The first scene of Gen V, a new The Boys spinoff from Prime Video, takes place eight years ago on the day A-Train was revealed to be the Seven’s first Black member. It was a significant moment for the other Black home viewers, including the optimistic Moreau family, as it demonstrated that change was possible, that it was happening, and that perhaps anyone could become a hero if they wanted it badly enough.
A-Train was revealed to be the Seven’s first Black member eight years ago in the opening scene of Gen V, a new The Boys offshoot from Prime Video. For the other Black home viewers, such as the upbeat Moreau family, it was a momentous moment because it showed that change was possible, that it was taking place, and that possibly anyone could become a hero if they wanted it badly enough.
But in addition to the information it delivers, this opening sequence also gives us a fair picture of what this spinoff would be like. For starters, we should expect more appearances from the parent series (as subsequently demonstrated by Colby Minifie’s sly cameo as Ashley Barrett, CEO of Vought). The tale is heavily based in the world of The Boys, even if the core cast of Gen V is made up completely of new unique characters. This one provides us with a more direct, on-the-ground perspective than that show, which focuses on the most well-known supes in America and the relatively unnoticed resistance group aiming to expose and kill them. We observe how the rest of the nation views SUPES.
Jaz Sinclair’s character Marie reminds me a little of Marvin’s kid from the first season: She idolizes the Seven and fervently yearns to join them, completely falling into Vought International’s rhetoric about representation and heroism in a “post-racism world.” However, if you’ve seen The Boys, you already know that the widely held perception of supes is false. Superheroes are a weapon of capitalism used by the evil corporation at the top in this familiar but enhanced vision of America, employed less to rescue lives than to bring in money. That untruth is covered up by deft public relations work. And so does the daily violence used to sustain it.
The day Annie January, often known as Starlight, joined the Seven, she encountered these difficult facts, and her character arc has generally emphasized that path of disappointment. But Marie is further away from the source since she recently received a scholarship to the superhero university Godolkin University after spending years at the Red River Institute (the supers group home where Victoria Neuman, the current VP nominee, was raised, as we discovered in season three of The Boys). Even though she has only been here a short time, she is already starting to realize that nothing is quite what it seems.
Marie is aware that any location must be preferable to Red River, where the majority of young idiots would eventually be transported to the Vought adult facility. In contrast, this location appears positively idyllic: even though there is a curfew, she has a lot more freedom here than she has at home. It’s essentially a college-aged R-rated version of Sky High, complete with lighted bongs floating through the air, horny 18-year-olds groping each other in Herogasm fashion, and an eerie resident assistant patrolling the dorms.
Slowly, the other students who will make up our primary cast are presented to us. There is Marie’s fame-hungry roommate Emma Meyer (Lizze Broadway), who often contracts to half an inch for her well-liked but obnoxious YouTube show, “Fun Sized with Little Cricket.” It is, in her words, “PewDiePie without the Nazi stuff.” They also run into Cate Dunlap, a mind-controlling girlfriend of Luke “Golden Boy” Riordan (Patrick Schwarzenegger), a pyrokinetic who is ranked first at Godolkin and wants to be “bigger than Homelander,” and Andre Anderson, a charming metal-bending best buddy (Chance Perdomo).
Marie encounters Jordan Li (Derek Luh and London Thor), a gender-shifter who appears to employ he, she, and they pronouns depending on whatever shape they’re in, when she goes to the Lamplighter School of Crimefighting to find out about her schedule. Jordan serves as a teaching assistant for Richard “Rich Brink” Brinkerhoff (Clancy Brown), a well-liked professor who also serves as the department chair for crimefighting. They are also ranked number two, but the trustees are likely to prevent them from moving up to the top slot due to their “confusing” gender identity.