Spoiler warning for any of those who haven’t seen the seasons yet. The following contains facts and stories relating directly to The Boys.
Our main character from The Boys, Hughie Campbell has gotten a lot of character development in the last two seasons. From living life as an adult who is always too shy and sheltered to being one of America’s most feared vigilantes. His romantic life has also seen some major improvements as well. From the first episode, where his girlfriend dies tragically to dating America’s most genuine superhero. In fact, his relationship with Annie aka Starlight is perhaps the most wholesome in the series.
Hughie has always been the most relatable out of The Boys. This is due to him being the average man before his life turns upside down. Everything he is currently doing is new to him. He is neither a skilled fighter nor a charming guy. While the show has done a great job of depicting Hughie as the guy everyone knows about. The comic fans may still have the upper hand in that regard, here’s why:
Origin of Hughie Campbell:
In the TV show, The Boys, Hughie is not given much of a backstory. He was mainly pushed into the story as a passive character until he got the hang of what operations The Boys take on. In the comics, our Hughie is slightly more fleshed out as a character. For instance, He doesn’t grow up in America like his series counterpart. For most of his younger life, he lives in Auchterladle, Scotland. He is also adopted and never makes an effort to track down his real parents because he hates them.
After A-Train kills his girlfriend, he is approached by Billy Butcher who makes him an offer. Butcher wants him to join The Boys who are based in America. Since Hughie isn’t doing much in Scotland, he agrees to follow Butcher across the Pacific where he meets the rest of the team and becomes a full-time member of The Boys.
His appearance in The Boys comics:
One of the other most notable changes on this list would be his appearance. As in, his character was designed to appear similar to Hughie’s dad in the show, Simon Pegg. The English actor wasn’t young enough to play Hughie in the series, though, so he took on the role of Hughie’s father instead.
The comic version of Hughie is completely bald and rocks a blonde goatee. If that wasn’t jarring enough, he also wears a black leather jacket, a grey t-shirt, and blue jeans, most of the time. The Hughie that viewers are used to has dark hair and often changes his clothes.
His height was given a nickname in the comics:
In the comics, Hughie is often referred to as “Wee Hughie” in the comics. This is because the character is inspired by Simon Pegg. He is portrayed as the shortest member of The Boys. The series refers to this nickname once when Frenchie calls him “Wee Hughie.” Hughie doesn’t seem to like the name and is unlikely to be referred to it again when he retaliates back, saying: “I’m six foot one!” Jack Quaid, who portrays Hughie, is that tall.
The powers that never made it to the screen:
In the show, The Boys are always at a certain disadvantage as their foes are literally superhumans. However, the comic version of The Boys maintains somewhat of a balance in this regard. All the members of The Boys have powers because they took Compound V at some point. As for Hughie, he has three main powers: Super Strength, Durability, and Advanced Intelligence.
If that isn’t the biggest change, Hughie also creates a big hole in Blarney Cook’s stomach by simply punching him. For those who don’t know, Blarney Cook was one of Hughie’s first supe that he ever kills and it so happens to be with the help of his super strength. He acquires his powers involuntarily after Billy Butcher forcefully stabs him with a syringe filled with Compound V. Butcher’s actions initially anger Hughie, but he eventually accepts his new abilities.
His knowledge of superheroes was almost non-existent:
Not only does the comic version of Hughie look different, but he also seems to have almost no knowledge about the names of the world’s popular heroes. This is due to the fact that Hughie has spent most of his life growing up in a quiet town in the UK. However, the TV version not only has pop-culture knowledge. The series flexes his knowledge by showing that Hughie even has posters and comics of the supes in his bedroom.
His first kill with The Boys in the comics:
The Amazon series of The Boys changed Hughies’ first mission from the comics as well. For instance, Hughie’s first action is spying on the Teenage Kix. This is one of four sub-groups under Vought International, the others being the G-Men, Payback, and the Young Americans. However, things go sideways soon enough and the mission has The Kix finding out about The Boys and it is during a fight with them that Hughie ends up killing Blarney Cock.
The comic is a lot more gruesome:
In the show, Hughie has multiple chances to kill A-Train, the superhuman that killed his girlfriend. However, he never goes through with this revenge plan in the show as he is shown to spare the supe on multiple occasions.
Whereas in the comics, Hughie finally gets his revenge on A-Train in the comics by killing him. Hughie is shocked when Billy Butcher presents to him a brutally beaten and bound A-Train so that he can exact his long-awaited revenge. He still hesitates to kill him as he is still a good human being. In his hesitation, he opts for a lengthy speech, lamenting how he caused him great pain by killing his girlfriend.
When Billy Butcher makes it known about the reason why Starlight ever even got into The Seven, Hughie does not feel pity for the speedster anymore. Therefore, he kicks the supes head clean off his body thanks to his superstrength.
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