Ironic Twist Awaiting Billy Butcher on The Boys Echoes Nolan's Batman
With the Temp V Billy Butcher used in season 3 of The Boys giving him just over a year to live, his plans to kill Homelander may be on the back burner.
But it does present him with the chance to live out Harvey Dent's oft-quoted warning in Christopher Nolan 's The Dark Knight:
"You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become a villain."
Dent said this in reference to the ancient Romans, applying it to the current vigilante, Batman. It became tragically ironic when Harvey's life was saved by Batman, only to go on a murderous rampage as the villain Two-Face.
While Butcher has never been a traditional "good guy," he's been the epitome of an anti-hero. If things go any further south in Season 4, he could morph into a full-fledged villain.
In Season 3, Butcher was given V24 (colloquially known as Temp V) by supe semi-ally Queen Maeve. Temp V gives the user short-lived powers, with Butcher being granted super-strength and laser vision. He uses these powers to battle the mighty Homelander, whom he's been years trying to kill. But it's soon revealed that Temp V is just a little too good to be true. It causes brain tumors after frequent usage, presumed fatal after three to five doses.
Butcher used it at least six times.
In the season finale, it finally caught up to him. Stuck in a hospital bed, he was given 12-18 months to live. Butcher's time to exact revenge upon Homelander is starting to run out. He will soon have to make a choice: Choose to live out his few remaining days, allowing his wife's abuser to live on – or become a full-fledged supe.
The only thing that truly can save him at this point is Compound V – not Temp V, but the real stuff. If he's going to survive, he'll have to become the thing he hates the most. He justified using Temp V to emerge semi-victorious in Season 3, so it stands to reason that he'd just as well justify using Compound V to save his life and finish his mission.
While the series isn't fully faithful to its original comics, it should be noted that the comic version of Butcher did create a modified Compound V to kill every supe.
But Amazon Prime's The Boys has shown a much more moral version of Butcher. While he's shown to be a murderous lunatic, he's also incredibly sympathetic and always makes the right choice when it matters the most.
Amazon has consistently thrown curveballs in the show's first three seasons, so only time will tell how this plays out. Season 4 of The Boys will be available for streaming in late 2023.