Series The Boys Talk about Super hero. But not in the classic sense of the term, here they are parodied and become propaganda tools for the government. nicknamed “Supers”, [ATTENTION SPOILER – si vous n’avez pas du tout regardé la série, l’article qui suit concerne une des révélations de la saison 1] we learn in the course of season 1 that the heroes are not heroes from birth, but become so during their lives, after being administered to them in early childhood or during the pregnancy a drug mystery which multiplies the capacities: the “compound V”, or compound V in the original version.
Trailer The Boys, season 3. © YouTube, Prime video
We are not born heroes, we become one
The Boys refers for the creation of compound V to the Second World War : it would have been created during the Third Reich. Just like in theuniverse Marvel, experiments aimed at improving abilities physical men to make weapons have resulted in the manufacture of a superhero-creating substance. Led by Frederick Vought, a series-specific Nazi scientist character who eventually joined the other side during the war, these experiments led to the creation of the Soldier Boy. This character is present both in The Boyswhere it is only quoted, and in Captain Americawhere he is the main character!
Extreme doping looks for the Supes
Of course, in reality, there is no miracle compound that allows you to fly, or to exceed the speed of sound while running. However, improving one’s physical capacities in a chemical way is not new, quite the contrary: it is what is called doping. Because compound V, in addition to granting extraordinary capacities, can then be used as a doping agent for people who received it in childhood!
Accounts dating from antiquity cite theuse of doping agents, for the Olympic Games or other sports competitions, but also before leaving for battles. Their goal was the same as today, to increase its performance: for this they used extracts from animals considered “virile”, such as the bull to be stronger or the goat to jump higher. In other cultures, plant extracts were favored, containing in particular caffeine and cocaine whose effects are well known.
The compound V of The Boysa mixture of hormones and steroids?
the doping can take several forms: hormone, transfusion, narcotics, euphoric, each acting in a different way. It all depends on the desired effect: growth hormonesfor example, increase the mass muscle and decrease fat mass. Secreted naturally by the human body, studies have shown that they boost the whole body, in addition to improving self-confidence. Moreover, they are not detectable by anti-doping tests. But far from being without consequences, they cause in particular uneven growth of the bones, which can go as far as the deformation of the jaw, the abdomen or other regions of the human body. Likewise for anabolic steroids which are synthetic versions of the testosterone.
Other products are used, such as salbutamol, an asthma medicine. A final example is the blood transfusion : the sportsman receives blood, either his own taken a few months before, or that of a person of the same blood group. The increase in volume blood leads to an increase in the number of Red cells, and therefore, to better transport oxygen. Here again, consequences can arise, in particular by the clogging of blood vessels if the blood is too thick. We find similarities with our compound V, which also creates side effects in Supes, such as the weakness of the heart ofA-Trainwhich runs so fast that it exceeds the speed of sound.
But doping does not only involve physical performance: the consumption of various drugs improving concentration and decreasing stress is monitored just as much as the more “classic” doping agents. Cocaine to be more reagent, amphetamines to no longer feel tired, or even narcotics to remove the feeling of pain, the possibilities are numerous… So, is it possible to imagine a substance among those cited as compound V? No. But a subtle blend of all these ingredients, perhaps. Except that…
Compound V is genetically transmitted
Small problem for our various dopants, in The Boys, the character of Homelander, the most anti-hero of Supes anti-heroes, has a son. We learn during season 2 that this son has inherited his father’s powers, which he begins to develop when he is still a child. This discovery implies that compound V interferes directly with the information genetic of the person into whom it is injected.
This is where thegenome editing ! Unlike doping which aims to improve physical abilities for a more or less limited time depending on the doping methods,genome editing aims to permanently change the Genoa of somebody ! We can cite in particular the genetical therapywhich aims to treat anomalies genetics by replacing defective genes with healthy ones. It is only used for therapeutic purposes, to repair a damaged or even missing gene. This may involve the introduction ofnucleic acids in the cells, or by a method ofgenome editing which interests us particularly for compound V: the molecular scissors of CRISPR-Cas9. They were notably used in 2018 by the Chinese scientist He Jiankui during the scandal of the GMO babies which had induced many other additional mutations, in addition to the intended one that immunizes against the virus from AIDS. Since then, however, they have enabled many healings !
But the genetic changes created by the molecular scissors are not passed on to offspring…unless they took place in theembryo, before the development of the baby! A final hypothesis would be one or more natural mutations of the genome, which would then be transmitted to the children of the carrier of the mutation. But difficult to imagine enough modifications to arrive at the faculties of the Supes, such as that of the laser eyes, that of levitating, of manipulating electricity, of creating explosions… In the end, most of their performances cannot be projected with current technologies, which is not so bad.
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