The Amazon Prime series “The Boys” is gearing up to premiere its fourth season later this year. The series follows The Seven, a team of superheroes led by Homelander, an egoistic superhero who only loves the fame that comes with the title and could care less about saving the people. Anthony Starr, Jesse T. Usher, Erin Moriarty, Giancarlo Esposito, and Dominique McElligott lead an all-star cast and do a great job of portraying what happens when an individual let’s fame get to their head and the mental toll that egomania can take on everyone, especially the person with the ego. But “The Boys” also has a tie to the sports world. More specifically, we see a redemption arc story of an athlete and a showcase of the consequences of performance-enhancing drugs.
Anthony Starr as Homelander in “The Boys”
The episode, “Get Some”, focuses on a race between A-Train (Usher) and another speedster named Shockwave (Played by Mishka Thébaud). Dubbed “The Race Of The Century”, this race would determine which speedster is the fastest man alive. Would it be Shockwave, who said during an interview about the race that “No one can be the fastest man alive forever”? Or would it be A-Train, the current speedster for The Seven and one of Vought International’s top superheroes? This race was an all-or-nothing battle of speedsters, meant to make history.
Shockwave and A-Train at the starting line. From “Get Some”.
The only problem is that A-Train has historically used the performance-enhancing drug, Compound-V, to maintain his title of the Fastest Man Alive. Compound-V is the superhero-making drug made by Vought International that gives its users superpowers. This doesn’t sound bad because more superheroes means more money in the company’s pocket, right? Well you would be wrong in the case of A-Train. Throughout the series, the runner is warned by several of his close friends, his girlfriend, and even the company themselves to not take so much of the performance enhancer due to them not knowing the potential risks of constant injections.
Billy Butcher holding a vial of Compound-V.
But unfortunately, A-Train ignores these warnings and continues injecting himself with Compound-V, which helps him win the race with Shockwave and heel from a leg injury. But later in the series, the runner suffers a heart attack during a fight because he took so much of the substance. The abuse also results in heart palpitations every time he speeds up for the rest of season one and two. This causes him to be briefly kicked off The Seven for a time. Eventually, A-Train ends up getting a new heart from Blue Hawk and is able to run again with no complications.
With that said, what can we learn from “The Boys” and the story of A-Train when it comes to sports? We can learn that cheaters never prosper in any way, shape, or form. If you use a performance-enhancing drug to get what you want, karma will catch up to you in the end. I applaud “The Boys” for showcasing such a good athlete rise-and-fall redemption story and for showcasing the consequences of performance-enhancing drugs. Let’s hope that Season Four has more of A-Train.
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