Gen V: The Boys' Spin-Off Pushes As Many Boundaries

Gen V: A Boundary-Pushing Show, Much Like The Boys

Just as The Boys reawakened our interest in superheroes, its high school-set spin-off Gen V also seems to be building on this legacy. Joshua Muyiwa reviews.

WE’RE done with superheroes. We’re tired of them. More accurately, we’re bored with them. Recently, a friend of mine declared he isn’t going to watch another movie, television series or anything else related to superheroes for the next five years, at least. But when I texted him that Amazon Prime Video’s The Boys has a brand-new spinoff set in college — called Gen V — out on streaming and if he’d catch it, he immediately replied with an, “Oh, yeah!”

Prime’s The Boys – released in 2019 – has gained a loyal, fierce fan following for being a well-crafted critique and celebration of the superhero genre. Over three seasons, it has managed to push storytelling potential, excavating its personalities and plots to actually reveal something real about the human condition. It does this with infuriating brilliance while never shortchanging the audience on the splish and the splash of this genre. And you’ll be relieved to learn, Gen V doesn’t fall far from the tree.

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SUPE-R SIZED

Beyond The Carnage, Gen V Sheds Striking New Light On The Meaning Of Growing Up

By Joshua Muyiwa

Gen V is set between the third and the upcoming fourth season of The Boys, with characters from the original series popping up to offer counsel or cameos. In this spinoff, we journey with the future generation of “supes”. These are teenagers with superpowers stemming from Vought’s electric blue potion, Compound V, which was given to them by their parents. From its very first opening set-piece, Gen V reminds us that even well-intentioned, parentally-approved superheroes need trauma to be really born – an unmistakable hallmark of this genre.

We’re watching two sisters playing, then at the dining table with their parents; suddenly the older one rushes to the bathroom. She's having her first period. She’s already confused by this moment of bleeding, and to top it all, her blood begins to float out of her – blobs of blood hovering in front of her face. After much knocking, her worried mother bursts into the bathroom – the blood whizzes through the air and slices the mother’s throat, and then, it kills her concerned father, who was right behind. Her sister walks in to see their parents dead, and a bloody bathroom. This is our calm-to-chaos-in-minutes introduction to Marie Moreau (Jaz Sinclair), a girl who can weaponise her own blood. With this bizarre, brutal and beautiful opening, the showrunners of Gen V – Eric Kripke, Evan Goldberg and Craig Rosenberg – make it loud and clear: they are making a bright, boundary-pushing show much like The Boys.

Even superhero crimes have consequences, so for many years, Marie is placed in a juvenile home for supes until, one day she gets into the coveted, elite, Vought-run Godolkin University. In the signature humour of this show’s universe, it is shortened and referred to as ‘God U’ within it. Here, Marie befriends the top-ranked student Luke aka Golden Boy (Patrick Schwarzenegger), gender-switching Jordan (Derek Luh and London Thor), metal-bending Andre (Chance Perdomo), mind controlling Cate (Maddie Phillips) and Marie’s roommate Emma (Lizze Broadway), who can shift sizes. Quite quickly, casual college clubbing turns into tracking down Luke’s supposedly dead brother Sam (Asa Germann), who is being held at a shadowy medical facility under the University grounds called The Woods. And this leads them down the path of navigating the crazily corrupt and vengeful Vought as well.

Through its first three episodes, it seems Gen V consciously wants to explore adolescence especially through the prism of the female experience. Marie’s powers are discovered through menstruation, and she’s able to channel the blood through cutting herself. Emma’s ability to shift between sizes comes from overeating or vomiting; and Jordan’s switching between genders opens up conversation around trans-ness and superpowers. It continues to investigate the hyperfocus of masculinity in the superhero genre, nudging out its flimsiness and fragility through its rigorous representation of men and their desires within the world of the show.

Much like The Boys reawakened our interest in shows centred on humans with superpowers, within just its first three episodes, Gen V seems to be building on this legacy but also re-jigging the high school genre as well. Under all of the spectacular carnage, Gen V subtly, strikingly sheds new light on the meaning of growing up. This is not a bad lesson to learn at any age.

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