Compound V

Compound V is a mysterious, chemical substance that was created by German geneticist Frederick Vought. The serum mutates organic compounds by granting them profound and strange characteristics. It was originally intended to be utilized by Germany during the in order to create super soldiers for the , but Vought realized that the German war effort was doomed and defected to the , leading to the United States utilizing it instead.
In modern times, the serum is manufactured by Vought International geneticists to transform ordinary humans into extraordinary "heroes".
==Overview==
Compound V appears as a dark blue liquid and is usually contained within metal vials. It grants extraordinary abilities when injected into the circulatory system of living things, including animals. These abilities ("superpowers") appear to manifest randomly, as each subject showcases a different result after being dosed. 
Although intravenous injection seems to be the preferred method , it can also be ingested , as seen when many farm animals where turned after drinking contaminated water. 
===Effects===
Compound V has a much higher success rate on younger people. Adult subjects have a high risk of fatality, though it appears this does not apply to depowered and existing adult supes and they can take it again without immediate risk. Children and infants who are exposed to the serum may not immediately have powers, with some showing signs after a few years, whereas adults will gain powers immediately. Because the abilities granted by Compound V seem to be random, there is a chance that the superpowers given may be "undesirable" and may also come with unexpected or unwanted side effects. However, most successful patients seem to exhibit some degree of enhanced strength and durability.
The amount of Compound V a subject is administered determines the extent of their abilities. While some Supes, such as Queen Maeve and Homelander, were given high doses of the drug and are immensely powerful, other supes, such as Mesmer and Eagle the Archer, were given low doses of Compound V and are significantly weaker than their fellow colleagues as a consequence.
The powers manifested seem to be partially based on the subject's psychology, at least when it comes to adults who take it. Hugh Campbell Sr gained Intangibility, which seemed to be based on his feeling that after his wife left him , and his son ignores him to focus on his work, he felt people acted like he wasnt there. Or Butcher gaining heat vision, like Homelander, the man he hates the most. But the best example is the TNT Twins , whos powers are split between them are require cooperation to use, for which there is no purely biological explanation. 
Compound V alters the DNA of its users, allowing superpowers to be passed down hereditarily if the offspring is given V, as seen with Translucent and Maverick, as well as Polarity and Andre. In the case of Homelander, V has altered his DNA to the point where Ryan inherited his powers through genetics alone. The only two children of supes to not share the same powerset as their super parents are Homelander and Zoe Neuman, with the former possibly having 2 supe parents, and the later being injected at 11 years old, meaning children might only be able to inherit their parents' powers if injected as an infant. 
People can be genetically predisposed to reacting well to V , as seen when the Shining Light Liberation Army correctly assumes that since Kimiko was safely turned into a supe when injected as an adult, her brother Kenji could too.
Compound V is sometimes falsely believed to have healing properties but usually only has limited effects and unforeseen consequences. For example, Hugh Campbell Sr was given Compound V in an attempt to save him from his stroke. The V woke him up but didn't reverse the stroke-induced brain damage, leading to Hugh Sr's mind quickly deteriorating and him causing chaos with his new powers. If someone has another organism within their body, like a tumor or a parasite, the power may go to said organism instead of its host, who usually retains only the enhanced physiology, as seen with Billy Butcher, the rabbit in "Beware the Jabberwock, My Son", as well as Sun-Hee in The Boys Presents: Diabolical.
As seen with A-Train and Popclaw, the recreational use of Compound V can induce a euphoric high and temporarily enhance a supe's abilities, but it will ironically weaken and harm them over time. Billy notes that Compound V acts in a very similar way to steroids when injected into a supe's bloodstream, as A-Train has suffered from testicular atrophy, low bone density and heart problems as a consequence of his abuse of the drug.
As shown in “Beware the Jabberwock, My Son”, when the V leaked into the local water supply and infected the estate's farm livestock, Compound V, and even V24, can work on animals, randomly mutating them and granting them some violent and strange mutant abilities, in addition to making their behavior increasingly unstable and extremely aggressive. A small heard of adult sheep are all given identical abilities , this may mean that for simple minded animals the psycholocial aspect is null , leaving it a matter of genetics.
==History==
=== Background===
Compound V was originally created by a Nazi scientist named Frederick Vought at some point during the Second World War, who experimented with it through the use of human prisoners at Dachau concentration camp. When Frederick realized that the German war effort was doomed, he defected to the United States, bringing the drug with him and giving it to the US Army to use against the Nazis. For his contribution to the war effort, he was rapidly pardoned and rehabilitated as an American icon. Furthermore, his Nazi past was scrubbed from public knowledge, only disclosed to high-ranking Vought International employees like Stan Edgar.The Boys Season 2 Episode 1: The Big Ride Following Fredrick's death, Vought would continue to manufacture the drug in secrecy and eliminate all signs of its existence from public knowledge and history.
===Gen V===
Although it was implied in season 3 of the main series, it is explicitly stated in Gen V that Compound V remains intact in the bloodstream of supes permanently. Marie Moreau is able to identify the V in Victoria Neuman's blood. A virus is created that specificly targets compound V. Its also shown that a supes powers can be augmented by transfusing the V laden blood from one supe to anouther, the patients where brothers, but its unknown if the procedure require them to be related.
===Season One===
Samaritan's Embrace is a Christian charity that is sponsored by Vought International. On the surface, it is a charity committed to helping those in need. However, unbeknownst to the public, it is actually used to ship Compound V to hospitals across the United States. Vought has human experimentation programs as Laser Baby is one of many cases like seen at the Red River Institute.
This was done primarily in order to create more Supes at random when the "medicine" is administered to pregnant women, patients, newborn infants, and other normal citizens. That way Vought can keep up the illusion that the superhuman powers given to Supes are God-given gifts or a natural genetic leap of mankind, instead of the disturbing truth that Vought is administering drugs to children without their consent.
===Season Two===
In season two, it is revealed that Vought has been secretly trying for years to rectify the low survival rate of Compound V in adults by establishing the Sage Grove Center; a psychiatric hospital in Pennsylvania where Vought scientists have been illegally injecting their adult patients with updated variations of the Compound V formula with the hopes of creating a perfected serum that can successfully transform fully grown adults into well-functioning Supes with minimal negative side effects.
Following the reveal of the existence of Compound V to the public, Vought was forced to temporarily halt all research and production of the drug.
=== Season Three===
With the test results provided by Sage Grove Center, Vought's scientists were able to create a prototype of a new variation of the original Compound V formula. This new drug had the ability to give adults temporary superpowers with no risk of dying immediately. However, it still contained harmful side-effects and its development ultimately halted due to recent events. Soldier Boy possessed the ability to generate a radiation blast which could not only could kill his victims, but also allowed him to turn Supes back into normal humans by burning the Compound V out of their system. Primary examples include Kimiko Miyashiro and Queen Maeve, although the former was able to regain her powers after she injected herself with another dose of Compound V.
===Season Four===
Compound V is shown to be able to alter the biology of children in pre-teenage and teenage stages of life not only on the level of durability, strength and possible powers, as seen in the case of Zoe Neuman. Popclaw and Love Sausage may have experienced body mutations because of Compound V child experimentation too. Because of rareness of physical mutations, these can create new body parts of organisms - Butcher has been seen to have a black goo moving throughout his body, likely responsible for the form of development V causes.
Compound V and V24 "Temp V" both ceased to be produced in Wisdom of the Ages because the Vought's monopolistic practices backfired on them through Homelander killing all but one of the scientists working on producing the chemical supply. Homelander then holds a personal monopoly on the drug by stashing all the Compound V away in his apartment."There's no way I'm getting any more of this, he's got all the Compound V stashed away in his apartment."A-Train in Wisdom of the Ages to Hughie. It is unknown if the only people who had the resources and expertise to make Compound V are the only people who can. Vought recruitment of new scientists to create the Compound seem unlikely as Homelander's motivations and aspirations to re-create and resupply Compound V are nonexistent."We don't need a fuckin master race, I'm the master race. That's the point. That's the whole point." Homelander to Stormfront in Payback.
Later, it was revealed that Sameer Shah, the leading R&D Scientist of Vought has a large supply of both Compound V and V24 for experimental purposes by injecting them into animals to use as test subjects for the virus created by Edison Cardosa. Due to him being a Vought scientist and leading scientist for its R&D division, as well as having Victoria’s backing, its likely that Sameer has the knowledge and the resources on how to make both Compound V and V24.Beware the Jabberwock, My Son
==Variations==
=== Temp V===
thumb|250px|Vials of Temp V
Temp V, is a modified version of Compound V. As implied by its name, the serum provides an ordinary person with superpowers for approximately 24 hours. Temp V has ceased to be produced.
Due to the legal implications that were brought on by the public revelation of Compound V, all testing of the serum was forcibly halted. As a result, Temp V is still considered unstable and continues to exhibit numerous side effects including migraines, muscle spasms, nausea, and projectile vomiting. Further testing of the drug has recently revealed the fatal effect of causing brain lesions.
Vought geneticists have estimated that the use of three to five doses will become lethal to the patient. These estimates were confirmed after Billy Butcher developed numerous tumors in his brain after his sixth dose of the serum and was given 18 months to live.
===G Fuel Compound V ===
A new energy drink Vought has partnered with G Fuel, inspired by Compound V. it sharpens focus, increases energy, and in select cases, turns those who drink it into Supes. Some of the superpowers developed by its consumers include telekinesis, invisibility, and laser eyes. The drink is unconfirmed to contain either V24 or the legitimate Compound V. It has a low chance of giving people superpowers, meaning that buyers may need to consume multiple doses before becoming a Supe. It's worth noting that some people may have difficulty controlling their powers and may potentially harm themselves or others because of it. At somepoint, G Fuel V has ceased to be produced or, at the very least, the available version that still is being sold no longer gives superpowers.
==In the Comics==
Compound V was a super serum created by Jonah Vogelbaum and was originally intended to create super soldiers for the Third Reich. Fearing for his life after the realization that the Nazis would lose the war, Vogelbaum escaped to the United States with the help of Vought-American, who continued to fund his experiments. Months later and with billions of dollars spent, the company nearly went bankrupt but ultimately regained its wealth after Vogelbaum successfully created the Compound V formula which Vought-American immediately began to prescribe to pregnant volunteers as a means to manufacture superhero teams such as The Seven. Though these trials were successful, they were also extremely costly, forcing Vought-American to inject future subjects with an inferior version of the serum. Furthermore, it appears that the mutational powers of Compound V can be inherited through the bloodline, often resulting in the births of natural-born Supes with at least one super-powered parent.
Modified versions of Compound V were often sold on the black market and were able to temporarily provide ordinary humans with extraordinary strength and durability. It was widely known for sex workers to dose themselves with these diluted serums as a means to withstand the powerful strength of their super-powered clientele.
Furthermore, Vought-American was secretly working to perfect the Compound V formula to the point where they could control exactly what superpowers would manifest from each recipe. However, after the death of Vogelbaum, no other scientist was able to make any further progress with the serum, forcing Vought to remain in the relatively less lucrative niche of costumed superheroes.
==Trivia== 
*Compound V is likely based off the Super-Soldier Serum from the Marvel Universe. The temporary, yet consistent, properties of the V24 variant can also be compared to the performance-enhancing drug known as Miraclo from the DC Universe.
**Similar to how the Super-Soldier Serum was created in Marvel Comics, Compound V was also created during the Second World War by a Central European scientist who later defected to the Allies.
==Notes==
==References==
de:Compound V
fr:Composé V
Category:Items