by Stormfront in #31, but not before ripping out one of his eyes. She recovered in #34, much to Hughie's annoyance as she broke his arm in the process. The Female also seems to be very fond of animals, as she is shown tickling Terror several times.
Casting: Devon Aoki or Chiaki Kuriyama
Lieutenant Colonel Greg D. Mallory
He was fully seen in issue #49, though he has appeared in shadows and from behind in previous issues. An elderly man who apparently fought in WWII, he was involved with a 1944 attempt to use "supes" in combat (mentioned in #20), which apparently went badly. He started the original Boys. In #35, it is revealed that he stole the CIA's supply of Compound V from Vought-American. In #38, he clashed with Butcher on the issue of the Female, as he refused to simply treat her like a weapon as Butcher wanted.
He researches the heroes for weaknesses, though he will not be returning to the team, as his involvement the first time got his granddaughters murdered by the Lamplighter, as described in issues #49 and #50, who Mallory later shot through the head. There is bad blood between him and Butcher, though Mother's Milk is covertly in contact with him.
Casting: Liam Neeson
The Legend
First appearance is issue 7. An as-yet-unnamed elderly man who, while not an official member of the Boys, works as their informant. He is a former comic editor/writer who worked for Vought-American's Victory Comics subsidiary, writing all the comics based on Vought's superheroes to "give people supes like they wanted supes to be". His work on superhero comics gives him incredible knowledge of them and Vought-American. He hates "that comic-book crap", though he lives under a comic store surrounded by his work. It is revealed in issue 22 that his son was Blarney Cock, from whom he was estranged and was satisfied that Hughie killed him. It is also revealed that his other son was killed in Vietnam as a result of faulty rifles produced by Vought-American (which ironically resemble the British Army's SA80 bullpup rifles). His son's death is the impetus for his association with Vought: to gather information in the hope he could one day assist in their destruction. He is the Boys' equivalent of Stan Lee and Julius Schwartz, though his dialogue is primarily a parody of Lee.
Casting: Danny Devito
Let me know what you think of the casting or suggestions for the boys or even the superheroes in the series.
Captain Deadpool Out....