The Boys Finally Debuts The OTHER Soldier Boy (Sort Of)

Ackles' version is somewhat of an amalgamation of all three; he wears the muted green suit of the first Soldier Boy and fought in a major World War. He was also a member of the superhero team Payback and played a role in the fight between Billy Butcher, The Boys, and Vought in the present, as Soldier Boy III did in the comics. However, unlike in the source material, the setup of Vought Rising has only made it clearer that all of these were experienced by the same person in the Prime Video version of the story.

That said, The Boys still found a way to reference another version of Soldier Boy. In The Boys season 5, episode 7, Homelander tries to convince Soldier Boy to stay. One of the ways he tries to do so is by unveiling Soldier Boy's new suit, a red, white, and blue riff on his current one. This is very similar to Soldier Boy III's suit from the comics. In this sense, The Boys debuted its second version of Soldier Boy, only in the expectedly meta, self-referential way it typically nods to the comics.

Why There Are Multiple Soldier Boys In The Comic Books

Concerning why there were multiple versions of Soldier Boy in The Boys' comic books, there are a few reasons. For one, Soldier Boy was nowhere near as important a character in the comics as he is in Prime Video's adaptation. The casting of Ackles led Soldier Boy to become much more relevant, leading to the reveal that he is Homelander's father, as well as the development of V-One, which became very important to The Boys' ending, and the aforementioned spin-off, Vought Rising.

In the comics, though, Soldier Boy III only played a minor role as an enemy of Billy Butcher and The Boys. If he were as vital to the overarching story as Prime Video's version is, it would likely never have been revealed that there were multiple versions throughout history. Moreover, revealing that several different people took on the mantle of Soldier Boy and were just as bad as each other makes Vought's generational corruption all the more prevalent.

The Boys' TV Adaptation Was Right To Drop Soldier Boy I & II

Prime Video's The Boys has been known to make several positive changes to the source material, and combining all three versions of Soldier Boy into one is another example of this. Although having multiple versions of a specific hero works for comic books, it is not as easy to pull off in live-action. Only huge franchises like the MCU can get away with this, as they last long enough to give each version a satisfying arc before passing on the mantle.

The Boys, at only five seasons of eight episodes each, would struggle to find enough screentime to give each version of Soldier Boy their own story. Also, having three versions of the same character would likely be too repetitive, making The Boys too cluttered rather than a show with a key central cast. In casting Ackles and making Soldier Boy just one person, he became part of the larger cohesive whole, as is customary for TV casts, rather than a random, unimportant hero who has appeared throughout history.

In comics, this kind of character works as part of worldbuilding, though the same cannot be said for TV. As a result, The Boys ultimately made the right decision to make Soldier Boy one character and only reference his other versions via clever nods like the one in season 5, episode 7.