The Control Horror of The Boys and Gen V

Showrunner Eric Kripke’s The Boys and its spin-off series Gen V present themselves as razor-sharp critiques of the Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero boom, and the celebrity culture of late-stage capitalism. This essay argues that Kripke’s critique is tied to the two series’ visual language of violence. Kripke converts the ideologically aestheticized violence of the comic book superhero into the nihilistically horrifying violence of the body horror monster. As a result, the superhero and the monster are revealed as one and the same, the salient difference between them their respective genre’s faith in political power. A close reading of Gen V’s elements of body horror in relation to its deep cut references to the feminist iconography of Marvel Comics’ Uncanny X-Men series of the 1980s reveals a falling out between minority subjects and the institutional frameworks of diversity, equity, and inclusion that purport to advance their prospects for equality.