re: The Boys on Amazon Prime - Out now

quote:

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I have never read the source material, but I became interested in this show because I am a big fan of the Watchmen.

I loved the show. The story is well written, and the program is extraordinarily well-directed and -acted. But throughout the eight episodes the same thing continued to bother me, again and again. Small, individual points that repeatedly tied to other, similar programs and movies.

I honestly could not decide whether they were an homage or blatantly derivative.

Vought vs Veidt as corporate baddie.
Butcher IS Rorshach
Queen. Maeve costume is straight from the island of Themyscira
Annie’s new costume WAS Power Girl
The secret Supe bar was straight from Supernatural (Kripke, I know).
etc, etc, etc

Even the violin music when Hughie was losing his mind was straight out of Umbrella Academy (great show)

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I'm not quite sure what you're getting at - from the get go the source material and therefore the show are quite unabashedly using things you are familiar with -

The Seven is a straight up rip-off of the Justice League

Homelander - Superman
A-Train - Flash
Mauve - Wonder Woman
Deep - Aquaman
NightTrain - Batman
The retired "Lantern" for green Lantern.
Starlight is a pretty straightforward adaptation of Star Girl - young blond who is super naive and super excited to be a super hero.

Only the invisible guy is a departure on that front.

The comic, and therefore the show, uses many things we are familiar with for a few reasons - not least of which is that you're already familiar with some of the world, the characters powers, etc. from the get go. It also uses your familiarity as a handle to flip things on you, with how different it is. Certain shots are certainly homages, though in many cases you'll likely see them in different ways or in a way that immediately gives you an idea about the character or the departure of a character's personality from the expectation.